The Art of the Callus

Today's workout was the Kettle Bell 15:15 Protocol (15 secs of snatches followed by 15 secs of resting, then switching hands) followed by Tony Horton's 1 on 1 Killer Abs. And, let me say, it was a great work out. I owe the discovery of this one to the fitness king Mike French. Mike's about 10 years younger than me and a true specimen of the extreme. He eats right, pushes himself to the limit on every work out, and makes a living out of being a fitness coach along with his wife. They've both made cameo's in Beachbody's series of infomercials as well as won monthly awards for being pure case studies on what the program can do for you.

I on the other hand, just want to push myself enough to keep moving forward. I've never been good at sitting still, so its up or down for me, and up feels so much better.

Mike sets the bar high, and I feebly try to keep up. His personal best after a few tries at this work out was 64 sets of 7 reps with a 44lb kettle bell....or 32 minutes to lift 2,816 lbs over his head. I've attempted to keep up before and realize that I'm not going to, but I still try. His thoughts on the program about the fear (paraphrasing here) that hits him prior to the work out and the nauseousness that follows had me more than a little intimidated. Plus, I had my 35lb kettle bell out on loan, which is where, as he advised, any sensible/smart person would start. Not me though, noooo, I had to go for the big 53lber. I figured I outweigh Mike by a good 40 lbs of muscle (okay I'm taller with bigger bones) so I may not be able to keep up on the cardio side, but it would be a real hit to my ego to go lighter. Proving someone wrong one has to be the one of the greatest pleasures in life, especially since I've cut ice cream and beer out of my diet (mostly).

So I started out with the help of my 7yr old daughter writing down each set. Now, I have absolutely no idea how Mike gets 7 reps in 15 secs, I instead quickly settled into 5 reps per set, which seemed like I was rushing to complete in 15 secs. Let me say that 15 secs of resting only seems long for the 1st two sets. Around the tenth set on each side or set 20, I got one of those side cramps that was annoying but not game ending. I was able to push though to set 40, and I truly believe I could have made it to 60, but the calluses started to tear. Actually, I think it is really blisters under the calluses. My daughter even said "what is that noise?" All is good, I didn't let the ego push me into a sidelining injury....and there are those that know me who are probably surprised at that. Yes, I am getting wiser in my old age.

So it's now time to repair those calluses. In the old days, I would just let the blisters underneath dry, and then peal away the skin. The best remedy is to now apply some high quality lotion like corn huskers or whatever my wife has in stock and then tomorrow morning take the bunion scraper that looks like a small cheese grater to them. Avoiding the dishonor of weight lifting gloves at all cost!

I'd also like to thank Mark Sisson for his work on the Primal Blueprint. I'm loving the diet high in fruits, vegatables, and meat. I'm not sure how far I go into the evolution theory behind the diet, but I will say it works!