There wasn’t much activity on the streets of Rankin Inlet Saturday morning, but there was a group of women burning thousands of calories in the Leo Ussak School gym.
They were taking part in Lynette Didur’s Saturday warriors program, a fitness class that mixes kettlebell training, kickboxing and other strength and endurance activities.
Didur has been running variants of the weekly class for years and has seen it gain popularity since Covid-19.
“We’ve had a very large class this particular fall season, and a big mix of abilities as well,” said Didur, who leads a fast-paced hour-long workout. “We have anybody from their first time coming in to people who have been with me for years. It’s a really welcoming class that way.”
Participants bounced from squats to push-ups to attacking each other with pool noodles, with sips of water as the only breaks. People of all abilities are welcome, and Didur prides herself on being able to teach multi-level classes that cater to everyone present.
“I’m a big fan of teaching proper push-ups, so we do a lot of proper push-up progression,” she said.
“It’s not so much about how many push-ups you can do, it’s how many push-ups you can do well. Some of the ladies may have been only able to do wall push-ups and now they’re doing full push-ups on the floor. That’s another huge improvement and something to be celebrated.”
She’s also proud to see participants grab bigger and heavier kettlebells as they get stronger.
For now, the class is taking a pause over the Christmas break, but Didur is already drawing up exercise plans for when it resumes early January.
