AND SO IT BEGINS

Tomorrow night I start my training for the StrongFirst Barbell Instructor course which I will participate in in June 2016.  I am taking the course at Skill of Strength in Chelmsford and I plan to train there also.

I took the StrongFirst Barbll Course there also...can you find me?

Everything is mostly a pro about the training except I will be training at 5:30 after work.  I will be lifting heavy weights after work.  Gotta say....I am a morning work out person so this will be a challenge.  Here's the thing.  I always feel the need to push my self.  This is another such case.  I always say it.  I want to be as strong as I possible can be.  

Strength...where does the motivation and desire originate.

Thinking about the blog post on Dave Mirra and what an inspiration he was.  I started thinking about Extreme Sports and how male dominated they are.  I vaguely remember two  or three women skateboarders at the Gravity Games in Providence, RI...doesn't mean there weren't others.  The Skateboarding Women's Event is what I remember.  Where are the women?  Who are the women that are pioneers and who inspire? 

Today you can find those women in the health and fitness field.  They are young woman pushing the boundaries of strength.  They are promoting body acceptance.  They are role models for our teens and pre-teens.  They have inspired me to live outside my comfort zone and to pick up some dang heavy weights.  

I plan to spend the next several weeks...one day a week...introducing you to those women who inspire me.  But wait, the very first blog I started reading was by Tony Gentilcore in the Boston Herald.  He is a strength loving, deadlift loving, cat loving and movie loving kind of guy.  He is also one of the first I was exposed to and who promoted women's strength training. 

It was his blog that started my journey.

http://tonygentilcore.com/

WHY WOULD YOU DO A KETTLEBELL SWING CHALLENGE? WAIT...WHAT EXACTLY IS A KETTLEBELL SWING?

The picture above is my kettlebell collection...small but growing.

Seriously, why would anyone want to do a 4 week kettlebell challenge?  Why would you spend part of your day swinging that weird shaped weight?  Me?  I like to attempt the various challenges that fitness professionals post online.  Sometimes I succeed; sometimes I don't.  Kettlebells rock my world.  Only thing better are deadlifts with a bar but that is a story for another day.

I started the challenge for a variety of reasons.

First, I really like Artemis and her fitness style.  If Artemis was setting it up, I wanted to be involved.  Simple as that. 

Second, I wanted to see how much I could actually swing in a week.  I did 4996 swings in 4 weeks.  Previously, I would do 50-100 in a week.  That seems like such a puny number right now.  As the weeks went on I realize the challenge wasn't just about how many swings you did.  For me it became, not only about the number of swings, but about lifting heavier and the cardio work out. At the end of each session, damn I was sweaty...every single time.  If I was swinging a heavy enough weight, my glutes and hamstrings were on fire.  My lats and core felt like they also got a work out. 

Third, I needed the mental challenge.  I knew if I did the work outs as designed, it would be a mental challenge especially if I did my usual work out the same day.  There were times I had to mentally push myself through this challenge.  Don't get me wrong, if for some reason my body didn't feel up to the challenge from a safety standpoint, I either stopped or didn't attempt the work out that day.  The challenge helped perfect the ability to tell the difference between mental anguish and physical pain.  As you get older it is very important to know the difference.

Fourth, I knew those weeks before the holidays were going to be difficult from a time management point of view.  The challenge provided an intense but relatively quick work out that left me feeling physically satisfied. 

Fifth, I actually worked out in these babies.  Granted, it was in the comfort of my own home but still. 

If you want to learn the kettlebell swing in the privacy of your own home or if you just want to know what a kettlebell swing is here is an excellent tutorial by Artemis and Eric....