Thursday 12 May 2011

Free Kettlebell Mini-Workshops


On Saturday the 21st and 28th of May, at 10:30am I will be holding FREE kettlebell workshops at BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym. Designed for people with little to no experience with kettlebells, although everybody is welcome!


Kettlebells are weights that look like a ball with a 'kettle'-like handle. They come in weights usually ranging from 4kg upwards. The exercises performed will differ from what people are used to, being movement-based, rather than muscle-based. In other words the exercises are compound movements – they involve more than one muscle and more than one joint to perform. You use your muscles and joints as they were designed to be used, in concert with each other rather than in isolation. Kettlebell workouts are generally timed based (well, they definitely are in my gym!), which gives you a great cardio workout at the same time.


If you have never used kettlebells before and are curious, then these free workshops are for you! If you have used kettlebells before, this is a great opportunity to better your understanding of the movements and polish up your technique.


The mini-workshops are one hour long, giving you enough time to cover off the basic principals of kettlebell lifting technique, get to perform the movements safely & effectively, and with just enough time to test them out in a short workout.


The mini-workshops are free for anyone and everyone. Booking is not essential, but is recommended to avoid disappointment as spaces are limited.


Contact me on 07513-994-672 to book in!

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT




Monday 9 May 2011

Can't Squat, Won't Squat

Recently I went into a small but commercial gym to assist a friend of a friend who was struggling with what to do in the gym. For background, she had been going to the gym regularly for years, using the typical machines – seated tricep press, lateral pulldown, pec deck, leg extension, hamstring curl, ab crunch and the abductor & adductor machine. I introduced her to movement, as opposed to muscle, orientated exercises – specifically squats (and later on, deadlifts as well as kettlebell swings). Now I know it's easy to get stuck in your own world and forget that other people are different, but this time it really stood out. I was shocked and amazed at how someone who has been going to a gym and working out several times a week religiously for many years, just had no idea how to squat or deadlift. Even though these are fundamental, natural movements – there was nothing natural about her movement. It took pretty much her entire session to learn to do a fairly passable squat, something clearly foreign to her.


Now I try to keep an open mind. I tell myself that commercial gyms have their place. They offer an easy, cookie-cutter homogenised way to get sedentary people moving. Getting people off of the couch and moving is a good start, a great start even, but at what cost? Commercial gyms were born out of the bodybuilding era. People admired these superhumans, who came to epitomise health, strength & fitness – rightly or wrongly so, which gave birth to training facilities for ordinary people to train in similar fashion, in an often vain attempt to emulate the bodybuilders. Gradually free weights were replaced with machines designed for isolation (a necessary tool for bodybuilding), and for health & safety (an unnecessary evil designed to strip us of common sense and dignity). Now we are left with a world where people exercise every day in this environment, and as a unwanted and often unknown side-effect, lose the natural body movement they learnt not long after birth along with walking & talking.


I guess that's where people like myself fit in. Most people take small steps, not leaps and bounds. Years of living in the rat race have ruined our bodies in terms of health, fitness, strength & mobility. Globo-gym offers the rats their first step out of purgatory and towards the light. Not into the light, but towards it. Find an instructor who understands movement and learn from them. I don't care if you're a bodybuilder, an athlete, a cross-fitter, a functional training fan, a weekend warrior, an MMA fighter or a soccer-mom. Learn how to move correctly and you will get so much more from your training.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT