Four Weeks Out: First Kettlebell Session Since My Back Injury

It’s been about 4 weeks since I injured my lower back and this is my first real kettlebell session since.

Ironically, I injured my back only a few short days after I entered into this summer’s Northern California Open event in the 10 minutes Double Half-Snatch, Legends category (the Legends category is for over 60’s).

For me, at my current weight, this puts me in the Super-Heavyweight category, which means to achieve Rank III, I need to do 104 reps in the 10 minutes (10.4 reps/minute on average).

117 reps are required to achieve Rank II, and 130 reps to achieve Rank I. For those mathematically challenged, that’s 11.7 and 13.0 reps per minute for Ranks II and I, respectively.

As you can no doubt imagine, achieving Rank III is a solid challenge in itself.​

5 Weeks Away

Though injuries can’t ever come at a good time, this one was particularly inopportune as it occured only a few days after I signed up for the event.

However, we can only do what we can do, and one of the things I like about the Kettlebell Word events is, if necessary, they allow you to defer your entry for their next event.

But in the words of a popular English game-show catchphrase (the name of which escapes me):

“We don’t wanna do that!”

So, lots to do between now and the end of next month. (I think the last date for online entries is 31st July.)

Given I’ve done my back in about 10 times this year, I don’t want to push it too far at this stage, so need to keep it light.

As such, 2 x 8kg bells it is for today (this is 2/3 of my 12 kg competition weight).

My goal over the next week is to build endurance and try to achieve a full 10-minutes set by either the end of next weekend, or as soon as I can after.

Assuming all goes well, then I can determine whether or not achieving a rank next month is realistic. ​