It's really starting to get hot in Vegas, even in the early morning, when I work out. I exercise outside, so that means my hands start sweating by just thinking about the kettlebells, let alone when I'm in the middle of a snatch workout. I quickly realized that chalk would be essential if I wanted to keep up the outdoors workouts without throwing a kettlebell through a window.

I stopped by a Big 5 Sporting Goods store on my way home from work one night. They looked at me like I was crazy. Mind you, they had lots of pilate equipment, yoga bricks, and Under Armor all over the place, but the heaviest dumbbell they had was a 35-pounder, so that should tell you something.

Today was my day off, so I tried a couple of other Big 5's with the same result. One guy recommended Dick's Sporting Goods in Henderson, so off I went. In a huge two-storey building, they did not have chalk either. However, Sports Chalet, across the street, had chalk!

I was so excited about finally finding chalk, I came home and did 36 on, 36 off for 12 rounds with the 16 kg kettlebell. And the chalk made a HUGE difference!