My First Kettelbell Class.. But I'm Not Bitter

Good evening Beautiful,Well, tonight’s my night alone, and I’m bitter. Not as bitter as I was all day, but still quite bitter (my workout cheered me up a bit, but more on that in a minute). That’s all I’m going to say about that because I don’t want to talk about how I’m not in London right now, visiting with a ton of old friends, and how I’m home alone, doing laundry and watching Shark Tank.Tonight I went to my first Kettlebell class! It was at Bang Fitness on Queen and Bathurst here in Toronto, and my god, I almost died. Seriously. Let me start at the beginning. I walked there because at Queen and Bathurst good luck finding parking, and it’s like 4 blocks from me, so why not. It was a gorgeous walk! A warm breeze and tons of people out and about because of the amazing weather. I had to walk up Bathurst and once I hit Queen I had to go west about 50 meters. Well frig, I was in my workout clothes with a Lululemon jacket over my tank top and the people that were hanging out on the corner of Queen and Bathurst were…. Interesting. I was wearing sunglasses so I didn’t have to make eye contact with anyone, but to sum it up I wanted to get the eff out as quickly as possible.I finally found the address, and went through the creepy door, and up the creepy (and very hot) stairs to the second floor where I saw “Bang Fitness!” on the door and went inside. There was a creeky little desk and all I could see was a super intense boxing ring. I had never been here before so I had no friggen idea what I was doing, and could only assume that it was like GoodLife and that I needed to pay my guest fee at this desk, so I stood there for a couple minutes till a random boxer came over and asked if I had questions. Well yes, sir… I’m here to give you money! He made me walk down a little hallway and made sure I removed my shoes beforehand. So I look up and see that the boxing area, and “Bang Fitness!” are two separate areas, and Bang Fitness is all turf, and tires, and kettle bells, and it reminded me of a CrossFit studio, they were even installing gymnastic rings.Well crap, if I had known I would never have mentioned CrossFit in this gym. They’re very anti-crossfit there, but they do a lot of the moves that are in CrossFit. They even had a white board where people wrote their time. I’m not sure what to think of that, but alas if I go back, I will not mention CrossFit that’s for sure.So I met a guy that was working, I can’t even remember his name, but he was very nice, asked about my kettlebell history (haha… very minimal), let me pay and allowed me to put my shoes back on. There were a couple other people working out, but most of them left once the kettlebell class started except for like 5 men. I was the only female in the whole place with the exception of the boxing ring… it was fun! I love hanging out with guys, it’s so much more relaxed and non-judgemental.Anywho, I started by doing some foam rolling at the recommendation of the man whose name I can’t remember. I did my shin where I have the splints, then my quads, hamstrings, lower back and upper back, and I was good to go. The instructor (if you would call him that, he’s more like a trainer doing small group training) was a HUGE guy with a pony tail wearing flip flops. I was fairly intimidated and tried being funny, but he didn’t take to very many of my jokes, but he did laugh at my trucker mouth on occasion during this workout.They only had two different sizes of kettlebells, 25kg and 35kg, so I went with the 25kg and THANK GOD I did. We started our warm up by swinging the bell side to side, then around our body one way, then the other, then a sort of “figure 8” through our legs. The workout was broken up into 3 parts, and each part was 3 rounds of 5 exercises lasting 1 minute each… I know, hard to picture, but it went like this (I’m going to write out everything, including the repeats, just so you can understand what I mean.Group of Exercises #1
Round 1
Normal kettlebell swings through the legs for 1 minute
Shoulder Presses with the bell for 1 minute
Kettlebell swings alternating hands at the highest point for 1 minute
I can’t remember what this exercise was, but it lasted 1 minute
Horizontal jumps over the kettlebell for 1 minute1 minute restRound 2
Normal kettlebell swings through the legs for 1 minute
Shoulder Presses with the bell for 1 minute
Kettlebell swings alternating hands at the highest point for 1 minute
I can’t remember what this exercise was, but it lasted 1 minute
Horizontal jumps over the kettlebell for 1 minute1 minute rest
Round 3
Normal kettlebell swings through the legs for 1 minute
Shoulder Presses with the bell for 1 minute
Kettlebell swings alternating hands at the highest point for 1 minute
I can’t remember what this exercise was, but it lasted 1 minute
Horizontal jumps over the kettlebell for 1 minute2 minute “intermission” (we only got one of these)Group of Exercises #2
Round 1
Kettlebell touchdown/row (squat until the bell touches the ground and move up quickly, with the momentum you bring the bell up to shoulder height holding it with both hands) for 1 minute
Backward lunges holding the bell at shoulder height for 1 minute
I can’t remember the name of this exercise, but it’s like the row, only you use the momentum to bring the bell all the way up over your head and repeat for 1 minute **
One hand rows (like the two handed one, but you alternate hands after every rep) for 1 minute
Plank over top of the bell doing 1 hand touches for 1 minute1 minute restRound 2
Kettlebell touchdown/row (squat until the bell touches the ground and move up quickly, with the momentum you bring the bell up to shoulder height holding it with both hands) for 1 minute
Backward lunges holding the bell at shoulder height for 1 minute
I can’t remember the name of this exercise, but it’s like the row, only you use the momentum to bring the bell all the way up over your head and repeat for 1 minute **
One hand rows (like the two handed one, but you alternate hands after every rep) for 1 minute
Plank over top of the bell doing 1 hand touches for 1 minute1 minute restRound 3
Kettlebell touchdown/row (squat until the bell touches the ground and move up quickly, with the momentum you bring the bell up to shoulder height holding it with both hands) for 1 minute
Backward lunges holding the bell at shoulder height for 1 minute
I can’t remember the name of this exercise, but it’s like the row, only you use the momentum to bring the bell all the way up over your head and repeat for 1 minute **
One hand rows (like the two handed one, but you alternate hands after every rep) for 1 minute
Plank over top of the bell doing 1 hand touches for 1 minute** I had to use chalk during this exercise, and I felt so intense, it was awesome!Then we did what’s called “Tabata”… It was 8 rounds, 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest and we did kettlebell swings moving 1 step forward and 1 step back.I was so exhausted after this workout; I had to lay on the turf for a little bit. I definitely got my money’s worth tonight. Then the hard part, the walk down the stairs and then home. My arms are seriously shaking still. I got home and had a protein shake instantly. Then made this delicious yet extremely boring dinner….And now I’m finishing the laundry and sipping on my “Sexy” vino and writing… all in all, not a bad night after all. A super lame night, but fairly productive. But I’m not bitter.. Stay sweet.
xoxo