The best thing about Kettlebells, there is always room to improve. I personally love having a goal and working towards it. When I put the time in the gym and then step on the platform to test myself I always have a goal in mind. This weekend (Oct. 31, 2015), Linda Gilmour of Ironbell Fitness invited us to join for her in-house competition. To lift, donations were made towards Lifetime Networks. I like to be not only physically prepared for competition, but mentally and Linda went all out to make this competition official. We weighed in and she had bells measured out to make sure they had regulation handles. This is a big deal, because if I could chose I would pick a smaller handle when snatching because it taxes my grip less. So it was great to use the proper size handle as our handles at home are a bit slimmer.
Solomon had a 2 great biathlon sets. He was able to jerk 36 reps, a new PR and he did 157 snatches, another PR, which included lasting the entire 10 minutes. This was Solly’s main goal.
Kendra, Jean and I all lifted together, which was a great flight as we are all going to Worlds together. The night before Solly and I were chatting and I said I want to be consistent. I can’t always expect myself to PR, but I do think of it as a PR if I show consistency. I managed to do 170 reps, my best was in Seattle with 171 reps. So I did meet my goal of being consistent. If I can go out on the platform in Dublin and be just as consistent I will be really pleased with my efforts. If you watch the video, at the end I yelp! That’s because I thought I was going to send the bell flying at the judge!! Nathan, didn’t even bat an eyelash, he just smiled and laughed. The wider handle definitely made a difference on my grip, my forearms are definitely feeling massive after! Kendra had a PR of 158 reps! For a 13 year old, this girl is amazing! Jean did 80 reps, then rejoined us for another 20 reps! Team Canada is ready to represent!
The cool thing about these events, is new lifters! How much effort they put in and how much love they have for the sport. Jessica, one of Ironbell’s lifters had only been lifting for a couple of months and she snatched the 12kg for 10 minutes. I hope we see more new faces in the future! Here are just a few of the lifters, as some left before the end of the event. After, we did stop for dim sum before we headed back to Nanaimo. We’ve been on an asian food kick lately, and see a few youtube videos on some different dim sum so wanted to try some. Soup dumplings are AMAZING! They burst in your mouth with so much flavour! Solly did take some incriminating photos of Kendra and I sleeping in the car on the way home. What!?! We were tried, we worked hard and then ate some good food!
Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, we drove back to Victoria to take part in Brittney van Schravendijk’s Kettlebell workshop. We covered swings, snatches, cleans, jerks and even some double bell lifts for the women. I personally found the swing cues the most helpful. I don’t know what it is about the swing, but it makes my body feel so uncoordinated. It’s a very odd feeling, since I don’t typically struggle with coordination. But it is definitely something I need to work on. When I return from Worlds, I think programming will step back focus on cleans for the longcycle and swings for snatch.
I’ve been really trying to absorb what others have to say about the rack position for one arm long cycle (OALC), as I use to rest the bell on my chest and have quite the lean. But if I want to move up to 20kg and 24 kg bell I can’t have that weight resting on my chest as it taxes me before 10 minutes is up. So I am really trying to work on getting my elbow into the hip crease and using my hips to bump out of the rack for the jerk. I still need to drop faster into the rack from fixation if I want to compete in jerks.
At the end of the workshop, we had a 10 minute set. My teammate Kendra Falkenberg did 200 rep with 16 kg bell. This girl is on fire!
I did a set of the 14kg and did 218 reps. I chose to go with a lighter bell and work on pacing, since I had lifted the 16kg the day before and I was in the middle of a stressful work schedule that was fatiguing me. I was very pleased with the set. Looking at the weekend, I think my whole team from Ballistic Strength Nanaimo should be very pleased with how it went. After the workshop, we stopped at Fairway, the grocery store to pick up lunch. Solly and I shared food from the hot counter. We got beef, beans, broccoli and noodles. Kendra picked up a turkey wrap. After we restored our energy it was time to head home. Done lifting for another weekend 🙂