Kettlebell Hell: A Recap

Have you ever heard the saying, "Careful what you wish for...you just might get it."?? Well, this was kind of my situation today and it has to do with the personal goal I set up for this week for the SSSDC. Some of you may recall that on Sunday I wrote that in order to meet this week's challenge of tackling a new piece of equipment or fitness activity, I had two specific things in mind. First, I said I would try the Jacob's Ladder which looks like this:

I bypassed this today, but I'm tackling this scary beast later this week.

I also said I would take on a workout that involved kettlebells, which believe it or not, I have been dying to try (and no, I'm not a sadist - or at least I don't think I am).

Today was my scheduled training session so I thought at the very least I'd ask my trainer, Linda, if she could show me a few quick moves with the kettlebells so I could work out with them later this week on my own without feeling like a complete moron, or end up being carried out of the gym on a stretcher. She quickly jumped on it, asking me if I wanted to do a full body kettlebell routine today. With some minor trepidation and sweat instantaneously forming on my brow, I sheepishly said, "Sure, why not?"

Why not, indeed.

If I didn't require the use of my limbs for the rest of the day and could lie perfectly still, I'd probably be OK - but seeing as we are having a party here on Friday and I have much physical movement that my body is required to do to get this place in tip-top shape,  the fact that my body feels battered to hell isn't cool at the moment. And if I feel this beat-up today, I can only imagine how I'll feel tomorrow....

Let me show you the workout and you can be the judge of whether or not I am a major wuss.....

It started out simple - 10 lb kettlebells in each hand, stepping onto and off of a two step platform. 3 sets of 12 reps of each leg. Sounds simple enough, no? My heart rate shot to 166 almost right out of the gate...I heard voices in my head screaming, "Damn girl - you are in bad shape."

My next move was a curl and press with 10 lb kettlebells in each hand. 3 sets of 15 reps. Not awful but the last few had me grunting like a warthog.
It looked alot like this, except with much more sweat:

If I only knew what was coming after this, I would have fled the gym screaming...

Then, it really got fun! (bonus points to you if you sensed a bit of snark in that comment).....
She had me do that infamous kettlebell swing motion that I THOUGHT looked so "fun" when I saw others doing it....Turns out - it's hard as shit. Not fun. It also didn't help that she upped the weight to 20 lbs for this move and I had to swing it 60, that's right, 60 times. Yeah, I wasn't happy about it either.
The move looks like this:

Harder than it looks.....like, I mean, REALLY harder than it looks.

The next move made me feel like a contestant on the Biggest Loser...I swear - the sweat was just dripping off of me in what felt like rivers, and it was splashing on the mat in front of me. Doing planks while lifting a 5 lb kettlebell above my head was not something I thought this body of mine was capable of doing....and yet - I did it (2 sets of 16 reps - each side), even if only for a short bit. I really felt my strength weakening at this point and about half way through I went from the toe position to my knees, so the core muscles were less engaged, but it was still by NO MEANS an easy move, no matter how you dice it.
It looked like this:

The move also known as: "I Never Thought In a Million Years I Could Do This"

 By this time, I thought we were finished (because my body was telling me I was ready to check out)...but NO - we had one last move and that was the kettelbell row - not to be confused with Deathrow - which I sort of felt like I was on at that moment. 15 lb kettelebells, 2 sets of 15 reps.
It looked like this:

"Are we done yet???"

 And so there you have it. Goal #1 has been met and now I just have to climb that crazy looking Jacob's Ladder. And seriously, for all of my whining in this post about the difficulty of my kettlebell workout - you know what? I'd do it again! Yes, it was hard, but being fat is harder and this workout really worked so many muscles - I feel like it really gave me a lot of bang for my buck, so to speak.
All told, my HRM said I burned 193 calories in 30 minutes. Not bad!

Oh, and just so you know I'm committed (or is that, should BE committed?) I also completed 30 mins on the elliptical after my workout, jello legs and all, because maybe, just maybe, I am a total sadist afterall....

How is everyone else doing with the challenge? Can't wait to check in with you all and see what fun stuff you have tackled this week!

Until then,
Sweat on, my friends!