“20/20: More than Just a Vision Thing”

12/22/08 Posted in Kettlebell Crazy  |  0 Comments

Earlier this month I underwent emergency surgery to re-attach the retina in my left eye.  Opthalmic surgeons had to laser the small tears that had formed in the back of my eye and inject a gas bubble into the eye to hold the retina in place.  Post-operative therapy involved my spending 45-55 minutes out of each waking hour looking down at my feet to ensure the bubble stayed where it belonged in order to do its job for the next ten days. 

Last Monday I got the good news:  the retina is back where it belongs; and I can engage in more or less normal activities.  Pull-ups, okay; push-ups, too; walking, but no running just yet–lest I jar the eye too much.  Fortunately, swings are back on the menu again–so, too, apparently, is snow-shoveling and pushing neighbors’ cars out of snow drifts. 

If drifting snow and wind chills have sidelined your running, and you’d rather not play hamster on a treadmill or elliptical; if your body has adapted to the current mileage you’re running, and it’s not burning off those holiday calories like it used to (you could add more  miles, if you only had the time!); try the 20/20 drill, devised by Stan Pike of the United Kingdom Kettlebell Association.

Set your watch for one minute and do 20 two-hand swings. 

Rest for the remainder of the minute. 

When the timer goes off, do another set of 20’s. 

And so on, for a total of 20 minutes, and 400 reps. 

You’ll feel pleasantly smoked, without being exhausted; you’ll get in a good cardio workout, as well as working your hips, inner thighs, glutes, hamstrings, back, shoulders, triceps, not to mention abs (swings are a surprisingly effective alternative to crunches!).

As your body adapts to this drill, you can shorten the rest time, and add another set.  Or change up to one-hand swings–even hand-to-hand swings–all in just twenty minutes a day.