Functional Training – Urban Sport of the Week

Each week we send members of the USC team to try out a new activity. This week we visited Kader1, a modern, sleek new gym in Cologne and tried a workout that was full of (not so) pleasant surprises…  

What is Kader1?

The gym was founded by friends and personal trainers Daniel and Lukas to fulfil their passion of promoting “sport in its purest form.”

Their classes are designed to train beginners and professionals in functional fitness, prepare members for competitions and give their athletes the confidence to train safely by themselves.  

What can you expect?

Kader1 is super sleek, cool and modern. The interior is grey, black and white and the open gym area is full of state-of-the-art equipment – barbells, functional training stations, black matting and medicine balls. The changing rooms are the height of luxury with everything you could possibly need and (as we later found out) extremely good showers.

This is the kind of gym you look forward to going to.

Our class was a ESD1/Hyrox class – a functional fitness class for beginners with a focus on training for The Hyrox Challenge – a fitness challenge designed for the every day athlete.

Side note: USC’s very own Torsten (Head of Marketing) and Manuel took part in the Hyrox Challenge and Manuel is through to the World Hyrox Championships on April 6th 2019!  

How was the workout?

We warmed up with hip openers, half-pigeon leg stretches and walking planks. Our trainer Robinson had written our workout on the board – it looked simple enough but it was designed to push us to our limits. We began with 12 goblet squats (with a heavy kettlebell), 12 squat jumps, 12 pull-ups (I used a band), 12 burpees, 12 wall balls, 12 sit-ups and 12 push-ups. Then for the next round we did the exact same exercises 10 times, then 8, then 6, 4, 2.

It doesn’t matter how many time I do a functional workout, I still find it mind-blowingly difficult. Burpees never get easier. By the second round of this workout I was wondering if I was going to make it out alive. The good thing about this format is you get the difficult round out of the way first, so psychologically it’s easier to handle.

My legs were shaking and I could barely stand upright but we had 10 minutes to spare before the end of the session. I was hoping we’d be doing some pleasant stretching, but no. Robinson divided us up into teams. The first team to collectively complete 4000 metres on the rowing machine and 4000 metres on the skiing machine would be the winner. We had 4 people on each team so we divided the challenge into blocks of 200m each, so by the end we would have skiid and rowed for 1000 metres each.

How did I feel after?

Dead.

Benefits of functional training

There’s no better way to get fit than with a functional workout. Although I felt very very tired afterwards, the next day I had a huge surge of energy. I felt lighter, strong and I wanted to sprint everywhere. I can understand why these workouts are so addictive. Plus functional training is great for your cardiovascular system and overall fitness.  

Don’t forget to bring…

Water, a towel and a can-do attitude.  

Urban Sports Club has tons of functional fitness partners across Germany, Italy and France. Take a look at our site to see what’s on in your area.

And take a look at the Kader1 website for a full class schedule.  

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