The Snatch

This post, all about my old friend the kettlebell. A bit of back history, a girl I had in classes has a husband who is a personal trainer. I demonstrated KB swings, snatches, cleans and presses, TGU’s, and stuff a while back. Apparently her hubby (who has never as far as I understand picked up a KB) feels that kettlebells are dangerous, particularly the snatch because of the “risk” of hyperextension.

So, here I am to say that a kettlebell snatch is safe and quite unlikely to cause hyperextension. In fact, in my half hour internet search I couldn’t find one documented (or even commented in passing) case of hyperextension of the shoulder with a snatch. My classmates husband decided he didn’t like them because of a description she gave of the KB snatch. A mere description of an exercise is really not a good way to decide safety. As a former physical therapist assistant myself, I’m a tad disappointed that a person would decide KB snatches are unsafe without any research of a quite well versed exercise. The KB snatch has been around for centuries. I think it’s going on it’s three hundredth year. If they were so very unsafe, I think by now we’d have a quite a bit of evidence to prove that.

Why is a snatch safe? Well, any exercise can be unsafe, just use weight that’s too heavy for you to control (like a guy who did an overhead press with a barbell, dropped it on himself and snapped his upper arm in half). The kettlebell snatch doesn’t  pose much risk of breaking the humerus in the arm. If a person can’t control the bell, the best thing to do is let go of the handle. Unlike other weights, because of the swinging motion, it’s unlikely to drop down onto your arm if you let go. 

In fact, I accidentally let go once and it flew about 8 ft then bounced off a wall and landed on my tiled floor. Being made of iron, yes it did break the tile. But I was unhurt :). 

With the snatch, if the arm were to start to hyperextend letting go is option one. But the chance of hyperextension is nearly non existent in my mind. First of all, when swinging the bell up to snatch it, there is a slight bend in the elbow at the top of the arc. Hard to hyperextend the shoulder when the upper arm is not more than perpendicular to the body. That’s only 90 degree’s of 180 degrees of normal extension. Once the upper arm is about perpendicular to the body, instead of continuing the swing, the arm shoots upward as if punching toward the ceiling. Again hard to hyperextend when the arm is shooting upward and not arcing backward.

So, in closing, the kettlebell snatch doesn’t pose much (if any) risk of hyperextension. So, snatch away 

Snowing Again

So I live in Wisconsin. Which means one day it's 60 degrees and the next we're having a blizzard. Yay!

What that really means for me is that the schools will probably be closed in my area which means no childcare at the gym. What to do with the little person? I'll be working out at home I'm sure. I have all I need to do my full workout at home. Just takes longer because the lil man gets underfoot and wants to play. He has his own area in the basement but he wants to play with me and lift weights with me and hit the boxing bag with me too.

Which on another note, I ordered kid boxing gloves for my lil guy and a blow up boxing bag. It should be here in about another week and then he can box with me and hopefully wont be so bored during my workouts. Working out with him when he was smaller was easy. Just toss him in his play area and he'd happily play alone. Now though, he's at the age he wants someone to be playing with him. I'll give him tons of attention before hand and hope I can get my workout done in an hour and a half.

I'm considering at week 12 to also switch to a mostly paleo eating plan. The food in my house is basically this anyway so it wont be too much of a change. I'll miss my occasional donut and my tortilla chips. My "cheat" will be one ounce of cheese a day just like last time. And last time I never cut the Diet Pepsi. This time, that will be gone too. I was an addict, seriously. The Diet Pepsi was at 3 Liters a day at one point. At the end of last year even it was still close to 2 liters a day. Now I have one soda a day but not even every day anymore. It's time to cut it completely except for family gatherings and going out to dinner.

Hoping for a good drive home tonight in the foot of snow!

11 Weeks Today

And 11 weeks means I'm allowed to run a mile now! So after midnight last night I did a mile.

My time, for my first post surgical mile and first mile I've done since September of 2015, was 13:04. Hard to see, since I was at home and it was late and I have very poor lighting in my living room. I used to run a mile in about 9 minutes pushing a stroller before the pain got too bad. I'm really hoping to be able to cut my mile time down to about 8 minutes or better. If my running is anything like the swimming, I'll be killing my previous records soon enough. 

My next run will be the Bellin 10k. I'll be allowed to run 6 miles at once just before that since I'm increasing my runs by half a mile per week as advised by my doctor. It was hard waiting this long to run a full mile but I know my long term health is more important. 

General how I feel update. At 11 weeks I'd barely know I had surgery. I feel great. My hips are nearly even in strength with the step ups to the point that the difference is barely noticeable. My flexibility is improving slowly. Before stretching would do the opposite, it would irritate nerves and make me tighter. I'm working on getting the right as flexible as my left but still both need a lot of work to be where I used to be. My hamstrings are still pretty tight generally. Weight lifting is going well, still at 20 lb dumb bells this week. Once I can go up to the 25 lbs next week my legs might be able to feel it a bit better. Just doing the high reps with the low weights till I get there. There is still some mild pulling with stretching at the incision site. After the initial pulling I can do the yoga as they're meant to be done. The incision sometimes itches. The other muscle imbalance I had was the paraspinal muscles along the right side. Though with some of the exercises I do they become sore, they are no more sore than the muscles along the left side. So, I'd have to say they have evened out in strength! I couldn't be happier about having done my surgery. There is no lingering leg issues. The hip pain is gone. There is occasional mild low back pain more often depending on sitting too long and leaning forward at my desk than any of the activities I've been doing. No regrets!

Another swimming PR!

From ONLY a week ago I've cut 3:04 minutes from my previous personal record. That is over three minutes!!! In one week! Super crazy excited about that. I checked my laps repeatedly to make sure I didn't double click and it all checks out. Best lap was a mere 58 seconds for 1/33 of a mile. This will be my last PR for a while. The following six week program that I start next week will be working more on speed drills and form. I have no idea how I did that well compared to the following week. The stars must have been perfectly aligned. And I was quite happy that morning despite only 5 hours of sleep the night before. I completely shocked myself. I'm still having trouble believing it, but yep, I did it :).

I had my nieces over the weekend. Two awesome girls who I don't get to see as much as I'd like. The older one may have been a little bored since there's an 8 year age gap. Hard to find something all three are interested in doing. We went to feed the ducks at the wildlife reserve near me and then wandered through the learning area of the sanctuary. None of them would go down the slide :(. With a possible change in my shift at work hopefully I will be seeing them more. I'd really like to be more involved with them. And I'm hoping I can take them for a long weekend this summer sometime. Get them all some time away and my sister and her husband can hopefully celebrate her upcoming graduation from the nursing program.

Congrats Sister and Brother in Law on your ten years of marriage! Remember the first 4 decades are the hardest...

Rolling Like a Ball!

Today I was at the gym doing my ending yoga and Pilates stuff and one of the things I used to do is the move where you roll like a ball. I was having lots of trouble doing this because of the pulling in the scar tissue. Today I could do it! No pulling!

Just the little things :).

And I must find a new weight lifting routine soon. It's been crazy busy at work these past two weeks but I was really hoping to flip through some of my old books (like New Rules of Lifting) to get some routine ideas while at work.

More exciting things, after the gym I took up the rest of the floor in the bathroom. The bathroom is going to be skim coated tomorrow and hopefully I can paint this weekend after the little is in bed. The new floor is ordered and hopefully that will come in soon. Can't wait till it's finished!

10 Weeks Today!

Surgery was ten weeks ago at about 11 am. It's so hard to believe that this is me from who I was ten weeks ago! Things are amazing still. Well, of course they are, I can walk again without pain :).

Since week nine only big change, I am allowed to run again. Half mile this week and I can up that by a half mile a week. I did my first half mile last night after work. I tried at 5.0 mph and I was shocked I couldn't do it. Why I was surprised, no idea. I guess just because everything else is going so well I thought I would just fall right back into running. I bumped it down to a 4.6 mph pace at the 1 incline. That I could do. Finished up my half mile with barely a sweat despite the perceived difficulty level. I'll be running a half mile again on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

At the gym I'm up to 20 lb dumb bells as of today. I feel slightly less wimpy now that I can at least squat a total of 40 lbs. But still...

Yesterday also more good things. I was planning on an easy swim since I was working on tearing up my bathroom floor and had some help taking down the rest of the glue over the weekend. The floor is not done, but what I did was hard work anyway. So yesterday was going to be just a relaxing swim. By lap ten of my mile swim I saw that my time was actually pretty decent so figured I'd go for it for my last 23 laps. And I killed my last PR by 29 seconds! Even though for the first ten laps I wasn't even trying :).

I'm really happy with how I feel physically. Emotionally since surgery I am so much happier. Just life seems good again. I wish I would have done this years ago rather than waiting as long as I did.

Now just for everything to align perfectly at work since one position was filled and one is still vacant. I'd just like to be on a general day shift eventually and that at least is looking like it might happen. As long as no one else retires or leaves!

Another Awesome Day

Last night when I got home from work I had too much energy. So I turned on Pandora and got into my short shorts and a tank top and the no show socks (because you need the top of your feet free of sock). And I rocked out dancing with my pole for a good 40 minutes. It was awesome! And I do have bruises on the tops of my feet from gripping the pole. They don't hurt though :). Really working on the tucks because I'd really like to be able to do my first invert end of this month or beginning of next. But OMG do the muscles by my ribs and shoulders hurt! And my abs! From keeping my body horizontal to the ground I'm sure with all those tucks. By the time I turned off the Pandora, I'd already meet my activity goal for the day too. Quick rinse and off to bed feeling pretty awesome.

And then this morning, a nice slow swim. Monday I'll try to beat my record and hopefully even come in at under 38 minutes for a mile. But Fridays, just slow and steady with lots of breast stroke today. The water was perfect until the end of my swim when some guy jumps in to share my lane and starts talking to me while wearing BOXER BRIEFS as swim trunks! Dude... No. I told him I was done so he could have the full lane and finished my stretches, then he asked to race me doing laps. Seriously. I'm not sure if he was drunk or high or what, but he was not right in the head. Or maybe he was attempting to flirt and I just thought he was being creepy. Or maybe he is creepy because boxer briefs in the pool...

With the soreness tonight I'll go home and just finish up putting the laundry away and the other usual nighttime stuff before bed. When I wake up tomorrow it's another morning at the gym with my 15 lb dumbbells. Next week I can up to 20, for a total of 40 lbs! My legs will finally be able to feel the workout maybe at 40 lbs.

Meeting with my family tomorrow late afternoon for my nieces dance recital. Then hoping for a quick bite to eat with them before heading home and getting to the exciting task of finishing my glue removal. Getting there.

Hoping for a beautiful weekend for all of us! See you next week :).