Back when I bought my first kettlebell, I was horrible at executing the snatch. I used to get bruised up forearms, sore wrists and callouses that would tear anytime I really tried to push myself.
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It wasn't until 4 years ago that I properly learned how to snatch a kettlebell (NOTE: it's nothing like snatching an Olympic bar or even a dumbbell). I was at a conference and had been speaking to a KB expert over email for a few months. We finally got a chance to meet face to face. He grilled me with questions about being a parent (I only had 3 kids at the time) and then I peppered him with questions about kettlebells and exercise technique.
Fast forward 4 years and I haven't had a bruised forearm or sore wrists since. (Although the callouses are still there, but my hands are a lot tougher!).
New York is a meeting place for every race in the world, but the Chinese, Armenians, Russians, and Germans remain foreigners. So does everyone except the blacks. There is no doubt but that the blacks exercise great influence in North America, and, no matter what anyone says, they are the most delicate, spiritual element in that world.
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)
The snatch is one of - if not, the BEST - exercise you can perform with a kettlebell. If you don't know how to do it properly, I suggest you learn it because it is a tool in your exercise arsenal that you will constantly come back to.
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So the good news is that I didn't slip a disc - I can be a bit of a hypochondriac sometimes - and I just strained my psoas. I went to see my good friend, Dr. Bill Wells over at the Urban Athlete in Toronto and he fixed me right up.
If you're ever in need of a chiropractor in the Toronto area, I strongly suggest you visit The UA. Their chiro team is second to none and the beauty about it is that they're all athletes or former athletes (Bill's an ultra-endurance athlete, they've got a few practitioners who still compete as well and even a former Olympian).
The policy of this country is a canal under American control. The United States cannot consent to the surrender of this control to any European power.... The capital invested by corporations or citizens of other countries in such an enterprise must in a great degree look for protection to one or more of the great powers of the world. No European power can intervene for such protection without adopting measures on this continent which the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. If the protection of the United States is relied upon, The United States must exercise such control as will enable this country to protect its national interests.... An interoceanic canal across the American Isthmus ... would be the great ocean thoroughfare between our Atlantic and our Pacific shores, and virtually a part of the coastline of the United States. Our merely commercial interest in it is greater than that of all other countries, while its relations to our power and prosperity as a nation, to our means of defense, our unity, peace, and safety, are matters of paramount concern to the people of the United States.
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
The bad news is that I have to take a few forced days off from training so I can let this injury heal. So instead of trying to amp up the volume a little, I'll be doing a lot of basic isometric ab work, stretching, foam rolling, trigger point work and probably practicing my handstands.
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