Why your training in the gym should directly translate to your day-to-day activities.

Eric and I have Poland Spring water delivered to our house once a month. We drink A LOT of water so we usually have 8 five-gallon jugs delivered. Each jug weighs about 44lbs. We used to have the Poland Spring delivery person carry the jugs around to the side porch for us so that we could store them on the back stairs, but then we installed extended gutters. When we installed the extended gutters, we realized that there was no way to bring the water jugs to the back stairs without carrying them by hand because of the gutters. Therefore, we decided that we didn’t want the delivery person to have to hurdle over the gutters with 44 to 88lbs of water to deliver them. SO now we carry them from the front porch to the side porch ourselves. It’s a good thing we train with kettlebells!

Usually this is Eric’s task, as it is the “MANLY” house task. However, today I had time and I know that he has a VERY long 11 plus hour day and I am sure that the last thing that he wants to do when he gets home is to carry 352lbs of water from the front porch to the side porch and back stairs. SO, for my home workout today, I went out to carry the 8 water jugs from the front porch to the side porch.

On average, I weigh about 115lbs. Today I weighed myself and our home scale read 110lbs, so I either have lost 5lbs over the past 2 weeks due to the training that I have been doing to prepare to attend my RKC II Level Certification Training at the end of April (which, is entirely possible) OR, we need a new scale. For the purpose of this 352lb water carry task let’s say that I weigh 115lbs.

I started the carry on the front porch by taking 2 five-gallon (44lbs each, 88lbs total – or the equivalent of two 20kg kettlebells) water jugs and laid them on their sides with the handles facing upwards. I then packed my shoulders, engaged my lats, hinged over and placed my weight on my heels, and braced my core with a power breath and lifted the 88lbs. I then walked down the front porch stairs, down the sidewalk with the 88lbs, around the corner of the house, all the way to the side porch and to the side stairs. After this one simple carry, I was sweating and hot in the 30-degree weather, so I took off my jacket (if you know me at all, you know that this is very unusual for me as I am usually the temperature of a human popsicle). Then I repeated this 3 more times after that, for a total “farmer’s carry” of 88lbs x 4 sets, or a carry of 352lbs. I did not put the water jugs down once, until I reach my side porch destination, on any of the carries.

This home task is a perfect example of how kettlebell training translates to real life activities and as to WHY your training in the gym should directly translate to your day-to-day activities.

Below are pictures of my task complete. I did not think about posting this until after my task was complete. So the next time that we have a water delivery I will make sure to take before AND after pics and maybe even a quick video clip of my technique and I will update this blog post accordingly.

In the In the meantime, I have also included a video taken of Eric 2 years ago when he clean and pressed two Poland Spring water jugs for fun. Enjoy the 88lbs of Fury in this fabulous Feat of Strength! 🙂