Welcome to primalburgher.com! Today’s blog post is about nothing…well, sort of nothing. After my intense trip to Florida training with some of the best people in the world of Kettlebells, I cam back to Pittsburgh for a session with my trainer, RKC II Kerry Swick, Of Pittsburgh Kettlebells. I had fueled myself up with a solid breakfast and pre-workout snack expecting to get into some hardcore HKC preparation workouts. unfortunately, I was soon reminded that my energy was just not up to par.
Gerenally speaking, I tend to not admit if I am feeling “off”, but this time I had to admit my feeling “off” was a bit more noticeable. I quickly told my trainer that after a long week of Kettlebell training, I really only had the energy to go over some basic drills. RKC II Kerry Swick took one look at me and said “Exactly when was the last time you took a week off?” My response of “I really can’t remember when I took a break” immediately cued her to assigning me a week of nothing. No workouts, not even a deload routine. A week of nothing but stretching, joint mobility, and some mild ab work.
A week off? SAY WHAT??!!?
I had written a blog post before of the necessity of deloading (in case you forgot, here’s the post). this week is different. I can honestly say that the level of soreness and fatigue I was feeling last week was…well, only comparable to the times I was training heavily for NCAA certified basketball camps (I once had recruiters after me too. Fun fact!). At first I thought I wasn’t eating right, but after reviewing my food logs, the only thing I can blame this on is jumping into a new level of demanding training, and my body decided to give me the proper cues to slow it all down (well, my body was more like “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO ME!?!?!”, so I am resting accordingly).
Now, I realize a lot of people in certain training protocols fear taking a week off for themselves. The thoughts of “I’m going to lose my strength” or “My muscles are going to waste away” or “I could pack on the pounds because of this” tend to flood people’s minds when taking a week off is presented. Allow me to get personal here. This very issue of losing strength was the first thing my trainer brought to my attention. In fact, I will quote her verbatim on this issue (this should also give you an idea of how brutally honest RKC II Kerry Swick is in real life. Fabulous woman though! Love her to death!) And I quote: “Don’t think stopping your training is going to make you lose your muscle mass and blow up ten pounds. Get those thoughts out of your head NOW! You need to rest, recover, and eat right this week because starting next week, you’ll only going to get stronger with your new routines. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.”
You have to love Kerry’s brutal honesty, and she’s spot on with this. I know I don’t want to be in a state where I feel overtrained (I have overtrained before with kettlebells, and well, both times were terrible experiences that I DO NOT want to relive again). Also, looks like the science of bodybuilding wins the day again as a week off training actually helps REPAIR and BUILD your muscle mass. Don’t believe me? Check out this article here and be sure to cross reference that article with this article.
Now, moving right along, I want to go into a quick ab strengthening routine my trainer gave me to work on some core stability/core strength issues I am having at the moment (in short, I am just not happy with my core strength. Time to amplify it). This routine is challenging, but not incredibly strenuous or demanding as a hardcore workout. It fits in perfectly with a week of nothingness in my opinion. Check out my video of hanging leg raises below!
Yes, my abs are still burning from this. Believe me, yours will burn just the same!
That about does it for me today guys! Remember to always eat smart, train hard, and enjoy your life!
Love Always,
Janelle
