all posts post new thread

Sheltered And Simple

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Oscar Wilde once said, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” On the one hand, I am grateful to once again have use of a kettlebell that fits into my Goldilocks zone for the full TGU. On the other hand, the TGU can be so demanding. Small, subtle differences in body positioning and movement can make a big difference between a get up that goes well and a get up that is more of a struggle. To be aware of these small, subtle differences is important, and it’s like a form of meditation that can hurt you if your attention wavers. I did the right arm get ups today, feeling strong in my first 4 sets, then cut my last recovery period short in order to get done more quickly, and the performance of the 5th rep suffered. The TGU is not a time for impatience. I think the TGU is my primary meditation practice.
 
My body insisted on a break from kettlebells today. I did a very easy run broken up by the practice of static safety vaults from the back side of a park bench to the front. On one side of my body, I'm developing a knack, but on the other side of the body, I haven't successfully done one vault yet. Of course, up until today, I've only ever tried on one side. It's funny how the same task can seem easy or hard with just slight differences in how one goes about it.
 
I don’t apologize for the fact that my progress can be slow or that I have to progress in small increments. In my full TGU’s this morning, I successfully upgraded a set to a full 22kg get up. It is bridging the gap between my being able to do full 45lb TGU’s and only able to do partial 24kg/53 lb TGU’s. More important to me than the modest increase in bell size was the fact my body awareness and body mechanics are improving and that I handled this in such a way that I did this without pain or instability.
 
For the month of May 2020, I’m just 12 miles shy of running 100+ miles for the month, a volume not seen since my marathon days. I would like to imagine that when the Chicago Lakefront re-opens, I am ready to reunite with the lakefront. I am of mixed minds. On the one hand, I haven’t had running volume be any concern for me since the fall of 2018. On the other hand, when I can finally set foot on the lakefront again, I want to be able to go out for more extended runs there.

As far as kettlebells go, today had prying thruster goblet squats and 24kg one handed swings. My right hand continues to go as high as 22kg with the TGU, and I did 5 get ups in my left hand, with a much lighter weight, to get that side of the body used to the movement again as my right knee is closer to having its scab healed up.
 
I couldn’t put it off any longer. Between gym closures, long waits in getting new kettlebells shipped to me, and a skinned right knee, it’s been since mid-March since I last did a full TGU in my left hand with what I consider a proper kettlebell weight. First set on the left side was with an easy remedial weight, but for the second set, I got the proper weight ready. I hoped the moment of truth was also a moment of stability and strength. It was, As is another rep with the same weight. I finished up the left side with two remedial weight sets. Over the next few days, I plan to transition my left hand back to all normal working weight for the full TGU. But there still needs to be a transition like this.

Later in the morning, I went out and did quarter mile sprints, 7 times. With my uncharacteristic emphasis on running volume recently, sprint work has been a little bit neglected. I enjoy sprints a lot, and it’s annoying how something as simple as paying close attention to my running volume metric can cause me to neglect the joy of sprinting.
 
On the one hand, it seemed necessary to do those full TGU’s with the bell in my left hand yesterday. On the other hand, as a result, a blister has developed on my right knee over the skin still not fully healed yet. So today it was TGU’s done only with the bell in my right hand. It’s annoying how the training decision I made yesterday to do the TGU on my left side was simultaneously a good decision and a bad decision. I understand why some people can become so dogmatic about doing their training a particular way. If you’re dogmatic, you just have to be concerned with whether or not you followed the formula. You don’t have to grapple with the challenges and consequences of making decisions.
 
Passed 100 running miles for the month. This is in spite of the fact that no run was longer than 6.5 miles and only 4 runs were longer than 5 miles. I just had a lot of runs. I may focus a bit more on running as: (a) my TGU will do better in the long run if I stay off my knee until the skinned knee is fully healed. (b) I may need a mental break from doing my kettlebells in my small condo early in the morning while I have all of the distractions of my place around me while trying to be super quiet so as to not wake up my spouse. I would like to do loud exhales on my swings and thunk kettlebells loudly sometimes and have the spartan surroundings of the gym once again. Failing that, I need a break. (c) The weather is starting to become very nice running weather. Even if I am not permitted to run on the Chicago lakeshore, I can still run in places where I can see the lake. My relationship with the lake is not to be neglected.
 
“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” - Walt Whitman
I hauled my 24kg bell outside while also wearing running gear. I alternated swings and short bursts of running speed work with rest and admiring other people’s dogs from a distance.
 
It’s not just simply that 10 rounds of swing - sprint - rest is intense. There’s also the fact that carrying the 24kg bell between my place and the area outside where I’m swinging is a 4 minute farmer’s carry each way.
 
This may sound woo-woo, but as I've adapted to minimalist running shoes, my feet feel much more a part of me and not simply something down below. I have no interest in running barefoot, but I still like how my sense of self changes when my feet aren't encased in thick shoes that cut me off from the earth. And running is great for my injured knee in a way that the Turkish Get Up is not. The TGU can really rub raw skin that is not fully healed. But daily swings are still the norm. I have never banged my knee with a kettlebell during a swing, so swings do not bother my knees....
 
It feels incomplete to do the TGU on one side of my body only. But I have to not identify with this feeling. I need to be patient and let the skin on my right knee finish healing. To push through and force myself to do TGU on my injured knee would be a case of “Know pain, no gain.”
 
It was not a morning for running, as surveying the ri*t damage slowed me to a walk, with a lot of pauses. When I got back home, I didn’t particularly feel like doing kettlebell work, but I made myself do goblet squats, swings, and right-handed TGU’s. And the fact that the TGU does not leave me with spare attention to ruminate on troubling subjects was a benefit.
 
While out running today, I had a moment of uneven footing on two sidewalk segments that were misaligned with one another, and I am very glad I did not fall again. I need to be able to do full Turkish Get Ups on both sides soon, not just one. The Turkish Get Up is truly such a full body movement that a love of the TGU means I have to keep myself in good, injury-free condition as much as possible.

I currently do all of my swings with 24kg and will start adding 28kg if that bell makes it through the current shipping disruptions. I do most of my TGU with 45lbs and am slowly adding 22kg reps in. I aim to reach a day where I can do all of my swings with 28kg and all of my TGU’s with 24kg. If I do so, I will not pretend that I have reached the Simple standard, but I think that 28kg swings/24kg TGU’s will still be a worthwhile goal for me, given all of the quirks and foibles of my body.
 
Today’s abundant warmth and bright sunshine seem such a contrast to the metaphoric gloomy clouds as of late that the day had to involve running. I avoided climbing, vaulting, balancing, etc. I want the skin on that knee to get fully healed this time around so I am avoiding activities I find pleasant.

Goblet squats, swings, and right-handed full TGU’s. During my heaviest TGU (22kg), I become so aware of how all my different body parts fit together. When my left knee is on the floor during the early part of the lunge, the knee is rarely exactly where it needs to be in relationship to the right leg. While it is fine to windshield wiper my lower left leg, my lower back does not like it if I try to adjust the left knee to a different spot on the floor, it is much better to change the position of my right foot to a different spot on the floor than to change the position of my left knee to a different spot on the floor. This part of the get up is about me establishing the correct relationship between my two legs. The way I am doing this part of the get up is neither a “by the book” method, nor is it that lower back pain inducing way I once did. It took me awhile to find what works for me.
 
On work days, my morning work out takes place between 5am and 6am, but the nightly Chicago curfew doesn't end until 6am. This means my morning work out is back to being always indoors. This usually means goblet squats, swings, and TGU. And while it is beneficial for me to do the TGU regularly. I'm wondering if I should avoid doing it too regularly in order to give my foot more recovery time. When I go to rise from the lunge, if I curl my toes under, it's stressful on my big toe, but if I don't curl my toes under, it's stressful on the part of my foot above my ankle where the lower leg meets the instep. I know the difference between medicine and poison is the dosage and I need to figure out the right TGU dosage for me.
 
Today, I paid extra close attention to toe placement on the leg I'm kneeling on when it is time to stand up from the lunge. If I lift that foot up more so the toes can casually bend forward rather than getting wedged forward, it's a lot easier to push off of those toes once they are on the mat. I need to eliminate the technique where I don't bend my toes but instead keep my shin and instep and toes in one straight line as I stand up. In the short-term, I can get away with it. In the long-term though, it could cause me significant problems, as I'm essentially hyperextending the ankle under load.
 
As I do another day of get ups with the toes handled in a way that works for me, a small but ongoing pain in my left foot now seems to be clearing up. Given that May saw 2 new kettlebells and thus a resumption of my TGU work, and May also saw me run 100 + miles, it was hard to tease out where the pain was coming from. I'm continuing to get a lot of running in, but modifying the TGU is what is taking the pain away big time.
 
When I carried my 24kg kettlebell to the park for a series of squats and swings and sprints, I was mindful that a kettlebell looks like a cannonball with a handle, so this gave me the incentive to do my farmer’s carry with good form and not look like a loose cannon with a cannonball.

Later after my park time, I did 5 TGU with my right hand. 4 of the 5 were done with 22kg and only 1 with 45 lbs. While I am not ready to attempt a full get up with 24kg, I think I am learning things that me help me avoid the problems when I last tried to do full 24 TGU’s. These problems included falling bells, falling bodies, cramped muscles, lower back pain, limbs left in contorted positions when gravity takes hold of the bell, and near injuries. My changes have included:
(1) replacing the high bridge with a low sweep. Beyond a certain weight, the low sweep gives me a stability that the high bridge does not.
(2) when I got into the lunge position to get ready to stand, I recognize that both legs can play a role in getting the proper leg alignment and dividing up the work properly prevents lower back pain.
(3) getting it firmly into my muscle memory that when I go from lunge to stand, I must lift off from my the toes of my rear foot and not try to keep those toes in a straight line with my instep and shin. Beyond a certain weight, not using the toes can lead to ankle hyperextension, muscle cramping, and instability when I try to stand up.

Some people learn a lot about their body through yoga asanas. The TGU has become my primary yoga asana.
 
Another day where my right hand has had 4 out of 5 of its full TGU upped to 22kg, while my left hand has not had any TGU’s in quite some time. I suppose I should start re-introducing partial get ups for my left hand, making a point of stopping before putting any weight on my right knee. One challenge will be one side of my body now has muscle memory for tweaks I’ve made to make the TGU safer and more stable for me, but the other side of my body could just slip into old habits on auto-pilot if I am not mindful.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom