Tuesday training - snatch-O-rama

It's Tuesday. It's training day! It's insanely busy at work and I have to run out at the very last possible minute to sprint to the train and take the long way to the subway because they are doing so much construction and there is only one entrance for the entire city of Manhattan to enter and exit and the subway cars are still blasting heat so we're all melting and turning into crotchety old New Yorkers.

Where was I? Oh yes, training day. I managed to make it on time despite the odds, and I forgot I had packed my islanders shirt today of all days. We may have lost, but I think we did a damn good job this season

Aaaanyways, we punched in and Jason promptly handed me the jumprope. Before he could tell me how long to go,I said to just stop me when time's up. And off I jumped, blissfully ignorant of my surroundings. And sure enough eventually he told me to stop and it was the best jump roping stretch I've ever done. It was only three minutes, but I made it the whole time without tripping!

Then onto dynamic walking warmup, and then full on into kettlebells. I had the big fancy bells today. The ones that look huge but are really only 12kg.  We started with a not-so-simple warmup set (grace period is officially over): swings to cleans to press to squats. 10 per arm, no stopping. Three times. With a minute jumprope between sets

Then, we pulled out the Bulgarian bag for spins, and back to the bell for clean and jerks 

Then for our last part of the session we did a 'snatch-o-rama' which was as insane as it sounds. Basically nonstop snatches in varying forms. First power snatch with the bag, then with the bell snatch WITH reverse lunge (ugh!), and ending with a new thing, with one bell you hold the handle pointing straight out with both hands - like you're golfing - then swing it up as you simultaneously squat. For once this was something that looked insane but was actually really easy to catch on.

I'm sure there must have been more stuff in there but my brain is really mushy after a day like today. All I know is that I ended on clean and jerks with TWO bells, and Jason slipped out a secret tip to help fit these massive bells between my stubby little legs during the down swing: as you drop the bells out of the rack, step your  foot wider and the bells fall right through, then on the clean, step back and you're ready to jerk. MAJOR GAME CHANGER people. Huge. It didn't make the jerks any less pathetic and agonizing by the last rep, but at least I can swing the stupid bells now.

Progress!  And overall I'm starting to feel so much better. Less blobby, starting to get leaner. It's all diet (which still could use some improvement), and I'm starting to feel my strength coming back to boot.

We had time for stretching (huzzah), and now I'm off to shower and sleeeeep