Kettlebells in Greece
This was the sunset that greeted us from our balcony at Hotel Marion in Loutraki, Greece — a beachside town 40 minutes outside of Athens. If you don’t believe me, here’s proof:
How can anyone focus on kettlebells in a place as beautiful as this? Easily… if these two are your coaches:
Stepping into Coach Filikidis’ gym is like walking into a world of its own. His gym is actually quite far from Loutraki; a car ride without traffic took us roughly 25 minutes. The gym looks like a much larger version of the IC, except unlike our place, he doesn’t seem to work with many women. Empirical evidence of this: no toilet paper or paper towels in the coed restroom. My mom and I immediately knew we were in for another great adventure! Along the partition separating the mat space from the weightlifting area are dozens of pictures of Filikidis’ top athletes in competition, but what is most impressive about the photos is the number of times Filikidis himself is featured in action. …and I’m not talking about photos from 20 years ago. In fact, I’m still stunned at what I saw today. Filikidis was busting out feats of strength every 30 minutes or so. He started with a double 24kg jerk set for 6 minutes at 14, 15, then 16 rpms. How many of us can increase rpms as we fatigue? That was his warm-up btw. Then I saw him successfully arm wrestle Russ Jodrey — a national arm wrestling champion, at least 10 times. Unlike young Russ, Filikidis is 58 years old. He then moved on to strongman lifts that would have even given Andrew Durniat a run for his money. In the photo above, he earned a new PR on the chair press, but don’t be fooled by the color of the bells. The bell on the bottom weighs 45kgs and the one above it weighs 16kgs. That’s 135 lbs in one hand. (Valery was sweet to provide moral support to his great mentor.)
Pictured above are lifters from Germany, London, Slovenia, and California! As the only female lifter in the bunch (Cate Imes, Bonnie, and the ICKB Girls were greatly missed), Valery asked me to deadlift and hold a 90 kg kettlebell (yes, 90 kg – 198 lb. KB!) for the group photos. I think it’s important to note that this moment was the only special treatment I received today. The rest of the day was spent doing everything everyone else was assigned to do including a 10 minute max jerk set first thing in the morning (ouch), followed by a 6 minute jerk set at a faster rpm, followed by a 4 minute jerk set at the fastest rpm possible. Needless to say, my shoulders were fried. His remedy: pull-ups before and after each set… and that was only the first third of the day.
that photo with the big boys just affirms you Maya are a woman of amazing capabilities!
We are all so proud of you Maya! You are an AMAZING woman!!!!
Amazing! You are indeed a powerhouse. And inspiration!! Love the photos and stories. Keep it coming, and bring some t.p. from the hotel!!
Maya, you are amazing and make me so proud. Have a wonderful trip and keep the photos/articles coming!
I just found this write-up on the AKC Forum. It was written by Bonnie’s coach Kev, who is also there. It sounded like Maya represented the IC very well!
> hi,
> back again. today was a test day for all of us to see where we are so coach fedorenko can help tune us in. everyone pushed hard and put in a full days work. im tired
>
> russ and coach filikides went off on the armwrestling training today. coach filikides is competing at a huge armwrestling meet in krygistan in a week or so and is very strong right now. ive never heard my brother say he is tired from trying to keep up with some ones training and he and filikides went at each other all day exercise for exercise. they were moving some crazy weight in all these different armwrestling training movements.
>
> coach filikides has two chairs set up to do wrist and hand work in and it was cool to see him and russ sitting side by side going set for set. russ even gave away his armwrestling t-shirts to some of coach filikides kids.
>
> maya from the ice chamber came in today and tore it up. i never got to train with maya before and she doesnt play. the ice chamber would have been proud. her mom came with her and is a sweetheart. she got to meet all of us and coach filikides students.
>
> the weather has been warm and as usual everyone local has been friendly. some of the local merchants remembered cona and i from our last trip here and gave cona a gift. what more can you say.
>
> time for some rest and back at it tomorrow.
> kev
I love this picture! Maya, I bet jaws were dropping and preconceived stereotypes of women KBers have changed once they saw you train. Way to show those European KBers that women are a force to be reckoned with!!!
Wow, Maya, this is awesome. My shoulders hurt just reading your post! I’m kind of afraid of the great new coaching techniques you’ll bring back to the IC.
Way to show the boys what the girls can do! I love how you and all of the ICKB girls are cutting new ground in this sport. Keep up the great work.
Maya I think it is great that you are among nothing but men….it shows them a woman can truly keep up. Keep up the good work Maya! Show them that size does not matter. YOU ROCK CHICA!!!
Sounds amazing yet very scary. Hope you are having a great time and showing all the men how it’s done!
Great pictures. Yes, Maya you are amazing and we are all proud of you. Have fun when you are not training.
Maya you are an inspiration. The photos and the stories are wonderful. Keep them coming!
Great stuff, living in London whenever I go abroad anywhere hot, my fitness and my diet always takes a back seat, so it’s remarkable to see people from places like Greece who take their training so seriously, I would be so distracted.