Got a message from Jairus that he had left the peanut butter I had ordered at the PKTC so I thought I’d pick them up this morning and train as well. Had taken stock of the pain: spread out (shoulder blade, chest, triceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves) and manageable. Nothing too sharp. Normal.
While I waited for everyone to show up, I found this on the mirror:
And then Ed turned up…
Yep, with an axe! Turns out he’s subbing today for Dindo for both kettlebells and Krav Maga (- how to fend off an axe attack, anyone?). According to him, axes aren’t classified as weapons – they’re tools – so he could walk about the city with it. Interesting to know…
But will it fit in a hand bag?
He assigned me workout #75:
- 10 reps – 8 kilos
- add weight, 8 reps – 10 kilos
- add weight, 7 reps – 12 kilos
- add weight, 5 reps – I stuck to 12 kilos.
- 10 reps x 2 sets – I started with 10 kilos.
- 15 reps x 2 sets – Then moved down to 8 kilos.
- 20 reps x 2 sets – Stuck with the 8 kilos.
Jerk-specific squats: 15 reps x 4 sets – Keeping the kettlebells racked against your chest, dip backwards like you’re about to go into a jerk (kettlebells remain racked) then move into an upright position. I used 14-kilo kettlebells. Racking them up was harder than the dips/squats.
Two-hand swings: 20 reps x 3 sets – I used 24 kilos.
And for the ab workout, the dreaded dragon flags. (5 reps, 3 sets.) Holy mother of flags. I had been trying to avoid this for the longest time.
This is what they are supposed to look like, except that we hold onto a heavy kettlebell instead of a bench, with someone holding down the kettlebell behind us:
Rest assured mine looked NOTHING like that.
Saturday kettlebell classes are usually small, with more women in attendance than men. Three of us girls did the Dragon Flags together, alternating holding down the kettlebell and encouraging each other on. While the other two were taking their turns, I’d be by their legs, keeping my knee at their backs to help them keep it straight and keeping an arm out to where they could drop their legs. It seemed to work. While we started off doing something that more resembled leg raises than dragon flags, by the end, we could sorta kinda (but, no, not really) do very sad, limp dragon flags. It was a good first attempt though.
Now I have a new goal (apart from mastering the jump rope). It’s to do a proper kick-ass Dragon Flag. Here’s a good tutorial that I found online:
I finished half an hour later than I normally do and, since the office was closed, ended up picking up the peanut butter from Jairus’ house which, thankfully, wasn’t too far.
Now, I’m ready for the weekend.
Recap of last week:
- MWF – CrossFit
- Sa – kettlebell training