NerdStrong Gym - Balance and Kettlebells

I like having a strength day after a "CON" day as they usually aren't that taxing of a cardio workout and are more about form and technique.

We started with a good warm up. We had to do 20x Jumping Jacks, 10x PVC Pass Thrus, 5x Inch Worms and 10x Wall Squats. We did two sets of these.

We then moved on to the first skill move. Continuing the theme of Balance this week Coach Andrew had us to 3 to 5 rounds of :15 to :30 seconds Hold of Kettlebell Tightrope and then 5 - 10x of Upside Down Kettlebell Press. 

This tightrope stuff is alot harder then it sounds, especially when your holding a weight in one hand. For the Kettlebell Hold you had to turn the kettlebell up and then hold it above your shoulder. As you do this you are trying to hold your balance while standing on a line. It's interesting because depending on which foot I had in front of me and which hand was holding the kettlebell I found one side easier to balance then the other. And then for the kettlebell press you had to keep your balance and push the kettlebell up until your bicep passed your ear. These were tough.. it was one thing to hold your balance while just holding the kettlebell but it's something completely different when you have to move with one side of your body weighting more.

The second skill we worked on today was Bench Press Pauses, coach Andrew was asking for 5 reps of 5 and he wanted us to increase our weight as we went. What makes these different then your "regular" bench presses is the hold at the bottom. So you had to do a 2 second count while dropping the weight to your chest and then hold for a second just above your shirt, but not touching it and then a quick release back up. These were really good and as we went up in weight they got pretty tough (as expected).

We finished off the workout with 3 sets of 7 of each of these.. or until time ran out. Hanging Knee Raise, Dumbbell Pull Overs and Dumbbell Shoulder Lat Raises. I'm pretty good at hanging knee raises and then if the weight it light enough the lat raises were doable. I think the hardest thing for me was the DB pull overs. I used an heavier weight which made the task a bit harder. I know I got at least two sets of these done and about half way through my third set when time ran out.

Thanks coach Andrew for another great workout!!!