I've been curious about kettleballs for a while. Should I take this as an endorsement? (of kettleballs not fireman... yeah.)

I think they're marvellous. You can get a very intense aerobic and conditioning workout in a few basic moves, taking no more than 20-30 minutes.

So three hours tonight was a lot, although we weren't exercising all that time, of course. But probably 1/3 of the time we were being shown moves, 1/3 of the time practising them, and the remaining 1/3 exercising.

Others here use them too, and I'm sure they'll agree with me that they're just great.

this thread is useless without pictures.

There were pictures, but none of the fireman's arse, sadly.

Nuts.

Cool! I really like my kettlebells too, EJ! I like swings and snatches, and can do military lifts, but I haven't attempted the attempted the Turkish getup, and I'm not comfortable with the windmills (neither are my knees). What did they show you? 3 hours does sound like a long time!

≡ Click to see image ≡

the Turkish Get Up sounds like fun.

We started with the absolute basics.

Squatting: As so many of the KB moves stem from a squat, we all had to get our squats as good as we could.

Then, just the basic 'pick up the kettlebell and put it down'. Then 'pick it up and walk with it'.

Then we did swings. Two-handed, one-handed. We were shown that the lift comes from the hips, not the arms.

Next we did the clean. It took a while to get the clean right. Then clean/squats.

We were shown with the lifts how the power comes from getting under the weight and punching through, not from lifting by the shoulders. It was amazing how much easier it became to do the snatches and presses after that.

The main trainer was a Crossfit guy, so his background was not just KBs but Olympic lifting, gymnastics, running ... he had a runner's build, but with bigger shoulders.

The fireman was a dedicated Russian KB trainer and he showed us the windmill and the Turkish getup. He did not have a runner's build. He was, along with his shorts, ripped.

There were also three other trainers - two from London Crossfit and one who was visiting from California (and who knows the legendary Nicole Carroll), and they made sure everyone was keeping to proper form.

We also did 'figures of eight' around our knees, and at the end a couple of the instructors did some kettlebell juggling, tossing two 16kg KBs about. Amazing.

I have a horrible feeling my wrists will be bruised, because I (along with everyone else) slammed the KBs onto them a fair few times when we were trying to get the clean and snatch right. And I'm aching all over now. Tomorrow will be worse, it always is the day after. But it was money well spent, and a lot of fun.

The Turkish Getup is so NOT fun.

Here's the trainer from last night's session, Andrew, demonstrating it.

And this is from a previous London Crossfit KB class.

Also, hearing a sexy fireman talking about 'clean snatch' proves just what a filthy mind I have.

HAHA! yeah that Turkish getup is HARD. I had a few bruises on my upper arms when I was learning cleans and snatches, too. You're right - it's amazing how much easier it is when you do it right!

I've heard different things about dealing with soreness. Some say skip a day completely, some say do a light workout (like 1/2 power/reps) to help work it out. Paging jason's_planet...

Hmmmm . . . I dunno. If you're so sore that you can barely move, I'd cast my vote for skipping a day, maybe reducing the intensity a little so that you're not suffering so much the day after.

That's my advice.