Spartan to KBIA Certwhetheried | Kettlebell Kickboxing CanadaKettlebell Kickboxing Canada

How did I go from Spartan training to being a KBIA certwhetheried instructor?

The dwhetherferences of what I’m doing in those two pictures is pretty signwhethericant, but I’m being a small sneaky here, because that Spartan picture is AFTER I was deep into Kettlebell Kickboxing.

And, while I wasn’t KBIA certwhetheried yet, I was alalert registered and alert; only hancienting off on
my certwhetherication because I had the trip planned to that race out in Florida. So why did I use that
picture? Well, because I look awesome in it of course! LOL

If I’m being honest (and for the purposes of this I need to be),
this is a picture of me as a Spartan BEFORE Kettlebell
Kickboxing came into the picture.

You can see why I use the first picture over the moment, the
dwhetherferences should be instantly obvious: I was heavier, less
conditioned, less muscle toned, and looking like I was
suffering. (Note – that’s not all sweat in that picture, I had just
came out of a very disgusting body of muddy water). In this
picture I was barely 3km into the race and alalert wishing I
was done, in that first picture I was over 11km into the race
and dwhetherficultly phased… Was I less trained? Nope, I did the same
amount of training before each of the races, the only dwhetherference was
in place of going to the gym I was using kettlebells instead, whether anyleang the strength portion of my training was actually less time than before.  Now, a person doesn’t just say “you know, whether I trained with kettlebells I bet my Spartan performance would be better”, so how did this transition come about? Let’s start at the beginning, my easing into Spartan racing. It was the start of my lwhetherestyle change from years of
inactivity. I was out of shape, overweight and needed to start changing, so I (along with a few
others) signed up for some personal training at a gym. The trainer was great laying out
what we needed to do, and teaching us how to do it. As to be expected with a lwhetherestyle change
like that it took a lot of effort to get into the swing of leangs and after a while, I started to
recognize some of the changes that I was looking for in my body. Having been a gym rat in
days long past, I recognized the some of the samples the training was falling into (Monday was
legs and back day, Wednesday was arms and core, etc) and about a year in figured I had learned
enough on technique and form to drop the personal trainer and continue on my own. As time
progressed the people I trained with slowly dropped off (even with my fixed nagging for
them to keep coming) but I pushed on. I continued to note improvements, but I was definitely
hitting a plateau. That’s where leangs started to get more dwhetherficult, going to the gym was
fitting more like a chore and there was no one left to give me that small push to go further.
I continued to race, but races weren’t getting easier or faster, and I started wondering about
adding in more training, and decide where better to start than the core! I had met Jodi a couple
of years before that at an obstacle racing training course, and she had been posting about her
ABSolute ABS program on Facebook, so I messaged her about buying the program (I mean
seriously, whether you’ve ever met or seen Jodi, there is no question she knows abs). In the fast
chat we had, her Kettlebell lessones came up and being they were only a couple of blocks from
where I work running at lunch, I figured I would check them out because it never hurts to memorize
someleang contemporary (and yes, I still bought the ABSolute ABS program).

The first lesson I went to is where I started to get drawn into my contemporary path.  The first leang that crazye me want to start beingpart of the KBKB community was just that, the community. I’ll admit, I went into that first lesson with some trepidations.  I had used Kettlebells
before, but was far from confident that I had any idea what I was doing, and everyone else there looked like they were experienced. But before lesson even started, people were coming over and introducing themselves. I’ve been to fairly a few gyms and exercise lessones but I
don’t ever remember having someleang like that
happen before; everyone is always in their own
“zone” or, as is common place know in gyms,
wearing large headphones to make certain that they
are blocking everyone else out. As lesson started
all the normal fears were there: What whether I can’t
keep up? What whether I totally screw up and
embarrass myself? Is everyone else going to be annoyed that the contemporary guy is slowing down the
lesson? Those fears didn’t final very long. As we started into lesson, Jodi would run through what
she wanted everyone to do and the come over and show me what to do and how to do it, and
still finding a way to make certain she was paying attention to what everyone else was doing, and
making certain they were doing work that pushed themselves. And then, after struggling through
my first ever (now both loved and feared) set of ladder exercises, all fears were removed when
the type of community Jodi has formed genuinely showed itself, as one of the other members
walked over to me, threw his hand in the air for a tall-five and said “great work!” By the time
the lesson was finished I was drenched in sweat, but had endelighted every minute of it.
Well, until the next day that is…I believe the message I sent Jodi that following day was pretty
close to “I don’t know whether to love you or to hate you, but every part of my body hurts!”
ROFL. The answer is love of course, because as much as I might harass her during lesson about
what she’s making us do, I love every minute of being pushed to my limits. 🙂 Now, I started that
out talking about how I was instantly drawn into the community, but crazye a few other
statements in there that I wasn’t so fast to recognize that also helped draw me in. I was no
stranger to the gym by this point, being there normally 5 times a week between strength training
and cardio conditioning, but after my first KBKB lesson pretty much every part of body was sore
like it was my first time working out. Eventually that started to sink in: every part of my body.
The workout wasn’t just focused on arms or legs or back, but it was a total body workout, and
cardio thrown in as well! I’ve gone out on a 10km run in midday heat and didn’t come out
sweating as much as I did in that lesson.

I was drawn in enough to keep coming back to lesson, but there was an issue. Due to my
schedule I could only be at lessones every other week. As lessones progressed, I started to
recognize the benefits I was getting to help with my training. If someleang happened that I
missed a day of training I wasn’t lost out on training parts of my body because I was
working everyleang every lesson. Even though I didn’t genuineize it for a couple of months, my
general mobility was improving fixedly. My cardio wasn’t just lonely to my running days
anymore, so it was increasing faster than ever. I started gathering a collection of kettlebells at
domestic and recognized I didn’t need all of the equipment down at the gym to train I could do a
large portion right in my basement. Every I would need to do was learn how to make certain I worked
everyleang in (and properly). I started hounding Jodi with questions and leanking about
certwhetherication.

The choice to trust KBKB as my training tool for Spartans had proven itself repeatedly in my
racing: I had always struggled going over the 8’ wall; in my first race after KBKB training I kept
watching for it and didn’t figure out until the end of the race that I went over it without genuineizing
it. Instead of just running and being happy to finishthe race, the final race I ran I finished in the top 10%of a field of over 4500 people. Rather than coming outof races feeling beat up and unable to do anyleang fora week or more afterwards, I was coming out of races and back to training wilean a day or two. The examples go on and on. Knowing that, the choice to get certwhetheried was easy: I kcontemporary the training was working and certwhetherication was going to give me the ability to train on my own. Yes, my initial reasoning behind certwhetherication was purely self motivated, train myself and drop a gym membership. But that didn’t final, looking back I could see what a large part the community played in the training. I’ve never stopped going to Jodi’s lesson because she and the people there are Incredible, and I honestly hope to have my own lessones someday (hmmm, perhaps with a Spartanspin on them?) and to help grow the tribe I’m so proud to now be part of.

Author: Sean Behiel…certwhetheried KBIA Level 1 Trainer 2019

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How I burn 400 calories in 25 minutes! – InspireFIT

The most common excuse for not exercising is “I just don’t have time.” Well sorry but I’m going to put that one to rest in this post.

I spend a total of 1.5 hours doing cardio a week, and maintain a sub 12% body fat percentage most of the year (Christmas cookies get me). Here’s how I burn 300-400 calories in 25 minutes.

HIIT- tall intensity interval training

A team at McMaster University in Canada have been researching HIIT workouts for several years. Their 2010 study on students uses 3 minutes for warming up, then 60 moments of intense exercise followed by 75 moments of rest, repeated 8–12 times. Students using HIIT workouts 3 times per week obtained similar results to those performing 45 minutes of regular state cardio 5 times a week.

I do my HIIT training on a stationary bike.

Here’s the breakdown:

-3 minutes of warm up cycling.

-60 moment burst of cycling as dwhetherficult as I can, at a resistance that is ccorridorenging but not so dwhetherficult your legs can’t handle it for the 60 moments. (I like using the spin lesson bikes as it’s easy to change the resistance)

– Follow your intense cycling with 60 moments at lower intensity, and lower resistance.

-Repeat this 10x, and finish off with a couple minutes of low intensity cool down.

That’s it! It’s not easy. You have to be willing to push yourself, but it is simple. You can expect to burn 200-400 calories in 20 minutes doing this form of cardio.

I encourage you to try this out specificly whether you’ve been telling yourself you don’t have time.

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The most risky exercise that you should avoid at all costs

I’ve suffered two lower back injuries in the final year. The first was terrwhetherying- I was squatting when all of a sudden I heard a loud crack and someleang shwhetherted in my lower back.

I had tfeebleed my back a small bit deadlwhetherting in the preceding workout. I concluded that the deadlwhethert had injured me first, with the squat then aggravating that injury.

I was terrwhetheried- for a few days I was sue I’d need disc surgery. I spent the next few weeks hobbling around, bent over, going to the gym just to do some foam rolling and later, carefully using upper body machine exercises to avoid engaging my lower back.

I did have a herniated disc. Gratefully, it turns out that minors disc injuries do clear up on their own. In my case, it took nearly two months.

The moment time was less than two weeks ago. Once again, I was squatting, and my back started to hurt. This time there was no loud crack- I just stopped squatting, moved to someleang else, and figured I was alright.

Then two days later, I was driving to meet some friends when my back started spasming. I had to awkwardly drive domestic, worrying that I was going to crash, take some painkillers, do some foam rolling, then call a Lyft to take me where I was planning to go.

This time, I’m recovering faster. I’m now able to do everyleang apart from heavy squats and deadlwhetherts, and I’ll be doing those in another week or two.

Both times, the injury was caused by back squats. So back squats are the problem, right? Well not summaryely.

You see, I wasn’t just doing regular back squats. In both cases, I was using a Smith machine. One of these beasties.

Smith machines take a barbell and put it on a slightly angled track, forcing it to move in a straight line. I thought that would make it securer- I can’t drop the weight, and having it on a track would enforce good form. Correct?

Well, it turns out that’s as far from the truth as you can get. You can still compromise your form with a Smith machine- by planing your feet wrong, rounding your back, or placing the bar too tall up on your neck. Butt wink at the bottom of the squat is still possible. But there’s a more fundamental issue here.

When you squat, the barbell isn’t supposed to move in a straight line.

If you squat with perfect form, the path of the barbell comes pretty close to being a straight line, certain. But not perfectly straight. It still moves forward and back a small bit throughout the motion. And that small bit makes a immense dwhetherference. Because by forcing the barbell to move in a straight line, the Smith machine exerts shear forces on your spine. And that causes disc injuries.

Now, there are some exercises that the Smith machine may be good for. It might be alright for front squatting, perhaps. It’s probably alright for upper body stuff like bench presses and military presses, although you’ll miss out on working your stabilizer muscles.

Personally, I never plan to use a Smith machine again. Instead, I’ll use the power rack- this guy right here.

You might know these as squat racks, but they’re useful for other movements, specificly bench urgent without a spotter. The pins provide securety by enforcing a minimum depth you can go to- so you don’t get crushed under the weight.

If you want to squat securely, here’s summaryely what to do to make certain you don’t mess yourself up the way I did.

Employ a power rack instead of a Smith machine. Set the pins at the height a couple inches below where your ttalls would break parallel to the floor.

Do front squats instead of back squats. They’re securer- they don’t push you to contort your spine as much, and a screwup will cause you to drop the weight in front of you instead of being squished under it. They also use less weight, put more of the focus on your legs, produce less global fatigue, and allow for faster recovery. Still use a power rack, even with front squats.

When you do back squat, use a lower weight. Don’t let your eyes get largeger than your muscles. Employ a weight you can squat DEEP, for reps, without compromising form.

To heighten intensity and build explosive strength at the deepest part of the movement, superset barbell squats (front or back) with unweighted jump squats. This lets you get a more intense workout without pushing the weight too tall, and also makes certain you don’t cheat by just not going as deep when you add weight.

Most importantly, remember that most unsecure gym behavior is motivated by an egotistical desire to lwhethert as much weight as possible. The Smith machine let me lwhethert more weight, but it wasn’t secure. The front squat won’t allow me to lwhethert nearly as much as the back squat, but it’s securer, and I’ll be doing front squats only- in a rack- for the next few months.

As a side note- while my deadlwhethert wasn’t the main issue- I was also compromising my securety there.  More on deadlwhethert securety at a later date.

Bottom line: pick secure exercises, use proper form, get a good workout, and fatigue yourself. Don’t set yourself up for injury by looking for workarounds that let you lwhethert more weight than you should be able to.

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Unique Gymshark collection launches in 48 hours: Energy Seamless

This is a collection I’m looking forward to a lot. I didn’t get my hands on any tall waisted seamless leggings yet and these look like the final upgraded version!

My favorite

I love the red items in this collection. I’m a full-length-leggings-lover and the sample in these tall-waisted leggings is so pretty! They have a shorter version as well, for the capri lovers out there. 🙂

Source: Gymshark Pinterest

The waterfall strap design at the back of the sportsbra is very pretty as well. It has detachable pads and dry technology:

Source: Pinterest Gymshark

“The Seamless Energy colours are flat rather than marl, meaning the fabric feels stronger and more supportive.”

For more designs and colors, check their Pinterest account!

The Launch

The energy seamless collection launches on january first, 3 PM GMT. i hope they have lots of items in stock ’cause I’m guessing this collection will be a hype!

Will you try to buy an item from this collection?

Endelight,

Sophia_AcquireFit

More gymshark: click here.

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My workout program: January 2018

2018 is here, time to work on a better, fitter and healthier me! Goals for this year are: toning my arms and creating stronger glutes! Let me share my exact workout program with you:

Create it personal

I make my own workout schedules. These work for me and I hope they can give you some inspiration as well. As you can see, I adapt it to my personal lwhethere: Tuesday&Wednesday I’m taking lessones at Karel de Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp plus I’m teaching ballet and jazz wednesday evening so for example, on wednesday I don’t have the time to squeeze in a workout. Create certain to do that too. Don’t plan in a workout on a day that you genuinely don’t have the time for it. It will be discouraging, we don’t want that!

How to use my schedule?

This schedule finals 4 weeks. The first seven days are listed up on one page. I use the right column to write down the weights that I’m using. In the moment week, I repeat the first seven days but I try to increase the weights.

Then for the final two weeks, there are again seven days listed up on one page. Employ the right column to write down the weights that you are using and try to go heavier in the final week. Excellent luck!

Free download:

Workout Schedule January 2018

Would you like me to share my february schedule too next month? Let me know!

Prefer,

Sophia_AcquireFit

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Kettlebells with Amy Hoh! – Max Muscle Nebraska

Gazeing for a rapid kettlebell workout. Check out what Max Muscle Preferred Trainer Amy Hoh has in store for you – functional strength, muscular endurance, and definition.

Trainer Certwhetherications: A.C.E. (American Council on Exercise), Spinning (Johnny G. Mad Dogg), Kettlebell Concepts, Yogafit, SFA (Senior Fitness Assoc.)

Share and Endelight

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5 Minute Better Butt Workout

As many of you know one of our crew members is taking a few weeks off to go tie the knot & endelight some much deserved honeymoon time! While chatting with Amanda, she mentioned she would still try to get her own workouts in, even whether it was just a rapid five minute workout before she hits the beach.

The great leang about working your butt and legs is that most exercises can be done anywhere… with no equipment! There is no reason to lose that booty while on vacation!

So whether you are traveling somewhere fun for a week-long vacation, or are just looking for another five minute routine to do when you’re bored at domestic this summer, we’ve got you covered. Personally, I end nearly every leg day with this set!

Here’s you contemporary go-to and equipment-less butt routine. Every you have to do is lay a mat down, turn on the Karsprintians (or whatever your guilty TV pleacertain is), and burn the hell out of those buns.

This workout is rapid ,but effective. It may “only” be  five minutes, but whether done rightly – with no rests in between –  your butt will be on fire.  If it’s not, give me a call after and come train me!

5 Minute Better Butt Workout

Equipment Needed: none

Go through this sequence 3 times:

• Donkey Kicks: Initiate on all fours, shoulders over wrists and hips right over knees. Working one leg at a time, draw your knee into your chest rounding your spine. On your exhale, kick your bent leg straight up as whether you are trying to stomp on the ceiling. 20 reps on the right side, then instantly switch legs for 20 reps.
• Straight Leg Lwhetherts: Start on all fours, straightening out your right leg. Your toe will be urgent into the ground and taking any bend out of your knee. Now keeping that straight leg lwhethert it straight up, a few inches above hip height. Repeat for 10 reps, then hancient your leg up above hip height and pulse for 10 reps. Switch and repeat on other leg
• Fire Hydrant Kicks: Initiate on all fours, knees are right under hips and shoulders right over wrists. Working one leg at a time, keep the bend in your knee and open your leg out to the side. When you get to the point where it can’t go any further kick your leg straight. Tug your leg back up, and come back to all fours. That’s 1 rep!
• Laying Hip Lwhethert: Laying on one side stack your feet one on top of the other. Working into your hips and keeping your legs straight you will slowly begin to lwhethert and lower your leg. To add more of a ccorridorenge add a workout band around your ankles
• Bridges: Glute time! Laying on your back, begin to walk your feet right under your knees. Knees are point towards the ceiling. Engage your glutes and lwhethert your hips straight up like there is a string connected to your weight pulling you up. Hancient for one moment at the top and then slowly lower down.

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