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RKC School of Strength

Official blog of the RKC

Colleen Conlon

How I Set A Guinness World Record For Turkish Get-ups… And Then Beat It!

December 25, 2021 By Colleen Conlon 2 Comments

Both of Colleen Conlon's Guiness World Book of Records Successful Attempts

On July 17, 2021, I set the Guinness World Record for “Heaviest Weight Lifted by Turkish Get Up in One Hour (female).” I completed 133 Turkish get-ups in sixty minutes using a 16kg kettlebell. I finished lifting a total of 2,182 kilograms.

On December 4, I beat the record by completing 188 reps in the same time with the same bell. I finished lifting 3,008 kilograms.

The Journey Begins

During the 2020 lockdown, after transitioning my personal training business online, I decided it was time to step up my own kettlebell practice. I was already dead serious about my training, so I started thinking about what bigger goals I might have. At the time, I was doing a lot of kettlebell swings every-minute-on-the-minute (or “EMOM”), and thought to myself, “Is there a challenge for this?”

After some time passed, I went to the Guinness World Record website. I discovered a record listed as, “Heaviest Weight Lifted by Kettlebell Swing in One Hour.” I wondered if there was a record for the Turkish get-up. I searched further and found that there was—but not in the female category. All too often, we impose limitations on ourselves. I was determined to explore my true potential. I thought: “Why not me?”

After brooding in doubt for a few months, I sent in my application. In March of 2021, I began training for the Guinness World Record.

I worked with Senior RKC Annie Vo as my coach. Annie had beaten world records herself, and I knew she would be the perfect fit. In accordance with her programming, I did a lot of Turkish get-up EMOMs—some heavy and short, others long and light. My workouts lasted anywhere between 10-90 minutes. In approaching my goal, my initial game plan was to aim for 2-3 reps per minute with a 20kg bell and I trained as such, but my plan would have to change. It seems I failed to read the fine print.

Colleen Conlon practicing get-ups

Expect the Unexpected

The week before I was prepared to set the record, I discovered that in order for a Turkish get-up to qualify for Guinness, the bell MUST be pressed up and brought down using only one arm. I was not prepared for this. Prior to this discovery, I had been using both arms to press. At the time, I couldn’t single arm press the 20kg. It was even a struggle to press the 16kg! I had only one week to prepare under my newly found circumstances. (Lesson learned: read the fine print!)

The day came. Annie flew out and I had no choice but to follow through. I kept my eyes on the prize and stuck with the plan, using only one arm to press. On July 17, 2021 I performed 133 Turkish get-ups, just over two per minute and set the Guinness World Record! While this first attempt was very exciting, I knew it wasn’t the best I could do. Had I known all the details up front, and trained accordingly, I could do better. The next several weeks were dedicated to push patterns.

Losing Myself

On December 4th, I did 188 Turkish get-ups, just over three per minute and smashed the current Guinness World Record, previously set by me! Breaking this record was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, both physically and mentally. The first time, back in July, I knew I had more to give. This time, nothing remained inside me. I died and was reborn.

Although I never got to a point where I felt like I couldn’t do one more rep, I was maintaining 85% of my max effort for the entire hour. It felt as if I was crying on the inside. I took five mini-breaks and in those moments I saw darkness. It took everything in me to get out of my head and tell myself out loud, “YOU CAN DO THIS!” I never had an out of body experience before, but I did during this hour. I was told afterward that I was grunting and screaming at times, but I don’t remember.

One of the biggest things that helped was having my support team with me. My husband Tim, Annie, and Danny Kavadlo were all there to assist and cheer me on. If I were alone, I would’ve quit, but having Coach Vo by my side helped keep me in line. (Not to mention the fact that she flew across the country to be with me. I couldn’t let her down!)

Tim, Colleen, Annie, Danny

What I Learned

I am capable of doing hard things. Back when Annie and I were coming up with our game plan, we knew based on studying the male record, that three reps average per minute with the 16kg would give me the greatest number. On one of my first sessions in preparing for this record, I tried to do three per minute for 10 minutes with the 12kg and I failed. The thought of doing that with 16kg for an hour terrified me. But it’s from failure that we grow. Had I not been met with obstacles, I may not have grown as fierce. In the beginning, it was too hard for me, but with the right training plan, consist hard work, and the right coach, I was able to do it in the end.

Willpower is a muscle that you need to train. Every session on my own, I had to remind myself of my “why”. There were many moments I wanted to give up, especially during the last attempt, but because I spent so much time in the longer EMOMs, many of which were 90 minutes, my willpower muscle was well conditioned.

Colleen Conlon headshot

Find Your Fierce

We all have the ability to create our own reality. I wasn’t an athletic kid and I did not grow up playing sports. I never had a “Big Game” moment. Not even close. I realized that if I ever wanted that opportunity in adulthood, I had to create it for myself, so that is what I did.

If there is something you want, it’s probably not going to magically come to you. You have to go out there and make it happen, and you can. I know this because if I did it, so can you.

***

Follow Colleen Conlon, RKC-II, PCC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamcolleenconlon/

Filed Under: Kettlebell Training, Motivation Tagged With: Colleen Conlon, get ups, Guinness World Book of Records, kettlebell endurance, kettlebell feat, kettlebell training

Here’s How I Built a 6 Figure Online Kettlebell Coaching Business

November 19, 2021 By Colleen Conlon 1 Comment

An online coaching call with Colleen Conlon, RKC-II Instructor

Before COVID I was a full-time fitness professional in NYC. I had a handful of private clients I saw in their apartment gyms—all older men who didn’t want to workout, but wanted to be seen with the cute female trainer. I taught 15 group fitness classes a week: cycling, yoga, HIIT—one of those classes was a Hardstyle kettlebell class.

When the pandemic hit, all the places I taught classes shut down. NONE of my private clients wanted to train virtually. I tried doing virtual classes: 3 HIIT, 1 yoga, 1 jump rope, 1 kettlebell. The virtual classes were good. I stuck with this load for close to 3 months, April 2020-June 2020 before pivoting. I realized I LOVED teaching from home. I no longer had a commute, I got to spend more time with my husband, and had time to start dreaming about what I wanted. This was my shot to get out of the rat race of living out of a backpack as I spent the past 7 years hustling in the fitness scene!

I hired a business coach. This was so scary! At the time I was averaging $50,000 a year, barely saving anything due to where I lived. The cost was $5,000 to be in a group coaching program. That felt like a LOT of money to drop, but here were my choices: Take time trying to figure it out on my own, sit and wait for things to get back to normal (a normal that I didn’t want to go back to), or invest in me, and try to build a new life. I remember calling my Dad, and I told him I dropped 5k on a business coach. He told me that was a stupid choice and I should get my money back! I cried. Then put my blinders up. I was going to get as much out of this course as I could. The course made me think about learning a new kettlebell skill. The devil’s in the details, and consistency is number one to make progress. I knew I was good at kettlebell details, and that gave me the confidence to believe I could build a virtual kettlebell business, so long as I followed my coach’s blueprint.

Week 1 had to do a lot of self-reflection. I had to figure out “who I was,” and “who I helped,” and “how I would do it.” I remember telling my coach that I wanted to help everyone! She said, “no!” I was baffled because at this point I had worked with all different types of people: senior citizens, high school athletes, moms, brides, middle-aged men. Yes, I can help anyone who wants my help, but my coach wanted me to figure out who I WANTED to help! This felt strange. In my head I thought, well it would be cool to help women who I can relate to, but I’ve never had that clientele. So that’s who I needed to attract and I had to do that by being on social media. Why did I need to do it via social media? Because there was no other place to get people to know about me and what I was offering!

Social isn’t about your number of followers. It’s about talking to your ideal client. It’s about getting people to know, like, and trust you. How do you do that? You share your story! You create proof that you know what you are talking about! You are authentically you!

My biz coach gave me this analogy that I want you to remember:

Colleen Conlon coaching via FacetimeIn NYC, there’s a coffee shop on every corner. They all get business! Some people want a bougie $9 cup of coffee, others want something cheap, some people want an experience where you sit down with a fireplace and soft music, then others want to go in and out. The virtual space gives us access to so many people who value different things! There are plenty of people to go around. You need to build your “coffee shop” so your ideal client can find their cup of coffee! All of my clients have come via Instagram because of how I’ve built out my page.

I started posting regularly about kettlebells, and I got my first virtual kettlebell client. She was EXACTLY who I wanted to attract! She thought she’d learn to use kettlebells in two sessions, but two sessions turned into nearly 250! She was a bit of an experiment, and her success has helped me prove to other women all over the world that kettlebells can change your life! All of her sessions were done via FaceTime or Zoom. 1x a week we met for an hour and then she took a 1-hour virtual kettlebell class. She started with two kettlebells: 12kg and 20kg. With her permission, she allowed me to share pieces of her journey on social, and that was when I began to get more traction from other women. Why? Because I had proof of concept!

My Online Kettlebell Course

The goal of the business course for me was to do two things. Get a few one on one clients. Then build a big course that I could run multiple times a year to teach people how to use kettlebells. The course would be intense! I wanted to get people who wanted to learn the big six, within 13 weeks, and be able to perform everything with at least their testing size bell. This course would be marketed to people who were down to train 4-5x per week on a progressive program. They’d see me 2-3x per week in a group setting. They’d get feedback on video submissions. They would be the ones who would want to invest in themselves! The first time I ran the course I charged $2,400. How did I get that number? I came up with it by figuring out how much I wanted to make for the hours I’d spend with them per week. I thought about the time it took to create the course. Then I factored in what I believed the transformation was worth. After the first person signed up, I knew this would be a game-changer! This wouldn’t be for everyone! It wasn’t intended to be for everyone. It was created for my ideal client.

Remember the 5k business coach investment my Dad told me was a bad choice? This 13 week intensive I created brought in $24,000 the first time I ran it! I had 10 people sign up at $2,400 per person. All to say, sometimes you just have to invest in yourself! If I figured it out on my own I doubt I’d be as far forward as I am. If I sat tight, I’d be back in the rat race. Instead, I’m now working with my ideal clients who are WANTING to learn how to use kettlebells because they BELIEVE that they will change their bodies, change their mental health, and elevate their confidence! Why do they believe this will happen? Because I’ve been showing them on Instagram what’s possible consistently for the past year and a half!

This 13-week intensive funnels me 1 on 1 clients, funnels into a weekly kettlebell class, programming, and weekend retreats!

Colleen Conlon Kettlebell Retreat Group

I use to think social media was a dumb time suck. I now realize it’s a powerful tool to build a virtual business. It’s not about how popular you are, it’s about connecting with that ideal client, getting them to know, like, and trust you, and helping to solve their problems.

Since building my business, I left NYC. I live with my Husband in Arizona. (His brick and mortar gym also turned into a full-time virtual fitness business). So long as we have WiFi, we can work and help our ideal clients ANYWHERE in the world!

If this is something you want, you can do it too! You just have to get started!

***

Follow Colleen Conlon, RKC-II on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamcolleenconlon/

Filed Under: Fitness Business Tagged With: Colleen Conlon, fitness business, kettlebell coaching, online courses, online kettlebell coach, online kettlebell training, online trainer, online training, virtual fitness business, virtual kettlebell training

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Dragon Door Publications / The author(s) and publisher of this material are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may occur through following the instructions or opinions contained in this material. The activities, physical and otherwise, described herein for informational purposes only, may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people, and the reader(s) should consult a physician before engaging in them.