Kettlebell ICT: Week 7

Weights used:

Session A

A1 Snatch 16kg
A2 Press 16kg

B1 Snatch 12kg
B2 Bottoms Up Goblet Squat 20kg

Session B

A1 Push Press 16kg
A2 Bottoms Up Goblet Squat 20g

B1 Push Press 16kg
B2 Supported Row 16kg

I've continued practicing the bottom's up variation of the goblet squat, as the squatting movement of choice for this ICT program. As Mark Wildman explains in this video, holding the kettlebell bottom's up allows the torso to lean slightly back. This helps prevent the torso from flexing forward, which is pretty bad for my injury-prone back.

For this week I increased the goblet squat weight from 16kg to 20kg. This made me feel like I was working a little harder in my goblet squat sets. I could probably increase the load again but I don't want to add risk to my lower back.

The other weight increase this week was a 12kg to 16kg change in load for the KB snatch. The 12kg KB was starting to feel a little light. Still, the 4kg change in load made Session A workouts wore me out more quickly. My execution got sloppier in the last couple of sets of the workout. However I never felt in danger of losing control of the KB or my balance.

I bought a $7 kitchen timer. I had been using the Clock app on mya= smartphone to time my conditioning sets. My issue with using the app was that I occasionially set the timer without tapping the onscreen button to start the timer. The physical buttons on the cheap kitchen timer feel more reassuring than the phone's touchscreen. I can feel the start button get pressed on the kitchen timer, which eliminates the distraction of wondering if I actually started the timer as I'm practicing snatches or push presses.