My Week of Kettlebell Training
This week I have been following Week 6 of Enter the Kettlebell. The clean and press ladders are going fine and I’m looking forward to adding another ladder to the practice next week. I’m improving with my chinups, although not nearly fast enough to suit myself. I need to get some better bands so that when I have to switch to assisted chinups I actually get some assistance. (The band arrangement I have right now just is not cutting it.) Until then, when I run out of steam with chinups, I move to bent rows.
The kettlebell swing and snatch training is going well, although some of the swing practices are pretty crazy. Five seconds’ rest between sets of 25 swings? That’s not a rest, it’s death avoidance! Oh my. But I’m getting through them.
Monday was “light” with 4 ladders, 3 rungs each of cleans and presses, plus the “pulls” as required in the ETK workbook. Monday also included snatches. They went well but I felt pain in my hands way too early in that practice, in my opinion. This will definitely be something to discuss with Elise when I train with her again.
Tuesday was a variety day, and my practice looked something like a double workout from the Program Minimum part of Enter the Kettlebell. The first part was kettlebell swings – 50 of them followed by a 1 minute jog. No rest, just repeat until 12 minutes are up. After a brief recovery I then did part two, 5 minutes of continuous Turkish Get Ups, alternating sides. I used one of the baby kettlebells. This was a killer day. But I felt great the rest of the day. Funny how that works. 
Wednesday was “medium day” from ETK. It looked much like Monday, except there was swing practice in lieu of snatch practice at the end. After burning it up on Tuesday, this was pretty tough, but I followed the protocol as required. I also practiced pushups and planks at the end, two exercises I’d really like to be better at.
Thursday was another variety day, and I used my heaviest kettlebell and did swing intervals at :30 on/:30 off for 12 minutes. For active rest during the :30 off I did prisoner squats or alternating lunges. Then I did 7 minutes of Turkish Get Ups, “naked” (no weight.) Doing them this way makes it much easier to focus on form and I’ve decided that I’ll do them this way for a while. Form matters so much more than how much weight you can hoist without killing yourself.
Friday was a rest day for me. Yay!! I needed it!
Saturday was a “heavy” day. The clean and press ladders and pulls were the same but the swing practice was the heavy part. This was the one with 25 swings and 5 seconds of rest. Thankfully it only lasted 6 minutes. Some really ugly thoughts came to mind when I was in the latter part of this practice. But again, I made it through. I have definitely developed some new respect for those who have completed the ETK program!
Sunday is a rest day. Looking forward to the rest and a little extra sleep. 
I’m basically happy with the way my training went this week. I noticed that I had to work hard on staying focused mentally as well as physically. I didn’t really get this when people mentioned it before, but it’s clear now.
No more fasting for me for the time being. I need a steady supply of energy, and personally I find that my energy is significantly affected by fasting. As long as I’m doing ETK, there won’t be room for it.
Moving on to week 7 of ETK (round 1) on Monday.
Sounds like your training is going really well. I’m right about where you are with ETK. Interestingly, the repetitive nature of the workouts isn’t bothering me at all. I actually rather enjoy it, because it’s much easier to track progress when the program doesn’t change much.
On a different subject, I wonder if your hypoglycemia has anything to do with why you had a not-so-positive experience with intermittent fasting. I’ve never been diagnosed with hypoglycemia but there is a lot of diabetes in my family on both sides, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve become much more sensitive to foods with a high glycemic load. Eating low-glycemic foods at regular intervals just seems to be part of what I need to do in order to function well, and perhaps it’s the same for you. I do think there’s something to the idea of different “metabolic types” needing different eating strategies. One of the many subjects on which I need to become better informed!
Fantastic! Good job and good luck on week 7. One of the great things about kettlebells is that I don’t worry about how often I need to eat. I can’t seem to eat enough.
Laura – The repetition hasn’t bothered me yet either. I am hoping for lots of improvement, especially with my presses, so I’m enjoying the repetition in the practices now. I refuse to look ahead at what we’ll be facing for swing/snatch training in the upcoming weeks, though. The thought might keep me up at night!
Josh – Thanks for the kind words.
Oh, I have no problem eating enough!! But at least I don’t seem to ever gain an ounce. I’ll take that!
Hey Sarah, good job on the ETK! I’m taking full advantage of the variety days…one of my weaknesses is I can’t stick with anything for very long because some new routine catches my eye, lol. So I’m using the variety days to get my fix of…VARIETY!
I’m worried I’m over complicating things. Sprinting, various pushups, squats, anaerobic circuits, Captains of Crush Grippers, Indian Clubs, Planche progressions, haha…oh well.
I’m looking forward to seeing your progress on this blog. Have you considered switching to slow negatives on the chinups in lieu of rows when strict chinups become too tough?
Jerry – Thanks, Man! I’ll be watching your progress with ETK, too!! ! I soooo know what you mean about things you want to do on variety days. So many options, so little time, right? My good friend, Sarah Brendlor, RKC in London reminded me last week that LOTS and LOTS of swings would be helpful to me. And Lillian Valley suggests that swinging a heavy(ier) kettlebell has made heavy presses come easier for her. So I’m taking that advice and making sure to do swings on at least one variety day. This week, I’m thinking yoga would be good for the other variety day. To satisfy my desire for some of the other exercises I’m doing bodyweight squats, lunges, etc. as active rest between ladders on ETK days.
Great suggestion about the negative chinups. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Definitely will be putting that into practice – tomorrow!