Today was a daddy daycare day and I needed to go to the grocery store. Kroger is 1.7 miles away from us, so I decided to take Avi for a walk in the Bob Revolution.

Guessing total distance was four miles including walking around Kroger.

Why include this? I see it as low-level activity for one. For another, I’m trying to implement a sort of LeanGains-inspired strategy, which is daily fasts broken in early afternoon, say 2 pm, and begun nightly no later than 10pm. Furthermore, on weight-lifting days, I eat more than on low-intensity days. Thus, yesterday I didn’t break my fast until maybe 6 or 6:30 when I had a couple glasses of Kombucha Tea. Dinner was grilled chicken over field greens, mandarin oranges, blueberries, strawberries, feta, and a citrus-y zesty Italian dressing. Had some bourbon after and that was it. I’d guess total caloric load last night was no more than 700 calories.

It was kinda strange b/c I noticed some appetite suppression after dinner, which is unusual. I often feel or want to eat something else after dinner, but I didn’t have that urge last night.

I did wake up around 4am, which is something that only seems to happen when I’ve been restricting calories a good bit, so that was surprising.

We’ll see how this goes – weight right now is 174ish by the way.

Finally got a chance to check out the Lullwater Park trail that I had heard about via Serious Running. I wore Injinjis and KSOs for the run. Not quite sure how far I ran, but it was about 35 minutes of running. Felt nice to run alongside both a pond and a creek and, of course, through the woods. I stopped at one point for about 15 minutes (not counting that in my time) and climbed a couple trees by the pond. One of the trees was this fantastic Magnolia, which I just bounded up 15 feet without even thinking about it. What a good feeling.

On return I was about to head up and decided to do a pull-up on the back of our 2nd story deck stairwell (as in, I’m on the ground underneath the deck, using the stairsteps as a pull-up bar). For no reason at all, I suddenly started “climbing” the stairs with my arms.

Ah nothing like spur of the moment workouts. Working out should be fun – not just reps and punishment.

photo credit: kimdokhac

In continuing with my 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge (up to 3,462528 at the moment, but should be at 3,663 by EOD), I’ve been contemplating the motion used in the kettlebell swing. To visualize this (and two styles of swing, at that), check out this YouTube video:

Note that the power in kettlebell swings comes from the lower-body with the upper-body acting to stabilize the weight.

Now watch this guy go at it on a rowing machine:

Obviously there are some key differences between these two forms of exercise. What I’m more interested in are the similarities: the intensity and driving force emanating from the lower body and the lesser-used stabilization/capping off motion of the upper-body.

And of course, perhaps the biggest difference is that a Concept II Rowing Machine is going to set you back a grand whereas the most expensive 35 lb. kettlebell is going to be no more than a hundred bucks. Plus kettlebells have no moving parts and can be used for a ton of other exercises.

I am curious if any rowers out there are actively training with kettlebells in addition to their regular rowing practice or in lieu of increased training on a rowing machine. I’d be particularly interested to hear their thoughts on the similarities or dissimilarities between the two forms of exercise and if they’ve seen any overlapping skills emerge from cross-training between rowing and swings.