Currently muscles I forgot I had are making their presence known to me again. Especially my back, butt, and back of my thighs. And is it all John’s fault. Who is John you ask, well I will tell you.
When I got my first kettlebell about a month ago I knew that just flinging the thing around would probably do something (probably resulting in injury to myself) but we all know that excercises work best when done right. So I, along with my boyfriend Will who is also starting to use the bells, went in search of a local instructor via the Dragon Door lists and found John.
John is a big giant of a guy, he is 6′6″, but don’t let his size fool you, he is an out going guy with a very nerdy DVD collection and is a total sucker for his cats. Oh yes ladies, he is single too.
John teaches out of his backyard in Oakland, it was great to be outside without a bunch of gym lackeys watching our bad form. Just John’s cats. We spent about an hour and a half going over form for basic squats (which I was STILL doing wrong), two handed swings, the clean, the press and one handed swings. John was great, very clear, had lots of tips and was generally very infectious with his attitude towards kettlebells and lifting in general. We are definitely going back for more lessons.
Once John helped us get into the right form it was amazing how much easier the exercises where, it is clear now that I need a heavier kettlebell, 8 kg (18 lbs) is not going to cut it for much other then practicing form until I get a new one.
Tonight I am going to work somemore on some swings and presses, if anything just to make my muscles move a bit and losen up the stiffness from my great desk job.
1 Comment
25 August, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Thank you for the kind words Elizabeth. It was a pleasure to meet the two of you. I am looking forward to seeing your progress as you both get better and stronger. Oh, and I had know idea I looked like that,,,the picture is,,,HUGE
Love the blog,
jw