Snatching It Up

And the workouts just keep getting tougher.

I’ve incorporated snatches into my workouts with Rob. It’s basically a kettlebell swing where instead of ending with the bell out in front of me, I bring it all the way up above my head. Then, I roll it back down and go into a swing and then bring the bell back up above my head. I’m sure I’m not explaining this well, but the bottom line is that they’re hard! I feel crazy muscle fatigue in my arms and shoulders and I get a good butt and leg workout when I’m doing the swing portion of the exercise.

The problem with snatches is that when you go through the motion of bringing the bell above your head, you kind of have to flip it so the bell ends up resting on your forearm. When I was learning (and let’s be honest, I’m still learning) how to do snatches I kept banging the bell against my forearm with, um, a lot of force. So much so that even though I was wearing dorky sweatbands on my wrists to protect them, I was still puffy and bruised the next day. Rob apologized in advance because he knew I’d get a little banged up when I was learning how to do snatches. I’m glad I was prepared, but at the same time it’s tough to willingly slam kettlebells into your forearms during training sessions.

Now that I’ve been doing snatches for about a week and a half, I’m getting much, much better at it. No more bruises and my flow is improving. Rob told me he’s proud of my effort. I’m proud of myself, too.

The other thing that’s changed is that I no longer work out with special tools. You know… dumbbells, weighted bars, medicine balls. That was equipment we needed to get in a decent workout because I was too weak to do an entire kettlebell workout. Now I exclusively use kettlebells in my workouts with Rob. It’s cool. I like that Rob is so happy to have Mandi and me working out at the level that makes it fun for him to train us, since kettlebells are his specialty. Never once did I feel like Rob was annoyed with my pathetic fitness level when I first started working out with him, but I know he’s happy to just have me working out with the bells the entire hour.

Lots of good things happening on the training front, everyone!