The Original KBA Class

Every Sunday at 4pm sees the Original Aberdeen kettlebell class. It’s held inside Transition Extreme, down by the beach.
The class format runs similar to the Monday GSC class, but with the added benefit of padded flooring and more kettlebell availability, I sometimes like to take advantage of that.

The class let’s face it is at a nasty time - its Sunday, we like our days off, seeing family and friends etc. but the class still sees a steady stream of people come along and begin to end their weekend with a kettlebell workout.

I see lots of development in this class too - especially in the movement of people when they get more comfortable rolling around on the matted floor doing mobility drills.
I enjoy developing mobility drills to challenge my class. I spend a few weeks working on material myself, then develop a teaching style to address it. My influences are the IKFF material delivered by Steve Cotter, Martial Arts, and movement based systems such as Ginastica Natural. Throw in some fun experimental rolling, stretching, standing and monkeying around and Hey! we have some new mobililty drills!

I keep the same format of class for a month generally. Similar to the Monday GSC class, this lets people get used to the workout and challenge themselves as the weeks goes on. Maybe more reps, maybe a heavier kettlebell, maybe push for a higher intensity etc...

I like to keep the class fresh with either some new exercise or ways to workout with the kettlebell. I enjoy developing complexes for these workouts - that is, combining body weight, kettlebell & athletic movements repeating themselves for a time. Complexes are a great way to train sport-specific drills or movements.

Currently, the Sunday class looks like this:

Warm up, head to toe stretch and dynamic mobility.
7mins of single hand cleans. 3-5 reps each hand of 8kg up to 28kg. Go to the max you are happy with and go back to start and repeat. It’s a challenging drill with great teaching fundamentals behind it.

We reached the peak at last Sundays Stacking routine since it was the end of the month. It looks like this...
1x 30sec work, 30 active recovery (A.R.),
2x 30sec work, 30 AR,
3x 30sec work, 30 AR,
4x 30sec work, 30 AR,
5x 30sec work, 30 AR,
6x 30sec work, 30 AR,
7x 30sec work, 30 AR,
8x 30sec work, 30 AR,
pick any 3 from the above, 30 sec rest
pick any 2 from the above, 30 sec rest
pick any 1 from above, 30 sec rest

Here are the drills:
Swings, Burpees, Single leg Clean, Rows, Pushups, Cossack Squat, Snatch or High Pull, Fig.8.
26Min's ...BANG!!
Last drill TGU’s for 5 mins
We always finish with 1 or 2 cycles of QiGong.

A few weeks off now from classes, and I am looking forward to refreshing the Sunday and Monday's!

GSC

I have 2 classes that run on a Monday night at the Garioch Sports Centre in Inverurie. These classes are alot of fun and I really enjoy teaching out there.
We've had some taster classes, some full workshops, some kettlebell-only workshops, some demonstrations etc. and after about 9 months, I think the classes are becoming quite established. I am delighted!

Both classes are the same format, and the format remains for a full month pretty much. This gives people the chance to get used to the format, engage more effort as confidence grows, maybe experiment with a heavier KB weight etc.

As with all my classes, body weight and dynamic mobility is a must, and over the length of time the classes have ran, I have seem massive improvement of peoples ability to move and hold themselves - massive improvement! Sure, we get down on a wooden floor and we roll, slide, rotate, brace, rock, squat and lunge around, but nearly all us come back to standing with a smile too! "Bring out the inner child!" I shout and enjoy rolling around like we used to!! haha!

The class benefits from a range of ages, ability and fitness levels of participants. Its ace to all be in the same class together, everyone working at a pace suitable to themselves. I always deliver this as being so important. Some people will have personal goals that the class assists in achieving - Ace! Its a great opportunity to work hard and blitz!!

So currently, the class does the warm up, the head to toe stretch and the dynamic mobility drill. Standard practise in all my classes...
Then we move onto a Single KB Clean Matrix. 4 sets of 30secs per hand of different Cleans. I enjoy this as a warm up, but challenge yourself with a heavier KB and wakes up the body in preparation for the rest of the workout.
Then we do 2 and a half Min's Clean & Press per hand. We moved up to 3 Min's per side recently. Always challenging pacing level, technique etc. It is an introduction to some people as to how we can train with the KB for increasing work capacity. For the more experienced of the group, 3 Min's is achievable so their challenge is a quicker pace!!
From the C&P drill we move onto to cardio blitz that is a Stacking routine. Looks like this...
1x 30sec work, 30 active recovery (A.R.),
2x 30sec work, 30 AR,
3x 30sec work, 30 AR,
4x 30sec work, 30 AR,
5x 30sec work, 30 AR,
6x 30sec work, 30 AR,
7x 30sec work, 30 AR,
pick any 2 from the above, 30 sec rest
pick any 1 from above, 30 sec rest

Here are the drills:
Swings, Burpees, Single leg Clean, Rows, Pushups, Snatch or High Pull, Fig.8.
20Min's ...BANG!!
Last drill is 3x 20secs Russian Twists.
We always finish with 1 or 2 cycles of QiGong.

There we have the current workout that is achievable by all. The time whizzes past and we enjoy a good sweat up!

Long Overdue...

OK, so I want this blog back on track! There is always loads happening that I want to share, so I will do my best to be a right regular blogger again...
Events,
Training,
Techniques,
Class information,
I'm looking forward to it!