If you don’t know what you’re doing – PLEASE don’t try this at home – seek out a local RKC or HKC instructor and learn the techniques correctly. Youtube and TV are not good, safe sources of information. Certain popular tv personalities have taught some fairly horrendous form to the masses over the past few years and I just really hope people aren’t getting hurt.
You don’t need an extra heavy kettlebell for this workout, but it sure was fun to have that in the mix today – we really got to focus on our deadlift form with Ivan “the Terrible” AKA the 48kg Dragon Door “beast” kettlebell. Below the workout is a silly story about Ivan and what he went through before ending up at GiryaGirl HQ today.
Of course start out with joint mobility, you’re going to need to be ready for this one!
Next, grab a moderate (no need to prove anything here) kettlebell and practice 5 get ups per side, paying acute attention to form, and also treating this as a continuation of your joint mobility.
Get out the Gymboss timer (hopefully yours will be more coopertive than mine was today…) and set it for 45 seconds work, 20-30 seconds rest. I had the group cycle through the following stations – for 2 rounds:
- Ab Wheel aka “the Evil Wheel” which we’ve been making nice use of since the Bodyweight Workshop this past year.
- T-Push ups (or holds)
- Kettlebell Swings – participants chose the weight
- Deadlift the BEAST!
- Rest
Then “pump stretches” for everyone!
Next we mixed it up – 30 seconds on, 15-20 seconds to transition. Choose a moderate kettlebell to heavy-ish kettlebell and enjoy 2 rounds of:
- Suitcase deadlifts, right side
- Suitcase deadlifts, left side
- ALMOST Renegade Rows (one kettlebell, the other hand is flat on the ground), right
- ALMOST Renegade Rows, left
- 2 hand kettlebell swings
- rest
We finished up with 8 grueling rounds of this MONDAY FAVORITE:
20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest – work sets alternate between kettlebell swings and good old fashioned BURPEES. Nothing says “Monday” like burpees, right guys?
so it looked like this:
- 20 seconds kettlebell swings, 10 seconds rest
- 20 seconds burpees, 10 seconds rest
Repeat until 8 total rounds are done, or 4 times through the above sequence.
They had a good wandering around rest period, a good sip of water and then we finished up with our favorite joint mobility routine.
Ivan’s Story: After totally getting hooked on beast kettlebell swings some weeks ago with Laurel Blackburn at Tallahassee Kettlebells, I just KNEW I had to get one of my own. It would be named “Ivan” as in “Ivan the Terrible.” Ivan came down from Tallahassee this past weekend in the trunk of a Prius – apparently causing a little issue with acceleration. I woke up slightly early (!!) so that I could get the morning’s usual chores and responsibilities out of the way before heading down, picking up Ivan – then checking out the big Whole Foods (I’d been compiling a list). Between that and 9,999 errands, today was interesting. But of course I always make time to come up with a fun workout for small group. Especially since it was Ivan’s Debut. I’m funny about getting new kettlebells – and am generally pretty odd about them, come to think about it. There’s something of an initiation that surrounds getting a new one. I mark them with a little red heart all in the same exact spot. I insist on swinging it before anyone else. It’s a “good luck thing” though I’m not especially superstitious. Ivan was still in his original Dragon Door box when I picked him up out of the Prius trunk and put him in the passenger seat. Considering all the heavy lifting lately, I had to double check and make sure this was the right one. …it… felt… LIGHT?!!??!? But nope – there it was 48kg or the same weight as me as a college freshman. I came home after Whole Foods so I could put the kettlebell away and OUT of the car. Ivan had lived the past 2 years in the darkness of the double boxes, bag and styrofoam packing Dragon Door so wisely uses to immobilize kettlebells for shipping. Today he saw the light of day for the first time since he was manufacture, packaged and shipped. I swung the kettlebell a few times for good luck then put it in the workout storage area, to await Small Group’s arrival. Tomorrow, the little heart will be painted.
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