Getting Back into the Swing of My Kettlebell Workouts

Today was the second day back to workouts following my sedentary vacay in the tropics. Somewhere over the past few months a bit of wisdom spontaneously developed in my head, and it is this: don't go full tilt with workouts after being away for an extended period.

It may seem obvious to some, but for me—who was raised to believe that if an activity didn't nearly kill you, you probably didn't try hard enough—this was an epiphany.

Let's rewind. Why was I coming off an extended time away from my workouts? Because I screwed up (that's the technical term) my back. I ended  up going to physical therapy (which did little to solve the problem) and then, before I was truly healed, I returned to kettlebells and did more damage.

KBs aren't inherently bad for your back if you have proper technique and mobility (neither of which I possessed), but they certainly can exacerbate imbalances and lead to disaster.

Let's rewind to this past summer, to the Bed Making Incident. The BMI happened one morning when I was making the bed (if you don't make your bed, you should be ashamed! ashamed, I say). I was drawing a blanket up to the head of the bed, and leaned over and suddenly I was writhing on the floor going, "ahauahahauaha!" I might also have said "gosh darn it."

After five minutes of slow, agonizing effort, I managed to get onto the bed and onto my back. What followed was painkillers (that didn't really work), anti-inflammatory pills (that did nothing except make me feel vaguely stupid), and the aforementioned PT.

By and by I recovered, but never to 100% pain freedom. Until I got an inversion table. Five days of periodically hanging upside down on that thing got me to 98% better. And now I think I'm 99.999%. I think the last .001% is physiological. It's actually quite a miracle, since I was somewhat skeptical that it would make a difference.

So now I'm back to my kettlebell workouts and I'm thinking, I'm going to kill it in the gym!

But no, I'm being cautious, focusing on my form, and doing about half the volume and weight I probably could do. I'm going to ease my way into it over the next month. I hope never to have another Bed Making Incident, or any other incident. #kettlebelltraining  

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