Almost Done with the 365 20kg Kettlebell Snatch Challenge!
Its the 27th of the last month, just 4 days to go. The last year I have done over 60,000 kettlebell snatches with a 20kg kettlebell. Its been quite a journey, as all these daily challenges have been.
If you're not familiar-on day 1, you do 1. On day 2, you do 2. Then 3, then 4, etc. All you do is add one rep, every day without fail for an entire year. Its very simple, easy and straightforward. Its great, because you know you are capable of each day, because you did it yesterday. And all you need to do is an extra 1, which is nothing, really. Well, it's an extra 1. But in fact, in the early days, you work in other exercises just to make it worthwhile and keep some balance.
The thing is though, any fitness thing, if its a genuine challenge, isn't simple or easy. You don't improve in a linear fashion, a bit better every day. You get days when you feel really strong and its no problem. On these days, the hard part is not doing too much-normally when you train hard, the next day, you're a bit sore, but that's part of the process and you take it easy to recover and that's where the improvement really happens, on the rest days. But there are no rest days. The mantra for these 365 challenges is every day its back to square one, plus one. Every day is a new day and you give it your best.
Its a great way to learn to listen to your body-on the days when you're tired, or sore, take it easy, just do the basics. Find the easiest route to the finish. The cumulative effects of thousands of reps hardens your muscles, sure, but it also tightens everything else-on this challenge my upper traps have been stiff and tight and my lower back is quite stiff. It's an exercise in discipline to make sure I stretch off and make sure I start the set with a few easy reps as a warm up.
Towards the end of this challenge, I have been starting off doing reps with a 12kg or 16kg kettlebell, just to be on the safe side. Using the lighter weight, I concentrate on perfect form and focus on what I'm doing. Earlier on, I would warm up by doing a 'ladder' style set of 2x1 rep (1 each hand) up to 2x9 reps. That gave me a safe build up and was 90 reps right there. Then add sets of 10 or whatever the arithmetic worked out as to finish up. The warm up part is important on these things-you're doing something every day and it gets repetitive (to say the least) but if you lose concentration while flinging a 20kg weight around, who knows what you could do to yourself. Or the floor, or a pet, or family member. I never train near priceless Ming vases, for this reason.
I should be honest and say I haven't really actually completed the challenge. I missed one or two days early on due to just plain forgetting until I woke up the next morning and I went on holiday for a week and took no kettlebell with me. I could have, we were camping up on Lewis but it was a heavy enough car and to be honest, I would never have found the time. I mean, it might be nice to do some sunset kettlebells on the fabled Luskentyre beach, but it just wasn't going to happen. So, I tool a decision and said 'no snatches for this week'. I didn't think I would lose too much and it was better to prioritise family time.
Unfortunately, you can't stop all that daily effort for a week then just pick it up again-a few things went wrong after and injuries and other physical challenges (mostly heavy gardening work) meant I never really caught up again. Building up 1 rep at a time is all very well, but restarting at 300 reps from a week of none was an order my body just couldn't fulfil.
The plan was to rebuild the reps over a further week, either doing reps with the lighter weights, or just adding about 20-30 a day till I caught up. It was going OK, but one evening, I was training in the gym while The Laddie was in gymnastics class and *POP* I felt a wee twinge in the upper back, middle traps area, between shoulder blade and spine. I though 'hmmmmm' and tried a lighter weight. Nope, that hurt just as much as the big one. So I retired, raging, to a bike and pedalled for a bit. Raging, not so much due to the fail, more to do with the fact that I couldn't find a decent TV channel to watch on the bike. I am not a fan of indoor pedalling at best, I can get through it if I have some good tunes or a film to watch, but I had no earphones, no nothing. I never listen to music when I am lifting kettlebells, spoils the concentration, but cardio on a machine? It can be dull.
Anyhoo, I rested the back, foam rolled a bit, and the next day I was able to complete a decent set, with care. Back on track, kind of. Funnily enough, my back has always been a weak point for me, but I know for a fact that even if I have an injury or am extra stiff, the thing to do is train carefully-maintain good posture, concentrate, but above all, keep moving! My back is much stronger for training, without a doubt.
So I'm coasting to the finish of the challenge, in 4 days I should do 1,454 KB snatches. Over a thousand in the final weekend. The official count is in the region of 66,000, but with the days off, the injuries, the short days and the rest, I would estimate closer to 60,000 reps. Still not a bad result.
