Four Weeks to Go: Time to Commit to the 12 kg Bells

Not much to report after last week’s aborted training session (that’s life, I guess).

I was hoping to get back to it yesterday, but it wasn’t to be.

By the time we’d finished running around for the day and got home, my two new exercise mats had arrived. Rather than train, I decided to clean up after the dogs and get the mats laid down properly.

Flying Magnets

I’m in several kettlebell and fitness-related groups on Skool and elsewhere, and in one of them, three people have either lost control of their kettlebell (one instance) or had the weighted magnet attached to it come loose, fly off and smash something (two instances).

If you’re not familiar with weighted magnets, they’re a relatively inexpensive way of increasing the weight of a kettlebell. Rather than buying another bell, many people buy a 1 kg or 2 kg magnetic attachment instead. It gives them more weight options while helping keep the cost down.

The idea, of course, is that the magnets stay attached!

Neither situation is good, of course, and there was damage to mirrors in the magnet-cases, and pride in the first instance (it happens; I think most kettlebell practitioners will have lost grip or control of a bell at some time or another). For me, though I have dropped a 10 kg bell before, it was outside on the concrete so no real harm done.

If I lose control indoors, it’s probably going to be one of our floor tiles that pays the price. And given the saga we had finding those tiles when we built the house, I’d rather avoid that.

As such, a 50cm extension from these new mats might make all the difference should the above happen.

The other bonus is this extension puts me right under the air-con unit so I can get full blast should I need it! 😀

But I digress…

My Training Plan Has Changed Again

Before today’s session, I revisted my training plan again.

I’d like to say I know what I’m doing here but, in all honesty, I have about 4 trains of thought going on and am unsure of which one will work best for me and is the one worth sticking to.

My 4 Options

• Option 1 – Time before weight: If I follow this, it means sticking with the 10 kg bells and work up to a 10-minute session at something like either 8 rpm, which is very slow, or 10 rpm, which is both more manageable and beneficial.
• Option 2 – Follow Peter Forneck’s programme but move to 12kg bells: At this stage, this slots in kinda nicely with the competition 4+ weeks away. However, given the short duration, I feel I need to step-up to 12 kg now. As much as I’d like to think I have the strength and endurance to muscle my way through this, coming back from injury and only working with 8kg bells means 12 kgs are heavy for me and a struggle now. The risk here is if I delay any longer, then I’m leaving it too much of a chance to effectively compete.
• Option 3 – Skip straight to 14 kg: Potentially useful psychologically, this means skipping the 12 kg bells and go up to 14 kg bells. The idea here is that after 14kgs, I’ll be dropping to a lighter bell, which’ll seem easier. However, the main risk here is injury and damaging something at this stage means there’s no chance of enough recovery time. This also goes against option 1 of time and reps before weight (and is probably the worst option here).
• Option 4 – Defer until February 2027. Play it safe and defer ‘the competition until February’til next year. The rules states that if you’ve paid and can’t compete then you can defer until the next competition, which is really generous of them.

As I see it, those are/were my options.

I decided on option 2.

In the end, I chose Option 2. I’m competing in the 12 kg Legends category and, much as I’d love another couple of weeks with the 10 kg bells, I simply don’t have that luxury.

Assuming everything goes to plan, I think Rank III (104 reps) is achievable.

Moreover, assuming nothing untoward occurs, I’m thinking Rank III, which is 104 reps, is [perhaps] doable for me.

Admittedly, at the moment, even a 5-minutes session with 2 x 12 kg bells seems a way away, but I do have a month to go and let’s face it, if it was easy everyone would do it.

That’s what I’m hoping for. That’s the plan.

Here’s how today’s session went:

Today’s Session – 1′ work, 1′ rest x 5 (12 kg)

I had a little mishap with my back support at the start, so had to reset the timer. I found this very difficult today. The last set especially, where my left bicep was giving me gyp!

It wasn’t pretty, but it got done. That’s one session in the bank, and with four weeks to go, that’s what matters.