Weekly workouts and the kettlebell
Holy kettlebell, my friends.
This weekend, I spent 10 hours in a Kettlebell Athletics certification program at Equinox, along with 16 other personal trainers. I’ll detail what that entailed later this week, but for now, I’ll leave you with the fact that the kettlebell is an amazing full-body strength training tool. And when you first start working with it, it really hurts.
Because it’s Monday, and I like to start the week off with a look at my fitness happenings, here’s a recap of how I got moving last week …
Weekly Workouts
- Monday – Taught one-hour BODYATTACK class
- Tuesday – WORKOUT B, including a dynamic warm-up, mobility exercises, 45 minutes of total-body weight training, foam rolling; Worked with ViPR tool for 25 minutes
- Wednesday – WORKOUT C, including a dynamic warm-up, mobility exercises, one-hour of total-body weight training, foam rolling
- Thursday – Attended one-hour Power Vinyasa yoga class; Worked with ViPR tool for 20 minutes
- Friday – Taught one-hour BODYPUMP class
- Saturday – Taught one-hour BODYATTACK class; Practiced kettlebell moves including deadlifts, cleans and swings for about two hours
- Sunday – Practiced kettlebell moves including Turkish get-ups, windmills, cleans and swings for about an hour
What was good?
There is now more BODYATTACK in my life, and I’m very happy about it. On Monday, I worked all day at Equinox, then showed up at 24 Hour Fitness ready to go for my first time teaching in a new time-slot. I was pleasantly surprised to find a big class in front of me. The energy was awesome, and I’m really excited to have this class to start my week out right. It felt great to have two BODYATTACK workouts under my belt for the week, which is much better for my overall fitness-level for teaching the class.
This week, I continued to learn new things in the gym (and continued on my new workout program). I’ve said so many times how important it is to switch up your routine and challenge your body. I not only spent time working with the ViPR (and passed my clearance test to use the tool with clients, by the way!), but I also spent tons of time working with kettlebells. The new moves and exercises require tons of muscle recruitment, and trying them out made me use my head and my body. Oh, and I fit in an awesome yoga class with my favorite instructor, so my body was loose and ready for the tough training weekend.
What could have been better?
As sometimes happens in the world of a full-time fitness professional, my week didn’t include a rest day like it should have. I hit all the high points of a great week though, and will be sure to take it easy when I can this week and incorporate a full day off from the gym.
Questions of the day
Do you have a workout planned for the day? Have you ever used kettlebells in your workouts?
You really fit a lot into one week!! I was wondering if you could possibly do a post on foam rolling. I’ve been wanting to try it out, but am clueless on how to begin!
Hi Brittney,
Thanks for stopping by. Of course I can talk more about foam rolling. I’ll put one together soon. Thanks for the input. Let me know if there are other topics.
Love Attack, love kettlebells! I work out 5-6 times a week, but Sunday is always my day of rest.
I would also be interested in hearing more on foam rolling.
Thanks!
Cindy
Sunday is a great day to have off! Yes, I will definitely work up a foam rolling post. Any other requests?
I haven’t decided yet if I’m working out today. My bag is packed for Pump, which is my regular Monday workout, but I’m sore from Sh’Bam training this weekend (passed! it was amazing!) so I’m trying to decided if I want to switch up my rest day.
That’s awesome you went through Sh’Bam training. No gyms near me offer it, so I’ve never actually done it. Rest days are good. Hope you get one in. Congrats on passing! Do you have a class lined up to teach?
Thank you! Unfortunately, I don’t have a class lined up – there’s only one gym in the whole county that offers it and it’s far from me, but I love the program so much that I decided I had to do it. The trainings don’t come around very often and it was so close that I decided to go for it.
We had five locals go through the training though, so we’re hoping together we can talk our gym into trial-ing the program and getting our members/friends to make a big enough deal from watching us practice to convince/pressure the owners/managers. 🙂
If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend it (and Jam too if you haven’t tried that). It’s a 45 min class and you are sweating from the start.
Good luck! And I have tried Jam and I love it, but it’s not my strength. 🙂
I second the comment on foam rolling! I’m training for my first half and I know the basics but if there are favorite IT-Band moves that would be super.
Hi Alexa,
Yes, I’ll definitely work on a post on foam rolling. Any other topics of interest?
I haven’t used kettleballs before but I’ve heard great things! I would love to find some type of kettleball class near me!
Hi Julie,
Thanks for stopping by! You should invest in wristbands and gloves when you start using kettlebells, because they tend to knock around your hands and wrists when you’re just getting started. I haven’t seen a lot of classes with KBs, because they require so much one-on-one coaching to learn to use them properly. Let me know if you find one!