10,000 KBS, WORKOUT 17 PART 2, 31 JULY 2014

-I completed the workout in 49:17 using the 40 kg bell on all sets of 10 and 15 and the 32 kg bell on sets of 25 and 50 swings. I got 4 hours of sleep the night prior. I reduced the BS weight to 225# (more detail below). I kept my swing cadence to 37 SPM, or 1 swing every 1.6 seconds.

-It felt good to be back; taking 2 consecutive days off was strange. I was excited to get a bell in hand and get under the bar, again, though I knew I had to switch things up a bit due to my cranky hip. While I don’t know for sure, I suspect I have a minor sprain (tear) in the ITB where it glides over the greater trochanter.

-That being said, I needed to challenge myself with squats of great effort without using heavy weight. I was not willing to risk sustaining damage to my ITB by throwing 305# on the bar again this soon after I tweaked it. I decided to forgo weight for Time Under Tension (TUT), thus the decision to put 225# on the bar. On the eccentric phase I used a 4 count, paused for a 1 count, and used a 2 count on the concentric phase. This provided me about 6 seconds under tension on each rep. It was freaking hard – just what I needed.

-First through third clusters felt great. The sets of 10 and 15 swings with the 40 were laughably easy. Even the BS, while being extremely challenging, felt damn good. You can take a look at the videos. Video one https://vimeo.com/103089605 is of my set of 3 BS in cluster 1. Video 2 https://vimeo.com/103089650 is my 1st and 2d swings and BS in the third cluster.

-Right after the 3 BS in the forth cluster is where the wheels started to come off the bus. I was feeling crushed. After that set of TUT BS I took about 70 seconds of rest before hitting the 50 swings.

-I was pretty pumped for the fifth cluster. I can’t help but feel motivated and just ready to go out of my skull heading into the final cluster in a workout of this intensity level. So, the fifth cluster was, as always, awesome to crank through. Those darn TUT BS though are no joke. They were hard. I had to really focus on the disassociative breathing to keep myself in a good place.

-While 49:17 is on the higher end of the spectrum of completion times thus far, given the increase in kettle bell weight, and the fact that TUT reps simply take more time, I’m really happy with my results today. Tomorrow it’s TUT FS.