But I'll be back soon. I'm traveling to France with the whole extended family to relive WWII through my father in laws' eyes.... A very cool experience it will be. Emotional I am sure... unforgetttable too...He was stationed there in a fox hole for months in the snow... something some of us could never imagine. I am thinking this trip will be more meaningful than we know. Hope it makes as much an impact on our kids as it does on me and my husband, Charles. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I will be gone from April 30-May 10. Kevin,Naina, and Bonnie will be holding down the fort. I will miss you and our workouts. I am planning on taking a bell of course, but with a twist. On Kev's( he is so smart) suggestion, I am taking the 12kg to see just what I can do with soley that. I am thinking already Pistols, Bottoms up clean and presses, Bottoms up Getups, multiple high rep snatches (think 100 rep snatch test 5 mintues), bottoms up floor presses.... of course I'll throw in some burpees for good measure.
Take life one moment at a time and make the BEST of it! Love an honor your body and those around you. Take nothing for granted. Be Thankful. yes, even if there are getups or lunges on the board.
I will see you all on Tuesday, May 11. Until then keep focusing on your own quality of life. Then pay it forward.
All the best,
Betsy
Ps I'm really gonna miss you!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Words of Wisdom To Live By
"Keep your words positive, because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your vaules positive because your vaules become your destiny."
Mahatma Ghandi
Mahatma Ghandi
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Celebrating Moms who train with Kettlebells
The RKC and Dragondoor have come up with an ingenius media online called dragondoor.tv. I love it because they are bringing up to the minute news in the RKC world about kettlebell training and the like. IF the masses want to know where the gold standard is in kettlebell training, it is none other than RKC Dragon Door.
This weeks episode they are running a contest on Moms who train with Kettlebells. I am one of the contestants. I have three boys ages, 6,11, and 13. They use kbs too. I would love your vote for me as favorite Kettlebell Mom. To vote for me click here: www.dragondoor.tv then click on contests and vote for me under my name, Betsy Collie. Thanks for your vote! Make it a GREAT day!
This weeks episode they are running a contest on Moms who train with Kettlebells. I am one of the contestants. I have three boys ages, 6,11, and 13. They use kbs too. I would love your vote for me as favorite Kettlebell Mom. To vote for me click here: www.dragondoor.tv then click on contests and vote for me under my name, Betsy Collie. Thanks for your vote! Make it a GREAT day!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Final Nail in the Cardio Coffin
As a Kettelbell instructor and over 25 years in the fitness industry I can't agree more with the article below. I couldn't have said it better!
http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/training/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin
http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/training/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Walking, it does a body good....
So I started back walking this week. I used to walk regularly. Usually on the days I didn't train with kettlebells, sometimes even on the days I did train with kettlebells. It was(still is) a great compliment to intense kettlebell training. I personally love the way my legs, hamstrings, and glutes feel after a brisk walk.
In my neighborhood there are some pretty good roads for walking. Ups and downs, flats, you name it. So I put on my ipod and off I go. Now here is the thing... I try and walk to the beat of the music I am listnening to. When I do this I get an awsome leg/glute workout. But here is something else I noticed about myself after training with kettlebells, my posture is so much better while walking. No slouching, no dead weight hitting each foot on impact. In other words my torso (core) is engaged. Vertebrae stacked one on top of the other, standing tall through the crown of the head. I started noticing this because as I would try to walk to the beat of the music I had to "engage' in other words muscle contraction took place in the core and glutes to get the legs to fire harder. Does that make sense? When I did this, then my posture fell into place. And guess where Iwas looking? Straight ahead. It felt awesome!
So I began to take note of other subtlties. Like were my feet striking the ground with the same impact? Were my arms swinging alike in opposition to my step. And if not, could I make them so?
Remember your first step? What a fuss everyone made! And then you continued to walk right on through childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood, but somewhere along the way, like most adults, you probably stopped walking so much. In fact, the percentage of adults who spent most of their day sitting increased from 36.8% in 2000 to 39.9% in 2005! Part of the reason may be your hectic, stressful life, with not a moment to spare for recreation or formal exercise. The environment plays a part too; inactivity has been engineered into our lives, from escalators to remote controls to riding lawn mowers to robotic vacuum cleaners to electric toothbrushes to the disappearance of sidewalks and safe places to walk. But research shows that all this automation is bad for our health. Inactivity is the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States, second only to tobacco use.
You'd think a simple activity like walking would be just that, simple. But fewer than 50% of American adults do enough exercise to gain any health or fitness benefits from physical activity. Is walking our salvation? I don't know for sure, but evidence suggests that it's probably a good start.
SO having said that I am off for a brisk walk with my favorite tunes and enjoying the last of the beautiful sunshine before nightfall. Join me and let me know what you discover about your walk....
In my neighborhood there are some pretty good roads for walking. Ups and downs, flats, you name it. So I put on my ipod and off I go. Now here is the thing... I try and walk to the beat of the music I am listnening to. When I do this I get an awsome leg/glute workout. But here is something else I noticed about myself after training with kettlebells, my posture is so much better while walking. No slouching, no dead weight hitting each foot on impact. In other words my torso (core) is engaged. Vertebrae stacked one on top of the other, standing tall through the crown of the head. I started noticing this because as I would try to walk to the beat of the music I had to "engage' in other words muscle contraction took place in the core and glutes to get the legs to fire harder. Does that make sense? When I did this, then my posture fell into place. And guess where Iwas looking? Straight ahead. It felt awesome!
So I began to take note of other subtlties. Like were my feet striking the ground with the same impact? Were my arms swinging alike in opposition to my step. And if not, could I make them so?
Remember your first step? What a fuss everyone made! And then you continued to walk right on through childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood, but somewhere along the way, like most adults, you probably stopped walking so much. In fact, the percentage of adults who spent most of their day sitting increased from 36.8% in 2000 to 39.9% in 2005! Part of the reason may be your hectic, stressful life, with not a moment to spare for recreation or formal exercise. The environment plays a part too; inactivity has been engineered into our lives, from escalators to remote controls to riding lawn mowers to robotic vacuum cleaners to electric toothbrushes to the disappearance of sidewalks and safe places to walk. But research shows that all this automation is bad for our health. Inactivity is the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States, second only to tobacco use.
You'd think a simple activity like walking would be just that, simple. But fewer than 50% of American adults do enough exercise to gain any health or fitness benefits from physical activity. Is walking our salvation? I don't know for sure, but evidence suggests that it's probably a good start.
SO having said that I am off for a brisk walk with my favorite tunes and enjoying the last of the beautiful sunshine before nightfall. Join me and let me know what you discover about your walk....
Saturday, April 10, 2010
How do you walk in your neighborhood?
Weird question to ask, huh? Well, I have some key points I'd like to make on that when I continue. Stay tuned shortly for my post on this. I have to run out briefly but will return soon. (Guess I should be twittering, huh?) Anyway, I think you'll find it interesting what I have to say. Food for thought for sure. Have a great afternoon and check back for the update.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Whoa! Have you paid attention???
To how your body feels that is. I know I have lately. And what I have discovered is that I have let some things go.... I know what you are thinking, (don't go there :-))
What I mean is in terms of my training, I always knew you must stay engaged, mind and body, to get the desired results and to move your body the way it was intended to move. But what can happen over time, the longer you train, a person can get sloppy, careless. I know I did. What did that look like? Well for starters, my workouts felt harder. But not in a good way... They felt "sloppy hard". Does that make sense to you? I felt like every movement whether it was a clean and press, or even a 2 hand swing felt "off".I even felt some discomfort in my low back! So what did I do? I refocused my mind during the movement on what each body part should be doing during the rep. And more importantly what my body was doing during the rep piece by piece, what muscles were contracting, what weren't firing as they should, etc.
Let's use pistols as an example. I used to love to train with them. Looking back through my logs tonight, I realized I did ALOT of them. But over the last several months I haven't trained pistols at all! Ugh! So I decided I'd play around with them tonight just to see where I was. Let me tell you, it was tough. I can't believe I said that on my blog. But the truth was my form was way off. I was not stabilizing as I should in the hip line and pushing out with my glutes and really forming good range of motion in and out of the pistol. I was more or less sloppily dropping down and coming up caving so to speak. But when I stopped and took the rep slow, controlled,deliberate, (and quit worrying about the number of reps I should be able to do) my old movement patterns came back. And they felt strong on each rep.(Ahh thank goodness for good muscle memory!) Now let me qualify strong. I don't mean I ended up banging out the same number of reps as the last time I trained, what I mean is that the movement pattern of the pistol in it's entirety felt safe, solid, and utilizing the right body parts with good muscle contraction. I finished strong, setting my body up for good muscle memory, left my basement training haven and decided that my next training session I would go back to pistols.
What is the take away from that example? To honestly realize that no matter how good you are, or think you are, no matter how long you have been training, no matter how much of a fitness professional, or whatever you think you are, you must pay attention to your body and how it feels good or bad and fix it through mind and body interaction and controlled movement patterns with deliberate intent.
I'll keep you posted on how the training continues....
What I mean is in terms of my training, I always knew you must stay engaged, mind and body, to get the desired results and to move your body the way it was intended to move. But what can happen over time, the longer you train, a person can get sloppy, careless. I know I did. What did that look like? Well for starters, my workouts felt harder. But not in a good way... They felt "sloppy hard". Does that make sense to you? I felt like every movement whether it was a clean and press, or even a 2 hand swing felt "off".I even felt some discomfort in my low back! So what did I do? I refocused my mind during the movement on what each body part should be doing during the rep. And more importantly what my body was doing during the rep piece by piece, what muscles were contracting, what weren't firing as they should, etc.
Let's use pistols as an example. I used to love to train with them. Looking back through my logs tonight, I realized I did ALOT of them. But over the last several months I haven't trained pistols at all! Ugh! So I decided I'd play around with them tonight just to see where I was. Let me tell you, it was tough. I can't believe I said that on my blog. But the truth was my form was way off. I was not stabilizing as I should in the hip line and pushing out with my glutes and really forming good range of motion in and out of the pistol. I was more or less sloppily dropping down and coming up caving so to speak. But when I stopped and took the rep slow, controlled,deliberate, (and quit worrying about the number of reps I should be able to do) my old movement patterns came back. And they felt strong on each rep.(Ahh thank goodness for good muscle memory!) Now let me qualify strong. I don't mean I ended up banging out the same number of reps as the last time I trained, what I mean is that the movement pattern of the pistol in it's entirety felt safe, solid, and utilizing the right body parts with good muscle contraction. I finished strong, setting my body up for good muscle memory, left my basement training haven and decided that my next training session I would go back to pistols.
What is the take away from that example? To honestly realize that no matter how good you are, or think you are, no matter how long you have been training, no matter how much of a fitness professional, or whatever you think you are, you must pay attention to your body and how it feels good or bad and fix it through mind and body interaction and controlled movement patterns with deliberate intent.
I'll keep you posted on how the training continues....
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