Re-Habilitated a severely sprained ankle of mine.
A little over two years ago I severly sprained an ankle. In fact, when it happened I was convinced that I had broken my ankle. Despite a solid year of intense jump rope conditioning my ankle still bothered me. Then about two months ago I discovered the Kettlebell 1-legged "Maxercist" row. While performing my regular kettlebell press/pull routine I replaced rows with one-legged rows. Almost immediately I noticed an improvement in my ankle strength. My ankle has not bothered me since.
Given me a new enjoyment of the outdoors...
While training for the RKC graduation exercise I spent a lot of time outdoors performing double kettlebell drills on the soccer fields outside the YMCA. For years I avoided the outdoors due to severe allergies. Somehow, allergies I've had my entire life have nearly disappeared. The extra dosage of sunlight has greatly affected my mood and improved the quality of my life by combating symptoms associated with depression. Now, I cant wait to take a pair of kettlebells to the nearest park and create a killer workout and I feel sorry for all those people stuck lifting weights in a dark concrete room somewhere.
Given me new level of body control, mastery, self-confidence ,strength and conditioning beyond anything I've had previously. One legged deck squats, strict one-arm pushups, one-arm pullups, improved forearm and grip strength, stronger back and abs than I've ever known. Since I began Kettlebell training I cant tell you how many times I've outlifed larger, stronger and more experience traditional weight lifters by accident. It usually starts with a casual conversation about kettlebells and then leads to a demonstration... I choose a weight that I assume the larger, stronger person should be able to handle and demonstrate a press, or getup and the other party fails miserably when they attempt the same. They always comment that the Kettlebell feels heavier than it looks and they are amazed that I could do what they could not.
Given me the Ultimate Cardio exercise that is safe on my knees and feet.
Being in martial arts I am very protective of my knees. Even when I was 25 running killed my knees and Jumping rope kills my feet. On some level I've always felt that running/jogging was one of the most destructive exercises a person could participate in and the trade off between cardio and impact on the joints was unacceptable to me.
Kettlebell swings, cleans and snatches are the ultimate replacement for running, they are far more challenging, more interesting, more intense and never leave by knees or feet feeling sore. Now whenever I see someone running on a treadmill or jogging outdoors I almost feel sorry them.
Given me a desire to exercise daily. The number of exercises and stretches that you can perform with Kettlebells are limited only by imagination. It's almost impossible to look at a kettlebell and NOT pick one up and discover new exciting ways to challenge and test my strength or flexibility.
A new understanding of strength as a skill. This more than anything has motivated me practice daily. It's something I could understand instanlty... I've understood this intuitively in martial arts but never thought about it's application to weight lifting. Simply grinding away daily at technique, greasing the groove, with mindful practice has made rapid improvements in my ability to lift more and more weight. It's very exciting and rewarding to see how refined technique and smart training pays off in lifting heavier weights, enhanced fitness, increased energy levels and improved body control. On several occassion I've outperformed stronger, larger more experienced lifters using the RKC approach to technique.
Additionally, so much of the RKC hard style technique directly relates to martial arts practice. It's nice to find something that I can actually refer to as effective cross training and believe in it's applicability 100%.
24kg/53lb Upside down press
No comments:
Post a Comment