OK, time for a review of a couple of routines that I have done since buying my kettlebell.
First, the Michael Skogg dvd that came with the bell. I didn't mention this in previous posts because I had not progressed beyond the instructional part where Skogg shows the individual exercises. Those are what I did that caused the soreness I reported. Later, when I tried to progress to the actual workout phase the dvd locked up and would not play. I took it out of the player and saw that the disc was noticeably warped. This happened because of the method used for packing. The dvd is sandwiched between a couple of pieces of cardboard and placed in the box under the bell. I called Weider/Icon Fitness and spoke to a humorless young lady on the phone and she told me that I would be sent a new dvd but she had no idea as to when that would be as they were out of stock. (Does this indicate that I'm not the first one with this complaint?). I got the dvd after about 2 weeks, more about the Skogg dvd momentarily.
In the interim Mrs. Buddha and I went back to Wally World and saw some kettlebells put out by a company called Danskin. They make ladies' fitness equipment and apparel but we bought a 5 and a 10 pound bell by Danskin. They also had dvds included that were made by a lady named Gin Miller. I had never heard of her but a little research showed that she was the inventor of step aerobics back in the late 80s and has been a real innovator in health and fitness all over the world.
Her dvd flows seamlessly from one exercise to the next and has stretching mixed in with the bell moves which allows for less soreness afterward. There are 3 seperate workouts on her dvd as well as a warm up prior and a cool down afterward. I have been doing her routines almost exclusively even though I received the Skogg disc about a week ago. If you do the warm up, all 3 exercise routines and the cool down you have about 45 minutes of KB work at the end. Many might think that because a lady is doing the instruction that this is gonna be a girlie workout. Many would be mistaken. I don't think that this is an advanced KB workout, one would need a Pavel Tsatsouline dvd for that, but it is an excellent workout for a beginner like me.
Back to Skogg. He has some kicka$$ moves on his dvd. But the actual workout part of the routine is just the instructional part of the program rerun with a 30 second break between exercises. I was struck by the fact that there is no flow to the workout. You do 1 minute of reps, 30 seconds with the right hand and 30 seconds with the left, then take a 30 second break before the next move. I found it boring and the breaks not only gave me a break from the work, which I really didn't need, but they also broke my concentration. He also has some advanced moves at the end like the "figure 8" and the "windmill" which are kicka$$ as well. I usually do these moves after completing the Gin Miller workout and before the cooldown.
I'm gonna stick with these 2 dvds for a while. I definitely find the Gin Miller more fun and a better workout in terms of flow than the Skogg but Skogg has some moves that are real a$$ kickers. At some point in the future I'll invest in one of Pavel's dvds but for now these two are really good learning tools when used in combination.
