Strength Training with Kettlebells: Your Multitool for Improved Movement

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This December at The Yard Strength Training, we stepped into The Backyard with Thérèse Harvey, a certified kettlebell instructor who brought a deep appreciation for kettlebell training and its real-world strength applications. From its roots in agricultural Russia to its modern-day presence in nearly every gym, Thérèse highlighted how kettlebells are far more than just an alternative to dumbbells—they are a powerful, versatile tool for building functional strength and improving movement quality.

Takeaways

1. Kettlebells Build Functional Strength
Unlike traditional dumbbells, kettlebells challenge the body to move in multiple planes, engaging the core and stabilizer muscles. This makes them an excellent tool for developing functional strength that translates to everyday activities and sports performance.

2. A Rich History with Modern Relevance
Kettlebells originated in agricultural Russia and were later adopted by the Soviet military for efficient conditioning. Today, they remain a practical, effective way to improve strength, mobility, and overall movement quality.

3. Comprehensive Fitness Benefits
Kettlebell training supports a wide range of physical qualities—core stability, power, balance, coordination, and overall conditioning—making it a highly efficient and versatile workout method.

4. Focus on Foundational Movements
Beginners are encouraged to master key exercises such as the swing, clean, press, and Turkish get-up. These foundational movements build strength, coordination, and confidence, forming the basis for more advanced kettlebell training.

5. Versatile and Time-Efficient Workouts
Whether used for a quick 20-minute full-body session or incorporated into a longer routine as a warm-up, movement prep, or metabolic finisher, kettlebells offer flexibility and adaptability for any fitness program.

Closing

Thérèse’s workshop served as a reminder that kettlebells are a compact yet powerful training tool—accessible to beginners, challenging for advanced lifters, and endlessly adaptable as training evolves. By focusing on movement quality, efficiency, and functional strength, kettlebell training continues to offer lasting benefits both inside and outside the gym.

About us

The Yard Strength Training was established in 2021. It is a reservation-based strength training gym with locations in San Francisco and Mill Valley that offers pod-based training, group classes, and space for independent personal trainers. Each of our workout pods includes your own rack, bench, barbell, and plates—plus access to nearby fan bikes, rowers, and a shared training space equipped with kettlebells, dumbbells, and functional training tools. Interested in joining the squad as an Independent Personal Trainer, Client, or Member? Contact us here.

Trainer Spotlight 🔦

Thérèse Harvey is a Certified Kettlebell Instructor and independent personal trainer at The Yard’s San Francisco (Lower Pac Heights) location. She specializes in kettlebell training focused on functional strength, movement quality, and efficient full-body conditioning. Her training style emphasizes safe, effective movement and progressive performance improvements. You can contact her on Instagram at @ritual_motion.

The Race Continues: Coach Gunther’s HYROX Journey

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This March at The Yard Strength Training, we spotlighted Coach Gunther, a trainer whose passion is HYROX—the global fitness competition that blends endurance and strength in a race unlike any other.

From international competitions to coaching Mill Valley members, Gunther’s journey was about more than finishing a race—it was about building confidence, strength, and community along the way.

In This Article: Key Takeaways

1. HYROX Training for Beginners in Mill Valley: How Gunther discovered HYROX as a unique combination of strength and endurance, offering beginners an approachable way to challenge themselves and start building confidence in the gym.

2. Building Strength and Confidence Through Competition: How competing in international HYROX events helped Gunther—and her clients—develop both physical strength and mental resilience, while fostering a sense of pride and accomplishment.

3. HYROX Workouts Improve Endurance and Functional Fitness: How training for races in Copenhagen, NYC, and Sydney focused on full-body conditioning, combining running, rowing, sled pushes, and functional strength exercises to boost overall performance.

4. Community and Motivation in Group Training: How Gunther brought her international race experience back to The Yard, creating a supportive environment that encourages first-timers, solo athletes, and group participants to push their limits together.

5. HYROX as a Lifestyle and Performance Tool: How HYROX-style training extends beyond competition to improve fat loss, muscle tone, cardiovascular fitness, and overall health—making it an ideal, results-driven program.

Q&A Session

1. What got you interested in HYROX?
Two years ago, I was going through a tough time and started running to prove to myself that I could do hard things. A few months in, I discovered HYROX on social media. It was the perfect mix of strength and endurance, and I’ve always loved lifting and feeling strong. I was originally planning to race in Anaheim and take a separate trip to the Nordics, when I noticed a HYROX race in Copenhagen. So I figured—why not combine the two and take on my first race internationally?

2. How did your first HYROX comp go?
It was so much fun! There’s nothing like the energy in the room your first time. I didn’t go in with a goal time; I just wanted to finish. That mindset really let me soak it all in. I connected with people from all over the world on the course and at the water stations—we were all in it together.

3. What made you want to become a HYROX trainer?
That first comp in Copenhagen was so memorable, and I knew I wanted to bring that same energy back home to Mill Valley. HYROX training builds both confidence and community, and I love helping people realize what they’re capable of. I’ve introduced the format to friends, family, and first-timers who never thought they’d do something like this—watching them gain strength and pride through the process has been the best part.

4. How did your NYC and Sydney comps go?
Great, and very different! The NYC venue was outdoors on the pier, which was super cool. I ran a solo race Friday and a relay with friends Sunday. I trained more seriously for my solo race and cut 9 minutes off my previous time, though there’s still room to grow! The relay was chaotic in the best way—lights, noise, late night energy. Sydney was special because I did my first mixed doubles with my older brother. The men’s weight was no joke, but my strength training at The Yard carried me through.

5. Any funny or memorable stories along the way?
Definitely. One of the funniest was during our NYC relay. In a HYROX relay, three teammates stay in the relay zone while the fourth competes, so we didn’t see each other perform. When we reviewed the footage later that night, we saw one of my friends doing 80 meters of burpee broad jumps—her first time trying them was 30 minutes before the race!

More meaningfully, my parents came to support me in Copenhagen and NYC. They used to cheer me on at basketball and softball games, but it’s rare as an adult to have your parents see you chase something new. That meant a lot to me.

Closing

Trainer Spotlight 🔦

Gunther is a Certified Personal Trainer at The Yard’s Mill Valley location. She specializes in HYROX-style training, helping athletes combine endurance and strength to build confidence, improve performance, and push past their limits. Her training style treats the gym like a lab, helping clients explore the variables in their lives that work best for their body and mind while finding the right balance to boost performance and recovery. You can contact her at gunther@inthelab.coach

The Missing Piece of Your Training: Why Workout Recovery is Key to Strength

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The following entry is written by Yard certified independent personal trainer Kristina Macias, M.S., who works as an exercise physiologist and strength, mobility and breath coach. Learn more about Kristina at primalcoding.com.

Strength doesn’t only come from pushing harder, lifting heavier, or dialing in your nutrition—it’s built in the spaces between, during your rest and workout recovery.

What you do between your high-intensity efforts matters as much as the efforts themselves. Workout recovery is essential for health and performance, whether you’re a professional athlete, a weekend warrior, or simply looking to move and feel better. This is your space to relax and nourish your muscles, fascia, organs, and nervous system. A space to slow down and notice. A space to correct subtle patterns of movement and breath that influence how you perform and feel—both in and out of the gym.

Recovering from your strength training or cardio sessions can look like many things: a walk in nature, a long exhale, a restorative yoga class, functional movement, or even a light sled push and pull. The purpose of workout recovery is to rebuild your body after a hard training session. It balances the spectrum of intensity—helping you become just as soft and slow as you are strong and powerful.

Recharge, The Yard’s workout recovery class in Mill Valley is designed to help you restore, rebalance, and rebuild—so you can train harder, move better, and feel your best.

Through breath, movement, and therapeutic tools, we’ll explore the often-overlooked elements that elevate performance and improve longevity.

Breath: The Foundation of Workout Recovery and Performance

Your breath is a language. It shapes your posture, your presence, and your performance. Breath training is at the heart of nervous system regulation and mobility.

In my experience 10+ years of metabolic testing, the most common observation is lack of proper rest and recovery. This shows up as a decrease in metabolic efficiency, low resting metabolic rate (RMR) or low heart rate variability (HRV). People are afraid to “take a day off”. Which indicates that you probably NEED IT. A part of REST may involve laying down and/or relaxing, but that is also the perfect time to practice a breath pattern for Heart Rate Variability or work on your CO2 tolerance with light breath holds.

Breath patterns have many purposes, but the foundation of breath training lies in how well your breathing mechanism functions. This includes your diaphragm, intercostals, and core muscles and how they all work together. Your breath is also your attention, and how you pay attention matters. When you learn to connect your breath to your core, you unlock more mobility, strength, and power. Recovery breathwork sharpens this connection, so it becomes unconscious and automatic in your everyday life and training.

In class, you’ll explore breathing techniques that help:

Release and strengthen your respiratory muscles
Improve sleep
Down-regulate the nervous system
Build resilience to stress

From a natural everyday breath to a long exhale, in The Yard’s workout recovery class, you will build a tool belt of breath patterns; let’s say your rest days will never be boring. These tools are vital in both active recovery techniques and stress recovery workouts.

Movement: Functional Recovery for Everyday Athletes

Movement is medicine—a tool to support your training, hobbies, and vitality. Functional mobility classes like this one build better body awareness and fascia release, improving performance inside and outside of the gym.

Recovery movement should never leave you sore. Instead, it should increase circulation, reduce tension, and nourish your tissues. I invite you to consider creating a “vocabulary” of recovery patterns, movements, or activities that can fit into any of your rest days.

This might include:

Hanging and crawling… even rolling.
Exploring new movement patterns
Slowing down to observe and shift subtle imbalances
Releasing and mobilizing fascia and joints with intention

The days you are not training hard, you can move and play, enjoy a walk in the sun, attend an ecstatic dance, move your body in ways you do not move in training. Training can be very linear, but we as humans are not. We are dynamic, there are an infinite number of combinations that breath and movement can co-create.

In the workout recovery class, you’ll get hands-on tools for fascial care, functional mobility, and restorative movement that supports everything you do. It’s the ideal stretching and sauna class in Mill Valley to complement your strength training.

Sauna: Heat Therapy for Recovery and Longevity

Sauna bathing has been practiced for generations—not just for warmth but also for community, connection, and well-being. Today, modern research confirms what ancient cultures knew: saunas have powerful health benefits. Research has shown, a combined high Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF) combined with sauna creates even more protection from chronic disease than each alone.

When done consistently, sauna use is shown to:

Improve cardiovascular function
Reduce risk of hypertension and stroke
Support immune resilience and mental well-being
Alleviate muscle soreness and joint discomfort
Improve sleep quality and recovery

There are many variations of passive heat therapy, some more intense than others. From the traditional Finnish sauna, with temperatures that can range from 180-200F, to Waon therapy, a more mild temperature with infrared light followed by a period of rest in a warm environment, or the intense healing heat of a sweat lodge. The spectrum of intensity can be applied across a variety of applications. The Yard, Mill Valley uses a traditional Finnish Sauna, aka dry sauna, to provide the healing and recovery benefits of passive heat therapy.

Whether for its actual physiological benefits or for the space to relax, the sauna is a staple in the language of workout recovery. During the class, we will combine sauna with a subtle breath and movement circuit, gently guiding your body to a restored state.

As you begin to build your language of recovery, we must remember that with so many options available, the key is intelligent, intentional integration.

Recovery isn’t a luxury—it’s a strategy.

Join us at The Yard in Mill Valley to explore a deeper, smarter way to restore and rebuild. Whether you’re training hard, healing up, or just looking for more energy and mobility, this class will give you the tools to recover well—and perform better.

Ready to Recharge and take the next step in your strength training recovery? Explore our classes and sign up today at goyard.fit.

Research

Bishop, Philip A. Et al. (2008) Recovery from training: A brief review. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2 (3): 1015-1024

Fried, Robert PH.D. (2000) Why do we need to teach “natural breathing”? The Healing Breath. 2 (3): 1-4

Laukkanen, Jari A. Et al. (2024) The multifaceted benefits of passive heat therapies for extending the healthspan: A comprehensive review with a focus on Finnish sauna. Temperature. 11 (1): 27-51

Laukkanen, Jari A. et al. (2018) Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence.Mayo Clinic. 93(8):1111-1121

Ying Li, Et al. (2025). The impact of core training combined with breathing exercises on individuals with chronic non-specific low back pain. Frontiers. 1-9.

West, Daniel et al. (2013) The metabolic, hormonal, biochemical, and neuromuscular function responses to a backward sled drag training session. Journal of Strength and Conditioning. 28 (1): 265-272

The Race is On: HYROX HIITs The Yard

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Train for The World Series of Fitness Racing at The Yard

Are you ready to push your limits, test your endurance, and compete like never before? The Yard is now a certified HYROX training club where you can get race-day ready for the world’s biggest fitness race. Whether you’re an experienced competitor or just looking to challenge yourself in a new way, our new HYROX HIIT class is designed to build strength, stamina, and mental resilience so you can dominate on race day.

What is HYROX?

HYROX isn’t your typical race—it’s a global fitness competition that fuses functional strength training with endurance running. Participants complete eight rounds of 1 kilometer runs, each immediately followed by a challenging functional workout station, including: SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jumps, Rowing, Farmers Carry, Sandbag Lunges, and Wall Balls.

It’s a full-body test of power, endurance, and mental toughness, making it the ultimate race for hybrid athletes who want to challenge themselves beyond the usual lifting sessions or cardio workouts.

HYROX HIIT at The Yard

To help you train smarter and perform better, The Yard now offers HYROX HIIT classes at our Mill Valley location, led by Coach Gunther, a certified HYROX coach. These sessions are programmed to mirror real race conditions, sharpening your speed, strength, and overall fitness so you can tackle every station with confidence.

Class Details:

📍 The Yard – Mill Valley

📅 Tuesdays & Thursdays

⏰ 6-7 PM

👊 Led by Coach Gunther

Expect a strategic blend of the official race exercises plus complimentary movements like kettlebell swings, lunges, squats, deadlifts, OH presses, and more—all designed to build race-day readiness with structured, progressive training.

Why Train for HYROX at The Yard?

At The Yard, we believe that training should prepare you for real-world performance—not just numbers on a leaderboard. Whether you’re gearing up for your first HYROX event or looking to beat your personal best, our training approach gives you the tools to succeed.

Expert Coaching – Coach Gunther’s passion for strength and endurance training ensures every session is structured, purposeful, and race-focused.

Community Support – Train alongside like-minded athletes who push and motivate each other toward new personal records.

Performance-Based Programming – Every session is strategically built to help you improve endurance, power output, and efficiency in HYROX race movements.

Ready to Race?

The countdown is on, and we want YOU to be part of the action. Whether your goal is to compete in HYROX, get stronger, or build next-level endurance, these classes will get you there.

Spots are limited, so sign up now and get race-ready with The Yard X HYROX! The best part? All of our small group classes are included in our unlimited monthly memberships–so you can come as often as you’d like for the same price.

See you on the course. 💪