kettlebell hell

A few weeks ago I got a brochure in the mail for the winter session of Adult Ed. I was just about to throw it away when I decided to flip through it to see if there was anything interesting being offered. Most of it was bleh but I did see that there was a 5 week kettlebell class. Hmmm....i had kind of heard about kettle bells before. I mean, I know what they looked like. Whatever, it sounded fun and I need something to whip me back into pre-baby shape. I added it to my list of  28 before 28.

I was of course a few minutes late to the first class and when I got lost looking for the class at the community center I almost said screw it (I hate walking in late to the first day of anything). I was on my way out the door to go home when I decided to ask some stranger in the hallway if they knew where the class was. Sure enough, "down the ramp, last room on the right". Ok fine...I decided I would suck it up and be late.

I shouldn't be surprised at the kind of people who were in the class. I live in the ghetto. There was the middle aged man who was front and center with his skin tight pants that unzip at the knees to make shorts (which he did halfway through the class) that had clearly taken this class before and wanted us all to know it. There was classic pair of old lady friends who could beat me in a push up contest any day, one semi-athletic looking dude,  and the guy who showed up in jeans with his tshirt tucked in and his wallet in his back pocket. Oh! and the instructor...yeah, he was wearing his own skin tight pants, only his were camouflage with a black (also skin tight) tech shirt tucked in and his sneakers looked like they had seen better days.

Regardless, I was there...time to whip my ass into shape. I should have had some idea how difficult it was going to be when squats and lunges were part of our warm up. That was fun. Time to grab our kettle bells. Mind you, we were told they would be provided so I didn't have my own. They did provide them but not many choices of different weights. I wanted the 10lb kettlebell but by the time I had gotten over to the rack, they were all gone. Awesome. So I grabbed the 15lb. Oi...this was going to be a long class. As Danielle kindly said "well that was your first mistake".

I won't bore you with all the details of the class...but we were just getting used to using the kettle bell. Lots of what I presume are basic kettlebell moves. Then we were told once we are comfortable using the kettlebell we will start doing more advanced things like throwing them in the air and catching them again. Say whhaaat???? *note to self, if I am going to be throwing these things and expected to catch them, I need a lighter weight!!* It was at this point that I thought maybe I should have googled "what is a kettlebell class" before I signed up.

Maybe it would be more fun if I did my workout on the beach in my bikini?? These are the types of basic moves we did.



It's been 3 days since class and I am just starting to be able to walk again. Yeah, that class kicked my butt!! I was debating if I liked enough to go back...but I think I do and I will! Should make for a few good stories.