My First Kettlebell Workout

So, I did my first kettlebell workout this morning. "How'd it go?" you ask? Well, I believe a picture might explain it better than I could...

Yep, that pretty much summed it up. It turns out the 16kg bell may have been a bit too aggressive right out of the gates.

The first minute of swings went rather well. Seemed a bit long, but I made it. One minute of rest, followed by my second minute of swings. My stupid pinky fingers just don't fit around the handle, so I either leave them on the inside where they get squished or stick them on the outside where the start getting crampy. Another rest minute, and for the third minute, the swings are getting slower and farther apart. Ended up only doing half of minute four before wrapping that one up.

Turkish get-ups. I wasn't far off when I said I'd be drooling on the floor for three minutes. Did it once on the right side, once on the left, right side again, then that was it.

Goblet squats. Instead of 3 sets of 20 reps, I did one set of 7 reps, 1 set of 5 reps, and one set of immobile fetal position.

So, in order to avoid this morning's unpleasant side-effects, I need to scale back the weight a bit before I try that again. In the meantime, I'll focus on some of my weaker areas so this won't be such a traumatic event for my system.

Kettle Bell Intro

So, our friends have been doing kettle bells for a while now and graciously agreed to come out and give me a quick overview. Jesse came and walked me through a few of the basic exercises. He started me out with the 24kg 16kg bell, mercifully...

The first one was the two-handed swing, fairly straight-forward and I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it even though my technique could use some refinement. I was surprised to see how quickly it feels like I'm actually getting a workout. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, here's a video demonstration... One minute of swings, then one minute of rest, and repeat six times. I'll tell you right now, I have the one minute of rest down pat. I was already starting to sweat after a few reps. It looks like you're just swinging a canon ball around, but it really is a full-body workout.

Then he showed me the goblet squats. I did maybe ten of them and my legs are still not talking to me. I'd rather fall down the stairs right now than walk up and down... He says when I get good at those, I can move to the one-legged (or pistol) squat. I couldn't do one of those right now without the weight, so this could be a bit of an uphill climb.

"Now I'll show you the Turkish get-up". A what now?? (Here's another video). Yah, it's harder than it looks. "Normally you'd do five minutes with that one." Five minutes?! Holy cardiac arrest, Batman! Five minutes for me would be about two reps followed by 3 minutes of unconscious drooling on the floor.

So, after my quick introduction, I am now hooked on kettlebells. If you want more information, I would highly recommend visiting Jesse's website, "Core Kettlebell Training." He'll be offering classes in the Cardston area in April, hopefully by then I will be to the point where I can actually make it through an entire workout. Right now the kids have "9-1" programmed into the speed dial so all they have to do is press the last "1" as I pass out.

If you're new to this like I am, let me warn you there will be pain after your first session. I'll let you know just how much after I do my first real workout on Friday. I'm hoping that if I skip tomorrow, I'll stop hurting enough to start the pain all over again. It's a good hurt though, right? Now I just have to figure out how to pack the 16kg bell into my suitcase when I hit the road next week...