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Fitness Blog
WKC Fitness Trainer
I was in Edmonton, Alberta this past weekend for the WKC (World Kettlebell Club) Fitness Trainer course and I am now officially a licensed WKC fitness trainer! The course was instructed by Catherine Imes, who was the first American born Master of Sport in kettlebell lifting, and covered the WKC core lifts, the WKC fundamentals and the WKC training protocols.
We started the day off with the basic mechanics of the swing and then went over the rack position. Once everyone felt comfortable in the rack position we worked on the shoulder press and push press. After the push press we moved on to the clean and then put together the clean and press. We worked on the clean and press for awhile and then finished the morning off with a group workout that involved tempo training... something that I’ve never done before!
The workout consisted of 3 exercises - the shoulder press, the clean and the long cycle press (which is the clean and shoulder press combined). We had to do 2 minutes of each exercise on each arm and had to hit a specific number of reps each minute. This seemed pretty easy at first and I had to slow my tempo down to make sure I didn’t go over the target number of reps. Once we got to the second and third exercises though, my shoulders started to fatigue and it became a lot more difficult to keep pace. I finished the workout without any real problems but definitely found a new appreciation for this type of training. After the workout we took a short break for lunch. After lunch we were taught the jerk, which I found to be the most difficult lift to learn, and finished the afternoon off with the snatch.
The WKC is a much more relaxed style compared to the hardstyle used by the RKC. There were a few times throughout the day where I got my breathing and swinging technique mixed up but managed to get the hang of it and will be working diligently over the next few months though to make sure I have it down pat!
I really enjoyed the course and would strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the the GS (Girevoy Sport) style of lifting. The next level of the WKC is the WKC strength and conditioning coach certification which is instructed by former world kettlebell champion and Honored Master of Sport, Valery Fedorenko. I will be preparing for this course this Fall and hopefully have it by the end of the year!
General Fitness article by Ben on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 2:29:14 PM EST
Nutts Cup 2011
Marlaena, my friend Jordan and I competed in our first CrossFit competition last weekend. It was the second annual Nutts Cup hosted by CrossFit Vancouver and was in honor of Lt. Andrew Nuttall, a former CrossFit coach, who lost his life while serving in Afghanistan.
The Nutts Cup was a team event this year. The teams were made up of 2 guys and 1 girl and the event consisted of 3 different workouts throughout the day. The first workout was a squat snatch workout where each team had to choose a weight that they could do 6 times every minute on the minute for ten minutes. The team that was able to complete all 10 rounds using the heaviest weight won. The second workout was total number of muscle-ups completed by each team in 5 minutes. And the final workout was a modified version of the original Nutts Hero WOD and consisted of 40 handstand push-ups, 40 deadlifts, 40 box jumps, 75 pull-ups, 150 wall balls, 150 double unders and a 550 meter plate run.
We did pretty well in all three of the workouts and really pushed it hard in the last! Jordy did the 45lb. plate run in the final workout and barely made it across the finish line! I was so proud of our team for pushing so hard! It was awesome!
It was an unbelievable day and I had so much fun! The Nuttall family was in attendance, the Canadian Military was there to lend their support and to present the Nutts Cup trophy to the winning team. And there were plenty of family and friends there cheering everyone on!
We were hoping to finish in the top 15 and actually finished 11th out of 28 teams! We felt really good with our performance and did everything we were hoping to. There were some pretty good teams and we were more than able to hold our own! I had such an amazing time and definitely think that Team Party Rockers will be back to do it all again next year!
General Fitness article by Ben on Thursday, September 01, 2011 12:24:53 PM EST
Whistler Bungee
Marlaena and I got married last week.. yay for us!!
After the wedding we went up to Whistler, B.C. for a few days. For those not familiar with Whistler, it co-hosted the winter Olympics last year and is one of the most beautiful mountain resort towns in the world. And fortunately for us, only a couple of hours from where we live.
While we were there we did some hiking, checked out a glacier lake and spent quite a bit of time by the pool. Our hotel pool was outside on a huge patio that overlooked the village square.. it was very nice!
We also went bungee jumping while we were up there. Now this is something that I would NEVER do on my own but one of Marlaena’s girlfriends bought it for us as a wedding gift so I felt obligated to do it. Let me tell you.. I was not very happy with her friend and I had anxiety filled dreams for days before!
Anyways we went to Whistler Bungee and the guys working there were awesome! We were a bit early so got to watch about a half dozen people jump before us. I’m not sure if this made me more nervous or not but I watched a few people that really had a hard time jumping but still did so I figured if they could do it, I had no choice.
Mar and I jumped together. She straddled me and I had to back up on to the plank and take the plunge for the both of us. Now I’m not going to lie, I was scared to death! The guy working started counting down from 5 and I think I jumped when he hit 2 because I was afraid if I waited any longer, I wouldn’t be able to do it!
It was definitely one of the scariest things that I’ve done but I’m so glad we did it. It’s been awhile since I’ve done something that really scared me and I forgot how great it feels after when you’ve made it out alive and unscathed!
General Fitness article by Ben on Sunday, August 07, 2011 7:04:58 PM EST
Gourmet Nutrition
I ordered a new cookbook awhile back and finally received it in the mail the other day! The book is called "Gourmet Nutrition: The Cookbook For The Fit Food Lover" and is written by Dr. John M. Berardi, Michael Williams and Kristina Andrew.
Now Marlaena and I eat pretty well and keep our diet consisting mostly of whole foods, lot's of different veggies, grass fed meats & poultry, eggs, fish, high quality dairy, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc. BUT our biggest problem is variety!!! We both have pretty demanding work/training schedules so don't have a lot of time to get creative in the kitchen during the week.
We often find ourselves in a "food rut" where even though we’re eating healthy, we essentially rotate between the same handful of meals, which is most often grilled meat on the barbeque and a mixed salad. Now don’t get me wrong.. I love anything that’s cooked on the BBQ, especially during the Summer, but eating the same type of meal over and over again starts to get pretty old, pretty darn quick!
Anyways, I’ve been following Dr. John Berardi and his philosophies on food and nutrition for a few years now and decided to buy his new cookbook to help push us out of our "food comfort zone" and start trying out new some recipes! I’m going to attempt to make one new recipe every week and if it's good, I'll add it to my list of meal options. I really don’t like spending a lot of time on food prep and planning meals so I’m really hoping this book gives me a bunch of great, new recipes that will be tasty, healthy and relatively easy to prepare!
I will be posting my creations every week and will try to include a picture with each one... as long as the dish looks somewhat presentable when I’m done!
Diet & Nutrition article by Ben on Monday, July 11, 2011 4:59:42 PM EST
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