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Kettlebell KB wth effect on the brain?

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The Nail

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If, the evening after a good S&S session you notice you left some skin on your challenge bell's handle.
And it made you smile.
Does this mean S&S has ate up your brain?

And if you conclude that it does and it makes you happy, is this a documented WTH effect?

Happy weekend folks! :cool:
 
The first time I did get ups I almost left brains on the kettle bell when it slipped. Thank the Lord for a quick head turn.
 
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Ha! Oh man. I almost feel bad about laughing that that, but "almost left brains on the kettle bell" is hilarious wording.
 
I often get the jitters, an anxious feeling, and the cold rush of adrenalin. When you start dealing with dangerous, heavy weight that could seriously injure you it literally becomes life and death. That is what I always liked about lifting weights. The danger, the focus required.

Someone once asked Andy Bolton what it felt like to deadlift over a thousand pounds. To which he replied "What is the most weight you have ever deadlifted?..... Just like that." Weight is relative. My 64kg get up feels just like someone else's 24kg get up.

Conquering your fears, and moving the immovable object is my drug of choice. Walking up to an impossible Snatch, or Clean and Jerk, knowing you cannot pull under it, and putting that fear out of your mind, the focus in the start position, blank, calm mind, instantly every muscle fires in perfectly timed sequence on sheer instinct. Then a fraction of a second later, to your shock, the immovable object is being held aloft, pinning you in an a#@ to ankles squat, but you cannot celebrate yet, you still have to stand up. Again you strain under a crushing load, and struggle against the immense tension and pressure, now you are running out of oxygen, every fibre of your being is burning, but you stand just long enough,on sheer will, to defy gravity.

Not to mention pushing yourself under the weight you struggled to stand up with threatening to fold you up like an accordion. The Jerk is the most explosive human movement with a fear factor to match. Most lifts are failed on the Jerk.

Everyone who plays the iron game knows that feeling of euphoria after a PR, tough lift, set, or practice. That is what keeps me picking up stuff day after day, year after year. Lifting does undoubtly change the brain. Some people thrive on the risk, some people let the weight win.

My hands feel cold and tingly just writing this.
 
Haven't had a feeling like that in a bit. I remember when it hit me I was on my 6th rep at 255 seated behind the neck press before I needed a spot - "I don't bench much more than that..."

To be honest, the best feeling I ever had like that was pulling the motor out of my brother in laws Mercury Marauder. Pretty sure it was a 406, minus the heads and intake still had to be well over 500lbs. Pulled by me at 18, and two, non exercising guys in their late 30s, with a pipe chained to the block.

I've never felt a pipe or bar dig in like that, or had that level of pain and fear once the block cleared the grill and we had to set it down under control. Failure was not an option.
 
@North Coast Miller I can empathize with pulling a motor out of a car with a farmered apparatus. Sometimes you have to do what is necessary to get the job done. Failure is definitely not an option.

I have worked as an Industrial Mechanic/Millwright in the Heavy Industrial environments of mining, oil and gas, production, and manufacturing facilities for over ten years.

You constantly have to work in potentially dangerous, toxic, confined, hot, cold, elevated, and uncomfortable spaces. Often for extended periods of time. Discomfort is part of the job. Pushing, pulling, and lifting with poor leverage and body position. You don't always have rigging points or access for moving materials, tools, and equipment. I have to be very resilient, adaptable, and creative to get jobs completed safely, and efficiently.

When I am tasked with a tough work order I really begin to question the choices I have made in my life.
 
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@Geoff Chafe


When I used to do wet offset printing, after a particularly nasty maintenance cycle, I was running the dog about an hour after getting off work. As I began to use my full lung capacity I could taste Methyl Ethyl Ketone on the exhale.

And then working overtime and swing shift. In a year and a half, only myself and one other coworker out of 8 did not miss any time due to injury.
 
Were you seriously training at that time? If so, do you feel like your training gave you added resistance to injury?


Definitely. Although at that time I'd say 50-75% of my workout was nothing more than jumping rope with one of my "beast" homemade jump ropes - 1 1/2" wood dowels about 10" long for the handles with 1/2" manila rope.

The rest was all heavy bag and solo Escrima footwork/double stick drills up and down the driveway. Honestly I had better static grip strength at that time than at any point before or since. If I'd been into KBs I would have been doing a ton of light weight swings and deck squat complex - high volume stuff. Work was tough enough, it was extremely difficult to recover from heavier lifting.

A lot of the injuries were due to fatigue induced clumsiness or poor judgement.

One guy self inflicted an acid burn all over the fingers of one hand, probably would have been OK but he didn't wash his hands after handing the stuff - about 5 hours later his fingers swelled up like sausages. Another guy simply fell off the catwalk and broke his elbow. Two others - one had an entire hand pulled into the press rollers, another managed to hit the stop at just his fingers. Two had recurring back problems. I can't recall what happened to the rest, just remember reading the accident reporting and outcomes at the end of the year and feeling very lucky.

I used to take my schedule very seriously, I would completely flip on the night shift. A lot of guys would sleep first thing out of work and then they're up all day before even beginning work. Imagine a physical job and you're working right up to your bedtime...A recipe for poor sleep and heavy physical fatigue round the clock.
 
I have always wondered if lifting weights and strenuous exercise produces the attributes of the brain, like pain tolerance, perseverance, mindfulness, confidence, resilience etc, or it just builds and strengthens the necessary attributes you already have.

Is it nature or nurture? Are we genetically predisposed to seek the effects of strenuous exercise? There are many exercisers, and athletes who, for whatever reason, do not have what it takes. My sample size is smaller than a trainer or coach, but I have trained and competed with people who were mentally, and physically weak and I think they just did not have it in them.

Maybe a controversial topic for people who make there living from the fitness industry, but some trainees just do not,and will not, have the inherent abilities to change their mind and body.

@northcoastmiller I have never worked in the paper or printing industries, but I have worked around Methyl Ethyl Ketone. It is used in Coders and small printers in production facilities. It is extremely toxic. The MSDS sheets are shocking. I use a respirator, along with full PPE if I work on a coder. I worked around industrial painters, I know that feeling of your body being saturated with chemicals, some times, even if you take every precaution, and use the best protective equipment, you still become contaminated.

Congratulations on your safety record. My clean safety record while working in deadly industrial environments is a point of pride also. I have never been injured or injured another, or been written up for a near miss or safety violation. Most are not so lucky. I have seen many injuries, some life changing, and three deaths. I do not take safety for granted, if I am not carefull it could be me tomorrow.
 
I actually feel most euphoric and have the strongest feeling of satisfaction when I can do a lift or session that was once very difficult or beyond my limits, and it feels EASY.
 
it is nature and nurture. Two sides of the same coin. It is up to oneself to get what it takes, to nurture ones innate nature.
I'd rather call the human experience "adventure and adaptation" instead of "nature and nurture." Our brains and bodies are hardwired for some specific basic tasks, but they are BOTH left programmable for anything else we want to do. Our bodies evolve to handle our technological advances in fact. We have small jaws because our ancestors started to cook their meat, which softens it. Thus we lost our big jaws and big jaw muscles as they were a waste of energy. Our bodies are amazingly adaptable. Just look at how much our bodies have changed after lifting weights for a while!!! Even our BONES change density and size from lifting weights! COOL!
 
Hello,

During moves like heavy GU (basically when the bell is over my head), I like the feeling to stay focused. At this moment, I am "here and now". If I lose my mental control, the bell could fall on my head and hurt me. Thus I suppose there is also adrenaline I like.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
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