Kettlebells with PT Luca Meriano

Luca's kettlebells. Don't let the pastel shades fool you, they're not metrosexual.

While I can still type, I'm posting about a kettlebell workshop I went to today. I fear that tomorrow will be too late.

Luca Meriano ran a three-hour beginners kettlebell workshop at The Gym on Waterloo Place in Edinburgh. A new skill for me, a new teacher, and a new venue.

The Gym is a cavernous, white, modern 24 hour gym with plenty of space in the matted area for Luca to teach 9 of us the basics of kettlebells. It was clean, well equipped and (despite being the most central gym location you could imagine in Edinburgh), didn't seem full of posers. Which I liked.

Luca was a great teacher. He broke everything down very clearly. His instructions were really succinct and he took the time to check we were all managing the moves. Everyone got individual feedback throughout the class, one to one. Luca was thoroughly professional and  knowledgeable and I can't think of anything else I would ask for.

Me and the teacher!

Kettlebells will leave me with more bruising than a pole dance class, I suspect. Luca says that this is common to start with, but with practice you develop better control and stop whacking your forearms with the kettlebell!

Luca told me that kettlebell moves use up to 80 muscles. Even a shoulder press-type move uses the whole chain of muscles from your feet to your hands overhead. Two hours on and I'm starting to believe it... I'm not sure I felt this achey after my last marathon!

We had a very thorough warm-up before learning how to swing, clean, snatch and squat. Doesn't actually sound much when you list it like that, but after two hours I was feeling ready to go home. It was the cleans that I really struggled with by the end, because every time I racked the kettlebell, I was thumping it off the outside of my forearm. By the final sequence my left arm was in too much pain for me to finish - not the 'good workout' pain but the 'dropped an iron on my arm' type pain. Still, I'm assured it's just a beginners ailment and it's about timing.

The squats were not the forward-tipping Body Pump variety but real ass-to-the-grass hip-openers. After about 40 of those today, I fear my training run tomorrow will be in jeopardy. It occurs to me now that I didn't know I could do ass-to-the-grass squats until today, and why didn't I know that? Well, because nobody's ever asked me to do them, so I didn't know I could. Which is quite depressing, actually, as a bit of a sign that I don't push myself to try new stuff.

Far from only working the upper body, even when they're overhead kettlebells are really intense on your lower body, as you push from the hips to get the momentum for the moves. Squeezing the glutes protects your lower back from strain so it works your ass like crazy - before you even begin those squats!

The class, still smiling after three gruelling hours!

I used an 8kg (pleasantly pink) or a 10kg (baby blue) kettlebell. Luca has his own stash of them, the size and standard required for competition. They were colourful, but Luca warned us off the smaller (but not lighter) gym's-own kettlebells, describing them as 'metrosexual' (I did LOL).

Luca told me that having good flexibility and mobility in my hips meant that my kettlebell technque was good. Who knew, bellydance and kettlebells are odd, but complementary, bedfellows. Hurray.

I'm plan to use kettlebells again, even if they are the metrosexual kind that Edinburgh Leisure supplies.  Luca suggested 50 squats, 50 snatches and some core work as an all-over general workout in 20 minutes. I need to remember to squeeze my glutes, keep my elbow in and swing the other arm!

Great workshop, great to learn some new skills!

Back to college!

I'm very excited to be going back to college this term! Hurray!

I'm sticking with my decision not to study for an HND, but I still want to increase my knowledge. I'm going to Edinburgh College's Milton Road Campus to study four credits, two in Applied Nutrition and two in Applied Exercise Prescription. I am optimistic that the teaching quality will be better than most of what I experienced last year at the College's Granton Campus, although I am nervous about meeting a new group of people. It's only for one day a week (and not even a whole day) so hopefully it will keep my brain occupied and keep me consciously working towards my career goal.

Then on Fridays, I'll be back at Granton Campus studying for a CYQ Exercise to Music qualification! This is something I've wanted for years and I'm really looking forward to it. As a dance instructor you might think this might be something I can already do, but the fact is that Egyptian bellydance is more about responding to the music and interpretting what you hear than it is about doing a certain number of moves and changing to another move at the right time. I really enjoy music-based exercise classes so I think I'm going to love this course!

In January I plan to study for a level 3 Personal Training qualification at Milton Road Campus. This is the one that I really want, and I'm sad I have to wait until next year for it! But it gives me some time to get on with other things that need my attention, like organising a loft conversion!

This week I have an appointment with a business adviser at Business Gateway. I've been trying to set this appointing up since June so it's been a long time coming. This is outwith my comfort zone but I hope it will keep me focused on preparing to build my business when I'm fully qualified as a personal trainer and a post-natal fitness instructor.

It's an exciting week with so many new things to look forward to - bring it on!

Buying a car

So, my family and I need a car. In as much as anybody in Edinburgh *needs* a car, since in this city, everything is close, the bus service is really good and nobody in my family does antisocial hours. But we've decided we like having a car and we want to keep having one.

We don't really care about cars, as long as they've got four wheels and get us from A to B. So we enlisted the help of our friend Robert, who negotiated a good deal for my mum's recent car purchase, to take us car shopping today. By the time we left the house, we'd decided our budget and specifications - five doors, petrol, 1.2 engine. And that was pretty much it - we aren't fussy.

But when we got to Arnold Clark I started to get fussy! Faced with a real lack of cars that met our specifications, we got into a discussion about a dull dingy grey Astra, which looked really clunky, and was parked next to a big puddle. That was the moment I realised I cared. Because although the car fitted all our specifications, and we got offered a good price, I didn't even want to cross that puddle to get to it.

When I'm a qualified personal trainer, turning up to meet clients with a car full of swiss ball, kettlebells and yoga mats, do I want them to see me coming in a middle-sized clunky grey dullmobile? Will that inspire my clients with confidence that I'm a dynamic, energetic, fun trainer who's going to help them achieve their goals? Or will it make them think I'd rather be working in a bank?

So today I learned that actually, I do care about the car I drive and what it says about me. Which surprised me. Sadly it means that I'll be spending some of the week looking at cars, and inevitably meeting more car salesmen. I hope they aren't all as annoying as the one we saw today - because although he shook my hand before he shook the hands of Robert or my hubby (good tactic I thought!), by the end of our session he'd made me feel that I didn't deserve a nice car and that I should be terribly grateful for the favours he thought he was doing us.

He was a complete twat.

Today's the Day

This was really my first blog post. I wrote it on 9th December 2011. But I didn't have a blog then, so I saved it. It should explain to you why I'm here.

today's the day.

today's the day when you change everything.

Starting this blog required a deep breath and a bit of a leap. putting myself out there and admitting there's something I WANT and I AM GOING TO GET. Not something I'm terribly comfortable with, but I'm finding liberating.

I gave up my job almost 8 years ago, in 2004, to have my family. I'm currently teaching bellydance and being a full time mummy to my two splendid children. When I worked I was a political lobbyist and got a diploma in Public Relations. Now that seems like a whole other world, and one that I really don't miss at all.

But now, my youngest child is starting school in August and the reality of getting myself back in the job market is dawning. The world of politics really doesn't need me back - there have been 2 Scottish Parliament elections since I quit, and I could barely name even a handful of MSPs now, when once I was on first name terms with plenty of them!

I love teaching dance. I enjoy the relationships I have with my students as I watch them grow and improve as dancers. I love health and fitness, and I have a real problem with sitting still - this summer I ran 7 half marathons.

I want to become a personal trainer.

Today was the day I put it out there. Some trainers from a local gym were in attendance at our school Christmas Fair. I asked them about their qualifications and for their recommendations on training to become a personal trainer. They were helpful. Asking for help was, for me, vocalising, and making a positive step towards, something I'd been thinking about for a while now.

There were three trainers. They were helpful and chatty. They were all young men with big bulky biceps and well-toned upper bodies. They reminded me greatly of Geordie Shore. (Let me be clear that I like Geordie Shore.)

But not to put too fine an point on it, if I made an appointment with a personal trainer, and one of them turned up, I'd be intimidated and uneasy. I am not going to make the most of my workout taking direction from someone 15 years my junior with megamuscles. And that made me think, someone like me really should be a personal trainer.

I felt even more sure that wanting this was the RIGHT THING FOR ME TO DO.   

So I'm blogging about it, right from the start. Jillian Michaels made this recommendation to a fan who wanted to become a personal trainer - get a blog, chart your progress, review fitness DVDs. Bore the pants off anyone who'll listen. I've been a diarist since 1986 and I hope I can communicate my journey in a reasonably interesting way!

Thanks for being here at the start of my journey. I want to share what I want, and how I achieve it, as well as the joys, failures, and funny bits of the journey. I hope you get something out of it too!