Ken and I were invited down to Ottawa to teach a hands-on Kettlebell workshop at a friends new training facility. Brenda Harvey-Banning just built an amazing gym on her property and let me tell you, it was a perfect spot to host a Kettlebell workshop.
The gym was equipped with a complete set of Kettlebells, (I may have helped with that set up) and an Elitefts Monolift, (Shane Church had a hand in that) a competition bench, (Ken Whetham built this bench), racks, deadlift platform, and everything else you need for a complete fitness environment. Brenda offers group fitness, private personal training sessions and there is a private powerlifting club that trains there on Sundays by invitation only.
15 Eager people, 10 women, 5 men ready to learn how to lift kettlebells properly. 3 Hours of hands on technique, we covered right from the basic how to hold a kettlebell properly, to sport training, metabolic conditioning, strength training and a little bit of double Kettlebell Hell !
Starting with the basic swing, one arm swing, alternating swings, this alone took close to 45 mins.
Next, mastering the clean, sometimes this move is tough for people to get, here is a great article with video demo's to help with this.
Sometimes different cues from different instructors really help with certain moves. Once you get the feeling of the move and the reason for doing it the way you need too, it will come automatically. Brenda had a great cue on the cleans to add to this education session.
We covered the press, push press, jerk, clean & press, clean & jerk. We attempted to teach the snatch which is technically the hardest to master and to teach, read here on Dissecting the Kettlebell Snatch. This move is better suited at an intermediate or advanced workshop.
Next up, Metabolic Conditioning, my favourite thing to teach with Kettlebells, checkout all my Met Con video's on my youtube channel or on my Athlete blogs
We covered the dreaded swing squat, drop/swing squat combo, figure 8 holds with and without squat. Kettlebell compounds and chains, these were a hit with the entire group. Compounds are a great way to put everything together that you learned and put it into a fun full body session.
Use compounds as a finisher, increase your reps or your bell size and next thing you know you have "Death by Kettlebell"
Double bells, ah, my most favourite, double bells not only allow you to utilize your time better, twice the workout in half the time but they also train your body to be equal on both sides. None of the one arm dominate stuff, use double bells and get both sides just as strong and co-ordinated as each other. Double Kettlebell Metabolic Madness is the hot ticket.
Another great article produced by Elitefts on Double Snatch.
We finished up with some strength training protocols, and a Q & A session. Everyone had an amazing workshop, lots of sweat, ripped hands and some great information to absorb.
Another successful workshop in the books, we have travelled as far south as London Ohio and as far east as Ottawa Ontario to put on these workshop, we love to live, learn, pass on.
#teamelitefts #kettlebellsrock