I have dubbed yesterday’s workout the *Shin Smasher* for no other reason than I almost bonked a 10lb sledge against my leg at least a dozen times.

**Warm up**
10 sledgehammer around the worlds/windmills
5 kettlebell halos
15 knees to chest (and some other goodies from KB master Mike Mahler)

**Workout proper**
2-hand slam, 5 rounds alternating 5/5
Tire carry, ~26lbs ea, approximately 140ft between rounds of slams
10-10-10-10-13 2-hand overhead slam
~36lb water carry approximately 140ft between rounds over overhead slams
10-10-12 butter churn ladder

**Cool down**
10 sledgehammer around the worlds/windmills
10 kettlebell halos
5-4-3-2-1 burpees ladder
12-10-8-4 knee to elbow plank ladder

This workout itself has made me rethink my future workout regimen. I’ve got two “heavy things” to lift and use to workout (as the line goes from Richard Nikoley and Mark Sisson:

1. Sledgehammer
2. Kettlebell

Working out with both is very fun and very challenging but I think I may stop the kettlebell training for now as I’m very worried about tweaking my back. Or I’ll stop until I can take a few classes with a reputable RKC to tweak and refine my form rather than continuing to swing mine and do some serious harm. I think I’ve got the form down but I am not terribly certain that it’s exactly right as my KB workouts don’t totally kill me despite doing 5 or 6 sets of swings with upwards of 15 reps. Sure, I’m sweaty but really, I’m not feeling it especially the next day.

But that’s where I like the sledge workouts, it’s totally self-correcting. If I’m swinging wrong, I’ll feel it almost immediately either in my shoulder or my delts. If I hit the tire wrong, the sledgehammer’s head twists and wrenches right on my wrist. It’s immediate and it hurts like hell. But with my KB, it’s more nuanced and it’s hard for me to always track whether I really am popping my hip flexors or if I’m just using the bell’s momentum to swing. Doing that with a sledgehammer will either result in it not moving at all or bouncing off the tire straight into my face…and then not moving at all, probably because I’d be on the ground gushing blood and passed out. That lack of pendulum-like motion is an excellent feedback loop, I just don’t get that so far with my kettlebells. I like feedback, it’s important to get it to make sure you’re not about to crunch a disc or pop a joint out.

So, perhaps for all of February I will train with sledgehammer work only until I can get enrolled in an RKC-led kettlebell class to get some input on what I may or may not be doing wrong and go from there. Plus, I think swinging a sledgehammer looks way more manly.