Attack of the Bells - Review
A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of hosting a new event in Aberdeen. So far, most people up here have been exposed to only my presentation of kettlebell training. Whether it be the class environment, beginner workshops or 1-2-1's. I travel regularly to Edinburgh to train with guest instructors and friends in the IKFF family.
Rannoch Donald (Simple Strength) and Gerry Higgins (Raw Fitness) are two very good friends and trainers from down that way. We are all equally passionate about kettlebell training and our specialities differ, which is a great thing.
We decided to combine forces and expose Aberdeen to three detailed aspects of KB training, one being familiar material and the other two being perhaps not so familiar...

...Along came Attack of the Bells

Held at the home of the Aberdeen Martial Arts group, the XTS gym was familiar to the locals. Ideal for my athletic session, but interestingly not ideal for Gerry's session - to be explained later.
The 6 hour day was broken into 3 sessions, each delivered by Rannoch, myself and Gerry. Everyone arrived and I made the introductions. It was a pleasure to present Rannoch and Gerry to my friends attending the workshop, and I was excited to get the day going!



Rannoch kicked off with a detailed introduction and got everyone moving. His Resilient Rx program is really interesting, raising awareness of breath work, mobility and body weight basics. We did breathing drills to focus our mind, fun mobility drills to get us moving synchronously within ourselves and of course drilled good fundamentals in bodyweight exercises such as squats and pushups. All in good preparation for our busy day ahead. Ensuring structure was the focus for us in ourselves and when we attack the Bells.



We had a short break and recovered from the blitz of push ups at the end of Rannoch's session. Note to self: Have a question prepared for him next time LOL

I was up next with "Getting Complex". My involvement with kettlebell classes and experience of many different kinds of training and instructors, leads me to blend forms of training. Kettlebell complexes are athletic and challenging. They can also be used as a "reset" between KB rounds. I presented variations to my favourite Compound Complexes, and we drilled them.

I introduced, and then we drilled, double kettlebells. Some people have not had much exposure to double KB's and the handling of them proved challenging let alone the swing, clean and press variations.
Then we combined out new double kettlebell drills with the compound movements from earlier!
I finished by discussing where sport specific training can play its part within kettlebell training sessions.

By now, lunch was calling, so we enjoyed a short rest, refuel and chat.

The final episode of the day was delivered by Gerry. To break us in gently after lunch, Gerry presented use of the Grid. The Grid is a fantastic Foam Roller. Quite a few body niggles were exposed and massaged while Gerry discussed the benefits to regular Grid-work.

Gerry is passionate about lifting heavy s**t. Ask him, he'll say just that! Amongst this heavy s**t is his love of Kettlebell Sport. Gerry gave a nice introduction to the sport, the lifts involved and demos. Here we discovered that the slightly padded flooring was not ideal for the solid foot connection to the floor as we perform the competition lifts. Gerry led us into nice progressions from techniques to challenging lengths of time and repetitions. Pressing, Snatching and Jerking. Combining these into competition-style sets with good technique and focus.

The day seemed to pass in a flash and there was smiles all round as we packed up and headed for a cuppa before Gerry and Rannoch headed for home.

I am thankful to everyone who attended Attack of the Bells and for Rannoch and Gerry making the trip up.
Basics realised, new techniques learned, familiar techniques tweaked, different training methods shared and a few laughs along the way made for an exciting day. I slept well that night!



Edinburgh next I believe! :-)

Sunday 28th August

Just a reminder that the 4pm class is cancelled this coming Sunday due to ATTACK OF THE BELLS happening.

Summer update

Recent kettlebell classes have been alot of fun - and massive calorie killers!
Sunday's XTS class includes a timed set of Clean & Press. Training with someone, each take it in turn to press 10 times for 5 mins and then change hands and repeat on the fresh arm for 5 mins more. It proved to be a nice drill. People new to this set found the "forced" rack (i.e. waiting for partner to complete their 10 reps) difficult in the starting weeks. Yesterday it looked like it was getting more comfortable for most.
From there, we move onto a nice little complex. Single arm drills with low reps, suggesting to kettlebellers to grit their teeth and try some sets with a progressive bell. The complex takes around 15 mins, and for me, the sweat literally pours from the end of my nose and chin by the time we get to KB rows and strict push ups.
TGU's finish the class! Fatigued, but focused on being good and stable.

Monday's calorie killer at GSC is simple and brutal. Again, a sweat-fest!
In the starting weeks, I just tried to achieve too much in the class. A 4min Clean matrix, followed by an up-tempo short timed set of Clean & Press kicked off the KB session. This made for tight timing of the 34min set, so I've reduced to only doing one of the above sets. Both are valuable drills and we just alternate them week after week.
This 34 min set is a corker. Old School! 3 people (2 on KB's, 1 on body weight), 3 stations, 3 rounds, 3 sets. Round 1 is 3x90secs, R2 is 3x60 secs and R3 is 3x30 secs. 30 sec rest between Rounds. (so a 10min Set)
Still with me? Set 1 is upper body focused. Set 2 is lower body and Set 3 is whole body. 2 mins rest between sets = 34mins.
What a buzz! You need to pace intelligently for the 90 secs rounds, then knocking off 30 secs each round means you can pace quicker and push that little bit more. By the time we get to the full body set, what ever is left in the tank is well and truly demolished!

Thanks to everyone attending the classes over the summer - I value your dedication to the classes and I always enjoy training with ya!
Keep 'Em Swingin'

AMAG's Combat Kettlebells

The last of my regular classes is the Combat Kettlebell class. On a Friday night, students from the Aberdeen Martial Arts Group get together for an end of week sweat fest. The class takes shape by utilising the kettlebell to assist in our combat conditioning, and high intensity pad work is drilled.
I have explored alot with this class, in terms of workouts with the kettlebell. Mainly, KB complexes are the key, followed by a blitz on the pads - the pad work will likely resemble some drills we have trained during the week in other classes - its a great chance to get high intensity reps in of the drills. The challenge is always there to execute take downs, counters and recovery etc. during these rounds.

We've trained GS-style rounds in this class too, and exploring some options around it too. Right now, I am keeping KB complex reps low to encourage some people to try heavier KB's, committing to strength and power.

The benefits of the padded flooring in this class means that challenging mobility drills can be explored and enjoyed fully too!

Classes cancelled...

Just to remind people that there are some classes cancelled in July. The calendar on the KBA website is up to date with these changes.

Sunday 3rd July - Cancelled
Monday 4th July - Cancelled
Sunday 10th July - Cancelled
Monday 11th July - Cancelled
Sunday 17th July - Cancelled

Monday 18th July - Back to Normal
Sunday 24th July - Back to Normal

I normally suggest keeping the class timeslot as your own workout time. If you have a kettlebell at home, I can suggest replicating the recent class workouts. Email me if you want help planning a kettlebell workout. Additionally, you can email me if you would like to borrow a kettlebell while this run of classes are off.

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!