Punch Kettlebell Gym - St. Petersburg

This morning I woke up early and headed into St. Pete to work out with Justin Halek at his Kettlebell gym. He was extremely nice and knew his stuff, and it was great to chat kettlebells and fitness with someone. I also loved the chance to check out (and lift) so many different brands and sizes of kettlebells as well as thick handled globe-style barbells and dumbbells

It was great to get the feel of some real quality KBs. The Dragon Door variety felt awesome, and I appreciated the thick grip. The models I REALLY fell in love with though were the Girevoy Sport competition models from AKC. They just FELT right. I'm also quite proud of succesfully Pressing the 70 lbs KB...hey, I'm 135 lbs, haha.

Justin explained todays workout quickly and we got to work. It was simple...brutally so. 2 minutes at each of 6 stations, with roughly 1 minute break in-between each station. The goal is just to do as many reps as you can at each one. The break out was as follows:

1. Sledgehammer Swings into truck tire
2. Kettlebell Squat Thrusts into Clean and Jerk w/ 16 kg
3. Kettlebell Turkish Getup (to elbow only) w/ 16 kg
4. Jumps into and then out of a truck tire
5. Strongman Log Clean and Press
6. Kettlebell Swings w/ Release and Catch at the top of the arc w/ 24 kg

Justin called out when we had 30 seconds, and then 10 seconds...it was rough but my goal was to never let the end of the round catch me resting. An ancient Spartan saying that wives told their husbands before they marched off to war was, "Return with your shield, or on it." and I kept that in my head as I pushed through those last few reps. After the last round of Swings I stumbled away, and then, to my horror, realized we were about to do the entire circuit one more time!

The second time around was actually easier than the first, because I fell into that wonderful Zen state where you just endure, and nothing else matters. I was extra careful to keep my form perfect, and to not try to muscle any of the movements where it isn't appropriate. All in all, I had a great time and I'm looking forward to coming back in the near future!

Here are some pics from the workout: