NerdStrong Gym - Kettlebells & Maces

Back to the gym today after a much needed rest. Today we started with a nice warm up before moving on to one of many workouts.

We started with Mace Squats. A mace is a long pole with a knob at the end and that is where all the weight is. We had to do 3 sets of 4 reps at a tempo of 4242 pace. The first set had us hold the head of the mace close to our hands so it wasn't that bad when you did your squats. We actually did 2 squats per side. The second set was held the mace around halfway down the pole an so the weight is leaning towards one side. This made doing the squats a bit more difficult but the worst was set number 3 and holding the mace at the far end of the pole and having the weighted end on the other side. This make it extremely difficult to squat as you are trying to counter the weight and not fall over while doing the squat.

Once that was over we moved on to the second workout which was weighted Lunges. We had to do 3 sets of 6 (3 on each leg). This took as tempo'd at 5050 pace. The hardest part about these was getting the timing right. Five seconds is a long time to do a lunge.

We then moved on to our third workout which was 5 rounds of 2 Handed Kettlebell Clean to Press for 30 seconds and then right into 2 Handed Kettlebell Swing for 30 seconds, then right into a x25 Two Handed Kettlebell hold Sit ups. This was extremely tough as you are already tired from the first two workouts and there is no resting inbetween sets for this one. I chose a yellow Kettlebell which is about 26 lbs. I usually use a green which is 30+ pounds but I knew that I wouldn't be able to do 5 rounds with that much weight. I'm so happy I went with the lighter weight.

We rested for about 3 minutes before starting our fourth and final workout which was another 5 rounds of 1 Arm Kettlebell For Press for 30 seconds then a Kettlebell Figure 8 to Hold for 60 seconds before doing the x25 Two Handed Kettlebell hold Sit ups. Again like with the last one there are not rest periods. I kept having issues with my shorts when doing the Figure 8 as I kept grabbing the bottom of my short. It was frustrating to the point of me wanting to take my shorts off (but I wasn't sure which underwear I was wearing :) ) But I manged to do a good amount of them. By the end my shoulders were in pain and I know I'll be feeling it for a few days to come.