Beat by the Bell

So, I did a 10 minute kettlebell session last night before I settled down for the evening, around 10:30 PM. I figured it's quiet, I can stay in one place, and it only takes 10 minutes. Sounds perfect. I decided I would do three moves, the two-handed swing, the one-handed swing, and the snatch, my favorite as many of you know. Now I have been known to snatch 70 pounds or so at the gym on occasion, so 45 pounds doesn't seem overly optimistic, but when you do the 10-minute challenge, you are trying to maximize your reps. In Enter the Kettlebell, Pavel references the U.S. Secret Service snatch routine which involves trying to reach 200 reps with a 24k bell. He also references people doing up to 285 snatches in those 10 minutes, but 200 will suffice if you wish to be a hard man. So that recommended kettlebell is about 8 pounds heavier than mine, but that's okay, this is the biggest one I could get without mail-ordering it, and the shipping on the big ones is so dang expensive that it didn't make any sense. So I head out with my timer set to 10 minutes. How hard can it be?

Okay, I wish I had my HR monitor so I could have seen what happened here, but those 10 minutes were the hardest 10 minutes I have worked since last January. The sweat was pouring off me, which was funny given the duration of the effort. Then, later, I actually got a hamstring cramp, which hasn't happened for years, so those obviously got involved. This morning, I noticed my quads were all beat when I was getting a pan out of a low cupboard for my Egg Beaters omelette. My grip is going to be improved certainly, and my back is noticably sore too; the muscles, not the spine. I'm very intrigued.

I was a little reticent to try the snatches with a kettlebell because it has to swing around and hit your forearm as you do it, but it actually is a very smooth action when you do it right. Swings I dig. No impact. Nice smooth motions. Ballistic, kinetic, functional strength. Well, suffice it to say I am not ready for the record books yet, nor the Secret Service, but I have potential. I made it through 10 minutes and I am here to say that those 10 minutes may be the most productive 10 minutes I can do. I'm looking forward to pushing the limits with this thing.

On a side note, my 5K yesterday was the fastest I've seen since January, so things are looking up. 400th place is mine!