Focus On Quality With These Three

I have nothing against Cross Fit per se or other kettlebell methodologies either. Here's what leaves me scratching my head. Why count reps that aren't in good form? At best, poor form isn't your intent and at worst, it leads to injury and the related down time. The late, great John Wooden once said, "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you?"

I try to always target prescribed form so that I get the most out of each movement with the least risk of injury. That seems reasonable to me.

Today, I worked on three different calisthenics. The Turkish Get Up. The tactical pull up and the bodyweight one-legged pistol. Down correctly, each exercise is safe and extremely effective. I used all of my body and did three things. Simple is nice.

The Turkish Get Up may be my favorite kettlebell exercise. The essence of the movement is that you get the kettlebell from the ground to over head. It requires 7 specific coordinated movements under muscular tension to perfect it and get the full benefit. Any asymmetries or weakness will be exposed.

The one-legged pistol is an amazing movement that requires strength, balance and flexibility. I love doing them because they once were inconceivable to me. I couldn't do them as my flexibility was terrible, my strength was mediocre and my balance was just OK. Here is a nice tutorial on one-legged body weight squats, better known as the pistol.

Finally, I did tactical pull ups or thumbless, overhand pull ups. These require that you start and finish with a dead hang with a pause. No using hips to help! A found an article a few weeks ago that should really help the men. Here's one for ladies. Yes you can train yourself to do them!

I did 10 rounds today. Each round was 2 Turkish get ups on each side followed by 2 pistols each side and then finally 3 pull ups. Total was 110 reps and my time was 43 minutes and I burned 594 calories. These were real reps. Strict and safe form.

Try it out!

Sandy Sommer, RKC