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Smart Fat Loss Circuits

April 3, 2013 By Josh Hillis 7 Comments

Well known and long standing adages like “leave a couple reps in the bank” and “safety is part of performance” often, sadly, are put aside for fat loss circuits.

In this world of CrossFit, P90X, and super ultra-hardcore-bootcamps everywhere, it’s hard not to fall into the “more is better” trap that everyone is constantly pushing. As RKC’s we should be well aware that more isn’t better. It’s just more.

Fat loss clients come in with that perspective, and it’s our job to educate them. Often we’ll get a new client who will literally tell us “I want to sweat and puke and be sore.” Regardless of how stupid a goal this might sound to us, we’re best off giving them some of that, in the smartest way possible. We usually can give ’em what they think they want up front, then educate them over time.

In this article, we’re going to talk about what smart, RKC-style fat loss circuits could look like.

A Smarter AMRAP

CrossFit popularized the term AMRAP for “as many rounds as possible”, and I thank them for that.

Unfortunately, the concept of doing an AMRAP workout at 100% effort is a recipe for disaster. You can only push oxygen debt and muscle exhaustion for so long before exercise form goes out the window. So don’t do that.

Or as Yoda so famously said: “Stupidity leads to bad form. Bad form leads injury. And injury leads to the orthopedic surgeon.”

We’re going to slow our AMRAPs down – somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-90%, and err on the side of too little vs. too much.

We’ve all been fed a myth about intensity. And it feeds that thing inside us that always tells us we should be doing more. But it’s false. I experimented with my clients for two years during the writing of my first book, and found no difference in results between running clients at 80-90% intensity in workouts and running them at close to 100%.

So… 80-90% intensity… all of the benefits… none of the injuries… shouldn’t that be like, totally obvious, right?

The Josh Hills Fat Loss Circuit Progression: Not Just More Rounds

More rounds is also another stupid thing that most circuit based workouts do. Just more. More, more, more. More isn’t better. So very un-RKC.

I consider 5 rounds the magic number for any of these workouts. They may have to work up to being able to complete five rounds. That’s fine. But when they are getting up over 7 rounds, bump ’em up a level. That could be a harder bodyweight progression, a lower bench for pistols, a lighter band for pull-ups, or a heavier kettlebell.

But lets not turn this into a Group X class. Lets up the weight on our circuits instead of just cranking out a zillion rounds.

This is a super important point, and I’ve never seen anyone else in the entire fitness industry bring it up. There is a right amount of work to get done in a circuit, and you can have it happen like clockwork every single time. It’s right about 5 rounds. It’s heavy enough that they *have to* rest during the 20 minutes, but no so heavy that it looses it’s circuit-ness.

It also lets clients know that it’s *ok* to rest. Obviously if they could crank through the 20 minutes without any rest, they’d be doing 10+ rounds or so. It gives them a target, it lets them know how they are doing, and it lets them know when they can progress. These are all major points for having clients understand and be engaged in the workout program.

20 Minutes of Circuits, Then Do Strength

A 20 minute bout of circuits, at 80-90% intensity, should be enough high intensity stimulus for all of the fat loss results we want. And it should be enough to satisfy the clients who want to feel like they are getting throttled.

After that, we can move on to very well rested strength work. We put the circuits at the beginning (after a joint mobility warm up), because it’s hard enough to keep everything tight in a circuit anyway – we want them as fresh mentally and physically as possible, to do the circuit with the heaviest weights possible and the most perfect form.

We’ll put three movements in the circuit, and then we’ll do the fourth movement in the strength portion. For example, if we have a push, a pull, and a squat in the circuit, we’ll do a hip hinge in the strength part. If we have a push, a squat and a hip hinge in the circuit, we’ll do a pull for the strength part. That way, we’re always hitting all four basic movements, but we’re rotating through which ones we do in the circuit and which ones we do for strength.

If the client also needs FMS or any other corrective exercises, you can super-set the correctives with the strength work.

Workout A:

As many rounds in 20 minutes:

Assisted Pullups x 3
Kettlebell Push Presses x 10L+10R
Kettlebell Goblet Squats x 10
3 minutes rest, then
Single Leg Deadlifts 3 x 5L+5R
with 1-3 minutes rest between sets, then
Side plank 2 x 0:30L+0:30R
Plank 2 x 0:45

Workout B

As many rounds in 20 minutes:

Bear Crawl x 50 ft
Walking Lunges x 100 ft
Kettlebell Swings x 25
3 minutes rest, then
Assisted Pullups 3 x 5
with 1-3 minutes rest between sets, then
Side plank 2 x 0:30L+0:30R
Plank 2 x 0:45

Workout C

As many rounds in 20 minutes:

Convict Conditioning Style Pushup Progression x 10
Kettlebell Bent Over Rows x 10L+10R
Kettlebell Swings x 25
3 minutes rest, then
Bench Pistols or Split Squats 3 x 5L+5R
with 1-3 minutes rest between sets, then
Side plank 2 x 0:30L+0:30R
Plank 2 x 0:45

Food, Food, Food

Look, no fat loss article can ever be complete without mentioning that the food is going to be the number one driver of fat loss. Smart fat loss workouts complement a smart food program. That’s why it’s so totally stupid to kill people in the workouts or push the envelope to the point of injury – it just isn’t going to make a difference.

Be smart, check people’s food journals (both quality of food and quantity of food) and do intelligent circuits at 80-90% intensity, with smart progressions over time. Your clients will stay healthy, happy, and injury free, and most importantly – get all of the fat loss results that they hired you for.

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About Josh Hillis: RKC, NASM-CPT/PES/CES, Z-MRS/MIS, www.21daykettlebell.com: Over the last 8 years as a personal trainer, Josh has worked with every kind of fat loss client, but he is a specialist in helping fit women lose the last 5-10 pounds of stubborn fat. He’s been quoted by The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, he’s been in USA Today, and was a featured expert for Experience Life! Magazine. Josh has written six books on fat loss and kettlebell training, created an audio program on fat loss nutrition for On Target Publications, and contributed a chapter “Fighter Workouts for Fat Loss” to The RKC Book of Strength and Conditioning for DragonDoor Publications. Josh holds beginner and advanced fat loss nutrition workshops on a monthly basis at several kettlebell gyms in Colorado. Josh is the creator and writer for www.LoseStubbornFat.com, which has over 32,000 subscribers in over 200 countries world-wide.

The Dirty Dozen Exercises: Move #2, The Bridge

March 29, 2013 By Phil Ross 8 Comments

Master RKC Phil Ross explains the Bridge

The Bridge, what an incredible exercise! There is no single exercise for developing two steel cable like spinal erectors supporting and protecting your spine than the Bridge. Being a former wrestler, I had the fortune of being introduced to the Bridge at an early age and while training in Greco-Roman Wrestling, I was taught how to go belly to belly with another wrestler, pop my hips and bridge all the way backward, landing my opponent on his back (or head!) behind me. This required a great deal of practice bridging backward from a standing position. We would also “reverse bridge” from that position, coming up to fully upright and regain the standing position once again and repeat. Little did I realize at the time that I was equipping myself with an incredible foundation of strength that would help me with all of my other physical and athletic activities for the rest of my life. Other than gymnastics, very few high school sports develop the spinal erectors and utilize the bridge to the extent of wrestling and gymnastics.

The muscles in the back at the most important group of muscles in the body. The Bridge is exactly what the name connotes, the exercise “bridges” the upper and lower sections of your body together. Your back is also the support structure for your whole body. How many times have you seen (or experienced) throwing your back out and being completely helpless? One can have “biceps like mountain peaks”, they tweak their back and they are as helpless as a newborn lamb! The importance of the Bridge is second to none. Your central nervous system is housed in your spine and the spinal erectors and other support muscles protect and control the the spine and it’s movement. Why would anyone ignore the single exercise that develops the most important muscle group in the body? The Ancient Greeks knew the importance of a strong back. Look at the depictions of the god Atlas. His exceptionally prominent back muscles rippling under the stress of his eternal task of holding up the world!

How do we achieve this? Who does the Bridge work for?

There are many variations of the Bridge. You will find a variation or modification that may be used by virtually anyone at any age. Even people who have physical deficiencies will benefit from doing bridges. I have students that have suffered severe injuries or were born disabled and they have developed great strength in their backs and abdominals through employing bridging techniques. Not only does the Bridge develop the spinal erectors and other back support muscles but it has a profound positive effect on the abdominals, gluteus, hamstrings and in higher level movements, the shoulders and arms as well. The Tall Kneeling Bridge also develops great strength and flexibility in the quads.

The regenerative and restorative properties of the Bridge are unmatched by any other single exercise group. The Bridge develops stability, flexibility and durability like no other. Implement the Bridge into your workout regiment and develop a “Bullet Proof Back”!

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Master RKC, 8^th Degree Black Belt, Specialist in Bodyweight Strength and CK-FMS Certified. Phil Ross’ name is synonymous with Martial Arts and Fitness. He is known as the area’s Kettlebell King and has successfully competed on the National Level in… Read more here.

Ten Reasons to Train with Kettlebells

March 27, 2013 By Mike Krivka 14 Comments

RKC Team Leader Mike Krivka lifts one of his favorite weights – his son Jak!

I’m well into my second decade of training with Kettlebells and I can honestly say that I learn something new every single time I pick one (or two) up – and that’s usually several times a day! I’ve had the great honor to train with a wide variety of people and introduce them to what I consider to be the best strength and conditioning tool around. In each and every instance people are fascinated and appalled at how this seemingly simple tool can be so hard to use well and so amazingly effective at the same time. It doesn’t matter if I’m training with a “Soccer Mom”, a Marine Corps officer, or an aspiring athlete – they all learn very quickly that the lessons that the Kettlebell can teach them will serve them well.

Following are a quick list of ten reasons why I think you should be training with kettlebells. There are many more, but I’m hoping this list will help you come to be a better understanding on how to approach utilizing this amazing tool.

1. Efficiency – Kettlebells (in conjunction with a handful of high-tension body weight skills) can provide an intense full-body workout in an incredibly short period of time. With a workout of less than 30 minutes in length you drenched with sweat and gasping for air. Think about the last time you did the RKC Snatch Test (five minutes) or the USSS Snatch Test (ten minutes) – both are great mono-structured workouts that do the job without wasting time. Most “trainers” recommend that you perform lengthy cardio and resistance sessions for up to 6 to 8 hours a week. A week’s worth of kettlebell workouts equal only a fraction of that and you will get much better results.

2. Tension Management – Kettlebells require that you develop a high level of sensitivity in regards to grip strength and tension distribution and redistribution that readily carries over into all forms of athletics. The kettlebell’s displaced center of gravity create grip and forearm strength requirements that cannot be matched by regular free weights or machines. The ability to create and distribute tension is of paramount importance to any athlete. Not only is it a factor in strength, but also in speed, flexibility, and endurance as well. Muscles become stronger by learning how to contract them more effectively, explosively, and efficiently. The body as a unit becomes stronger by learning how to instigate a coordinated firing of muscles in a more effective, explosive, and efficient manner.

3. Mindfulness – Kettlebell training requires you to “be in the moment,” allowing you to develop a high-level of concentration, focus, intensity and body awareness. Lapses in concentration or body awareness are swiftly punished. A lack of intensity will not allow you to build the requisite strength and mental toughness needed to distinguish yourself in action. How many people have you seen staring off into space while they were working out? Don’t even think about doing that with kettlebells unless of course you enjoy sitting in the Emergency Room!

4. Sensitivity – Kettlebells require you to constantly challenge your spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, tension, balance and timing. Once again, these are all very martial skills that will cross over into your training and especially into combat athletics. Doing a 7.5 foot ROM snatch requires a much higher degree of skill and muscle mastery than a 1.5 foot ROM biceps curl does. Think about it.

5. Raw Strength – Kettlebells develop thick, dense muscles that deliver when you need them – as opposed to the puffy, tribal-tattooed ‘look good in a Speedo’ muscles. By forcing the muscle to support the KB you end up activating the deeper, harder-to-work, stabilizing and supporting muscles. Most people who start using kettlebells see a rapid loss of excess body fat and weight loss. Once the ‘honeymoon’ is over there oftentimes occurs an increase in weight that accompanies a rapid rise in strength. This is when the muscles start becoming denser and the deficient areas of the musculature start suddenly filling in.

Mike lifting the ‘Beast’ Kettlebell

6. Unilateral Strength – Kettlebells require that you develop unilateral skills, coordination and strength. There is no hiding behind your “strong-hand” in kettlebell training. Weak links in power development are filled in as you get stronger and become accustomed to the bracing requirements of kettlebell training. Being able to move a load on a bar doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to move the same load using one or two kettlebells. I’ve embarrassed way too many “gym rats” by matching their bar loads and then leaving them in the dust with a pair of kettlebells. Try getting the meathead at the gym with the 350 pound bench press to military press your two 53 lbs kettlebells – try not to laugh when he can’t get them off of his shoulders.

7. Holistic – Kettlebells combine strength, flexibility, mobility and anaerobic training into one workout. No other tool will challenge you when it comes to developing attributes that you will be able to apply on the hardwood, the court or the battlefield. Kettlebell training specifically trains all of the physical traits required by the elite athlete and succeeds where other methods fail. In particular, KB training addresses all of the elements that are going to be required of an athlete in competition or in a life-or-death struggle.

8. Mental Hardening – Kettlebell training develops a high level of mental toughness and an understanding of controlled aggression. You can’t approach a kettlebell workout without either – the kettlebell is the enemy and it has to be submitted, controlled or destroyed; or the kettlebell will destroy you. Someone who is looking for a “light” or “toning” workout can find just that by using kettlebell techniques that will enhance their overall mobility and awareness, but for someone who is looking to get an edge on their opponents, the kettlebell is the key that opens the lock. If you have ever done any high-repetition kettlebell training you know exactly what I’m talking about. That little voice in your head that tells you it’s time to quit has to be wrestled to the ground and choked out so that you can build the strength that you want.

9. Movement – Kettlebells require you to learn how to move your body efficiently, strongly and with grace and power. Sitting in a machine or lying on a bench is not going to give you the athletic ability to do a single leg takedown or knock-out an opponent. Learning how to transition for movement to movement without external stabilization, (i.e., a bench or machine) will require you to develop a higher level of strength and mobility that no machine can ever provide. Developing the ability to internally stabilize an external load will give you the sensitivity and control you will need to play or fight at a higher level. Kettlebells will rub your face in your weaknesses until they become strengths – and then humble you over and over again.

10. Complete System – Training with Kettlebells may be the perfect system for developing strength. Kettlebells allow you to perform all of the basic movement patterns (Push, Pull, Squat, Hinge, Carry and the Turkish Get-up; kudos to Dan John for this list) safely, efficiently and effectively. No other tool out there can make this claim and many will try – but very few will even come close. Through a unique combination of design, utilization and loading the Kettlebell is “efficiently inefficient” in building strength – something that will serve anyone from a “Soccer Mom” to a US Navy SEAL.

I’m sure that you can think of a lot more reasons why someone should train with kettlebells and I’d love to hear from you! Please feel free to respond to this blog post to share your thoughts and ideas.

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Michael A. Krivka, Sr., RKC Team Leader is a Washington, DC native who has been involved in Kettlebell training for over a decade and is currently an RKC Team Leader and member of the RKC Board of Advisors under Dragon Door (where he has been listed as one of the top reviewed RKC’s in the world for the last five years… read more here.

The Best Kettlebell Exercise You Aren’t Using

March 22, 2013 By Josh Henkin 2 Comments

I typically have a different view on kettlebell training than most. Very few times (on an occasion) did I have clients coming to me with the specific goal of learning kettlebells. Rather, I saw kettlebells as a means to help clients achieve their various goals not only faster than they would ever expect, but safely as well.

One of the biggest traps in any training system though is to get caught into believing you have to teach people EVERY exercise and that you have to teach even specific exercises. The truth is you have to teach people the RIGHT exercises.

This relates to a specific problem I would find with many people when it came not only to kettlebells, but more dynamic strength training. That is the idea of how to move quickly with weights. Not just accelerating weights either, but the ability to decelerate.

You see deceleration is the same as eccentric strength, which basically is the ability to stop! If we look at when most athletes get injured during competition it is during deceleration. When they suddenly have to stop and change direction or are absorbing high eccentric loads. In fact, in Dr. Michael Yessis’ book, “Secrets of Russian Sports Fitness and Training,” he cites eccentric loading as one of the two main ways athletes become injured.

One of the unique benefits of kettlebells is to deliver high eccentric forces to the body without the same impact of training methods such as plyos. However, what makes kettlebells a positive can also make them a challenge, especially for beginners. Learning how to decelerate the kettlebell during drills such as swings, cleans, snatches, etc. is where people are MOST likely to get injured because of the higher forces being acted upon the body.

As many of you already using kettlebells know, the challenge becomes that you can’t slow down the speed of these exercises and in fact trying to do so increases the chance of injury. So, what do you do? The solution is right in front of us with how kettlebells have been used for centuries—change the leverage. Remember, because kettlebells aren’t as adjustable in increments like a barbell, we often use leverage to create progression.

The best example is simply using the drill called the High Pull. The High Pull is a great problem solving drill for many kettlebell exercises. It helps teach the correct path of the kettlebell during the snatch, how to create force with the hips and not the arms, as well as reducing the lever arm so we can safely introduce faster movements to our clients.

Because the High Pull possesses a shorter lever arm than the swing, it also allows us to introduce more complex movements in more subtle and safer means. In the training video below we break down the essentials of the kettlebell High Pull and how you can get more out of your kettlebell training with this powerful drill.

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Josh Henkin, Senior RKC, CSCS has been a RKC instructor since 2003 and has implemented kettlebell programs for major Division I programs, SWAT teams, and many different general fitness programs. Josh is also the creator of the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system where he is a highly sought after presenter worldwide. He can be reached at info@ultimatesandbagtraining.com or http://DVRTFitness.com

Athletic Achievement—And Why I Chose to Stay with Dragon Door’s RKC

March 15, 2013 By Andrew Read 21 Comments

It may surprise people to hear it but I never attended the RKC because of kettlebells. I had been using them myself, and had moved all my clients to using them and gotten rid of nearly everything else we did, but the RKC wasn’t my actual goal. I wasn’t sure whether or not a trip to the USA was worth it in terms of learning enough to justify the cost. The goal was CK-FMS.

I am a big believer in success leaving you clues. I had been seeing Gray Cook’s name all over the place and had bought some of his DVDs and loved what I saw. Then Dragon Door announced that they were going to run an RKC-only FMS based course called the Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Specialist (CK FMS). So I made the choice to go to this RKC thing and see what the fuss was about before attending the CK-FMS.

I’m glad I did because I learned that the RKC isn’t about the kettlebell. I also learned that it wasn’t really about how to lift them either. The drills and concepts within can be applied equally to training anyone from regular Joe’s to world championship level athletes – and I’ve certainly done that, training people to lose over 30% of their body weight as well as guys like Major League Baseball pitcher Peter Moylan, world no gi BJJ champion Sophia Drysdale and everyone in between.

If you’ve been in the game for any length of time you know one thing with absolute certainty – there’s no “one thing” that people need. Maybe one client has done years of yoga but never any resistance training – they may need to add strength. Others may have the opposite problem – years of heavy weight training may have wreaked havoc on their bodies and what they need is to rebuild and gain some mobility before they end up hurt, or worse. Others may need to lose weight or risk a heart attack. And then there’s sports performance clients who may need all of that at the same time.

Truthfully I almost walked away from the RKC about twelve months ago. I thought that we were in danger of falling prey to our own marketing and that we were missing sight of our core business. As many RKCs work as trainers, allow me to digress for a moment. We are in the fitness industry. Unless you make a majority of your income from training elite athletes you are not a strength coach. You are a fitness trainer or whatever other buzz word you choose to label yourself with. That means you operate in the fitness industry.

There’s no such thing as the strength industry. The majority of your clients will come to you seeking to look better, and likely drop body fat, and feel better through a combination of increased strength, movement and fitness. The faster you come to terms with that the better off your bank account will be.

One of my big issues last year was the removal of the weighted pull up from the RKCII standards. I have always felt that the weighted pull up forced people to be realistic with themselves about their own weight and take appropriate action. In the lifting world there is often a misperception that bigger is better and that a bigger guy is a stronger guy. Whatever happened to “skinny strength” the driving force behind Power to the People? Looking at the average weight of competitors at the London Games – 72kg for men and 56kg for women – tells us something. Namely that if you want to be truly athletic then body weight plays a large part in the equation and if you’re carrying too much weight then your chances of being successful diminish.

Not only that but returning to my point about being in the fitness industry it’s important to remember again why people come to us – to look better. If you can grab a handful of stomach fat do you really think you’re a great role model for the fitness lifestyle? And do you think your pull up might be easier if you dropped some of that? Being your product is always good for business. People can tell from a mile away if you’re actually truthful and stand 100% behind your product or if you’re just on the bandwagon of the next trend and hoping to cash in. Regardless of how you try to justify it to yourself your personal appearance counts very much in your clients’ eyes.

This also ties in to actually following in the steps of what the industry leaders are doing. When a guy like Cook comes out and says that to develop athleticism you need a base of mobility, stability and proprioception I pay attention. He doesn’t say you need strength as your first priority. In fact, both Cook and McGill state that after developing the base level of performance through mobility and stability you then work on endurance before moving onto strength and power.

So it’s strength last, not strength first. Movement is first and we need to recognize that the RKC is about teaching correct movement.

You can see this continuum developed through the HKC, RKC and RKCII. In the HKC we pattern the swing by teaching the hinge, the deadlift and numerous other drills. We use the goblet squat to develop the hip and spine mobility to squat with heavier loads. Then at RKC we add weight to these patterns but by placing the load asymmetrically we are still assessing movement quality, In addition, as anyone who has been to the RKC will tell you, there are lots of reps – endurance. Then finally at RKCII we develop strength and power with movements like the jerk and the heavy single press. From start to finish the system follows a path that I very much believe in.

The RKC understands its core business is in creating the best possible instructors. Instructors who know and understand how to teach and breakdown correct movement above all else. It often previously felt like all we were concerned about was the personal abilities of candidates instead of their teaching abilities.

I have to be honest and say that I have never had a client sign up with me because of what I could do. They’ve signed up with me because of what I can get them to do and the results they see in my other clients. Think about a high school PE teacher for a moment. Do you ever see one post on Facebook a picture of them out-performing the kids they are in charge of? I’d hope not because that kind of ego has no place in education. Our role as RKCs is no different and that show-off attitude as well as having the focus solely on our physical abilities has to go. It’s all about your clients – your kids in this sense – having the best experience they can with you, not about what you can do.

Without wanting to go too deeply into the psychology of training I also need to point out that if you base your sense of self worth on what you can do, when you get to forty and beyond you’re in for some depressing times. Performance drops as you age and there’s no hiding from it. The average age of medal winners at London was twenty-six. That was a good fifteen years ago for me. If the only thing that I derive pleasure from is breaking my personal records I’m going to have a very sad next forty years. But there’s no reason why we can’t be interested in trying to maintain performance, and by that I mean movement as that is the base, as we age.

For me, that is one of the reasons why I am so interested in movement based programs like the FMS and Primal Move – I instantly knew that these things could make a huge difference and that if I wanted to keep my clients healthy long term than we needed to add these kinds of elements into training.

Interestingly these are the exact same things that help to build athleticism. In a world that is overly sedentary we are seeing more and more people try to maintain fitness in later life. If they haven’t moved much since they were six (a likely scenario in these days of no physical education in schools and low sports participation numbers) they are going to need to build some movement patterns.

I hate to break it to you, and it pains me to admit it, but RKC training will actually hinder some athletic components if you avoid other movements (i.e. actual athletic events). Standing still lifting weights doesn’t make you athletic. In fact, other than make you better conditioned, it doesn’t make you anything – not tough, manly, hardcore or any of those adjectives. It only makes you stronger, and maybe fitter.

If you want to be more athletic you need to be involved in athletic endeavors. That can mean anything from martial arts to dance to triathlon to even things like the Crossfit Games or events like Tough Mudder.

(Here’s an interesting thing about the Crossfit Games – even though most of the events are lifting based the strongest doesn’t win. Last year a female competitor named Ruth Horrell from New Zealand came twelfth. The interesting thing about Ruth is that she competes for New Zealand as a weightlifter and is trying to gain Olympic selection for 2016. You’d have to realize that she would be a standout for strength amongst the ladies and yet she still didn’t win. The reason is obvious – her sports skills, and in the case of Crossfit that would be the huge anaerobic conditioning needed to be successful, are lacking. For her to get better at her sport she needs to play her sport more, not get stronger. This is across the board for athleticism – to win more you need better skills than your opponents, not just a single motor quality in high amounts. Martial artists will immediately understand this as they’ll have seen plenty of Herculean looking guys get beaten up and down the mat by someone who looks far more ordinary but has superior skills).

My interest in all training comes down to one thing – what can I learn so that my clients will be able to go out and use their fitness and enjoy their lives more? If that means they want to go in Tough Mudder, then I need to know how to help them run better and get over obstacles. But it also means I need to make them robust enough that they won’t break while running in training. If it means they want to do triathlons or martial arts or rock climbing or even hike to Everest base camp then I need the skills to help them do that too.

I’ve never heard of a client being stopped at the end of a triathlon and asked what their deadlift is, only their finishing time. In other words – the lifting is secondary to the performance. Making that vital difference to clients is all I really care about. I literally can’t afford to think that I only need one tool or one method to get them the result they’re paying me for. I can’t allow myself to think that all someone needs is to get stronger or be tougher. It’s just not that simple and it’s why I’ve traveled the world for the last decade to find the best answers and it’s precisely why I stayed on as an RKC at this point.

As trainers we often forget that our clients don’t share the same endless enthusiasm for training that we do. They want the maximum result from the least effort. There is one thing that has always stuck in my mind about the RKC:

A school of strength and movement with incidental conditioning. This allows a solid base of GPP to be formed that sports skill and conditioning can be built on.

I’ve been doing that with my clients since before I was an RKC. With a background in performance training both as a coach and an athlete that has always been my focus. We need to keep in mind as we forge ahead that every person will need something different and not allow ourselves to be distracted down the path that we enjoy the most when it comes to their training.

We need to make clients more athletic and find ways to embrace our own athleticism so that the base layer of movement and strength can be added to in an appropriate setting. Being in the gym is not the goal nor is having success in it. The goal has to always be making your clients’ lives better outside the gym. That is a product of many fitness qualities and methods.

That is RKC.

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Andrew Read, Senior RKC, is head of Dragon Door Australia and Read Performance Training. Recognized as Australia’s leading functional strength trainer he is a regular contributor to Blitz, Inside MMA, International Kickboxer, Oxygen, Ultrafit and Breaking Muscle. His coaching background spans nearly twenty years having worked with many Olympic and world championship level athletes.

Being Purposefully Primitive

March 13, 2013 By Steve "Coach Fury" Holiner 3 Comments

It was a particularly great day at Five Points Academy, when my boss and mentor, Steve Milles (RKC II, CK-FMS, CICS) told me in no uncertain terms that we would be going to Marty Gallagher’s Purposeful Primitive Workshop last year. Of course we were! The workshop had the added bonus of being hosted by our friend, and the man who was my RKC Level I and II Team Leader, Phil Scarito. Throw in that it was within driving distance from NYC and was literally located right next to the hotel (and a Hooters) and we were stoked.

Written by Marty Gallagher and published by Dragon Door, The Purposeful Primitive is an amazing book filled with info on how many of the world’s strongest men train. Having spent a couple of years primarily using kettlebells, I went to the workshop hoping to sharpen up my barbell skills. I could have sliced a can in half after the PP weekend. It was two full days learning from Marty himself and the one and only Captain Kirk Karwoski. Aside from the great education you pick up at these types of events, I also got to meet some mighty fine people including Cole Summers, Tristan Phillips, John Heinz and Donald Blake Berry among others. Plus, I got to hear some ridiculously funny stories hanging out with Marty and Kirk at Hooters.

One of Marty’s core training principles is “making the light weights heavy to make the heavy weights light.” It’s all about creating and maintaining high levels of tension regardless of poundage while upholding stellar technique. This fit in perfectly with my hardstyle training and much of my own personal philosophies. I take nothing for granted and treat all weights with respect.

The small but information laden manual outlined a pretty straightforward and mildly intimidating 12 week periodization program. I was amped up to start… but I had CK-FMS the following week, then the final Summit of Strength, followed by assisting Brett Jones at a CICS, and finally assisting on Team Heinz at the Philly RKC. My barbell domination kept getting put on hold until I was able to truly focus on it. And focus on it I did.

The program is based on starting percentages of your current PR (Personal Record/Best) in the Back Squat/300, Bench Press/300, Deadlift/445 and Military Press/185. The reps sets are as follows:

Week 1-4
Squat 3×8
Bench Press 3×8
Deadlift 3×6
Military Press 3×8

Week 2-8
Squat 3×5
Bench Press 3×5
Deadlift 3×4
Military Press 3×5

Week 9-12 (or singles)
Squat 3×2
Bench Press 3×2
Deadlift 3×2
Military Press 3×2

Week 13
PRs baby!

10 pounds is added to the BS, DL and BP every week. 5 pounds is added to the MP. I trained the BS and BP on Mondays and the DL and MP on Thursdays with my training partner Mike Patrick. I would sometimes do a third variety day consisting of barbell rows, kettlebell windmills and some arm work. Captain Kirk was gracious enough to look over my program and give me the greenlight to kill it.

Getting back on the topic of focus. Simply put, I have never been more focused in my life. I stopped doing Muay Thai kickboxing completely during these 12 weeks because I didn’t want any kicks to my legs or knees to my ribs to affect my lifts. I saved myself entirely for my lift days. My mental prep for the day’s lifts would begin as soon as I woke. By the time I arrived at the gym, I might as well have had Braveheart face-paint on. I started to develop some OCD about what rack and plates I would use. Nothing changed but the weight on the bar.

About the OCD, it got out of hand. I found myself failing reps because something random entered my mental lifting zone. I was also relying too much on music for motivation.

As the weeks progressed, I slammed into two walls that derailed what my original goals were. The first time I missed a planned rep was on the bench press at 225. I was actually shocked. Kirk and I talked about it and he essentially told me to “get my head out of my ass and not let it happen again.” He was 100% correct. I don’t care how much you lift if you are unable to handle blunt and honest advice. Strength of character is more important than strength of body.

The next time I failed was also on the bench. 3 sets of 5×245 became extremely difficult. 400 on the deadlift became my second nemesis. Not only was a I failing the lifts, but as opposed to the 225 bench fail, this time I truly felt they were out of my reach and that my form was suffering into the hazard to myself realm. The DL struggle was expected. I had never really repped over 400 before. It was always singles leading up to the max in that range. The bench was a surprise though. After consulting with Phil Scarito, I dropped both lifts back two weeks to the last time they were accomplished under solid form and started adding 5 pounds instead of 10 a week. This was fantastic advice. After three weeks, I was able to start adding 10 again.

As much as I struggled with my deadlift and bench, I excelled in the squat and military press. The back squat literally felt easier every week. Same with the MP. At this point, I want to add that all of my formal strength training started in the kettlebell world. I never truly trained with barbells properly before. My max lifts aren’t jaw dropping but as a 40 year old banged up skateboarder, I’m damn proud of them.

Eventually, week 13 came up and I managed to hit two new PRs. I added 25 to my back squat with 325 and added 10 to my military press with 195. I broke even on the DL and BP though I know my form is better and that I’m stronger in the higher weights within my PR range.

Here are my exact numbers through the program:

WEEK 1: SQUAT 3X8 195. BENCH 3×8 185. DEAD 3×6 345. PRESS 3×8 105.

WEEK 2: SQUAT 3X8 205. BENCH 3×8 195. DEAD 3×6 355. PRESS 3×8 110.

WEEK 3: SQUAT 3X8 215. BENCH 3×8 205. DEAD 3×6 365. PRESS 3×8 115.

WEEK 4: SQUAT 3X8 225. BENCH 3×8 215. DEAD 3×4 375. PRESS 3×8 120.

WEEK 5: SQUAT 3X5 235. BENCH 3×5 225. DEAD 3×4 385. PRESS 3×5 125.

WEEK 6: SQUAT 3X5 245. BENCH 3×5 245. DEAD 3×4 395. PRESS 3×5 130.

WEEK 7: SQUAT 3X5 255. BENCH 3×5 245. DEAD 3×405. PRESS 3×5 135.

WEEK 8: SQUAT 3X5 265. BENCH 3×5 255. DEAD 3×4 385. PRESS 3×5 140.

WEEK 9: SQUAT 3X3 275. BENCH 3×3 255. DEAD 3×3 390. PRESS 3×3 145.

WEEK 10: SQUAT 3X3 285. BENCH 3×3 265. DEAD 3×3 400. PRESS 3×3 150.

WEEK 11: SQUAT 3X2 295 BENCH 2×2 275. 1×275. DEAD 3×405 2×1 405. PRESS 3×2 165.

WEEK 12: SQUAT 3X2 305. BENCH 3×1 285. DEAD 2×405. 2×415. 2×1 425. PRESS 3×2 175.

WEEK 13: SQUAT 325. Failed at 355. BENCH 295. Failed at 305. DEAD 425. Failed at 455. PRESS 195. Failed at 205.

This was a great program. Five Points Academy Instructors, Chris Nagel and Lance Turnbow, both went through it and added impressive pounds to their previous best. Chris added a whopping 55 pounds to his back squat and 25 to his bench.

Marty’s book is amazing and the workshop is everything you would hope for. Not to mention it makes your soul feel good when someone of Marty Gallagher’s stature compliments you on a lift. I often feel that workshops that are not directly run by one of the bigger organizations are often overlooked. This is one of them. Do not miss it the next time the opportunity arises. It deserves to be on your must do list. Now go buy the book while you wait for the next workshop to be scheduled.

Yours in strength and fury,

Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner

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About Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner, RKC II, CK-FMS, CICS, DVRT 2: Proudly claiming Five Points Academy in NYC as his home base, Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner is an RKCLevel II Certified Kettlebell Instructor, a Certified Indian Club Specialist and a Primal Move Coach. He is also CK-FMS Certified and uses the Functional Movement System to help predict and avoid the possibility of injury in his clients. As a DVRT Level 2 Coach, Steve created the first dedicated Ultimate Sandbag class program. Steve is a certified TRX Training Instructor and an Assistant Muay Thai Kickboxing Instructor. Through his guidance, Steve has helped people pass their HKC, RKC and RKC Level II certifications. With over 35 people registered, Steve was the lead coach for the Five Points Academy team in the May 2012 Tactical Strength Challenge. Two of Steve’s female clients qualified for the Power To The People Deadlift Team at the TSC. Steve has been published in the Power by Pavel newsletter, had articles and videos shared by Josh Henkin and written guest blogs.

Founded by Steve in 2011, Coach Fury’s Kettlebell Club (CFKC) has brought hardstyle kettlebell training to Brooklyn, NY.

RKC Prep: Troubleshooting Snatch Technique

March 8, 2013 By Keira Newton 4 Comments

If you want to improve your technique with kettlebell snatches, this is a good video to watch. It is imperative to know how to snatch before you start banging them out with a heavy weight for 5 minutes. You want to be sure to be prepared for the RKC before you get there, so study this video to learn some inefficient, and even dangerous things that people commonly do.

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About Keira Newton, Master RKC, Level 3 Z-Health, MCT: Keira first picked up a kettlebell in 2005 when her husband challenged her to stop laughing and start swinging. She stuck with the challenge when she realized that she could get an all-in-one workout in a fraction of the time she spent at the gym. Keira was convinced… Read more here.

This Moment Brought to You From Nicole Money’s Soap Box

March 6, 2013 By Nicole Money 2 Comments

This morning I decided to teach the single leg kettlebell deadlift to a very loyal, hard-working kettlebell client of mine. When I told him my plan for his session I was promptly met with, “I’m not doing those. Every time I did them with •insert former trainer’s name here• I hurt my back.”

He was adamant. Single leg deadlifts had injured him and frustrated him so much that he refused to do them any more with his former personal trainer (a certified athletic trainer and personal trainer of more than 10 years). He swore he would never do them again.

I took a step back and asked him to demonstrate this exercise, which, by his account, injured him every time he’d performed it.

He took his “ready” posture, tightened his muscles and leaned straight forward, flexed at the waist and kept his planted leg completely straight. He reached his arm out about a foot in front of him as to pick up an object placed that far away. He teetered a bit, caught his balance and stood back up. He added, “That movement right there hurts my back.”

I smiled.

My reply: “This is going to be a piece of cake.”

Without a boring recount of our session, I revisited the RKC School of Strength lecture about the hip hinge with which all of Shane and my students are very familiar. We patterned the hip hinge, the two leg deadlift and finally the single leg deadlift. We then added bilateral load and then unilateral load. We practiced a bit and then added it to the kettlebell complex I had planned for the morning.

When his session was finished, his response, and I quote, “I really like these. Wow, I feel my ass a lot. This was fun.”My point: kettlebell is an art. It is a discipline. It is a process, has progressions and should not be taken lightly. When used correctly, in my opinion, there is not a more effective tool for overall conditioning and reinforcement of correct movement patterns.

Find an RKC instructor and learn to kettlebell correctly… find one who is also FMS Certified and you’ve hit the pot of gold.

As an RKC, I am committed to continuing to fight the good fight one battle at a time.

Today: RKC 1 — Bad Training 0.

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Nicole Money is a Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) certified instructor, a certified Functional Movement Specialist, and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certified Health Fitness Specialist. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and has been a fitness coach for more than 20 years, working with clients of all ages and activity levels. Nicole co-founded The Edge Kettlebell Gym in Dayton, Ohio and teaches kettlebells to anyone willing to listen! She brings her passion and knowledge to drive students beyond what they thought was possible to reach their fitness goals.

The Vital Few: Ab Exercises For a Stronger, Harder Midsection

March 1, 2013 By Pat Flynn 8 Comments

I was raised somewhat backwards and mostly stayed that way. Momma always said, “Son, you’re special.” And, really, I think she meant good by it—but whatever, there is at least one theoretical advantage to this. That is, I’ve found that the answers to life’s peskiest problems can be found, almost invariably, by moving in the opposite direction of the general pull of the masses. If they go up. Best to go down. Them right? You left. Slow. Fast.

Take for example, body fat. Leanness, which I can say I know a thing or two about, has more to do with the 23 hours of restraint outside the gym, than it does the hour of effort in it. Take for example, muscular strength, which has more to do with the tuning of the nervous system, than it does the bulking of the muscles. These are just two examples where, if we followed conventional wisdom, we would be led largely in the wrong direction to cluster with the mostly unsuccessful.

This whole fascination over the striated muscles of the abdomen is an interesting case, too. I, like most infidels, suffer from this fetish—I will not deny it, I like having flashy abs. But unlike most, I do not work my abs grounded. Rather, I’m quite fond of strengthening my midsection in suspension—hanging from a bar, a pair of rings, straps, or other such dangly devices.

Windshield Wiper

For me, these alone seem to do what the classic sit-up or crunch cannot—which is to say they add some desired thickness to the abdominal wall, creating an outright blocky and somewhat geometrical appearance—protrusions and depressions in all the right places, if you will. There are, of course, other tremendous benefits of hanging ab exercises that could be mentioned, but they are far less interesting to me, and I think if I start to talk on them I’ll get bored and so quit this piece entirely.

The hanging leg raise, the windshield wiper , and the L-Sit are three heinous exercises for hardening the midsection; one linear, one rotational, one static, all undeniably marvelous. In my own sight, they are the vital few—quote unquote, ab exercises—to replace the trivial many. This is to say that a fellow or a ma’am who can rep hanging leg raises and said variations seldom has an unimpressive midsection. Are there still gaps to be filled? Surely there are. But not too many.

L – Sit

Here I come to you with no formalized routine, or anything of the sort. I’m not all that keen on setting someone to the business of what some would call an “ab workout”. Instead, I think you should just practice these two movements very nearly daily. No set or rep scheme, really—just purposeful movement rehearsal. Strive to make the movements look almost romantic, as lovely as choreography.

Hanging Leg Raise

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Pat Flynn, RKC: Pat Flynn is a certified Russian Kettlebell Challenge instructor, fitness philosopher, and 7^th degree blackbelt in hanging out. Pat is the founder of ChroniclesOfStrength.com where he talks mostly on how to chop fat and multiply muscle through kettlebell complex training.

Back to RKC Basics with the Plank Position

February 27, 2013 By Corey Howard 3 Comments

Those of us that make our living in the fitness profession suffer from ADD with our own training.

Generally speaking we are always in a hurry to move on to the next progression in whatever it is we are trying to do rather than pay our dues perfecting the basics. Sometimes we even try to advance our clients before they are fundamentally ready. Many of us talk about practicing movement but I would argue we need to consistently spend time practicing the fundamental techniques, skills and movements. For example how many of us still incorporate the RKC plank into our own practice sessions?

When I went through the RKC we were taught the plank. You all know it by now… butt tight, quads tight, fists clenched, feet together and pull your elbows to your feet without actually moving. For those of you that know the “Hartle Plank”, developed by the brilliant and strong chiropractor Dr. Michael Hartle, you know there are a few more cue’s that will amp it up a bit more.

Let’s first look at this from a structural stand point. Imagine your body is similar to the framing of a large city building. Then at the top of this structure we’re going to put a crane so we can create more levels.

How much support will that crane have if a few of the steel beams were replaced with overcooked spaghetti noodles?

You simply can’t press heavy weight overhead if parts of the supporting structure are overcooked spaghetti noodles! Likewise with bodyweight strength training, imagine performing a handstand push-up if you’re body is a wet dishrag from the waist on down? If you ask any successful competitive powerlifter about their benchpress technique they will first explain how tight, solid and locked down they are during the press. They create a solid, tight, strong stable base from which to press.

The RKC plank will carry over to a ton of different movements, kettlebell, conventional powerlifting, and bodyweight strength training. After spending several years powerlifting I went to the RKC and was taught the plank is how your body should look at the top of your swing, or under a load as you press heavy stuff overhead. The plank is a tension skill, not a silly youtube clip of you laying on top of a taxi cab.

Now with the huge interest in bodyweight strength training the RKC plank has become even more important. For those of you that have attempted a one arm one leg push-up or even dared to try a front lever, you know already you need to create a ton of total body tension to successfully achieve any of these feats. Think about it, there are elements of the plank in pull-ups, push-ups, pistol squats, front levers, human flags, kettlebell swings, deadlifts, loaded carries, presses, cleans, and many other movements.

Rather than jumping into our session after our warm up maybe it’s time we perfect our basic skills?

Please consider this, those of you that enjoy baseball, do you have any idea how professional hitters train and work on their swing? They use a tee! No matter what level you’re at we all need to polish up on our basic skills and the RKC plank is arguably one of the most basic skills with the most carry over! Fire it up!

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Corey Howard, RKC: As the owner and founder of Results PT, Corey started the company in 2004 out of his house, with the goal of creating an energizing atmosphere that’s geared toward the client’s success. Since 2004 his vision has grown along with the list of clients, and in 2008 he opened Sioux Falls’s first private personal training studio. Corey has trained and helped many people lose a lot of weight, including a few people that have lost over 100lbs. He also has experience training fitness figure competitors and pagent girls. His clients have been featured in local and national magazine articles, appeared on television, and competed nationally. He originally became a certified personal trainer while living in Minneapolis in 2002 and over the years has created a successful strategy and program that reaps success. He also has experience in competitive powerlifting and loves total body kettlebell workouts that promote athleticism. He can be reached at www.resultsptonline.com or www.coreyhoward.com