kettlebell

Sometimes on Friday my small group class gets even smaller (some of the guys have a standing soccer commitment, etc.).  Occasionally, I take this opportunity to write up a kind of "funtime" workout that is keeps the skill level basic.  This allows me to participate on occasion, which I think is important because it helps me monitor the intensity of certain combiniations, rest periods etc.  Besides any excuse to have fun and test things out first hand is good by me.  Also, Friday's crowd tends to be pretty in touch with their skills and have learned when they need to back off the intensity when necessary.

So much inspiration and creativity stemming from the recent visit to NYC, Nimble Fitness, Equinox, and of course Al Kavadlo's Saturday Morning class.  This particular workout's "warm up" was directly influenced by the warmup from Al's class I attended.   Lacking access to Thompson Square Park, I came up with a simple circuit punctuated with our favorite 2 hand kettlebell swings (I had a variety of kettlebells available so the exercises could be performed properly with the right amount of weight etc.).
 
We chose a nice shaded area with a large concrete pad, did our favorite joint mobility warm up then proceeded to traverse down and back on the large pad with the following:

I keep checking to see if any of the neighbors are building an ark.  Seriously... the rain—all week... rain rain rain rain rain.   AAAGGGHHHH!!!!!   This is especially annoying for people who like to walk to their errand destinations, who like to practice beginner and clutch flags on any available safe pole, who like to do fingertip pull ups off of various pieces of architecture...

Adrienne: Tracy's back!  She attended the recent Vienna, Virginia RKC Workshop on Sunday to participate in the "victims training" where RKC candidates are tested on their ability to teach/coach lucky volunteers from the general public in the basic kettlebell drills like the swing and get up.   Usually there's a part where the candidates have to construct a small workout realtime depending on the abilities of their new student.   Even though Tracy is VERY familiar with kettlebell exercises etc, it's great to show up to these events, because you can ALWAYS pick up a new tip, and the RKC system is constantly evolving.  It's a great way to keep in the loop, so when you hear that there's an RKC workshop coming to your town, check out and RSVP for Sunday—plus you get 20% off all books / dvds / kettlebells /etc. at that time as well (and no shipping fee!)

It's no secret that I'm nuts about the Convict Conditioning series of books and DVDs from Dragon Door - and of course totally hooked on kettlebell training too.   Here's an example of a fairly (you can adjust the difficulty to meet your own needs) advanced workout that involves a great deal of variety.   The real fun is derived from it's variability - it can adapt to whatever step you're working on with your bodyweight exercises.

Of course, always warm up with some joint mobility exercises and a few kettlebell swings.  

This workout was originally designed for a moderate kettlebell and rather heavy kettlebell.  Choose wisely when considering what that means for you.

Part 1:

Three Rounds Of: