Just completely kicked my ass. Well, it actually kicked my ass about 36 hours ago, but it's the gift that keeps on giving. It's called a kettlebell, by the way, just in case you haven't seen one before.
I wanted to incorporate some type of muscle building resistance training into my routine. I've done free weights in the past, but haven't been all that excited at the thought of weightlifting as I had done in past attempts to get fit.
I read some article somewhere about these things and became intrigued. When used with proper technique, it's suppose to strengthen your core. I've never really worked the core muscles before, only the "showy" ones like biceps, triceps, shoulders, etc...so I thought it might be worth a try. I enjoy golf, and I've heard that strengthening your core can really help your game.
So off to Amazon I went. After a bit of research, I purchased the above kettlebell and this book:
They arrived promptly within 2 days (gotta love Amazon Prime), and for the next 12 months it made an excellent 16 kg doorstop. I really wish I had taken a pic of what it looked like after I lugged it out to use it yesterday. The layer of dust that had formed on it was beyond impressive.
After looking through the book and watching some demonstration videos online, I figured it was now or never. The guy in the book recommends you start with something called the "russian swing", and master that before you go any farther. I'm certainly not fit enough for timed interval training, so I just did 5 sets of 16 russian swings. I took about a minute or so rest in between each set, and the whole thing probably took 10 to 15 minutes.
It definitely worked some muscles I wasn't used to pushing, and it was a good cardio workout as well. In fact, I tried to do my 30 minutes on the elliptical right after, and wasn't able to quite get through it all.
When I got into bed last night, I remember feeling that "good sore" you get with a new exercise.
When I got out of bed this morning I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm a little more sore than I realized".
By about 3:00 today the shit started getting real, pants-crappingly real. Actually, crapping my pants right now would hurt way too much.
I mentioned to a fitness-knowledgeable friend at work what I had done and he said, "Yeah, you 'shocked your core'. It's going to get worse before it gets better, but you should be fine by about Wednesday or Thursday".
He's right, it got worse, but I think I've reached a "pain plateau". Getting up and sitting down hurts the worst, but not much else - I was actually able to do my 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. I did let out an unexpected shriek of pain when I got up from the dinner table though, to the delight of the rest of the family.
I'm sticking with it, however. It will be interesting to experience what it feels like to have a "strong core" when this starts to pay off. Building muscle should also help my metabolism and speed up the fat loss.
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