I live in America. I like it, but in my opinion, we do not pressure our women into being strong and confident.

When I scan the magazine racks at the grocery store or the dentist’s office, the pictures suggest that we value two things in our women: breasts and razor sharp clavicles. Well, three things: STDs seem to get a lot of press as well…good grief.

You might call it a wretched case of extremely backwards priorities. The heartbreaker for me is so many of the girls I know, including my own sisters, buy into the stereotypes. In fact, they aspire to them in some cases.

Tuesday night kettlebell class

Every Tuesday night I teach a kettlebell training for beginners class. (I also throw in a bunch of other stuff, but it’s called a kettlebell class.) It’s  basically a “get really strong” class. 90 per cent of my students are female. When they first meet me, we shake hands, exchange names, and then they immediately tell me how weak and out of shape they are. I show them the kettlebells and demonstrate movements with a light weight.

“Oh, I can’t do that.”

When I tell them that we’re doing to do deadlifts they often say “Oh, I’m not in shape enough to do that” or “My back can’t handle that.” My response to these questions is always gentle, but pointed: “Says who?” Most of the time these lovely people can’t figure out where they got these silly notions. It’s because women are taught to underestimate themselves. It sinks in and they start to believe it.

Slowly my class has become – I don’t advertise it this way – my lab for the sole purpose of making women stronger without them realizing it.

Required pressing, required reading

Three months ago I began with a class of eight women. Every single one of them told me that they did not want to press overhead because it would give them big shoulders. In the second week I taught them the kettlebell press and the bottoms up press (turning the kettlebell upside down).

I now begin every class with everyone working on their favorite movement for ten minutes. Every single one of those women chooses the press nine times out of ten now. Some of them are pressing more than the men I see in the gym. Nothing makes me happier. There is nothing more fun for me than when the light flashes in their eyes and they realize I can do this. It’s the same process as the I’m-weak indoctrination, but in reverse: it sinks in and they start to believe it. And when they start to believe it, do not get in their way.

At the end of my classes, I write this URL on the board: http://gubernatrix.co.uk/. It is all that I do for required reading. I even make the men read it, which they are usually happy to do, especially when they realize that Gubernatrix is way stronger than they are. Good information is good information. And that’s all I am trying to give these women.

The change doesn’t occur because I am a genius or because I know something about strength training for females that nobody else does: it’s simply because I say the opposite of what society usually says.

I say:

1. Gain 10 lbs of muscle and you will be sexier than you can imagine

2. Lift as heavy as you (safely) can and you will be more confident

3. You are stronger than you think

4. Ignore your clavicles (most men aren’t looking at them)

5. Being strong does not mean sacrificing femininity

6. I know a five-foot-nothing homecoming queen who deadlifts 315

7. When someone tells you what you “should” be doing, ask yourself why

8. If you are not getting the results you want, something needs to change

9. You are stronger than most men I know

10. Perceptions will only change if enough of us work together to change them

It won’t happen fast, but it can happen. Every time I step into my class there are more women in it. It is because word gets around that it is fun to be strong. That there are people out there who say that women aren’t supposed to be weak, submissive, and that clavicles are seriously overrated.

Go get ‘em.

More from gubernatrix

• Ladies who lift
• Strong is beautiful
• A girl’s guide to choosing a kettlebell
• The toning problem: why women are missing out when it comes to weight training

I am often asked why bother using kettlebells as opposed to dumbbells or any other implement commonly found in gyms. It’s a good question so let’s talk about it a bit.

There’s been a huge buzz about kettlebells in the last few years and many people have embraced the kettlebell culture enthusiastically. Kettlebells have also had significant impact in the arena of women’s fitness and I’m still not sure why. Possibly some very effective marketing, possibly the colour pink.

A kettlebell is one tool among many. If your ultimate goals are fitness, strength and health, there are any number of tools, toys and techniques you can use to achieve these. Andrew Stemler, author of the Kettlebell Training Guide, whom you would suppose has an interest in bigging up the kettlebell, in fact says:

“A kettlebell, in spite of the hype, is neither a gym in the palm of your hand, an item that flenses fat from your body, nor builds indestructible bullet-proof abs: that’s done by hard work, skill, determination and diet.”

All this is true. And yet, I am falling for my kettlebell.

Movement

First of all, it’s way sexier looking than a dumbbell (no, I don’t get out much). Dumbbells are shaped for convenience, to fit around your hand, but they look clumsy. A kettlebell is a thing of curved beauty and its shape is complete without you. You have to work around it.

This is a significant difference between kettlebells and dumbbells: the relationship between your body and the way it moves around the kettlebell. You can do this because the kettlebell swings from a handle, so it’s an extension of the limb, a dance partner.

A dumbbell doesn’t swing free, it’s just something you have to carry. You can’t move around it in the same way.

With the kettlebell handle, you can fairly easily let go of the kettlebell and catch it again, making your moves flow better. If you’re really adept, you can let go of a flying kettlebell and move your body around it before catching again. Check out Chip Conrad’s spectacular Strength Rituals DVD to see this in action.

So you’ve got a broader range of exercises you can perform with a kettlebell and you can create better flow between them. I bet you never heard that argument before: you can dance with a kettlebell (no, I really don’t get out much).

Challenge

There are some kettlebell-exclusive exercises. But any exercise that you can do with either a dumbbell or a kettlebell will be that bit harder with a kettlebell. In fitness terms, harder is generally better. The kettlebell is harder to control so provides all sorts of stabilisation and grip challenges as well as resistance.

What’s more, the folks at Bodytribe have discovered that using kettlebells with bands takes your training to a whole other level.

They’ve tried using bands with dumbbells but it doesn’t quite work. The shape of the kettlebell handle, on the other hand, is ideal for attaching a band and getting some serious resistance going (see Strength Rituals DVD for more on this; yes I’m pimping this yet again. There’s a good reason for it!).

Home workouts

Kettlebells have been enthusiastically taken up by the home workout crowd. Perhaps this is another reason for their popularity with sensible women who eschew wii fit and the val slide (don’t get me started!!!).

A kettlebell is a very useful workout tool to have around the house and you can easily get away with just having two different weights rather than the full range of every weight ever made. See A Girl’s Guide to Choosing A Kettlebell for some good advice on what weights to choose.

A set of kettlebells is cheaper than gym membership, will last longer and is never closed or full of nincompoops.

I can’t see myself ever using just kettlebells for my training but for some people they could easily be the sole tool for the job. Kettlebells will give you fitness, mobility, stability, strength endurance and explosive power. They can do wonders for fat loss (as long as your diet is right) and maybe a bit of muscle growth. They won’t make you super strong – for that you need barbells.

Will dumbbells do the same thing? Yes. But they’re not as much fun! Josh Hanagarne, the World’s Strongest Librarian, knows what I’m talking about.

Getting started

The best way to decide whether a kettlebell is for you is to get yourself to a decent workshop, something like the Crossfit Reading kettlebell workshop which I went to recently (I believe they are doing the next one in November so keep an eye out).

You do need to have someone teach you the exercises properly. A kettlebell is an awkward shaped object and there’s a bit of technique involved even in the simplest exercises.

But once you’ve mastered those, there is a whole world of groovy kettlebell moves to try which are quite advanced.

Roll up, get yer kettlebells here!

• Cast iron kettlebells
• Steel kettlebells
• Sets of kettlebells

Are you a kettlebell fan? Are you a sceptic? Share your thoughts below!

Written for gubernatrix.co.uk by Andrew Stemler of Crossfit London. Andrew was the first person to teach me kettlebells and I have benefitted from the infamous ‘hosepipe’ technique (mentioned below). Andrew has written a great kettlebell training guide which is available in the shop. He is also originator of the i-Course (all the Crossfit skills in one day) and the Elite Fitness Manual. Over to Andrew >>

Choosing the right weight of kettlebell  is easy.

There are just two rules:

1. Avoid ones that are stupidly light
2. Avoid those that are stupidly heavy

But thats too stupidly obvious.

Start off thinking about the basic moves you will be doing. You will be swinging and snatching, so get something that you can swing in one hand – a bag, a dumbbell from a gym, a patient cat – and see how it feels (swing it forward to about chest height and let it swing back).

Start light and work your way up. Find a weight that is challenging but fun (refer to rules 1 and 2). I find this tends to be between 8 and 16kg.

Ideally you will learn to snatch a kettlebell with a really light weight. On the Crossfit London i-Course we use a ring of hose pipe. Once you have the technique, I’ve seen most women happily snatch between 6kg and 8kg. At this early stage, people seem to be happy snatching what they can press a couple of times but it can be nice to practise your first few snatches on something light (note, not stupidly light).

The problem is that if you buy too light a bell, you quickly need another; too heavy and your form goes and you injure yourself.

A difficult choice. The reality is that you need a bell to swing and one to press and snatch. This probably means two bells.

If you are terrified by weight, a 6kg and 8kg could be a starting point. I’ve spoken to one very annoyed girl who bought a mini pack (a 1kg, a 2kg and a 4kg). She gave them to her four year old and bought an 8kg and 16kg.

My gut instinct is an 8kg and a 12kg for most women, but you could need access to a 4kg and 10kg dumbbell as well.

I suppose the real point here is this:

Do you understand what a particular weight means to you? Can you visualise 3kg, 5kg, 10kg and what basic moves you can do with those weights? If I made you squat with 30kg are you happy or sad?

So get to know how you feel about different weights. At the worst, if your 15 kg child rushed at you wanting to be picked up, can you do it?

It’s the weight, not the tool that’s important. Understand what you can lift, and the other decisions become easier.

Thanks for that, Andrew! Here is a video clip from Andrew on the kettlebell snatch: how to punch up through the movement in order to catch the bell before it whacks you on the wrsit, and how using a bit of hosepipe will help you get the technique.

I agree with Andrew’s suggestion of two kettlebells. At the moment I only have a 14kg and it is not suitable for all exercises. I’ve been trying some of the more adventurous kettlebell exercises from the Bodytribe Strength Rituals DVD and find 14kg a little heavy as a learning weight for some of the exercises. On the other hand I could handle a larger weight for exercises like swings, cleans or windmills.

More from gubernatrix

• Steel competition grade kettlebells
• Andrew Stemler’s kettlebell training guide
• Advanced kettlebell exercises on the Strength Rituals DVD

The new kettlebell emporium will be opening in August 2009 and for you, dear readers, there will be introductory special offers and promotions, so watch this space!!

I have had several requests from readers for more posts on kettlebells and I am very happy to be able to oblige at last. Kettlebells are the perfect at-home tool for strength, fitness, endurance and fat loss, so I am not surprised that you want to see more of them

I have linked up with the lovely people at Wolverson Fitness who are very generously sponsoring my kettlebell content. I genuinely couldn’t do this without them.

Wolverson kettlebells

I first came across Wolverson Fitness kettlebells at a Crossfit Reading kettlebell workshop (see the review here) and was very impressed with the quality and useability of the ‘bells.

• Good clearance under the handle
• Nice range of colours (great for instructors and clubs)
• Well made and hard wearing
• Competition standard design
• Weights in increments of 2kg rather than 4kg (brilliant for beginners)

But importantly, these were great kettlebells at a reasonable price. Anyone who has tried to shop for a kettlebell knows that there is a wide range both of price and quality available. Personally I found it all quite confusing so I was very happy to find a product that was both affordable and great quality.

When I got in touch with Wolverson they were enthusiastic about getting involved with gubernatrix.co.uk. It’s great to work with a company that sees the benefits of supporting the functional fitness community as well as just, you know, selling stuff.

So loads of kettlebell fun to look forward to this summer. Remember, there’ll be introductory special offers, so start writing your wish list now!

Sorry folks but we can only ship within the UK mainland.

My problem is that I get bored doing the same routine over and over again but I don’t have time to sit around making up long complicated circuits.

I used to get around this by going to circuit classes and training with groups – all the thinking and motivation is done for you. But what happens when there isn’t a suitable group or class available?

Enter the Deck of Cards circuit. I have recently started using it in my own training and I am an instant convert! It is brilliantly simple and performs the essential function of keeping my fitness and cardio endurance levels high.

With the Deck of Cards format you get a long workout (anything from 25 to 45 minutes) in a circuit training style without having to rack your brains for loads of exercises.

You keep your heart rate elevated for long enough to improve fitness and endurance and there is also the element of surprise to keep you motivated – you never quite know what’s coming next!

Here’s how it works

Take an ordinary deck of cards. Assign one exercise to each suit. So for example you might choose

• burpees for spades
• push ups for diamonds
• squat jumps for hearts
• jumping jacks for clubs

Then you simply go through the deck performing every single card, according to the exercise you assigned to that suit and the number on the card. If you turn over the 8 of spades, perform 8 burpees.

With 52 cards – or 54 if you are using the jokers – you have a pretty long workout and you never know what is coming next. Part of the fun (if you can call it fun) is turning over the next card and seeing what torture is in store!

The beauty of the deck of cards is that no two workouts are ever the same – well, unless you don’t shuffle the pack.

So what about the face cards and the jokers? Well do what you like, there are no rules. Some people treat all face cards as 10, others increment by one so that Jacks are 11, Queens are 12 and Kings are 13. Some people assign a particularly high number to Aces and Jokers, just for some extra pain.

Here’s a video clip of me performing one of my favourite Deck of Cards variations.

Having to work through the deck keeps you pushing forward and once you’ve decided what exercises you are going to do, there’s very little thought that needs to go into it. Which is a good thing because you’ll be able to think of little else except the effort you are putting in!

There’s no denying that a Deck of Cards workout is tough. The first time you do the workout it will probably seem like it is going on forever! But it is a great way to get a long hard workout done on your own.

Want elite fitness? Get the manual!

Olympic lifts, kettlebells, gymnastic rings….these are a few of our favourite things….

Ever wished that there was a single instruction manual containing all of this cool stuff? Well, now there is!

Andrew Stemler, creator of the popular i-Course – a full day of learning all the key Crossfit skills – has produced a manual to go along with it. You can support Gubernatrix.co.uk by getting your copy here.

This means, oh joy, that all you people who would love to go to the i-Course but can’t get to one can now do your own version at home. And you people who are lucky enough to have attended the i-Course now have a handy reference guide for all those skills that you only just managed to take in on the day.

What’s in the manual?

The 85-page Elite Fitness Manual is packed full of goodies including:

• Olympic lifts and all their progressions
• Kettlebell exercises
• Gymnastic ring training
• Bodyweight exercises
• Abdominal training
• Muscle-up

It covers practically every key exercise and lift in the functional fitness arsenal. All except the bench press. But you know how to bench, right?

Who is the manual for?

The manual is designed to be suitable both for beginners and intermediate trainees. There is plenty of progression in all the key exercises so if you are a beginner you start with the first progression and if you are an intermediate, jump in where you feel comfortable.

You don’t need any experience in the exercises themselves but a general familiarity with free weights and bodyweight exercises is helpful. If you’ve only ever worked out on machines, you’ll be in for a shock!

Many of the skills described in the manual are so complex and tricky to master that you will be kept busy for weeks, months, years. Stemler comments that “you never master the squat: its always work in progress: there is always something you can improve”, and I can personally attest to this as my squat has been a work in progress for about five years!

That’s why a manual like this is so useful and such good value for money. It will last many years, possibly a lifetime. As it is an ebook it is a good deal cheaper than the traditionally published equivalent would be.

Presentation

One aspect that has always impressed me about Stemler’s publications is the look and feel. Compared to many self-published ebooks in this genre, the presentation is slick, entertaining and easy to read. The photo sequences are very helpful. I always find it frustrating when a book presents only one photograph of a particular move; what you really want to know is what it looks like to get from A to B.

The Elite Fitness Manual breaks key moves down photographically, which is really helpful. Nevertheless Stemler acknowledges that this lends a certain falsity to what are fluid and dynamic movements.

The overall thrust of the manual is not: here’s an ideal way to do this difficult move that only super-flexible 12-year-olds can pull off, but more: here are some safe progressions that you can practise on your own.  Eventually you will be able to put them all together.

So the Elite Fitness Manual is your passport to a broad range of athletic, functional skills and can be yours for only £12.99. Worth every penny, I’d say.

Go shop!

More from gubernatrix

• Review: the Crossfit London i-Course
• The A-Z of training books
• Review: the complete guide to training with free weights
• Kettlebell training guide
• Muscle-up and ring training guide

On Sunday I attended Crossfit Reading’s kettlebell workshop, coached by Andy Craig who runs Crossfit Reading.

Although I’ve had some kettlebell instruction before there are a number of gaps in my skill base so I was attracted to the idea of a workshop where I could cover everything I needed to know in one fell swoop. It didn’t hurt that Crossfit Reading’s price for a three-hour workshop was very reasonable, even taking into account the train fare from London.

It was a good session and I’m glad I went for the workshop option. There’s a limit to how much you can learn from books and the internet, especially with an implement as awkward as the kettlebell. It is valuable to have an experienced person to critique your form rather than simply reading about ‘common mistakes’. You also need some training to get you over the initial hurdle of how to handle the thing without it beating you up!

I found that going through the different exercises and skills progressively helped me to understand and appreciate kettlebell training in a way I hadn’t before. I used to have a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude to kettlebells. I do almost all the exercises with dumbbells or barbells and found it hard to understand why so many people rave about the kettlebell.

Now that I’ve had an afternoon of training I can see the appeal! The kettlebell is quite a flexible tool and the way it handles gives the movements a flow and a rhythm that you don’t get with a dumbbell, making high rep training easier.

Workshop content

The Crossfit Reading workshop gives good coverage of all the essential skills and exercises and I didn’t feel that any of the coaching was rushed in order to keep to time. The workshop covered:

• Squat technique 
• Swing (various types)
• High pull
• Clean
• Push press
• Push jerk
• Snatch
• Turkish get-up
• Windmill
• Side press

Andy generates an easy-going atmosphere. He won’t let you slack off but the feel is informal and friendly. He has a good instructor’s instinct for when to praise and when to critique. I am quite a testing person to coach as I have a habit of directly questioning comments or critique that I don’t understand and I get frustrated with myself if I can’t get the hang of something. Andy passed the ‘difficult client’ test well, as any good instructor should.

I can’t think of much about the session that I would change, which is a sign of a very successful workshop. It might have been interesting to do a proper kettlebell workout though, to show how the exercises can fit together into a workout and give us a chance to try out our new skills in anger!

Conclusion

If you are going to invest money in a kettlebell and train with it regularly, it is well worth the price of a three-hour workshop to set you on your way. It could potentially save you hours of poor training and dodgy technique.

It is also a fun thing to do of a Sunday afternoon. You get to meet like-minded people, have a good training session and learn new skills.

More from gubernatrix

• Review: Crossfit London i-Course
• Kettlebell training guide

Further reading

• Kettlebell exercises from Mike Mahler
• Kettlebell exercises from Chikara – The Other Side of Strength
• Dragon Door kettlebell articles
• Kettlebell Masochist – Master of Sport Catherine Imes’ blog

Squat: 100kg
Bench: 60kg
Deadlift: 130kg
Total: 290kg
Bodyweight: 63.4kg

There were some very impressive female lifters at the meet who have inspired me to work hard and improve over the next year. My deadlift in particular is lagging behind the top lifters at my bodyweight, so already there is a point of focus.

However the point of this post is that just as I was contemplating where to go next after this event, how on earth I am going to improve where I need to and so on – I came across this post from Catherine Imes, Master of Sport in kettlebells.

What she has to say about training is relevant to most sports, particularly strength sports. She talks about her decision to focus on technique (bear in mind that this is somebody who is already a Master of Sport so her technique must already be pretty good!) over conditioning and the importance of seeing the big picture.

…my focus has been on technical improvements and refinements. Those refinements have boosted my confidence in terms what I can do on a given day under less than ideal conditions. There is a big picture; and I’m starting to see it. My ultimate goal is to move the 20kg like I do the 16kg. To do that, I must be near perfect with my technique or as perfect as I can be.

What caught my eye here was “what I can do on a given day under less than ideal conditions”. When you compete you learn that you will not always be in the best shape on the day of competition. You try to be, but so many things have to be exactly right for that to happen.

I wasn’t at my best for the powerlifting championships this weekend and I spoke to many other people who weren’t. But that isn’t an excuse and can’t be if you have ambitions in the sport. As Imes points out, once you develop the technique, it’s yours regardless of how good or strong you feel on any given day.

I think conditioning is much easier to build and takes less time than skills and once you solidly develop skills….you own them. Everyone that asked my advice is more than fit. So, now it’s just a matter of stepping back, evaluating technique and taking the necessary steps to improve it. Initially, your numbers in practice may go down, but over the long term, they will climb significantly and your ability to handle heavier bells and longer durations will grow.

So I’ve decided to take Catherine Imes’ advice – which she freely admits is not unique, but is always worth repeating! – to focus less on numbers and more on technique, and to see the bigger picture. When I think about how much I have to lift to beat the top girls in my class, it seems daunting. But that’s because I’m only thinking about it in terms of strength. However with better technique the whole paradigm could shift.

Gym membership, expensive clothing, shiny new kit, supplements – they all cost money. But there are many ways to get fit, look great and stay strong quite cheaply.

The good news is that the alternatives can be just as good as or even better than the things we pay huge amounts of money for.  What’s more, you won’t be able to kid yourself that you are succeeding simply by throwing money at the issue.

So if you don’t feel you are getting value for money, try swopping an expensive method for a cheaper and quite possibly better alternative.

Swop: Lifting weights in the gym
For: Sandbags and bodyweight exercises

British Military Fitness shows how tough the press-up can be

Many people underestimate the amount of strength that can be gained from bodyweight exercises. Most people when they think of ‘bodyweight exercises’ immediately think of press-ups. Well, they haven’t done the Marines any harm. But as Matthew Potak puts it in Another 30 Days Without Weights, “Don’t just do a bunch of pushups and situps to failure…You have to try things that you can’t or almost can’t do.” Check his article to find out how.

Sandbags are a great way to train the power or Olympic lifts at home without investing in expensive kit. You can make your own or buy one ready made. In fact there is all sorts of kit you can make at home, from medicine balls to the latest trendy fitness accessory – the slosh pipe. You get the same training effect that you do from the shiny toys in the gym without the cost – or the annoying music.

If anyone has doubts that real strength can be gained outside the gym, just look at the sport of strongman. It’s all about picking up very heavy and awkwardly shaped objects that are just lying around (well, they are if you live on a farm).

Swop: Cardio machines at the gym
For: Joining a running club

When times are hard one of the first things to be considered for the chop is the gym membership. Although it’s convenient and weather resilient you don’t get any expertise or training for your money, just a free towel and a bored look from the 12-year-old behind the counter.

Running clubs by contrast are usually very cheap and include coaching sessions in the price. In the UK you pay a modest annual subscription (£20-30 a year) and perhaps a token amount each session you attend (my running club for example is 50p a session). You get the companionship and motivation from being in a group, you get instruction as most running clubs will have track days or coached sessions and you get another facet to your social life.

You don’t have to be a serious racer either. Most running clubs have beginner sessions and not everybody competes for the club. Many people are there just to lose a bit of weight or for the social side. On the other hand, if you do want to get serious about running you are perfectly placed to take advantage of the coaching and competitive atmosphere.

Swop: Expensive training shoes
For: Bare feet

We’ve known for a while that weight training in bare feet is perfectly acceptable, if not preferable to shoes as weight training is best performed on a flat, stable surface – although you’d have a hard time persuading health clubs of this fact since they are convinced that wearing trainers protects your feet if you drop a dumbbell on them. However now it turns out that bare feet are ideal for walking and running too! Recent research shows that shoes work against our natural gait and make the foot less efficient.

Sportswear companies have jumped on these new findings as an excuse to bring out new types of shoes such as the Nike Free, Vibram Five Fingers or Clarke’s Vivo. Which is all very exciting but you can of course just go barefoot. Remember when you were a kid and you couldn’t wait to kick your shoes off and run around in bare feet?

There has always been some amused or hippyish interest in the issue and people remember barefoot runners like Zola Budd. But it seems that only now is the research being widely disseminated to show exactly why bare feet (or shoes that closely mimic the bare foot) could be better. There are a few longtime barefoot runners out there who were ahead of the curve. Of these, many seem to have taken it up because they were getting injuries from running in shoes, and barefoot running solved their problems.

It takes time to adapt to barefoot running so introduce it gradually. Start with a comfortable surface like short grass and don’t run for too long. You will certainly feel it in your calves the next day, but you will get used to it. There is some good advice about getting started with barefoot running at the end of this article.

Swop: Text Books
For: Ebooks

There are some excellent strength and fitness books out there but they can be expensive and lengthy. But now there are popular and proven titles available for free or low cost online as ebooks.

Ebooks are often focussed more on the practical than the theoretical. For people who want a good, easy-to-follow programme or a clear explanation of training technique, an ebook is ideal.

Here are some ebook suggestions for a range of different goals and topics:

What these ebooks have in common is a clear explanation of basic principles together with techniques and programmes that can immediately be put to use in the training environment. They obviously vary in production quality but I wouldn’t be recommending them unless I was convinced of the quality of the content.

Swop: supplements and mass produced food
For: catching your own or buying locally

Wild food is popular at the moment. It seems that people have begun to feel too mollycoddled by the conveniences of modern life. Add to this the concerns over modern intensive farming methods, the ethics of food production and supermarket meat and fish can leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Not everybody can go completely ‘back to nature’ but it is worth considering whether hunting, fishing or keeping a few chickens is something you could try. It could be a cheap source of tasty protein. Fishing is fairly easy to get into – you can get a complete starter kit for around £50, which would pay for itself in fish quite quickly. You can even go on an organised fishing trip if you don’t feel confident trying it yourself.

Conclusion

Everything I have suggested in this article is something I have done myself so I know it is possible. I love spending money on new stuff as much as the next person but there’s a difference between treating yourself to a luxury and believing that you can’t get fit without the latest kit.

Many people have got into the habit of spending money on their fitness without stopping to think whether they are actually gettting fitter and reaching their goals. If your kit or your gym membership isn’t delivering, there are genuine alternatives.

Do you train on a budget? What money-saving ideas would you recommend?

More from gubernatrix

• Bodyweight or bust
• Improve your running mile
• Improve weaknesses with unilateral exercises
• Myths about food

Further reading

• Your body is a barbell
• 30 days without weights
• The rise of sandbag training by Josh Henkin
• Go barefoot to get stronger
• How to get fit and save money

On Sunday I attended the Crossfit London i-course in east London, a full day event aiming to teach participants all the essential Crossfit skills, from olympic lifts to rings to kettlebells to bodyweight exercises. I was invited to attend and review the course by Andrew Stemler of Crossfit London, whom I have trained with before.

About the i-Course

The i-Course concept is, as far as I am aware, the only course of its kind in the UK and certainly the most comprehensive workshop programme I have seen that is open to all. This unique proposition has proved popular: the next session has already sold out and Crossfit London is booking well into next year.

Why are tickets selling like the proverbial hotcakes? Well, the agenda for the day runs something like this:

• How to squat
• How to perform the olympic lifts, including the nine fundamental moves: squat, front squat, overhead squat, press, push press, push jerk, clean, snatch, sumo deadlift high pull and deadlift
• How to swing and snatch a kettlebell
• How to practise handstands and the handstand push-up with all the assistance exercises currently recommended
• Core including L-sit
• Crossfit kipping pullup
• Parallel bar and rings looking at ring dips and muscle-up progression

For anyone interested in functional fitness or Crossfit, it ticks all the right boxes, but it is a lot of learning to pack into one day! The agenda makes it look like great value for money, but can you really learn all of these skills effectively in a single session?

Learning

What you get out of the day depends to some extent on your level of knowledge and experience coming into the session. Those who are totally new to the exercises and concepts may not remember much of the technical detail but will come away with an understanding of the most important principles and the range of skills that can be acquired: plenty to build upon and be inspired by.

People who are already familiar with some of the material (perhaps they have done squatting and deadlifting but have never attempted a clean and jerk) will learn a good deal and will come away with better form in the exercises that they thought they knew.

However it is essentially an introductory course so if you have been practising these skills for a few months or more, you may have gone beyond what the i-Course can offer – unless you want some reassurance that you are doing the right thing.

On the day, participants told me that they did learn a lot, even if they won’t remember absolutely everything. I was impressed by everyone’s concentration throughout an intensive day. It was a motivating atmosphere to be in and even though I was getting pretty tired towards the end of the session, I tried to hide it as everyone else appeared to be in fine fettle and as keen as at the start!

Teaching

This concentration and application is testament to the motivation of the group but also to Stemler’s organisation of the session. He starts right on time, which sets the tone for the day, and keeps things moving along nicely.

The team consists of Andrew, a Crossfit Level 2 certified instructor, aided by three Crossfit Level 1 instructors (Miles, Chet and Simon) and police PTI, Colin. The quality of the teaching is very good, especially from Andrew who is a natural communicator and has boundless energy.

The emphasis is on drills and cues that help you get into the correct position for the exercise, rather than a litany of instructions about the relative position of each body part. This will save people from hours of struggle or the misguided belief that they are unable to do particular exercises. ‘Teaching the teachers’ is also built into the course, for those people who are there to learn how to instruct others.

Supporting the instructor team are a number of ‘helpers’ who are themselves experienced Crossfitters. Having this many people helping to run the course ensures that everyone gets attention and things run smoothly. My thanks in particular go to one of the helpers, Steve, for taking these photos when he wasn’t actually helping people with their exercises!

What sort of people attend the i-Course?

I had assumed that most of the participants would be Crossfitters looking to improve their skills, but there was in fact a variety of people attending: personal trainers looking to expand their repertoire for their clients; people just starting out in Crossfit or just wanting to get fit; those interested in a particular element (such as the olympic lifts or the gymnastics) who thought this course was the nearest thing available; and military personnel looking to increase functional fitness.

The exercises and drills are pretty challenging, although different levels of strength are catered for (for example, you don’t have to be able to do a pullup). It probably could have been made clearer at the start that you are not expected to be able to do everything perfectly within this session: the idea is to equip you with the knowledge to practise on your own or coach others over a period of time.

However I know that some people were inspired and motivated by the difficulty and the fact that some exercises did not come easily! There were some pretty strong lads who were very confident on familiar exercises like pullups, but were humbled by a simple L-sit progression. I spoke to one chap who is an experienced runner and was used to thinking of himself as reasonably fit and yet had real trouble with one or two of the more unusual exercises. But he seemed delighted by this discovery and keen to improve.

It would be a rare person who could turn up to a session like this and be able to do everything easily. This goes to the heart of what Crossfit is about: improving every aspect of fitness rather than specialising in one area. Stemler takes it as far as to say that sports people are not “fit” because they specialise too much. As soon as you start to focus on one particular sport, you lose fitness in all the other areas. I find this a controversial idea as the same argument could be applied to Crossfit: that is, doing Crossfit really only makes you fit for Crossfit! However the point is that a wide variety of skills are being taught.

Do you have to be drinking the Crossfit kool-aid?

The short answer is ‘no’ and you can get an enormous amount from this session without being or becoming a Crossfitter. Stemler refrains from trumpeting the benefits of “Crossfit” (except in a jokey manner), allowing the workshop to speak for itself. And rightly so: Crossfit didn’t invent these exercises, it just puts them together in a particular way and has a particular approach to performing them.

The verdict

A very worthwhile course for the motivated functional fitness fanatic! If you like learning new skills, want to work hard and don’t mind a bit of constructive criticism, this is a good use of your hard-earned money. Whether you ‘do’ Crossfit or not, you will come away with a fine array of skills that you can put to whatever use you like.

To book an i-Course, click here.

Have you done the i-Course? Post your comments below.

Further information

Get the i-Course manual here – your 85-page guide to elite fitness from Andrew Stemler

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