Kettlebell ICT: Week 11

My conditioning improved enough to let me do the presses immediately after the snatches, without taking a rest pause, for the first two supersets of my Session A workouts. I still needed to take rest pauses for the rest of that segment.

I'd been hanging from a pullup bar as part of my recovery routine with pronated grip. This week, I saw a video in which the coach recommended slow eccentric chinups (supinated grip) as part of his suggested routine for improving mobility for overhead press. I was still feeling a bit beat from the workout so instead of doing eccentric chinups I thought I'd try just hanging with a supinated grip. This has been an uncomfortable position for my shoulders in the past, but this time I felt fine. I don't know if the improved feeling in my shoulders has been the result of ICT itself, or the drills I've been doing to warm up for ICT and to recover from it - drills like KB arm bar, various t-spine mobility drills, etc.

Otherwise the weights were the same as last week. One more week to go!

Kettlebell ICT: Week 10

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

Focused more on leg drive in the Push Press. I'd been doing this exercise as more of a leg-assisted press, which I guess is ok, but I thought dialing up the leg drive would dial up the conditioning aspect. This did result in me breathing harder after each set, though snatch sets still feel harder.

One of the days after a Session B workout, I had unusual tightness in the side of a knee when I started a walk around the neighborhood. This was fixed by stretching in the bottom of an ATG split squat - just great all-around mobility drill for solving knee, hip, and ankle tighntess.

Bloopers included starting a Session B workout then realizing I forgot to bring up the 20kg KB for the squats... and doing extra sets of strict press in a Session A workout after the 5 min. break before realizing I was supposed to be squatting. At least I didn't hurt myself.
Bodyweight holding steady at 154 lbs, down from a pre-ICT weight of 161lbs.

Kettlebell ICT: Week 9

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

For each Snatch rep. I held the KB overhead for about 2 seconds before bringing the KB down to finish the rep. I felt that was what I had to do to get through a 60-second set. Presses immediately after the snatches were fine with the opposite arm, but I could only manage 4 reps on the same side arm before I had to take a rest pause.

Session B also got harder with the raise in conditioning set time and strength set reps, but not as demanding as Session A.

Bodyweight is 154 lbs, down from a pre-ICT weight of 161lbs.

Kettlebell ICT: Week 8

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

The Session A workout felt just as tough this week as it did last week when I increased the snatch weight

I felt more of a conditioning improvement in the Session B workouts. I was able to do 5 push press sets per arm, which was made possible by consistently resting less than 2 minutes between supersets.

Bodyweight is 152 lbs, down from a pre-ICT weight of 161lbs.