Monday a few members chose to use the glute ham developers but since we cannot currently share equipment it was only 3 people per class.  As we’re all just getting back at it, most of us scaled the kettlebell load and mixed up GHD’s with V-Ups.  Most of us except Hard Rock who did the whole thing RX’d and finished under 25 minutes too #TotalBeast!

SLIPS & Shoulder Press
The beach would have been my preferred location for SLIPS and shoulder press but the rain was coming down too hard to make that a viable choice unless I was willing to risk some real slips and falls.  Since I was in the gym I had the option to mess around a bit and get some refreshing variety.

After my stretching I did L-raises hanging from the pull up bar which allowed me to work on my hanging strength while developing my L-strength.  I did 10 reps every minute on the minute for 4 minutes which proved adequately challenging but not crushing.

With so much crow pose practice recently, I decided to take my inversions a step further into the headstand which Coen found very entertaining.  And to be honest, so did I.

Planks I practiced on the rings to add in some instability for shoulder development.  Bored in the centre plank I added in some arm circles to help pass the time.  I didn’t add anything new to the scales.

For shoulder presses I was recently inspired by Zach Blaine who at 158lbs has a video online doing kettlebell bottoms up shoulder presses for reps with 2 pood kettlebells in each hand!  The grip strength and shoulder stability required to do that is incredible.  I decided to try it with half pood (pink) kettlebells first.  When that went well, I advanced to 10kg and then 12kg blue kettlebells but was not yet able to do more than a single rep with the yellow (1 pood) kettlebell.

It dramatically changes the workout.  Instead of developing absolute strength as you would with a barbell, it forces focus on developing grip strength and shoulder stability, two things that might be holding you back or predisposing you to injury in your shoulder press.  This is not an argument for replacing the barbell, just an observation of the complementary nature of different approaches to strength development.  It’s good to mix it up from time to time and play with variations to develop 360 degree strength.

Warm Up: SLIPS
4 mins Stretching
1 min Scap Rock
1 min Scap Rotations
1 min Scap Retratctions
1 min OS Push Ups
4 mins L-Raise EMOM
From seated or hanging
4 mins Inversions
Crow pose or Headstand hold
4 mins Plank
Ring Shoulder Circles and Figure 8’s or
1 min each, centre, left side, right side, centre
4 mins Scales

Tech
Dumbbell/barbell/kettlebell Shoulder Press
Clean

WOD
Shoulder Press
3-3-3-3-3-3-3

Cool Down
Shoulder Pass Throughs
Muscle Balancing:
20x Roll shoulders Forward/Back
15x Shoulder side raises
30x Shoulder Circles forward/backward
10x Overhead shoulder raises
Fingers interlaced, press palms overhead