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Sheltered And Simple

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Timmer C

Timmer C

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Lockdown has taught me that a partial Turkish Get Up can be more brutal than a full Turkish Get Up. Allow me to explain....

A few weeks before the Great Kettlebell Shortage of 2020 and the Global Shutdown of 2020, I bought a 24KG that I hauled each day to my building's gym. The kettlebells in the gym went from 10 pounds to 45 pounds in increments of 5 pounds, and hauling the 24KG bell allowed me to start to progress my swings and goblet squats with heavier weights. But I was not ready for 24KG Turkish Get Ups because it was a weight that could too easily be out of my control and come crashing down hard.

My building's gym closed up on St. Patrick's Day. Starting immediately thereafter, all of my goblet squats and swings used 24KG instead of just some of them. No longer able to do Turkish Get Ups with the gym's 45 pound bell, I turned to a 25 pound kettlebell I had in the back of my closet. I added shoulder presses throughout the get up and cut back on rest breaks to try to make the lightweight bell more challenging.

This week, I stopped (for now) using the 25 pound bell, and have been doing all of my get ups with the 24KG bell. These are not full get ups, just partial get ups. For the first three days, I was just going to the part where I support myself on one extended arm, and for the last couple of days, I've been going to the part where I start to get on my knee, but my weight is still supported on one arm. (And of course, then I reverse the process.) Though these are only partial get ups, these are the most brutal get ups I have ever done. I am working hard at keeping the bell firmly under my control at all times and to be able to have the bell descend in a controlled fashion rather than come crashing down. My survival instincts tell me that this level of control is important for me to get down before I start dealing with those shifts of my center of gravity when I lift my supporting hand from the floor and when I stand.

I know some of you have already mastered the Turkish Get Up with 24KG or higher, and I respect that. But as someone who started off my training as a relatively weak middle-aged dude, I have to work with where I am at right now. I didn't expect lockdown to cause me to start exploring the 24KG Turkish Get Up though.....
 
My log will focus not solely on my training sessions but will also include asides on how I take advantage of opportunities in daily life. For example, when I need to run to the grocery store, I put on running shoes and literally run to the grocery store. My running watch says April will be the month so far this year with the most running in it.

When the gym was open, I was at an awkward point. I was close to owning 45lb TGU’s, but trying to do full 24kg TGU’s made me a danger to myself. But as I find myself doing 10 partial 24kg TGU’s per day right now, I find myself giving attention to many details, such as the exact way the bell is positioned in my hand and on my arm, and how very minute differences affect how well I can stay in control. These partial TGU’s take so much focus that during this time, COVID 19 and all other such problems cease to exist.
 
This morning, while waiting in the line to get into Tr*der Joes, I practiced side kicks that targeted ankles, shins, and knees. Since everyone else in line was already maintaining social distance, I did not have to worry about accidentally kicking anyone else.

When I do Turkish Get Ups inside my place, I use a yoga mat that is one inch thick, as I do not want the 24 kg bell to land directly on the hardwood floor. While I am doing only partial TGU’s with the 24kg bell, the fact that lockdown has me suddenly doing all of my reps with this bell is taxing, and I find that my rest periods after each pair of reps is not just simply a good idea but a necessity. Just like in the movie Bloodsp*rt where Shidoshi Tanaka could be both a great teacher and a cruel b*stard simultaneously, so too is is this kettlebell.
 
Making progress with the 24kg TGU means supplemental work, and that supplemental work is made challenging by the simple fact that my choices for supplemental work are limited by the same gym closures and equipment shortages that many are facing.
Supplemental work: Once an hour for most of my workday, I stop to do push ups: knuckle pushes, standard push ups and those type of push ups that have the flow with upward facing dog and downward facing dog. 200+ push ups per work day. Weekends, I just do 100 push ups per day, no particular schedule. And every day that I do prying curling goblet squats with the 24kg, there is a thruster included as part of each rep. While it makes each squat more diabolical, it does help practice the movement upward of the 24kg bell.

Background: Some of those guys who sound unnecessarily sheepish and apologetic for how little they can bench press might value their own strength more highly if I gave them my own low bench press numbers. I am not unique in having my upper body strength being less than my lower body strength, but I suspect my ratio is slightly worse than average. I know many advocate doing S & S completely by the book. However, there is the fact that I have imbalances to correct within myself before I can follow S & S completely by the book.
 
Despite what motivational speakers may say about a person being able to do anything, Helen Keller would have made a terrible trapeze artist and Albert Einstein would have been a mediocre boxer. When I practice Sheltered & Simple, I do not allow myself the luxury of getting caught up in fantasy goals. I am just trying to do today's practice as best as I can and to acknowledge what I cannot. I am getting moments during my partial 24kg TGU's where the bell seems light. But I can't allow myself to get cocky as a result. During one rep this morning, I went to explore removing my supporting hand from the floor and found my lower back doing a compensatory move that doesn't seem good long term. A move I got away with with full TGU's of 45lbs or less, but a move I want to re-evaluate.
 
Timmer C said:
Lockdown has taught me that a partial Turkish Get Up can be more brutal than a full Turkish Get Up. Allow me to explain....

A few weeks before the Great Kettlebell Shortage of 2020 and the Global Shutdown of 2020, I bought a 24KG that I hauled each day to my building's gym. The kettlebells in the gym went from 10 pounds to 45 pounds in increments of 5 pounds, and hauling the 24KG bell allowed me to start to progress my swings and goblet squats with heavier weights. But I was not ready for 24KG Turkish Get Ups because it was a weight that could too easily be out of my control and come crashing down hard.

My building's gym closed up on St. Patrick's Day. Starting immediately thereafter, all of my goblet squats and swings used 24KG instead of just some of them. No longer able to do Turkish Get Ups with the gym's 45 pound bell, I turned to a 25 pound kettlebell I had in the back of my closet. I added shoulder presses throughout the get up and cut back on rest breaks to try to make the lightweight bell more challenging.

This week, I stopped (for now) using the 25 pound bell, and have been doing all of my get ups with the 24KG bell. These are not full get ups, just partial get ups. For the first three days, I was just going to the part where I support myself on one extended arm, and for the last couple of days, I've been going to the part where I start to get on my knee, but my weight is still supported on one arm. (And of course, then I reverse the process.) Though these are only partial get ups, these are the most brutal get ups I have ever done. I am working hard at keeping the bell firmly under my control at all times and to be able to have the bell descend in a controlled fashion rather than come crashing down. My survival instincts tell me that this level of control is important for me to get down before I start dealing with those shifts of my center of gravity when I lift my supporting hand from the floor and when I stand.

I know some of you have already mastered the Turkish Get Up with 24KG or higher, and I respect that. But as someone who started off my training as a relatively weak middle-aged dude, I have to work with where I am at right now. I didn't expect lockdown to cause me to start exploring the 24KG Turkish Get Up though.....
Click to expand...
Just bottom 1/2 get ups have done more for my full get ups than anything. The overload has helped a ton. Good work!
 
ShawnM said:
Just bottom 1/2 get ups have done more for my full get ups than anything. The overload has helped a ton. Good work!
Click to expand...

You’re onto something with that. Once I got it firmly into my head that I need get control of a heavy weight as a preliminary step to doing subsequent actions with that weight, partial get ups became a valuable practice.
 
The puzzle mats and limited space to move has forced me to also tighten up my getups and have to dial back to lighter loads.

While this may seem like a disadvantage, the so called restrictions will force us to further dial in our technique. Once we regain access to more bells and better flooring, I will not be surprised if that equals getup PRs
 
I had a mishap (the bell falling with my arm still attached) when trying to remove my supporting arm from the floor and going into full lunge. Not a problem with the gym's 45 pound bell, but a problem with my 24 kg. When the supporting arm is helping to support the load, removing that arm from the floor can be like losing a leg of a folding card table. The transition between being supported by the one arm and being supported by the lunge gets harder with the heavier weight. Challenges.
 
Last year, I read an out of print book called Seven Years Solitary by Edith Bone. She was falsely accused of being a spy and put in solitary confinement. Edith did her best to make the best use of her time and not get stuck in the idea that her life was on hold. While I have my wife and am not truly in solitary. I never expected the book to become a how-to. I am limited in my equipment, but I make do with what I have. I do push ups once an hour during my work day. I have a kettlebell that's too heavy for full TGU, so I do partial TGU and I also do swings and curling prying thruster goblet squats. And while aesthetics are secondary for me, I have become more buff in the last few weeks than I have ever been. And there is carry over in other areas of my life, but this is of course my training log and not my life blog...
 
If/when normal life returns, I may need to take a break from Simple & Sinister and/or have variety days once again. In the meantime. I am trying to learn what I can from doing get ups with a weight too heavy for me to do get ups. With a heavy bell, if I remove my supporting arm from the floor before the supporting knee is ready to offer support, the lower back tries to take over a good amount of the load. I got away with this with lighter bells but I must unlearn.

I had one rep this morning where I got into the lunge without tweaking my back and without completely losing control of the bell. But I had to use both hands on the bell to lower myself down rather than just lower myself in the normal TGU way.

It's not a matter of whether I like or dislike the 24kg bell. It's just a matter of the 24kg bell being a harsh but helpful instructor.
 
Since I am doing push ups once an hour for most of my work day, I use a spreadsheet to keep me honest. Once I again work around co-workers, I may keep this habit and if co-workers think I'm eccentric, I'll point out that it's better and less time-consuming than taking smoke breaks, surfing the Internet, etc.

These daily push ups probably contribute a lot to the fact that I can now do the partial 24kg TGU with improving control over the bell. With the gyms closed and my 25lb bell too light for TGU's and the 24kg initially way too heavy, I needed to do something to bridge the gap. Strength from the push ups allows me to lower the bell under control rather than gravity lowering the bell with great urgency.
 
Training was lop-sided today for the TGU. On one side of my body, I explored the transition into the lunge with the 24kg. On the other side of my body though, I had to contend with a skinned knee and stopped each partial get up sooner than normal so as to spare the knee.

About that skinned knee. It happened while running. It wasn’t while I was jumping onto things or jumping off of things or balancing on things. I am careful at these points. The skinned knee came due to a bit of sidewalk that had a spot where two adjacent segments were uneven with one another. Fortunately, the fact that I practice break falls regularly meant I instinctively fell in a manner that was good for my hands, wrists, arms, and head. I did not have to go to an urgent care facility.
 
My skinned knee has now scabbed over and that scab today said “Nope! Let me heal!” when I went to do the prying curling part of the squat. So I just did thruster squats and the scab did not complain. 1 handed 24kg swings were just fine. But the partial 24kg TGU’s were something I had to be easy with on both sides, and not just on the side that would have involved putting weight on the skinned knee. While I’ve done TGU in some form literally every day since Chicago pandemic restrictions started, perhaps I may consider a break from TGU and focus on something that won’t work at cross purposes with my scab healing....
 
I did not like the way my body was modifying my TGU yesterday due to my scabbed knee, and I don’t want to build bad habits. So for the first time since March 7th, I did not work with kettlebells today. I went running... and had to improvise. When climbing onto low walls, I had to make sure not to put weight onto my scabbed knee. (On one wall, I ended up going from putting weight on my uninjured knee to a plank rather than doing first one knee than the other.). None of the amateur climbing, jumping, balancing, and running I did bothered my scabbed knee at all. Usually, any of this type of stuff I do is just an extra for fun and not what I consider my main workout. But it seems like a good recovery activity...
 
S & S 2.0 suggests training most days, taking an occasional day off when one body or schedule insists. Speaking for myself only, I now recognize that when a pandemic removes most of the entries in my schedule, I need to create new deliberate entries in my schedule. When my knee is healed and I can resume regular S & S practice, I think I should move to something other than a 7 day a week schedule. Perhaps 5-6 days a week max.

It was a running morning, with the first part of the run having climbing, jumping, and balancing and the second part of the run being just running, allowing for more speed. And an important part of my training right now is simply: leave my scab alone!
 
I was tempted to run in the steady rain this morning, but right now, I don’t dare do anything that increases my risk of developing a cough or a sneeze, since that would just cause paranoia to anyone hearing me cough or sneeze. My scabbed knee means I am not ready for the full S & S, but I made myself do the 24kg swings. The swings are powerful in their own right and are worth doing even when my scabbed knee makes squats and TGU’s temporarily impractical.
 
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