8 Weeks Survived: Their Final Conditioning Class

We just wanted to shout out Melissa & Sujatha for completing their 8-week strength & conditioning program with us. They had an incredible final workout! Here is some video we captured of their finisher - the 300 workout. They did the 300 at the end of their workout, AFTER 40 minutes of grueling conditioning work. They finished the drill in a most impressive 17:40 and 18:23. AMAZING!!! The ladies will take a break for about 4-weeks and then return to their training protocols with us. They have been absolutely amazing and went from having never seen a kettlebell to swinging, cleaning, snatching, and turkish getup-ing their way to drastically improved physical condition.

Mel & Sujatha: THANK YOU for your dedication and focus over the past 8 weeks. You never missed a session, slacked off, or gave up -- EVER!! I know we've said it before, but working with you has been our esteemed pleasure. We admire your dedication, drive, and focus. Thank you for the opportunity. We are immensely proud of your progress and results!!!!

Modified Smokin' Ladders

Now that Melissa has successfully learned and executed the snatch, and she's at the end of her S&C program, we thought that the perfect workout for her today would be a modified version of Smokin' Ladders. We followed the structure of the original program, but changed up some of the exercises (i.e. Double C&P was changed to Single Arm C&P; Snatch ladders were a combination of high pulls & snatches, etc). She did an excellent job and made it through 9 rounds of the 12 round program in about 50 mins. I am so proud of her, and she is thoroughly enjoying her kettlebell program. She'll take a few weeks off to focus on deliverables for her pharmacy program, but then she'll be back to the Underground in May for some more hard core training. Well done, Mel!!!! :-)

Welcome, Susan!

We have a new face at the Underground. Susan has enthusiastically decided to enter our training program, even with a slightly injured foot. Susan has a stellar work ethic, wonderful personality, and clearly defined training goals. We at the Underground are looking forward to working with her! She had her first workout on Monday night, and she did an incredible job. Given her injury, we are mostly going to structure our workouts around upper body & core, and focus on getting her muscular endurance back. By the time her cast comes off, her body should be ready for a little taste of the cast iron KB's :-)

Level 2 KB Workshop

The ladies came back for another round after their intense HOC workout yesterday. They did an excellent job and learned the following in the level 2 workshop:

Overhead Squat
SOTS Press
High Pull
Snatch
Tactical Lunge
Around-the-Body Pass
Figure-8-to-Hold
Double KB Swing

We reviewed the following movements: deadlift; swings (1H, 2H, H2H); cleans; presses; push presses; squats; front squats; windmill; turkish getup. We spent about 30 mins reviewing these fundamentals and then proceeded to learn the additional moves. The ladies did a great job today, and we were able to get outside to the track again!! It was a tad bit windy, but the temperature was fabulous!

High Octane Cardio (HOC)

Today we put the ladies through a pretty intense HOC workout. They persevered and handled the challenge flawlessly! We had kettlebells at 2 ends of the track. After warming them up with some joint mobility drills and turkish getups, the HOC drill was as follows:

Lap 1: 50 swings @ 12kg, 5 cleans/side @ 9kg
Lap 2: 40 swings @ 12kg, 10 cleans/side @ 9kg + 5 pushups
Lap 3: 30 swings @ 12kg, 5 presses/side @ 9kg twice
Lap 4: 20 swings @ 12kg, 15 squats/side @ 9kg
Lap 5: 10 swings @ 12kg, 10 presses, 10 1H swings, 10 cleans, 10 front squats @ 9kg EACH SIDE

It took the ladies about 35-40 minutes to complete this conditioning circuit (excluding warmup & cool down). WELL DONE!!!

Weekend fun...

SATURDAY: This past weekend was alot of fun! We had our usual conditioning circuit class on Saturday. It was a cold, dreary day, but inside the Underground, it was full of energy! We had the music pumpin and our clients were sweating up a storm (I think that I was too - LOL)! Time just flew by, energy levels were high, and we wound up workingout for about an hour and a half. Melissa brought her boyfriend along, and he joined us for the festivities :-)

SUNDAY: On Sunday we held a Level 1 Kettlebell workshop. In 2 hours we covered deadlift variations, swing variations, cleans, presses/push presses, squat variations (wave squat, single KB squat, front squat), windmills, and the Turkish Getup. We will have a Level 2 workshop with the same group in 2 weeks. We want to give our clients some time to practice what they've learned in their individual sessions. It was alot of fun, and I felt so great to have taught those who were completely unfamiliar with kettlebell training and given them a solid foundation in a short period of time.

After our workshop, we proceeded to pretty up our kettlebell collection. We repainted all of them, and they look like shiny, pretty colors of the rainbow. I'll be applying the final coat of gloss today and then they will be ready for their photo shoot :-). It was a great weekend, and today the sun is brightly shining and the weather is warming up! Spring here we come!!! :-)

8-week strength & conditioning program coming to an end

Our 8-week female strength & conditioning class is coming to a close. It's been ALOT of fun working with these ladies, and very rewarding to see how far they've come in such a short period of time. We'll make an announcement when we form another group specific training class. In the mean time, we are still accepting clients for 1x1 training, couples/partner training, and conditioning classes. Please contact us if you are interested in working together. Our services are listed on the right hand side of this blog.

Lower Body Kettlebell Strength Circuit

Tonight, I designed the following circuit for my client, focusing on lower body. On Monday night (upper body strength), she learned 3/4 of the Turkish Getup. Tonight, she learned the remainder of the Turkish Getup and performed a few reps per side for her warm-up. Truly an incredible performance by my stellar client! Here's what we did. Give it a shot, using the following guidelines: Beginner: Perform 3 rounds. 90sec rest in between each round, 30 sec rest in between each exercise. Intermediate: Perform 4 rounds. 60 sec rest in between each round, 30 sec rest in between each exercise. Increase weight as appropriate. Advanced: Perform 5 rounds. 45 sec rest in between each round, 20 sec rest in between each exercise. Increase weight as appropriate.

Lower Body Strength Circuit

Kettlebell 2H Swing @ 20kg, 1:00

Double Kettlebell Suitcase Deadlift 1x8 @16kg

Kettlebell Squat 1x8/side @12kg

Kettlebell 2H Swing @ 16kg, 1:00

Kettlebell Front Squat 1x8/side @ 12kg

Kettlebell Windmill 1x3/side @ 9kg

Turkish Getup 1x3/side @ 9kg

Ab Circuit (2x, minimal rest in between rounds)

Get-Up Situp 0:30 (1 side per round)

Russian Twist 0:30

Plank 0:30

Shout Out to the Ladies of the Underground...

Our Underground Ladies never cease to amaze me! They are a bunch of hard working, driven athletes. We put them through a simply awesome circuit on Saturday, and they excelled as usual! We didn't take any pictures since we were busy coaching, but if you want to give it a try, here's the protocol. Jay & I went through the workout ourselves on Sunday, and it was really tough! Way to go, Sujatha & Melissa!!!

Circuit #1
Perform 2 rounds of this circuit with 3:00 Work/0:45 Rest for each exercise. Rest 1-2 mins between rounds.

Elliptical (Moderate resistance/RPM at least 60 for first minute, increase resistance and RPM during second minute, all out 30 sec sprint on the last minute, cool down back to 60RPM/moderate resistance for the last 30 sec)

KB Swings (Mix up 2-handed, 1-handed, hand-to-hand)

Quick Feet (0:30) & Alternating Lunges on Bosu ball (0:30)

Incline DB Press (0:30) & Bicep Curl (0:30)

Abs

Circuit #2
Perform 2 rounds of this circuit with 2:00 Work/0:30 Rest for each exercise. Rest 1-2 mins between rounds.

Bike (Sprint 0:20, Recover 0:10 for the entire work period)

KB Swings OR Clean & Press

Sandbag Squats (0:30) & Jumping Pull-Ups (0:30)

1-Arm DB (or KB) Row (0:30) & BW Dips (0:30)

Abs

If you have anything left in the tank, try this final finisher circuit:

Finisher Circuit (1x, 2:00 work/0:30 rest)

Heavy Bag

Jog-in-place & Punch with 3lb dumbells (punch up for 0:30, punch forward 0:30)