It was time to get out of town… if I have to spend too much time in Florida, I get antsy and the humidity and lack of any real relief from the heat was beginning to really wear on me. So after some clicking around and a few emails I managed to put together a little trip that would allow me to keep working some on writing and my usual business client responsibilities as well as training small groups and individuals. There’s still time to register for (bodyweight, kettlebell, metcon, kettlebell and sandbag) classes if you are in the area: Momentum Fitness NYC.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Rings… please note that the impressive young gymnast on the small rings is only on the small rings because I was using the large rings… pretty amazing!
Decided to check out one of the hostels in the area and have been extremely pleased with that decision. It’s like a cross between college and summer camp in all the best ways. The wifi is fast, they have very good espresso and snacks right in the building, and the guests are fun people from all over the world. Not that it matters, but I’m pleased to see that I’m not nearly the oldest person here. WHEW. The first night I got in, I immediately noticed a pool table and realized I hadn’t even been near one in close to six years. At a couple points in my life I’ve been almost actually pretty ok at pool, so when no one was looking I racked the pool balls, found the least warped pool cue and desperately tried to remember how the heck to play. My hands felt… different, my bridge was all wrong, there wasn’t any terrible loud dirt rock playing, and I wasn’t buzzed. Well good. Stubbornly I just started shooting any ball that was a decent shot. Soon, the sound of the “click clack” of pool balls attracted a whole bunch of college boys. (Dang, why didn’t I think of this back in college??) Fortunately they decided to pitch in and while watching them play I started to remember oh RIGHT… and my bridge came back. Then it was on. OH HOW IT WAS ON.
My game came back with a vengeance and we all ended up playing in teams until past 2AM. I played better and more consistently than ever before–without a $300 McDermott cue, without booze, and without blaring classic rock. Who knew!?!? Not sure that I’ll play much at home, but it’s good to know I can at least hold my own. My break isn’t all that bad either. Cool beans!
(Don’t tell him I’m almost old enough to be his mom…. oh geez!!!!!)
Yesterday I had an orientation meeting with Marco, the owner of Momentum Fitness at 3PM, so there was plenty of time to do other things on my way down there. First order of business was to find the legendary Traveling Rings down at Riverside Park… a mere 8 minute walk away. Facebook rumor also has it that the local slackliners set up down there too, so I hope to meet up with them eventually! The larger set of rings was a similar set up as to the ones I enjoyed in Rhode Island, and there was a smaller set (kid sized, and also good for beginners to get a feel for it). Seeing as I could tell the full size set had the same spacing/sizing as the ones in RI, I went ahead and started on the larger rings. There were several other people also using the rings and it was really fun to watch their unique styles. One of the guys was REALLY good and could do all these fancy spins and nearly dance-looking moves while still traversing the rings. Some of the other people brought chalk and well, hate to admit this, but I actually do best with second hand chalk, rather than chalking up my own hands (mine rip with chalk unfortunately… here’s a blog post about chalk and kettlebells…). Once I got started I was flying along just like in Rhode Island! One of these days I’ll get to where I can go down and back… that would be incredibly cool. I’m planning to train on the rings more while I’m here, maybe that guy will teach me some of his cool flying dance moves too.
On my way down to Momentum, I grabbed a quick lunch at an Equinox gym lunch/smoothie counter- basically a tomato and cucumber marinated salad and a giant grilled chicken breast… and a triple espresso of course!
It was great to catch up with Marco and see all the awesome equipment he had at the gym, I soon realized that writing workouts for his people with all these goodies was going to be a LOT of fun. We talked about the skill level of the clients/students so I could get a good idea of what to bring to them. Sunday (today) and next Sunday are my biggest concentration of small group classes – bodyweight bootcamp, kettlebell “brunch” and kettlebell and sandbag. It was tough to leave Marco’s gym, we had so much to talk about since our training methods overlap so much, and I was eager to hear about some of the things that we didn’t have in common, like clubbells. VERY fascinating!
I grabbed a snack at Whole Foods then headed down to Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner’s special movie night at the world famous Mark Fisher Fitness gym. WHAT A FACILITY! I’ve never seen anything like it… on one hand it looks like a nightclub, on the other hand it is totally equipped with tons of Dragon Door kettlebells, and has what I love most about some training spaces… OPEN FLOOR SPACE. Oh and they have disco balls and they have a hang-out loft… which was where a giant projection screen was set up. The room was PACKED and I was lucky to find a seat. Steve was introducing the movie (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) which oddly enough I had not yet seen. Michael Cera does pathetic better than anyone LOL.
After that I did some sightseeing on the way back, there’s just so much to check out at any given time. Then I accidentally made more friends in the lobby who were very into standup comedy. At some point I may have accidentally-on-purpose started a goofy singalong… that ended up including about 15 people from various countries (never underestimate the power of “hair metal”). Before going to sleep I finished up writing the three workouts (bodyweight only, kettlebell only, kettlebell and sandbag) for the next day….
Today I led those workouts, and while it’s always a little nerve wracking meeting a whole new set of small groups, it all went swimmingly. By the time of the kettlebell and sandbag class there was so much sweating and sheer heat generated by everyone that it was like I’d brought a bit of Florida up here with me. HAHA (no joke really, I hope there’s a dehumidifier up there). After seeing an amusing little video from some goofy (but oddly well funded it seems) hipster kids about “how to make a zine” I was reminded of my own very early 1990s zine making and low tech content creation. SOOOO I am currently tossing around the idea of putting together a little “workout zine” that will include the workouts that I’ve led during this trip and various how-to articles, maybe some mini interviews (hey dancing traveling rings guy….) and other such things. It’ll be limited edition (photocopied like in the old days) and I may even do the whole cut out and scotch tape originals too. Why not. I’ve been doing all this since before some of these kids were born! Would you like a copy of something like that? If so, please leave a comment below! I’ll be working out the pricing for it (NO, it’s not like the old days when you’d just have to find me between high school classes and request a copy before I ran out… HAHA!)
Given that the kettlebell and sandbag class was a real metcon focus (and because the description on the website stressed tabata intervals) I stayed with the theme and put together a collection of 4 tabata themed mini circuits. With a longer than normal mobility warm up, and a review of the hip hinge I was able to really see where these athletes were in their journey and was pleased to see they were READY TO ROCK. We rocked so hard that they all left a good quantity of sweat on their sandbags! Here’s what we did:
Joint Mobility warm up, extra “figure four” drills, shinbox, pump stretches, hip flexor stretch, shoulder bridges, hip hinge review.
First “Tabata”*:
- 20 Seconds two-hand kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds mountain climbers (choice of regular or twisting)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds two-hand kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds mountain climbers (choice of regular or twisting)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds two-hand kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds mountain climbers (choice of regular or twisting)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds two-hand kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds mountain climbers (choice of regular or twisting)
Longer break while we put up the kettlebells, got some water, and brought out the sandbags!
Second “tabata*”
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag “front loaded” Zercher carry squats
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag shouldering (alternating sides)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag “front loaded” Zercher carry squats
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag shouldering (alternating sides)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag “front loaded” Zercher carry squats
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag shouldering (alternating sides)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag “front loaded” Zercher carry squats
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag shouldering (alternating sides)
Longer rest – reviewing the techniques and variations for the Ultimate Sandbag rotational lunge and the Ultimate Sandbag clean and press. The room was starting to steam up by this point… oh yes it was…
Third “tabata*”
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag rotational lunges (low or high)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag clean and press
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag rotational lunges (low or high)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag clean and press
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag rotational lunges (low or high)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag clean and press
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag rotational lunges (low or high)
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Ultimate Sandbag clean and press
Another break, and everyone selected one sandbag, and a matched pair of kettlebells for the final, and most brutal at this point mini-circuit. Basic but brutal… and by the time this was over the windows were steamed up… for real.
Fourth and Final “tabata*”
- 20 Seconds double kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Sandbag “Thrusters/Sprawls/BurpeeVariant”
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds double kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Sandbag “Thrusters/Sprawls/BurpeeVariant”
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds double kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Sandbag “Thrusters/Sprawls/BurpeeVariant”
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds double kettlebell swings
- 10 Seconds rest/transition
- 20 Seconds Sandbag “Thrusters/Sprawls/BurpeeVariant”
We finished up with a little bit of a Sandbag Abs combo, doing 30 “bag drags” (in the plank position) and 30 Russian twists.
Finally the day was ended with a mindful reprise of the joint mobility warm up.
After finishing up at Momentum, I realized I hadn’t really had lunch… so I loaded up $26 worth of food at the Whole Foods hot bar (including a box of 1/2 lb cold grilled chicken) and proceeded to eat it all, then realized that I had that “Thanksgiving Feeling” (AKA: Omg look at my belly! I can’t bend in half!) and needed to walk around before even thinking about getting on the subway… blaarrrrrrrrggggggggggg.
What’s next? Tonight I’m watching one of my new friends from the hostel perform in a live comedy show later, and reserving my space in a few Systema classes. During the week I will also be teaching more at Momentum, and training a few individuals as well. Other upcoming adventures also include meeting up with many friends (some rather famous, including Time Magazine’s “Sexiest Trainer of the Year”) to hang out, record podcasts, share notes, and generally have a great time!
*yeah yeah yeah it’s just the 20 sec work, 10 sec rest for 8 rounds (4 mins), though it became MAXIMAL very shortly… yes some of these were submax, therefore not “true Tabata” so save your lectures for someone else. THANKS!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Leave a Reply