ScorpyStell's blog

This past Saturday, I competed at the First Annual Agatsu Kettlebell Competition, hosted by Academy of Lions (www.crossfitgyms.ca) in Toronto on July 17, 2010. This was the first, and probably one of many kettlebell competitions to be held in Canada. It’s great to see the sport gain popularity and it was nice not having to travel several miles via bus or plane to get to the venue. Always a big plus!

Calm before the storm

The event was a lot of fun. Everything went very smoothly and efficiently and was extremely well organized by my good friends Boris Terzic, Eric St-Onge, and Shawn Mozen. There were a total of 15 competitors of varying skill levels going head to head, testing their strength and endurance at the event, including a few competitors who came up from the US. The events included Biathlon (jerk, snatch), long cycle (clean, jerk), and heavy jerks.

This was my second time competing in kettlebell sport. I’ve been training in the shadows and working up to doing long cycle with the 16kg kettlebell for the IKFF Nationals in September. Up until 1 week before the meet, I had never done a 10 minute set with the 16kg, as most of my training involved doing several short sets. Regardless, I wanted to challenge myself at this event and just compete for the fun of it. A few days before the comp, I did couple of test sets with the 16kg kettlebell to see where I was at. Both times I had trouble going the full 10 minutes. Yikes! GS is hard work!  Hopefully I perform better the next time.

Eric, Gold medal, Boris, & Shawn

This competition was my 3rd attempt at a 10 minute set…first time really, in terms of actually ‘finishing my time.’

I made sure I had a good nights sleep the night before. I arrived at the gym around 9:30 to weigh in. I came in at about 143.8lbs. Since I was competing in long cycle, I had a good 2 hour buffer zone before my set. I warmed up with a few body weight movements, did some Indian clubs to loosen the shoulders, played with some of the unconventional training toys at the gym, and watched my friends compete while I waited.

By the time my turn came around, I was very relaxed, loose, and ready to go.

And so the countdown began….3, 2, 1. Lift off!

The hardware!

I went at a pace of 10 to 12 reps per minute. The right side (clearly, my dominant side) went very well. I was going a steady pace of 12rpm, getting 60 reps total. After the hand switch, my pace dropped a bit. With 2 minutes left on the clock, the bell began to feel real heavy and beads of sweat were running down my face, but I kept going. It was a real struggle towards the end on the left arm and unfortunately I had a few no counts along the way. With only a few seconds left on the clock, I did my best to fit in more reps, getting a total of 44. After the set, I was sweating, happy to put the bell down, ecstatic about the fact that I went the full 10mins, and pumped that I did better than I expected to. I got a total of 104 reps.

After I was done, I watched fellow competitors compete in the heavy jerk event, where men used a 40kg bell while women used 24kg. That looked like fun, and made me wish I had signed myself up. Next time for sure! As always, it was very impressive to see Eric’s feat of strength of jerking TWO 40kg kettlebells 60 times overhead in 5 minutes!

Next up, was the award presentation. I won FIRST place for 16kg long cycle and to my surprise, was also the TOP female lifter at the meet!! AWESOMENESS!!!! Thank you Boris and Eric for making this whole event such a great experience. I’ll be back for more next time!

Here is the video of me doing my 10 minute set of 12kg long cycle at the Arnold Sports Festival KB Championships where I hit 122 reps and won the gold medal in my weight class.

To see the full results from the competition, click here.

This past weekend, I was in Columbus, Ohio to attend the Arnold Sports Festival and compete for the very first time at the Kettlebell Championships hosted by the IKFF on Sunday March 7, 2010.

I had an incredible time at the Arnolds. Everything from the training leading up to the event to cutting weight the day/morning before, going carb-less and surviving on water, apple cider vinegar (for my sore throat, soon to become cold >_<) and protein, feeling totally thirsty/hungry on the day of the weigh in (i shed 2kg in a day! and weighed in at 66kg), drinking gallons of water, eating spicy beef & veggies over couscous at a Greek restaurant the night before the comp only to have a stomach ache at 5am, seeing a ton of bodybuilders and very muscular women trying to sell me supplements, getting used as a human kettlebell (video to come soon), watching little kids with mad skills and athleticism do martial arts, restaurant hopping, meeting a famous Japanese bodybuilder who randomly recognized me from Facebook, meeting a bunch of wrestlers at my hotel who mistook me for an Olympian, but best of all, winning the GOLD medal for the 12kg one arm long cycle with 122 reps in the 68kg weight category! Funny thing is, there were not enough gold medals on hand, so I will be getting mine in the mail. A big thank you goes out to Ken Blackburn and the IKFF team who did a great job organizing the event and ensuring that everything ran as smoothly and efficiently as possible. This whole experience has been nothing short of amazing and I enjoyed every bit of it!

The Competition

9:10am marked the start of the kettlebell competition. I had a quite a long wait ahead of me as there were 11 flights and I was in the 10th. I stayed very calm and relaxed throughout and spent most of my time watching friends and fellow competitors compete. There were some great performances and it was really nice to see the comradery displayed between competitors. I was among friends and definitely in good company. People helping, cheering, and filming each others performances was a common sight. I did a quick Indian club workout to warm up and loosen any kinks I may have had in my shoulders and practiced a few reps of long cycle with the 16kg and 20kg bells. Every weight I lifted felt surprisingly light and I was feeling really confident about doing my set.

By the time it was my turn, it just flowed. I got into a good rhythm. The whole set just felt like another workout except with an audience and a few cameras rolling. I was relaxed, in the zone, didn’t really get tired and just kept on lifting. One minute soon became 5 minutes then before I knew it, the time was up!

At the end of the set, I had hit 122 reps in 10 minutes (63 reps right side, 59 reps left side), which won me the GOLD medal in 12kg long cycle in the 68kg weight class and I achieved Rank III status in the IKFF kettlebell sport ranking system. AWESOMENESS!!

Not bad at all for my first time, considering I trained mostly on my own and had very little coaching. I would’ve liked to have done better, like hitting my goal of 130 reps. But hey, there’s always next time. With my first Arnold experience behind me, things can only get better and I can only get stronger and improve from here on out. It was a good learning experience. Now I’m hooked and want to work on improving efficiency and perfecting my technique so that I can kick ass in the next competition I attend.

Wow, did I just say that? It’s approaching with the quickness and now that it finally hit me, I couldn’t be more excited! In just 4 days I am going to be doing my very first competition at the Arnold Sports Festival. Super.

I’ve been staying pretty steady with my training, fitting in timed sets here and there, whether it be on a sunny weekend afternoon, after a short high intensity interval workout, or late at night, which for me can be anytime between 12am to 2am – yes i like to train at night & sometimes its the only time that my workaholic work schedule would permit…couldn’t be helped. I made the best of it.

Aside from practicing my timed sets, my workouts were quite varied and were anywhere between 20-40 minutes each, consisting of a combination of indian clubs, joint mobility moves, plyometrics for explosive strength, kettlebells, and good ‘ol bodyweight movements. Plus a few spin and hot yoga classes thrown into the mix.

I know it’s only been 7 months since I started doing long cycle timed sets but it’s been quite the journey already. I remember back when I had problems completing a 5 minute set or getting only 80 reps on a 10 minute set. To meet the IKFF rank, I need 110reps. For the past month or so I was stuck in a plateau of 117-120 reps. Good, but not good enough for me. Just this past weekend I was able to surpass it, hitting 128 reps of long cycle clean & jerk with the 12kg kb. A new PR for me! …and only 2 reps away from my goal of 130. Sweeeet!!

This week is going to be my week to relax.

Sunday was spa day. On Monday I did 1 round of a Spartacus workout (more about this in another post) followed by a 10min timed set.

The workout:
- 60 seconds of work, 15 secs of rest x 10 moves
- 16kg kb

1. speed skaters
2. figure 8s
3. mountain climbers
4. overhead squats
5. alternating windmill w/ swing
6. alternating clean & press
7. burpees
8. alternating kb swings
9. side step squats
10. jerks

10 min timed set of long cycle clean & jerk – 12kg

Then yesterday, I went in to see my athletic therapist for an MAT (muscle activation technique) treatment just to make sure i’m as strong/stable/balanced as can be. Biomechanics can make a huge difference in performance! Overall, I was very well balanced aside from a bit of tightness on my left shoulder and hip which was probably residual from the broken clavicle incident. Makes sense and would probably explain why I was not getting even reps on the left side. Now i’m tempted to put that to the test tonight just to see if performance improved as a result of the treatment. Other than that, I’m going to try taking it easy for the remainder of the time so I can be at my best for Sunday! I’m ready, bring it on! It’s going to be great!

As humans, we all need to engage in a bit of healthy competition every now and then. It demands focus, discipline, will power, hard work, It pushes us to step out of our comfort zones to put forth our best efforts and to do things that we may have never tried otherwise. And when we finally achieve what we set out to do, it boosts confidence, makes us feel good, and teaches us that anything can be achieved just by focusing on the goal at hand.

Having said that, I recently gave into a compulsive urge to sign myself up for the Arnold Sports Festival Kettlebell Championships hosted by the IKFF (International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation) in Columbus, Ohio. I just had to do it. For myself. For the thrill of competing. For fun. So it’s set. I’ll be competing in the womens one arm long cycle clean and jerk event using a 12kg kettlebell. I figure if I’m ever going to compete, I might as well do it at the Arnold Sports Festival, which is said to be the largest sports and fitness event in the nation. This is going to be HUGE! I’m looking forward to competing alongside many of my fellow kb lifting friends and masters of sport. For those new to the sport, the goal of long cycle is for competitors to get as many perfect reps (clean & jerks) within a 10 minute time frame. For women, that would mean 5 minutes on one arm then switch to do 5 minutes on the other. Men use 2 kettlebells.

Why am I competing?

Last year I said that one of my goals for 2010 was to enter a Girevoy (Kettlebell) Sport competition and I am not one to back down on my word. Plus, I enjoy being motivated by a good challenge and the spirit of competition will only help me push myself further. I’ve only been incorporating long cycle timed sets into my workouts since September of last year but have been able to get some pretty decent numbers just from practicing lots of reps on my own. Then after attending a few weekend kettlebell workshops here and there and with some good advice from friends and international strength coaches, I saw improvement in my form, technique, and as a result, my numbers have also gone up by at least 20 reps. A kettlebell competition was naturally the next progression and will be great test of my endurance, strength, and work capacity.

The training.

The event is on March 7, 2010, which means I still have 34 days left to train. This will be my first competition and I couldn’t be more excited!

The plan now is to shed 5lbs and be able to perform 130 reps in 10 minutes. My training will include timed sets with 16kg and 12kg prograde kettlebells, indian clubs for joint mobility and to keep shoulders loose, short/intense 15-20lb kettlebell workouts on lighter days, and a few spin and muay thai classes thrown in there.

I think just stepping up to the platform and competing will be a great experience of its own. At the end of the day, I’m really just doing it all for fun to see how I’ll do. Regardless, I’m going to train hard and aim to get to the top. Winning will definitely be an added bonus Wish me luck!