Saturday Morning Sweat Session

Woke up early on Saturday to catch the kickboxing and kettlebell classes at Aiki. I did my usual whirlwind wake-up, feed cat, feed self, get into workout clothes, find water bottle madness. I was a minute behind schedule, about to head out the door when I looked down to see my car blocked in the driveway. Ugh! My biggest pet peeve. I beat down the roommate's door, moaned, groaned and puffed til he bolted out the door. I was five minutes late to class and my temper was through the roof. I walked in to see the floor completely packed! Largest class I've ever seen there! I'd say about 15 people or so were punching bags and there was no room for me. I threw my gear into the women's dressing room when I heard the owner of Aiki and head trainer, Dennis Hill, call my name. He had focus mits on and told me to get my gloves on.

I was pumped! 1-on-1 training is worlds better than a bag workout. Dennis pushed me for the remaining part of class. We started and ended drills on the same time as the instructor who was teaching the rest of the class. Some of the drills we did were ones I haven't done in ages. Full minute on one leg doing roundhouse kicks, which is always exhausting. We did knee, elbow and teep (front/push-kick) drills and some blocking. Loved it, I was dripping sweat by the end and totally grateful to Dennis for his time.

By the time the kettlebell class started, I was exhausted! I had to go from my usual 8kg (17.6 lbs) kettlebell to the 6 kg (13.2 lbs) kettlebell a few times. Some people have asked about the drills I do in my kettlebell class. This kinda creepy YouTube video is actually a great demonstration of the various drills I do (I recommend you mute it, listening to his grunts and breathing is a little weird, even though I'm very used to hearing it) :



So those are a lot of the standing drills. We also do floor drills which are chest presses, crunches and sit-ups, Turkish Get-Ups (no, I haven't gotten to the child lifting stage yet) and my favorite The Bridge. Unfortunately I can't find a link showing The Bridge exercise we do, so here goes: Lie face-up, knees bent, with feet flat. Hold a weight with each hand at chest level. Squeeze butt and lift it and hips off the floor as you extend arms and press weight toward the ceiling. Bring arms down and backwards until arms are fully extended behind your head. Lift weight back up to over your head, then lower arms, hips and butt to starting position. Repeat. Sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but it feels great on the abs and works butt, hamstrings, abs and arms all at the same time. I do it at the gym with a medicine ball, and a variation of it on the Swiss ball with a dumbbell or medicine ball.

I had planned on going to the gym after my classes, but these two classes were enough! Usually I don't feel so whipped after them, but with such an intense kickboxing session and then the kettlebells, I was done for the day! This morning my shoulders are sore, hopefully it goes away before my swimming class tonight.