Death By KB

Workout of the Day

WOD 1 – In the morning…

Sumo Deadlift 3, 3, 3+

Good Mornings 10, 10, 10

Inverted ring rows 15, 15, 15

Pushup with hand release 20, 20, 20

DB clean and press (20 kg) 10, 10, 10

Bicycles 50, 50, 50

WOD 2 – In the afternoon…

32 kg kettlebell swing ladder, aka “death by kb swing”

Decided to go with sumo deadlifts today rather than standard in an effort to save my back for the kettlebells later in the day. I figured I might sacrifice a bit in strength but I actually still felt pretty strong. My last set was at 185 kg for 4 reps—not bad for never doing sumos. The good mornings felt heavy at 80 kg but I managed my way through them. The real tester today was the afternoon session.

I threw the kettlebell in the car when I left the house this morning and left my WOD location undetermined. When I got done teaching the weather was phenomenal, literally 75 degrees and sunny, so naturally the only appropriate place to train was down by the river. I made it down to the shadow of Red Bridge in Fair Oaks just in time to catch the last bit of early afternoon sun and away I went. The last time I’d done a ladder like this was in Paris this past March, and that was with a 25 kg fence post anchor. Needless to say, the demand here was a tad different.

It all felt pretty easy until I hit 12 or 13. By then the rest intervals were getting shorter and shorter and I was able to fully recover in between. At 14 I started splitting the reps to try and conserve energy. By 16 I was really starting to hoof it. In the 18^th minute I finished with only 5 seconds to spare and was barely able to hold on to the bell. I only managed 14 reps in the 19^th minute and that was that.

This was a throwback routine for me, something I used to utilize quite frequently when I trained in DC. It’s a simple format that is always effective and requires little to no equipment or preparation. Pick a multi-joint exercise and start moving. The early sets warms you up, the later ones kick your ass. Rarely does it go much beyond 20 minutes, unless you’ve grossly underestimated the appropriate weight. I’d love to see some other people try this and see how they do. I know there are some kettlebell machines out there that will humble my performance.

Still haven’t done my version of the bystander WOD, but hoping to get something together Thursday. Also, Danish Anywherefit shirts are still available for order until the end of this month in honor of the video submissions from Yasir and Andre. Get ‘em while you can.