One of my favorite aspects of living in a large city like San Francisco has been carving out my little micro-city within it – finding the places that I return to time and again, and getting to know the people that work there. It has a way of making a large, dense city feel much smaller, and I’ve loved forming relationships with many of the talented people here. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there is a definite theme among all the professionals I rely on – not only are they all very good at what they do, but they all seem to have an “ignore the noise and do it the right way” attitude about them. I’ve decided to profile some of the folks that I have come to know and rely on during my time here. If you find yourself in SF and in need of these services, I encourage you to look them up. See the full series here.
Of all the industries out there, health and fitness is perhaps the most saturated with marketing fluff – fad diets, “as seen on TV” exercise machines, trendy “boot camp” classes, and so on. It’s astounding that so much noise exists in this industry, because the secrets to success are well-known – a good diet and frequent physical activity will get most people where they want to go. Nonetheless, we continue to surround ourselves with over-marketed and overly complex solutions, perhaps to convince us that we’re doing more than we are, or maybe because making something complicated makes it easier to feel like we’re good at it. Regardless of the reason, all this noise makes finding good fitness expertise for a good price very difficult.
As a lifetime skinny person, my fitness goals have usually centered on getting stronger and gaining weight (although hopefully not enough to make me need new suits). With that said, finding the right venue for achieving these goals was surprisingly difficult – Crossfit was too cult-y, gyms were too intimidating (and too treadmill-centric), and all those trendy classes were too expensive and a bit too fluffy for my taste. All I wanted was a place where I could regularly work on moving heavy things around with a bit of guidance and for not too much money – after a while, I started to think this was unobtainable. It took me a long time to find Noble Iron Fitness, but I sure was happy when I did.
From the first time I attended a Noble Iron Fitness kettlebell class, I could tell it was very different from most popular San Francisco fitness classes. When I first joined, they were held in a jiu-jitsu gym in SOMA – much like the neighborhood itself, the gym was utilitarian, a bit rough around the edges, and smelled a little like feet. It was full of tough looking characters that sported lots of tattoos and spent most of the morning throwing each other around the gym. Death metal was always playing at a high volume, especially given that classes started at 7am. I couldn’t have stood out more, and yet I immediately could tell that this was exactly what I had been looking for.
Every Noble Iron Fitness class is led by Patrick Jernigan, a quiet but experienced kettlebell trainer. His journey to kettlebells began ten years ago as a way to supplement his jiu-jistsu training; he has been practicing jiu-jitsu for over 15 years now, and carries the rank of black belt. His demeanor is quite different from most trainers out there – he doesn’t follow the ‘drill sergeant’ style of yelling at you until you get that last rep, nor does he try to be an inspirational coach that showers you with moral support and positive affirmations. He’s calm and quiet, and simply tells you what to do and how to do it well.
Patrick’s approach focuses on both strength and mobility, with an emphasis on good technique and low reps. He’ll be quick to tell you that he’d rather see rather see one perfect rep with a heavy bell than a hundred shitty reps with a light one. And even though his classes are relatively short, you’ll come out of them feeling like you pushed yourself hard (because you did). I like barbell training as well, but the frequent rests make the pace very slow. Patrick’s kettlebell workouts have the benefits of increasing strength and mobility while also having the pace and aggressiveness of high-intensity interval training.
Noble Iron classes are 40 minutes – not a minute over – and every second is used to its full potential. The structure follows a simple format: first, warming up with some slow movements and stretches, then moving to the core workout of exercises that continue to increase in intensity, and then once you’re fully spent you cool down with some more stretches. The backbone of every class is the kettlebell swing – virtually every exercise will be separated by ten of them, and they will become the most intense part of the workout as well. You will do hundreds of them in every class. They will exhaust you, but they will make you stronger and more flexible. There’s a good reason they’ve become so popular, I suppose.
One of the best aspects of Noble Iron classes is that they are very affordable and also small in size (usually less than six people per class in the morning). This means that there is a good amount of one-on-one attention, which can’t be beat for the price. I have yet to find any form of strength training that provides as good of a value as Patrick’s – for less than the price of many gym memberships, you can get intense strength training exercise with guidance from an experienced professional.
Patrick has since moved his operation south, out of the SOMA neighborhood and to the border of San Francisco and Daly City. It’s far enough away from my apartment that I can no longer make it to his classes, but the year I spent doing so helped put me on the road to achieving many of my fitness goals. Finding a trainer I could trust in a field so full of faux-experts and misinformation was the critical first step that I needed – if you’re looking for something similar, I’d encourage you to give his class a try.
