Glutes and Kettlebells

 

My training has been really interesting to me lately, and the switch has made a dramatic change in my physique.

This picture was taken on Thursday morning at 6:30 am right after I returned from the gym. I am pretty pumped up, but the thing is, that is how I am looking all the time! It was GLUTE day for god sakes!

I know that the dietary change is helping a lot for me too, I am eating more fats and I can see that the lean mass is definitely increasing and the body fat is getting lower, I can easily see it in the abdominal area.

I seem to have found the perfect diet for my body, it has taken me two years.

Glute day involves the use of my Gymboss more than any other day. This is an interval timer that is indispensable for those who do not have a trainer.

I was performing what SC called a bench reverse iso hyper, a mainstay of my glute training. You lay face down on a flat bench, with the crease of the hips at the very edge, you will be raising your straight legs up so they are parallel with your prone body, and this will be held for a period of time. You are basically straight, or with your legs slightly higher than your body (ideal but difficult), contracting the glutes to keep it all in position and the only part of you on the bench is your body from the hips up.

An added dimension is I do this with a 25 pound free weight clamped between my ankles and I hold it for 30 seconds, timed by the Gymboss. 30 second hold, 30 second rest, three times. It's pretty difficult.

I finished and collapsed to my knees on the floor, and one of the regulars, an attorney, nice but not a serious lifter starts this conversation:

Attorney: "ha another one of your oddball made up moves!"
Me: "What? This is not made up, this is a serious lift!"

Then a trainer walking by says "Old school buddy, she is old school, everyone knows that move"

Me: "Yeah, look at my butt and look at yours then tell me if the move is that oddball!"
Trainer "Yeah, and she isn't here to exercise her mandible like you"

Attorney: "Do you have a competition coming up or something?"
Me: "Yup, can't you tell by the way I look!?"
Attorney: "No, I just notice when your intensity level is kicked up a few notches!"

Laughter all around and I go back to my odd ball, but highly effective moves and he goes back to his little plastic ab rolly thingy.

Next is swings, I have started back with my kettlebells, I love them so much and had all but abandoned them. There is so much to do, it's easy to leave something behind, but in the quest for low body fat, I completely forgot that this is what really melts it away for me. As you know, I am not a real fan of lots of cardio, I have not seen many physiques that I feel benefit from a lot, unless it is one that has copious amounts of bodyfat to lose, or one on drugs. Steroid users can do a lot more cardio without looking haggard than a natural athlete can.

I find tabata interval style training or kettlebells work best for me, so high intensity intervals basically.

Monday was 5 sets of 20 with a 20 kilo kettlebell, today I switched it up to be 7 sets of 15. I perform a two handed swing, set the bell down, walk around the gym to lower my heart rate and get right back into the next set.

That's the end of the training day, and a good end. As I put the bell away, a woman who was training with the guy I consider to be the most knowledgeable trainer in the place (the only trainer there who is RKC - Russian Kettlebell Certified by Pavel), and the only one I have seen actually swing bells in the gym correctly says "Your back looks really good. I have been wanting to see you do those for a long time"

I thanked her and pointed to her trainer and said "He's the expert right there" and she said "Yes I know, that's why I hired him"

I showed her my white hands and told her about the great Liquid Grip I started using, it really helps when swinging kettlebells. I am not a fan of gloves, I think for three reasons, I like to feel the weights in my hands; I think you can actually get a better, more functional grip without them; and SC used to tell me I wouldn't be allowed in the weight room if I even attempted to walk in wearing wimpy gloves. "No real man wears gloves" he would tell me, and the hell if I wanted to be treated like a woman!
 
The trainer walked up, looked at my white messy hands and said he loves the stuff too, he uses it with his high school football team he coaches at a private school.

The fact that she had been wanting to see me perform swings is a great moral booster, and I can never see my back so I do rely on my pictures and comments from others. Funny how people watch and I never realize it. I think I am in a zone.



David? One look at me this morning and he said I needed a cheeseburger. That's what happens when I start losing fat too quickly, and I need to "arrest" the fat loss, I have a real cheeseburger, white bun and all and it halts the process for a while. I told him I think he may be a week premature, check with me next Friday!

Right now I am thinking I might be able to sport a Dana Linn Bailey shirt soon, and look like I belong in it!