Meet Our Members: Noelle Rondain and Nikolas Katigbak

Originally from the Philippines, high school sweethearts Noelle Rondain and Nikolas Katigbak were struggling to find a new fitness regime after their move from LA. That is, until they walked through the doors of Seattle Kettlebell Club.

Noelle recalls her first Core-6 workshop being a success, saying “I instantly really dug the vibe. People were cheering others on, and the energy was amazing.” 

“Showing up is half the battle,” Nikolas said. “If you consciously make the effort to make it part of your routine, it pulls you in.”

Nikolas, who notes that he had worked with kettlebells before joining, enjoyed that the Core-6 workshop offered more fitness theory and detailed instruction versus “just throwing weights around.”

Noelle was a competitive swimmer most of her life, but after college admits to falling off the fitness wagon for a few years. 

“No joke, Seattle Kettlebell Club is the first gym that I’ve actually stuck to,” Noelle said.

Similarly, Nikolas played tennis in college, but in the past few years he’s found himself flip-flopping between workout routines. Now, both he and Noelle look forward to coming to class and plan their weeks around SKC’s schedule. 

Nikolas usually works out in the morning before heading to his job as programmer at Amazon, and Noelle, who works from home on the operations side for an ad technology company, usually prefers to get out of the house in the late afternoon to get her sweat on at SKC. 

In their spare time, the couple enjoys walking their dog, cooking, and hiking.  Although they’ve only been in Seattle since August, they agree they prefer the city's lifestyle over LA’s; however, they do miss one thing about LA: Mexican food. 

“It’s always hard to get yourself in, but it’s always so rewarding after the class. I don’t even mind the callouses. I feel like an athlete,” Noelle said.

Nikolas agrees, calling the feeling after class a “kettlebell high” and adding that he appreciates the variety of kettlebell weights, so he can alter his workout depending on how he’s feeling that day.

Along with loving the classes, Noelle and Nikolas also appreciate the tight-knit community that SKC offers. 

“Other gyms feel like drones of people coming in and drones of people leaving,” Nikolas said. 

Noelle and Nikolas also discuss the misconceptions they often hear when they tell others about their training.

“I talk about it a lot at work, and people think they’re not strong enough to do it,” Nikolas said. “People overestimate how heavy the bells they are swinging are. You don’t come in and swing 50 lbs. right away.” 

Both have taken the 21 Day Challenge in the past and agree on being surprised by their results and the amount of reps they were able to increase in merely 3 weeks. In fact, they plan on taking the next challenge, which starts June 3^rd. 

“I feel like now after the experience of coming here and improving, I could literally say ‘never say never.’ I never thought I’d complete the 21 Day Challenge or enjoy coming to class. I tried KettleSport for the first time, and I said I’d never do that, and I did,” Noelle said.

Wonder Woman Wednesday: Jennifer Zeyl

With a past of injuries including a fractured wrist and a broken back, one could say Jennifer Zeyl hasn’t had the best physical luck, but she’s seen tremendous improvement in her joint strength since joining Seattle Kettlebell Club. 

“The thing about kettlebell practice is that it strengthens the core, lower back, and hip flexors,” Zeyl said. “Everything feels supported and more powerful.”

Although she would not describe herself as a sporty child, having four older brothers always kept Zeyl on her feet. When she was 18, she began working as a carpenter and painter for the theatrical scenery industry, so all the moving and heavy lifting kept her active. However, after receiving her Master of Fine Arts in Scenery Design at UW, her work became more desk oriented, and she grew concerned about her joint health since both her mother and grandmother had issues in the past.

“When I stopped moving all the time to execute my own work, I had to find something,” Zeyl said. “I realized I had to do something, or my body was going to fall apart,” Zeyl said. 

Back in December, the boot camp she was attending started phasing out due to weather changes, and after reading an article that South Seattle Emerald wrote on SKC, and she found herself hooked on kettlebells after just a few classes. 

“After the Core 6, I was like 'this is the funnest thing ever,'” Zeyl said. 

Being an extremely busy woman and working as the Artistic Director at Intiman Theatre, a theatre with a social justice mission, Zeyl appreciates that SKC offer classes throughout the day, and she compares taking classes with other instructors as having multiple style guides. 

“All the instructors are different, super lovely, and have different nuance ways of teaching. I’ve learned something specific from each one of them,” Zeyl said. “It’s a really rich experience.”

Also, with issues in her knees and shoulders, Zeyl loves that each instructor offers encouragement and exercise modifiers since she cannot perform some high impact exercises, but she’s seeing great development since joining SKC. For example, her squats are getting deeper. 

“There are muscles that are tag teaming in that are getting me further than just wailing on the joints,” Zeyl said. 

Born on the East Coast, Zeyl moved to Seattle in 2001, and she lives in the oldest building on Capitol Hill with her husband of 15 years, and dog, Juno. Claiming that Seattle is the most beautiful city in the world (no arguments here), Zeyl plans to continue to make grand contributions to the theatre community, and to keep coming to the KettleFit classes at SKC. 

Due to her genetic issues and poor knees, Zeyl estimates by the time she’s in her early fifties, she’ll probably have to have a knee replacement.

“You bet your butt this is where I’m coming to rehab,” Zeyl said. 

Zeyl encourages newcomers of SKC to not be discouraged by soreness after the first class. 

“Muscles get sore if you haven’t been using them,” Zeyl said. “If you continue to use them, they get less sore. The biggest thing I would encourage people to do is to move through muscle soreness.”

-Camille Borodey 

Transformation Tuesday: Hafoc Yates

Back in 2014, Hafoc Yates was attacked outside of her apartment, leaving her with a broken wrist and fingers on her left side, and by late 2015 she thought she’d never be able to close her left palm fully ever again. 

Yates has lived in Seattle since 2002 and works as an admin IT for Northwest Health Law Advocates. She also helps non-profits with technical issues, and in her spare time she enjoys bike riding, gardening, and walking long distances.

Before and After

Weighing shy of 180 pounds last December, she started incorporating more walking into her daily life, and after losing 15 pounds she hit a plateau and began researching gyms in the area. Yates stumbled upon Seattle Kettlebell Club when she attended a self defense workshop the club hosted and took the opportunity to feel out SKC’s environment.  Immediately, she loved how friendly and open everyone was, so on March 3rd, Yates joined Seattle Kettlebell Club, took her body measurements, set goals and got hooked on KettleFIT.

“Kettlebells not only work muscles you don’t realize you have, but there’s also a balance and a rhythm that your body returns to,” Yates said, “and with the free weights and machines you will not get that at all.”

Between her 4 classes per week schedule and motivation from SKC’s 21 Day Challenge to clean up her vegan diet and cook at home to eliminate hidden sugar, she reached her July goals in only seven weeks, losing roughly 30 pounds - and an inch off both her waist and hips during the 21 Day Challenge alone!

“I just shot the July goals out of the water. No matter how long or how short you’ve been here, the 21 Day Challenge is an amazing experience,” Yates said. “I thought it was just going to be something cute, but it’s not. It is a challenge, and it’s worth every day. I learned a lot that I would have not thought to research on my own.”

Yates found a surprise benefit as well.

"Everything I tried did not improve my left side until Kettlebells! In less than 2 months I can make a full, closed fist, hold and use small objects (like keys), and my left arm and shoulder has almost caught up in flexibility and strength with my right side,” Yates said.  “Kettlebells rock where therapy failed.”

Yates saw amazing results during The 21 Day Challenge