The half-kneeling kettlebell windmill

This is a new variation on the kettlebell windmill exercise. Sometimes I have problems with a standing windmill when creating too much torque or an improper twisting motion and not being as stable as I should be while moving on on my feet. Mitch Hauschildt of Maximum Training Solutions, discusses the 1/2 kneeling windmill as an alternative in the first part of a 3 part series on this dynamic and effective movement that forces mobility with stability. The first two parts are below. The third video has not been uploaded. These are good for hip and lower back problems, so grab a kettlebell and see how these work for you.





I see that Pavel Tsatsouline has a new kettlebell ebook out today: Kettlebell - Simple & Sinister. Pavel narrows down the kettlebell experience to two moves: the swing and the get-up and when you think of kettlebells you think of Pavel. I have been getting back into kettlebells and have been thinking of making December a 10,000 swing challenge month, something I accomplished once back in April of 2011. Another interesting kettlebell ebook comes from Sean Schniederjan,  The Missing Manual - Precise Kettlebell Mechanics for Power and Longevity (Simple Strength). Sean's ebooks are usually very simple and precise about what you need to do to be move properly.

A Training Week (almost)

I am getting hopeful that I can get back to training and running a bit more consistently. This week had its up and downs, but I still got in more day and miles of running this week then I have since November when I got a cortisone shot in my hip.

Sunday I ran on the treadmill, where I have been doing all my running, so I can stop if necessary. Things were going good. I hit three miles and I started hoping I could make 5 miles. At 4 miles, I felt a pinching feeling in the front of my hip and immediately stopped. Two days later I tried again and did 5 miles with no problems. Friday I tried for another 5 miler, but had to stop at 3 miles.

I have also been working on kettlebell swings. I have been playing around with kettlebells for a few years, but the swing used to hurt my left hip and that was only when doing about 25 swings. With the physical therapy on my hip, I found out I could swing more and had got up to 500 swings with my 35 pound kettlebell. I was doing intervals of about 75-100 swings at a time. A couple of weeks ago I got a 50 pound kettlebell, but the most I had done with it was 100 swings. I had a goal to do 1000 some day, but never made the time.

Friday I got a DVD by Tracy Reifkind called Programming the Kettlebell Swing. In it she tells how to break down the kettlebell swing into shorter on-off intervals. I only watched a bit of it before I decided to follow a similar plan. I cut the swings down to 10 in an interval, but later bumped it up to 25 with a 15 second break and a longer break after each 100 swings. I started swinging away to see how many I could do, when I hit 200 I decided that it was time to go for the 1000 swings using the 50 pound bell. I also felt that this would tire me out sufficiently so that I wouldn't attempt the snowshoe race the next day. They felt good, and despite the start of some blisters on my hands, I kept good form; actually I think I was developing better form as I went. Let me tell you, the heart rate really races and the breathing gets heavier when performing the swing. It was the closest I have come in months in getting that heart rate up for an extended time. I was very pleased when I finally hit 1000 swings! It was like doing a long run for the first time, when you aren't sure if you can pull it off: gratifying.

The next day, I felt real good. My hips felt nice! By afternoon time, I decided it was time to try running outside again. The last time I did an 8 miler was back in November. The cortisone shot I had earlier in that week had worn off, and I ended up stopping at the halfway point and had to slowly walk home in the cold as I could barely lift and move my left leg forward.

This time I decided to bring my wife's phone in case my hip hurt so she could pick me up. At first I felt good. By 2 miles, the front of the hip wasn't right, but I kept playing around with my form. At the halfway point, I stopped and took out the phone to make a call for help. Unfortunately the phone was not charged and so I had another long cold 4 mile walk home. At least I could walk faster this time than in November. However, last night I noticed, I could barely lift my left knee up when lying on my back, and in the morning, I couldn't lift the leg up without my hand assisting and walking is a bit difficult. That hip flexor is really sore.


By the way Tracy Reifkind is and her kettlebell swing is featured in Tim Ferris' book The 4-Hour Body with her story of weight loss and the kettlebell swing. I have been doing the slow-carb diet as highlighted in the book for about 6 weeks now. I eat eggs and frozen veggies in the morning, grilled chicken, lentils, and more veggies at noon, and steak, beans, and veggies at night 6 days a week. The 7th day is a cheat day and I eat as I want. I feel healthy and energetic on the diet. Everything is going well, except I just can't get the running going.

Mobility Workout of the Day: Tight IT Band and Hip Flexor Fix for Runners

Kelly Starrett of www.sanfranciscocrossfit.com has a blog called MobilityWod (Mobility Workout of the Day). I was checking it out last summer and lost track of it (it is now listed on my blog list to the left). Today I was browsing through the Competitor network and saw an article by T. J. Murphy: Burning Runner: The Road to Injury Free Running Starts Now that referenced the blog and checked it out again. It is worth a good look and might be something to add to your daily practice.

I particularly liked the January 11 Mobility exercise. It was just what I needed. It is the tight IT Band- Hip flexor Fix for Runners seen here:




The only interesting thing the previous PT (not where I am going now at Athletes Treating Athletes) I saw  was the traditional hip flexor stretch with a twist. He had me angle my leg out into internal rotation so as to stretch the hip flexor. This video show a similar stretch, but with more background information and a longer stretch with props.

He uses this to clean up the junk and tightness around the hip capsule, just where I have been tight all week (which has been a minor disappointment). It feels good to do this one!

Physical Therapy had been going great. I have been in 5 times now.  Last week, I finally got into double digits for running mileage for the first time since mid November. I know 12 miles is not much, but I am being conservative. My left leg is straightening out and a lot of my muscle pain and tightness is disappearing. I even got out on the roads for two 3.5 mile runs on Friday and Saturday. While my leg pains are disappearing, it is very clear that my SI joint is now flaring up (or the source of all this non-sense). I could have run further on those two days, except that I could feel that SI joint every step. The good news was that my muscles and other pains did not return after both runs. I thought things were going good, but after PT on Monday, I tried running on the treadmill and the SI joint forced me to stop at one mile. I have had my old imbalances back since them and haven't run since.

So the goal is to find out what is up with the SI joint. The interesting thing is this is the same place I started having my back problems with, back in the 1980's, so maybe as I fix everything else the source of all the pain is returning. Today I had a checkup with the physiatrist and  he suggests getting a cortizone shot in the SI joint and then having someone do joint manipulations on that joint. So that will be the next step in the process. Hopefully I get fixed up at PT tomorrow, because I am itching to return to the Feels Good Farm Snowshoe race I did two years ago.  It was quite a challenge back then plus my hips were very off in that race. If my hips are fine I plan to run it this year even though it is 5 miles (in the snow-up and down hills) and the longest I have run since mid November is 3.5 miles. It could be a good birthday challenge. If I don't feel good I will give myself a present of not running it, but I hope to be there at this years race.

Besides the PT,  I feel really good about two other things I am doing. I continue with the slow-carb diet (almost at three weeks now). Each day is easy and I am basically eating the same things. I start the day with 2-3 eggs and a bowl of spinach ( I know, yumm!!). Lunch is some grilled chicken, spinach, lentils, and mixed veggies (broccoli and cauliflower in particular). Dinner is a nice piece of steak, beans, and more veggies. I am full all day long and not eating any sugar, bread, pasta, rice, or ice cream and cookies. Saturdays are my day to eat whatever I want, but there was hardly any good junk left in the house last week to eat!

The physical therapy has left my left hip joint working so much better. In the past, if I tried 25 kettlebell swings, I might be sore the next day. I started about 10 days ago trying them again. I started with 75 and felt good as my hip doesn't' jam up after and am constantly increasing the amount I do. Now I do sets of 100. I did 400 swings a couple days ago. I think I need to get a heavier bell. I am using a 35 pounder and would like to get a 50 pounder.



Kelly Starrett's new book: