Sunday, January 27, 2008

RKC Steve Freides Workshop

I have literally just gotten home from this afternoon's Kettlebell Workshop hosted by RKC Steve Freides - and I am POOPED!

Steve gave us two solid hours of quality instruction. I was amazed that for the first 45 minutes of the class we never touched a kettlebell! But that was good! Steve started us off with a host of joint mobility, bodyweight and stretching drills. Steve is able to lower himself with ease into a full split. Awesome. I was pretty impressed with my own flexibility as well. For someone who hasn't practiced a split stretch in about 10 years, I was able to get down there pretty good. I guess it's all about your foundation. As long as it's built correctly, it doesn't take too long to get back to where you left off.

Once we got into kettlebells, Steve had us go through 2-Hand Swings, 1-Hand Swings, Cleans, Presses, Windmills and finally Snatches. He was able to give me a few pointers, such as keeping my arms in tighter on my cleans as well as keeping my shoulders down (particularly on my right side) at the top position of my snatch.

We then finished off with Steve's "7 Minutes of Doom". Luckily we were running just a few minutes behind otherwise we would have been subject to a full 10 minutes of doom. And those 7 minutes consisted of performing 10 snatches (5 left, 5 right) on the minute for 7 minutes.

Now this is something I have as of late become all too familiar with! The only difference is that today I brought the 20kg bells with me, not the 24kg. I was able to 'comfortably' perform the full 7 sets of snatches, although the last set was starting to get weak.

So I'm pretty tired right now. I think I'll take tomorrow morning off from working out. Still coughing - 3 weeks now - this is just crazy - but improving. All in all, a great afternoon!

5 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

Sounds like a great seminar Howie!

Steve Freides is a funny guy and a very strong and flexible guy as you mentioned! I have met him several times!

Taikei Matsushita said...

RKC cert is around 8 hours long per day. Pooped at Steve's workshop will pay off eventually.

By the way, I rarely felt tired during the cert. Place was too exciting and I was just numb.

Howie B said...

It was a very good seminar. I am looking forward to next months.

As far as building up my conditioning, I suppose my 30-40 minutes sessions 3 times a week might need to be augmented. That's why I want to start a 4 day per week schedule. Also maybe throw in some extended GTG work on a Saturday.

fawn said...

Good stuff Howie! I trained with Andrea before I got certified... that put me at a huge advantage! I still try to drop in now and then for some Du Pain...

I too have been doing 5L/5R on the minute for my classes! However... we don't use words like "doom" in my class, we say things like "fun" and "easy cakes"!

Howie B said...

Easy Cakes! Nice! I'll have to come up with something original that I can call my timed sets. Good luck today! You're probably already done as I'm writing this. Can't wait to hear all about it!