Fitness - Military Press - Kettle Bell Work - 9/15

My glutes were pretty sore this morning from all of yesterday's front squats. I expected my traps, shoulders and upper back to be sore from the cleans but they felt fine. Which was good because today was a ton of shoulder work. We started off with a focus of military (strict) press then hit up the WOD.

Focus: 5x3, cross sets military press
1x3 - 60 Kg (132.3#)
4x3 - 75 Kg (165.3#)

This is an improvement for me. Last time we did strict press I used 70 Kg and it was a battle. I chose this weight today expecting to fail on the last rep for sets 4 and 5. But my shoulders felt really strong this morning and i pushed through all sets. Next time I still want to chose a weight I know I'll fail at so I think I'll give 80 Kg a try.

WOD: 10 reps down to 1 rep, 24 Kg kettle bell
10 Kettle bell snatches/goblet squats
9 Kettle bell snatches/goblet squats
8 Kettle bell snatches/goblet squats
Etc. down to 1

Time: 8:11
Calories burned (Focus & WOD only): 390
Calories burned (bike to gym, focus & WOD, bike to work): 996

I must first say that this was not 10, 9, 8, etc. each arm. It was just total. So to think about it a little differently, 55 reps. You could break it up between each side however you wanted to.

I chose to not see it as sets of 10 down to 1 and took it as 55 reps, switching arms every 5 reps. I got to 20 (2 sets of 5 each arm) before I had to set it down and take a break. Then I could only get one set of five each arm before having to take another quick breather. I found that if i tried to go beyond 5 reps, my form completely broke down.

Not only the KB snatch but the goblet squat was the killer. After each KB snatch we to perform a goblet squat. Which is pretty much a squat while holding the KB in front of your chest (like you're about to chest pass it). To do this you after the snatch you let the KB come back down, go into the back swing and one the upswing pop your hips and shrug up (like the first half of a clean) and then just catch it in front of your chest with the other hand.

This WOD although done relatively fast, felt like a ton of work. I could feel that when I got tired I wasted a lot of time and energy recovering or stabilizing from KB snatches that got away from me a little bit. Also controlling it on the way down to bring back up for the goblet squat got increasingly difficult. The kettle bell snatch is kind of an awkward move anyway. It takes a lot of practice to get fluid with kettle bells and I'm a ways away from that point. But, it gives me something to look forward to improving upon. I would say the most important thing when doing KB snatches is to get a good solid jump. It's something I routinely forget about doing which also causes me to waste a lot of energy.

Needless to say, I was glad when this one was over.