ICKB students: Please be sure to come collect a special gift from Ivan and Ksenia tonight!

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A video featuring some of the spectacular highlights from the Open Cup of Europe 2011

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Showing off that pregnancy glow while overlooking the Acropolis

Check out Maya’s latest article featuring Sara’s prenatal training experience on Athleta Chi…

Here are some great recommendations for travelers stuck on a plane:

Sitting Overhead Extension

Sitting Overhead Extension:
-Sit up straight on the edge of a chair or bench
-Keep your feet and knees pointed straight ahead and hip width apart
-Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back
-Interlace your fingers together and reach your arms overhead, pressing your hands to the ceiling with palms up
-Hold this for 1 minute

Sitting Isolated Hip Flexor Lifts

Sitting Isolated Hip Flexor Lifts:
-Sit up straight on the edge of a chair or bench
-Keep your feet and knees pointed straight ahead and hip width apart
-Let your arms hang down at your sides
-Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back
-Lift one foot about 3 inches off the floor and then lower; repeat
• Use your front hip muscles to generate the movement
• Maintain the arch in your back, keeping your hips rolled forward throughout the exercise
-Switch sides and repeat for 3 sets of 20 repetitions/ leg

Sitting In Extension

Sitting in Extension:
-Sit up straight on the edge of a chair or bench
-Keep your feet and knees pointed straight ahead and hip width apart
-Let your arms hang down at your sides (do not raise your arms like Johnny in the picture)
-Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back
-Hold for 3 minutes

Sitting Cat & Dog

Sitting Cat & Dog:
-Sit in a chair with your feet pointed straight ahead, hip width apart
• Your arms can hang loosely to the sides, or be placed in your lap
-For the CAT position: Roll your hips backward to take the arch out of the back
-For the DOG position: Roll your hips forward to place the arch into your low back
-Slowly move back and forth between the Cat and Dog positions
-Repeat 10 times per pose

Sitting Shoulder Rolls

Sitting Shoulder Rolls:
-Sit up straight on the edge of a chair or bench
-Keep your feet and knees pointed straight ahead and hip width apart
-Roll your hips forward to place an arch in your low back and hold throughout the exercise
-Circle backward by raising your shoulders then circling them back and then down
-Repeat 40 repetitions

Congratulations to Sarah and Selby!  Both of these IC rock stars worked diligently for several months to get in top shape for their beautiful wedding day.  We couldn’t be happier for the two of them!

Here are results in each respective weight class:

Sam – Gold – 12kg Biathlon

Karen – Gold – 12kg Biathlon

Maya – Gold – 20kg Biathlon

Surya – Silver – 20kg Biathlon

Sara – Gold – 24kg Long Cycle

This competition had by far the highest concentration of advanced kettlebell lifters on U.S. soil.  We want to congratulate every athlete that qualified and competed to make this one of the best events to date.

Surya taking the 20kg Jerk to new heights.

Maya – still the top 53kg lifter in the U.S.

Sara, considered by many insiders as the top female Long Cycle lifter in the country, delivers yet another MS performance and competition PR.

Sam takes the snatch by storm, going the full 10 minutes to earn 162 reps  – in her first competition!

And finally, our hero, Karen stole the hearts of everyone by becoming the WKC’s 1st National Champion in the Senior Women Division.

Best,

Steven

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Special Congrats to Emily Friedel for earning MS in Biathlon, Cate Imes for producing yet another Master of Sport in Emily Friedel; C-Duff and the Lockout Team for their amazing performances, and Team Croatia for displaying some wicked sick lifting this weekend.

Seven powerful ladies of the WKC: Ivana - CMS, Surya - MS, Lorna - MS, Svetlana - MSWC, Maya - MS, Sara - MS, and Emily - MS.

Henry, Nenad, and Will all closing in on CMS.

Team Croatia with big hearts and delivering big numbers!

Both Scott and C-Duff of Team Lockout gave breath taking performances.

Ivana, ever so close to MS!

Eric St. Onge achieved MS numbers in Jerk.

Cate Imes going for S-32 Rank.

Andy staying focused with S-60 rank, a.k.a. Long Cycle with the 132 lb KB!

Rest period after Sara's set.

Dalibar housing the 24s despite his recent back injury.

Thank you WKC for throwing another great event.

While in Kauai, we took a hike called the Kukui trail that the guidebooks rated as “difficult to extremely difficult.”  About 2000 feet straight down the side of Waimea Canyon to the river and then straight back up, all in the course of about five miles.  For an IC Core member, I would rate it as- mild to possibly downright “cake.”

- Nick “The Core Traveler”

By Surya Voinar-Fowler

“…MS rank is really only proof of my rudimentary understanding- it means that I have acquired just enough knowledge and skill to begin a deeper study of the sport. MS was my qualifying exam. In order to continue to improve, I knew that I would have to take my understanding to the next level. In other words, it was time to go back to school.”

CLICK here to read more

The Black Sea

“Today, as Surya and I boarded our flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam on our way to the Ukraine for the WKC’s Summer Sport Camp, I felt caught in the middle of a neighbor compatibility test.  Nothing triggers the judgmental nature of humans more than airplanes. We all try to make the experience less painful by compulsively scouring every travel site available for the best possible rates, but then inevitably it’s the seating arrangement, preferably an isle or a window and of course some extra leg room, that either makes or breaks the deal. In Economy, you always pray your neighbor will be skinnier, shorter, and quieter than you…”  READ MORE

Maya and Surya with 15x World Champion Fedor Fuglev

The ladies are back from the World Kettlebell Club’s Ukrainian Sport Camp hosted at the historic training facility of 15x World Champion, Fedor Fuglev (who is 48 years of age by the way, but wait till you see the stuff he does).  With more than 24 hours of travel time and 4 flights to get home, they are a bit jet lagged, but full of immense gratitude for their incredible experience.  Maya and Surya promise to chronicle their most amazing excursion to date on the ICKB site very soon.  Until then, here is a video of their once in a lifetime adventure to the Black Sea.

Best,

Steven