Kettlebells
I've been training at Revamped Fitness in Vancouver for the past two months. Great instructors, classes and community. It's a kettlebell gym that incorporates many MMA-style training exercises such as crawlers, battle ropes, rowing, powerlifting and much else. Training is both aerobic and anaerobic, but mostly anaerobic high intensity interval training. My heart pumps hard, I take in deep breaths and drip sweat.
I'm attending about five classes a week and the focus of each class is slightly different. Some are more strengh-building, others are more endurance. All in all it feels very balanced, and very rewarding.
It's a much harder workout than what I was doing before. Although I'm familiar with HIIT training through boxing and kickboxing, I'm really enjoying the strengh-training aspects of this gym. I've shed fat and gained muscle, and I'm sleeping better and waking up earlier. Big wins!
The first time I heard about Kettlebell training was maybe 2007. Since then it's come up a few times, always piquing my interest.
Then in January of 2015 Tim Ferriss had Pavel Tsatsouline on episode 55 of his podcast and I was sold. I started researching trainers in Vancouver. A few weeks later I'm starting a new job and discover Revamped almost directly across the street. It seemed meant to be.
So I just looked it up and I'm snatching and pressing the 16kg bell. I'm pleased so far, and curious where I'll be in six months. Maybe I'll even do one of those before-and-after type shots :D