Not Just Muscle
Posts tagged RKC
Thinking about HKC
Sep 24th
I first read about it back in May. About 10 minutes after that, I registered. For me, this is a no-brainer. It should be exciting, rewarding, career-advancing and fun. It’s the HKC, the Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification. And it’s happening on Saturday.
Rather than being excited right now, my tendency is to be concerned about what is ahead, worried that A) I will forget everything I’ve learned thus far about kettlebell training and won’t be able to assimilate the information I’m given or B) I won’t be able to unlearn the things that I am doing wrong. Everyone will need correction – that is a fact. I just hope I can learn and learn fast.
I keep thinking too much. I think about how I’m NOT a natural athlete. About how doing something that requires a degree of strength and athleticism like this would have been completely out of the question for me just a few years ago. “What have I gotten myself into?” a voice in my head repeats. I wonder. I question. I doubt.
My family and friends (who really know nothing about my kettlebell skill or lack thereof) all offer their support and encouragement, saying, “You’ll be fine!” among other positive things. My twitter friends, many of whom are very knowledgeable about kettlebell training and the RKC system, have been incredibly encouraging and helpful, far beyond my wildest dream. Even Elise Matthews, RKCII and my trainer, has said that I will do fine. I’m not sure why that’s not enough for me. But it isn’t. I won’t believe it until the moment I am told that I have passed. If that happens, I’ll be one happy puppy.
Nervous but hopeful. Excited for the opportunity to actually meet some of the greats in the kettlebell community. This is what is on my mind. In a few days, there may be an HKC shirt on my back. Stay tuned. 
A Shift in My Kettlebell Training
Jun 18th
I’m shifting gears with my training. I have followed the Beginner Kettlebell program that Elise designed for about the last 2 and 1/2 months. It’s what she gives all of her new kettlebell students. I think doing them helped me in many ways, and I feel that the time doing those workouts was well spent.
However, I’ve decided to follow the program designed by Pavel in Enter the Kettlebell. It seems to be the most trusted method for developing the kind of pressing ability and conditioning that is necessary for the Russian Kettlebell Challenge. Given that I’m jumping into this game a little bit later in life than most, I want to follow the program that I feel will give me the greatest chance of success at RKC, in the shortest period of time.
That is not to say I’m in a hurry to get to RKC. In fact, having started Enter the Kettlebell this week, I see now that it is probably going to take me even longer to get ready than I thought before. That’s okay. As long as I’m moving forward at a steady pace and seeing regular gains, I know I’ll make it when the time is right.
I am cheating a little and I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me. I am skipping the Program Minimum section of ETK. I feel that my workouts from Elise have earned me the right to start at the beginning of the second part of the training, the ”Rite of Passage.” If I can’t handle it after I’ve tried it for a few weeks, I will reevaluate.
For anyone unfamiliar with Enter the Kettlebell, the idea is that you begin the program with the kettlebell that you can press 5-8 times. You follow the program, repeating it as many times as necessary, until you are doing presses, swings and snatches with the size kettlebell that is appropriate for your tests at RKC. Or until you can one-arm press half your bodyweight and snatch a 53 pound kettlebell 200 times in 10 minutes (men.) The similar goal for women is to be able to perform the 10 minute snatch test of 200 reps with a 12kg kettlebell and clean and press the kettlebell closest to a quarter of their bodyweight once with each arm. I will be following this program a long time.
My ETK training actually started several days ago. I’ll finish Week 5 on Saturday. (It’s week number 5 because I skipped those 4 weeks called “Program Minimum” this time and went straight to “Rite of Passage.”) So far it is going well, and I’m finding I have a bit of DOMS from the pressing, a very good sign in my opinion.
“Rite of Passage” in Enter the Kettlebell calls for 3 structured practice days, 2 variety days in which you pretty much do whatever exercise you want, and 2 days off. One of my variety days will be spent doing sprint intervals. I’m doing this for extra HIIT benefits and for the extra lower body work. You may know that lower body is the part of me that I love to hate. My other variety day will probably be spent doing Turkish Get Ups and/or trying out the workouts I’ll be using in my coming-soon fitness classes for women.
I’m also hoping to continue Eat Stop Eat, the intermittent fasting that I’ve tried recently. I completed a second fast this week. It was more difficult this time, quite different from the first. But I’m starting to see some results. (I’m after a bit of body fat loss.) I’ll be closely monitoring my strength as I go along, as I know it is difficult to see fat loss and strength gain at once. Since strength is primary for me, I’ll stop the fasting if things don’t go well.
Probably I won’t post my ETK workouts. They are quite repetitive. I’ll likely only write about whatever is new or what my variety days are like. Or maybe I’ll find other things to drone on blog about.
That’s my plan. Unless I change it. 
