Let’s head down to a most incredible beach in Costa Rica with a kettlebell and some silkies.
The beach is Dominical. I had been before and I like it. The water is not the calmest you will find on this coast. That part you can see for yourself. But it is wide and wild and mostly empty, and on this particular morning it was mine.
The plan was simple. Bring the kettlebell down to the sand and put together a workout I had been brewing up for a while. A bear-crawl circuit. The rain had a different plan, but that becomes the plan.
Dominical Beach: Where the River Meets the Pacific
Dominical is a popular surf town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. It’s a couple hours south of Jaco. The drive there was easy, all paved roads. Once down in town, you’ll find some supermarkets and corner stores to get supplies. The final stretch to the beach is unpaved but I made it easy in my car.
Down on the beach the water tells the whole story. It was raining up in the mountains, so the river was running brown and heavy. You can watch it bleed out into the ocean where the two meet. Clear salt water on one side, muddy river water on the other.
The beach itself is rugged. Rocks, driftwood, whole trees washed up and stacked into piles. There was nobody else down there. I am going to assume that is because it was drizzling, and most people do not want to get wet. I have never minded getting wet. I even spotted a sloth up in the trees on the way down.
About those coconuts
I got thirsty before the workout, so I went back for one of those yellow coconuts and tried to open it in the car. This is harder than it looks. You punch a hole in the top, then maybe the bottom too, and eventually it gives. Mine squirted everywhere. The water was not as sweet as you would hope. It was still refreshing, and in a survival situation it would absolutely do the job. The first one was too small to bother with. The second one came through. Here is where I am supposed to say something cliché about coconuts being nature’s Gatorade.
The Setup: Silkies, a Kettlebell, and a Rocky Canvas
The kit for this one was minimal. A 20 lb kettlebell, the silkies, and the beach. That is the whole list. The silkies I train in are the two-inch Soffe pair, and they are the only thing I wear for this kind of session. They dry fast, they do not chafe, and they let you move. On a wet beach that matters.
The problem was the ground. Dominical is covered in rocks, driftwood, and debris, so finding a clear patch took some work. I cleared a couple of branches, moved a plank that looked like it drifted in from a hardware store, and shifted some of the piles people seem to stack for firewood. This is our canvas. The silkies are the brush. The art is whatever you are about to watch.
I also had to think about distance. With a 20 lb bell you are not launching it far from a push-up position. Pulling it cross-body, maybe a couple of feet. Pushing it forward with one hand, four or five feet at most. So the box I needed was small. Good, because there was not much clear ground to work with.
The Warm-Up
Nothing complicated here. On a rocky, slippery beach you want the joints awake before you start throwing iron around. I ran through about five minutes of the usual. Jumping jacks, running on the spot, some simulated skipping, wrist rotations to wake up the arms, a few hip openers. I made up half of it as I went. That tends to be the theme with these videos.
Then I moved to the kettlebell to get the shoulders ready. I like a high pull with a full extension here rather than a snatch. It is lower impact and lower risk, and it puts more emphasis on the shoulder through the movement. A snatch is more powerful, no argument. But for a warm-up on wet sand, the high pull is the smarter choice. How many reps? No idea. Go until it feels juicy.
The Box Bear-Crawl Kettlebell Circuit
This is the part I came down for. A while back I did bear crawls at the gym with a sandbag, and it got me thinking about building a whole progression around the bear crawl and its variations. Instead of crawling in a straight line, you crawl a box.
Box drills are a classic agility tool. You mark out a square on the ground and work the angles. Sprint forward, shuffle laterally, backpedal, repeat. Footballers run them constantly. The idea here was to take that same box and crawl it, adding a kettlebell throw at each corner to drive the next move.
Here is the loop. Start in a push-up position at one corner. Throw the kettlebell across to the next corner, then bear-crawl laterally to catch up with it. Pick it up, toss it forward, and crawl forward. Toss it back across, then crawl after it. Keep boxing around the square, switching the throwing hand as the direction changes. It sounds tidy written down. On a wet beach, mid-drizzle, it was a lot harder to keep straight.
The rain never did let up. If anything it came down harder once I started. So I ran it anyway. Watch the whole thing here, lightning and all.
Should You Try It?
If you have a kettlebell and a patch of open ground, yes. The box bear-crawl circuit hits the shoulders, the core, and the legs, and the throws add a little power work without much load. You do not need a beach for it. A garden, a park, or a gym floor all work fine.
But if you do happen to be in this part of Costa Rica, come down to Dominical and try it on the sand. Bring water. Maybe a coconut. The rain is optional, though it does not seem to care what you prefer.
FAQ
Where is Dominical, Costa Rica?
Dominical is a small beach town on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, in the Puntarenas province. It lies where the mountains meet the sea, which is why the river runs brown into the ocean after heavy rain.
Do I need a kettlebell to do this workout?
A kettlebell makes the throws cleaner, but any tossable weight works. A sandbag, a medicine ball, or a dumbbell will all do the job. Keep it light. You are throwing it from a push-up position, so 20 lb is plenty.
What are silkies?
Silkies are short two-inch military-style PT shorts, also called ranger panties. They are light, they dry fast, and they let you move. I break them down fully in the Soffe Ranger Panties review.