I could literally write a book about my 3-day weekend at the SFG 1 certification weekend at The Dome in Chicago! But I condense to a few things of interest to you, my forum colleagues… After sharing my one-day kettlebell course and bodyweight course experiences (http://www.strongfirst.com/topic/sfg-kettlebell-course-experience/ , http://www.strongfirst.com/topic/sf-bodyweight-course-experience/) , you know I just have to share some of this experience. What an epic weekend.
First - If SFG certification is something that you have always kind of wanted to do…. DO IT. Make it a priority, prepare for it, and GO. No matter what your level of expertise, it is every bit as valuable as your highest expectations, I promise!!
I was totally blown away by the quality of instruction provided by Master SFG Jon Engum, Master SFG Fabio Zonin, Senior SFG Dr. Mark Cheng, and ALL of the others. Not only do they have the message fine-tuned and polished, but they target it expertly to the group at hand, individual by individual. We ALL got the best of the StrongFirst methods. The assistants were plentiful in ratio to the trainees, and they were all top-notch as well.
The content was as described here on the web site, and the schedule was packed. We worked hard, and past 6pm both of the first 2 days. The last day was so euphoric I’m not even sure what time we finished; I think around 4:30pm. There are tons photos available on Extreme Training Facebook page of the entire weekend.
Preparation for the cert weekend is so important. Al Ciampa designed an 8-week training program for me, and I just can’t say enough about how awesome that was. The training was hard, but it was a joy to carry out. I was never sore, had no undue stress and no injuries, and saw steady progress in both strength and conditioning. The first 4 weeks focused on strength (deadlift and press, among getups and other things) and the last 4 weeks on conditioning (swings and snatches, while maintaining press/squat/clean etc.). And, I was able to do this training while carrying out my regular full-time job and the rest of life; the plan consisted of 4 sessions per week that took from 60-90 minutes each. At the cert, my team leader and assistants had many good things to say and I passed everything with relative ease, so I must have been ready. No pain or injury while I was there, no distractions, no anxieties. This was wonderful to just be able to fully focus and absorb everything that was being taught. I definitely came out with improvements, but I can’t stress enough the importance of doing the work to prepare! It was somewhat dismaying to see how many candidates did NOT pass, and therefore did walk away from the weekend with the certificate (although most will be able to make the corrections and complete the certification if they pass these things in the next 90 days). For some it was the snatch test, for many it was the skills test, and for some it was the written test. They are ALL important, and you have to give each adequate attention to meet all the requirements.
The adrenaline rush during the grad workout was phenomenal. All the SFG 1’s and 2’s did it together at the end of Sunday With 2 snatch-test-sized kettlebells, 16kgs for me, 20 rounds of 2 cleans + 2 alternating presses + 3 squats (and he held us low in the squats!), half of the group (Group A), then the other half (Group B). What a rush! Here’s where a certain kind of work capacity came into play: I believe due to the time I’ve spent on the swing protocol (similar to what is described in http://www.strongfirst.com/where-do-you-go-after-simple/ ), this worked beautifully for me – each round was hard, but as I did “fast and loose” and waited to go again with Group A, I could almost literally FEEL that alactic tank filling back up and was ready to go again. The instructors and assistants kept asking if I wanted to move down to the 12kgs as most of the other women did, but I was going strong, and felt like I could have gone another 20 rounds!
Well I’ll leave it at that… it’s all still soaking in. I imagine it will be for a while. But if this hasn’t come through yet, let me say this… I am very pleased, and extremely honored, to be an SFG 1 and a member of the StrongFirst family.
First - If SFG certification is something that you have always kind of wanted to do…. DO IT. Make it a priority, prepare for it, and GO. No matter what your level of expertise, it is every bit as valuable as your highest expectations, I promise!!
I was totally blown away by the quality of instruction provided by Master SFG Jon Engum, Master SFG Fabio Zonin, Senior SFG Dr. Mark Cheng, and ALL of the others. Not only do they have the message fine-tuned and polished, but they target it expertly to the group at hand, individual by individual. We ALL got the best of the StrongFirst methods. The assistants were plentiful in ratio to the trainees, and they were all top-notch as well.
The content was as described here on the web site, and the schedule was packed. We worked hard, and past 6pm both of the first 2 days. The last day was so euphoric I’m not even sure what time we finished; I think around 4:30pm. There are tons photos available on Extreme Training Facebook page of the entire weekend.
Preparation for the cert weekend is so important. Al Ciampa designed an 8-week training program for me, and I just can’t say enough about how awesome that was. The training was hard, but it was a joy to carry out. I was never sore, had no undue stress and no injuries, and saw steady progress in both strength and conditioning. The first 4 weeks focused on strength (deadlift and press, among getups and other things) and the last 4 weeks on conditioning (swings and snatches, while maintaining press/squat/clean etc.). And, I was able to do this training while carrying out my regular full-time job and the rest of life; the plan consisted of 4 sessions per week that took from 60-90 minutes each. At the cert, my team leader and assistants had many good things to say and I passed everything with relative ease, so I must have been ready. No pain or injury while I was there, no distractions, no anxieties. This was wonderful to just be able to fully focus and absorb everything that was being taught. I definitely came out with improvements, but I can’t stress enough the importance of doing the work to prepare! It was somewhat dismaying to see how many candidates did NOT pass, and therefore did walk away from the weekend with the certificate (although most will be able to make the corrections and complete the certification if they pass these things in the next 90 days). For some it was the snatch test, for many it was the skills test, and for some it was the written test. They are ALL important, and you have to give each adequate attention to meet all the requirements.
The adrenaline rush during the grad workout was phenomenal. All the SFG 1’s and 2’s did it together at the end of Sunday With 2 snatch-test-sized kettlebells, 16kgs for me, 20 rounds of 2 cleans + 2 alternating presses + 3 squats (and he held us low in the squats!), half of the group (Group A), then the other half (Group B). What a rush! Here’s where a certain kind of work capacity came into play: I believe due to the time I’ve spent on the swing protocol (similar to what is described in http://www.strongfirst.com/where-do-you-go-after-simple/ ), this worked beautifully for me – each round was hard, but as I did “fast and loose” and waited to go again with Group A, I could almost literally FEEL that alactic tank filling back up and was ready to go again. The instructors and assistants kept asking if I wanted to move down to the 12kgs as most of the other women did, but I was going strong, and felt like I could have gone another 20 rounds!
Well I’ll leave it at that… it’s all still soaking in. I imagine it will be for a while. But if this hasn’t come through yet, let me say this… I am very pleased, and extremely honored, to be an SFG 1 and a member of the StrongFirst family.