I began doing Facebook live workout videos a week after the shutdown happened in March of 2020. It has now been over a year since that first nerve racking recording. I started doing live workouts to help our gym members, and others interested in kettlebells who wanted to continue working out from home. 

At BKC we lent out all of our kettlebells so those stuck at home could still get in a training session. Strength is important, and we didn’t want anyone to stop training just because the gym was closed.

In the beginning, I was a ball of nerves. It would take me about 20 minutes just to set up. I also struggled to teach the exercises while training. If anyone knows me, they know that for the most part I train alone. I have 5 kids and I have been a stay at home mom since my youngest, the twins, were born. So I don’t have a great amount of teaching experience, nor do I have a coach. This was new to me. I believe I have gotten better over time, getting set up does not take as long and that ball of nerves is unraveling.

However, over time a lot of things changed. During my first few live workouts I was training with heavier bells. This wasn’t new for me, but training 5 days a week was. It didn’t take long before I was very sore and felt over trained. But I didn’t want to stop. So I decreased my load and kept going. Once the gym opened back up I went down to 3 days a week. This really helped that over trained feeling and allowed me to get back to those heavier bells. Now I’m feeling great and stronger than ever. 

Most of the training videos I recorded were typical kettlebell workouts I would do. The only difference for me training-wise, was I usually incorporate other things like walking/running, pullups, barbell squats and deadlifts. When I was recording 5 days a week with kettlebells I stopped doing other training. Then when I went down to 3 days a week, my schedule seemed to get filled up with homeschooling and keeping up with the household chores. I would occasionally get in a walk or a barbell workout, but frankly, I missed having things like that as part of my regular routine.

I feel like this was a great experience. It got me out of my shell, as I can be very shy. Over this past year I have definitely increased my physical strength and my cardio. When I first started I could barely do 1 chin up, now I can do 3. My body has toned up; I can see and feel my strong firm muscles. When I am tensing or squeezing, I can feel my muscles contracting. Where as before I could feel them, but now they feel solid.

Mentally throughout this past year, I was on track at first. It was more of a commitment to myself, or a goal, to keep on with my live workouts. However, after a year, I have hit a wall. Just kind of burnt out. Not all from the training, but also being a new homeschool mom and having all the kids home all the time. Not to mention all the other issues we have all had to endure this last year. Even though it has been a difficult year, it has also been a year full of unexpected blessings, and I thank God for that!

As with most things, there were pros and cons to having done every single workout over the last year on camera. One of the pros was the accountability factor. The only time I missed a session was when we all had COVID. I even recorded videos while on vacation! Another pro was that I pushed the pace in every workout. Much of that was because I felt awkward just standing there resting, but also it’s easy to get distracted when training at home. A little cleaning in between sets turns into a longer-than-desired rest break and ultimately an unfocused workout.

The cons were that I lost my “me time”. It’s hard to get alone time when you have young children. My workouts have always been a time for me. I talk to myself, I pray, sometimes I cry, and those are some of the things that I’ve lost while doing my workouts live. I also like to sing and dance while I workout, and that will NOT be caught on camera! LOL

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be doing the live workouts as I am looking forward to training by myself again, without a camera on me. 

I just wanted to thank all of you who watched, joined in, or commented on my videos. It is always very encouraging. Thank you for your kindness and support. I hope you all enjoyed them, and continue to train. 

All of my videos can be found on the Baltimore Kettlebell Club Facebook page, or on Youtube at www.youtube.com/dcenidoza

If you enjoyed these videos, I’d ask you to leave me a review on my instructor site. I’d appreciate it. Just click here and scroll to the bottom of the page a leave a review. Thanks.

If you want a paper copy of any of the workouts that I did, most are available here.

If you didn’t know, Jessica Cenidoza wrote a book on Kettlebell training while pregnant…Available on Amazon or at www.prenatalstrength.com

“Jessica is an amazing trainer! She worked with me and my wife who was 6 months pregnant at the time. She taught my wife so many movements that were safe to do during her pregnancy as well as things to focus on post-delivery. We learned so much from working with her and since then my wife and I have more than doubled the weight of our kettlebells. I highly recommend Jessica for people of all ages. 5 stars!”