RKC School of Strength

Why the Get Up?

October 9, 2013 By Beth Andrews 13 Comments

I love the Get Up, it’s one of my favorite exercises. I think it’s the ultimate show of strength to lie on your back holding a weight at arms length toward the ceiling and then methodically move through various movements to a standing position, still holding the weight at arms length above your head. And then reverse the maneuver.

The GU builds tremendous shoulder strength, stability, and mobility. The isometric contraction from packing the Humerus into the socket will build strength that will carry over into other lifts. Plus, this exercise is possibly the best choice in developing pure athleticism, due to the movement transitions from one position to the next under load and tension. Because this exercise engages the entire body, it builds flexible strength. It is crucial that all Athletes that play sports possess this type strength. Athletes that can move in and out of quick explosive unpredictable positions during a play with flexible strength can possibly reduce the chances of injury. Not an Athlete? The same benefits will carry over to the general public that must handle the activities of daily life.

The GU builds linkage strength and works the stabilizers to correct many asymmetries to improve movement patterns. To quote Gray Cook, “The Get Up is the perfect example of training primitive movement patterns, rolling, kneeling, standing, and reaching.” Studies have shown heavy Get Ups activates all four of the “core” muscles. The Get Up builds resiliency and also embraces “Kalos-Sthenos”, beautiful strength.

Here are some of my favorite GU combinations. I practice these combos for 5-10 minutes straight through without putting the bell down.

The first is a GU to standing, then a windmill, then back down and switch sides.
The second one starts with a Snatch, then reverse the GU down, then back up, then switch to the other side with a snatch and repeat.
The last one is a GU to standing, then lower the bell to a front squat and press, then reverse the GU and repeat on the other side.

You can do any one of these three combos as a warm up, used with a medium sized bell to work on movement patterns, or go for heavy singles.

Here’s a few workout burner’s I play around with.

50 Swings- 5/5 GU.
40 Swings- 4/4 GU.
30 Swings- 3/3 GU.
20 Swings- 2/2 GU.
10 Swings- 1/1 GU.

Start with a light bell and increase to a heavier bell each set. Or you can keep the same bell all the way through. Next time, try the reverse sets from 10- 1/1 up to the 50- 5/5. Then lastly, mix it up, start with 20-2/2, then 40-4/4, 10-1/1, 50-5/5, 30-3/3.

Did I mention the goal is to NOT put the bell down all the way through except to switch sides? Try it once/week for 6 weeks and test your GU weight at the end.

Here’s a tip that I used to get a 36kg GU-Windmill combo.

Heavy overhead holds 1x/week. I increased the time until I got the 36kg for 1 minute.

1 min- 28kg R/L
45sec- 32kg R/L
30sec- 36kg R/L

Some say, “What can you bench?” I say, “What’s your heaviest get up?” Give these a try and let me know what you think.

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Beth is the owner of Maximum Body Training. She became an RKC Sr. Instructor in Feb 2013 and the 5th Iron Maiden in June 2013. You can visit her website at www.maximumbodytraining.com

Perfecting Squat Mechanics with the Prying Goblet Squat

October 2, 2013 By Angelo Gala 1 Comment

If you have been exposed to the strength training systems of the RKC, then one could assume that you are no stranger to the benefits of squatting. The exercise enthusiast may look at the squat as an important movement utilized on a daily basis, but more commonly as an exercise made famous by its ability to cultivate copious levels of strength for the practitioner willing to put in the grueling work.

What happens when we no longer are able to access the full range of motion of such a fundamental pattern? It’s easy to give up on the lift—excusing age, bad knees or tight hips—and prioritize more of our time training the deadlift, but it has been noted by both Ido Portal and Gray Cook that the bottom position of the squat was formerly considered a position of rest and stability.

Shouldn’t we all make the effort to restore and maintain a movement that is so basic and primitive? The good news is that a little twist on a familiar drill can re-open the door to possibility and help take back the promised lands!

One of the most fundamental movements taught under the curriculum of the HKC is the Goblet Squat. To me this exercise is highly overlooked and its effects are easily understated. Though this is not a lift that will build slabs of flesh that hang off of your knee caps, it is a requisite lift that will teach your body how to properly balance, engage and stabilize throughout the start and completion of the movement creating greater potential for awesomeness down the road.

As is the case with many things that are good for us, there is a way to add to the Goblet Squat making it just that much more amazing!

First let’s look at the HKC standard for the Goblet Squat:

1. The back must remain neutral through the entire rep.
2. Your knees track your toes.
3. Your heels and toes should be planted.
4. Make sure to inhale down and exhale on the way up.
5. Your hips and shoulders must ascend at the same time.
6. Your hips and knees should extend fully at the top of the exercise.

Now let’s put this into application and teach you how to “feel” the movement.

Position yourself slightly behind a light kettlebell with heels shoulder width apart and toes slightly turned out. To find your start position, pull yourself down into the bottom position of a squat where the top surface of your upper thigh by the hip crease is lower than the top of the knee. If mobility is a known issue then sit low enough where the hips begin to slightly tuck under, but not low enough to lose a natural lumbar curve. Focus on keeping a neutral spine with an emphasis on lumbar lengthening. You should be able to feel your hamstrings and outer hips fire and begin to heat up. Avoid collapsing at the hips and resting on our heels with a rounded back at all costs.

Now that we have established the proper start position, reach your hands forward to grab the horns (outside handles), of the kettlebell pinning your elbows to the insides of your knees. Be sure that the boney part of your elbow touches the soft part of your knee, not to be confused with the softer inner thigh muscles. Still emphasizing your long spine, perform a double bicep curl bringing the center of the KB handle to your collarbone while simultaneously using your elbows to drive your knees apart. This “prying” effect will help loosen up tight adductor (groin) muscles that inhibit the outer hips from activating.

Now to teach your legs how to stabilize the squat by actively driving your knees away from your elbows, to create roughly 1-2 inches of separation between elbows and knees. Pause here to feel your deep outer hips activate, and then finally stand up to a complete lockout, raising your hips and shoulders together.

In order to finish the lift, actively tighten your hip flexors and hamstrings to pull your hips back to the bottom position of the squat. Just like the ascent, be sure to drive your knees apart while you reach the top of your hamstrings to the back of your heels.

Once you return to the bottom of the squat, place your elbows back against the soft part of your inner knee and re-extend your arms reaching the kettlebell down to a hover off of the floor. This will pry your knees apart again and set you up for the next rep. Be sure to keep the hips active and counter any forward lean by lifting your chest.

This drill is extremely beneficial when practiced before a squat session to help dial in the movement pattern and engage the posterior chain. Utilizing a small rep range of 1-2 sets of 6-8 reps will be enough to warm up the outer hips and legs in preparation to tackle a more rewarding set of double kettlebell front squats or high bar back squats.

Give this drill a go and keep me posted on how it affects your deep squat mobility and stability under heavier loads.

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About Angelo Gala, RKC and PCC Team Leader: Angelo Gala has been a fitness professional in the Boston area for greater than 11 years. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NCSA, has studied the Pranavayu system of yoga under David Magone and he is a Dharma friend at the Sakya Center of Buddhist Studies in Cambridge, MA where he completed a 1 year intensive study of Mangalam Yantra Yoga Under the guidance of Lama Migmar Tseten. He can be reached through email.

He considers himself an all-around fitness nerd and endurance junkie who refuses to fall under the category of a one-trick pony. Gala continually works to better himself and inspire others by leading a lifestyle conducive to physical, emotional, and spiritual development. He believes that no one should focus too much time and energy on a single dimension of fitness. The body craves all different types of movement that is not limited to just running, jumping, swimming, biking or lifting things up and putting them down again and again. He teaches clients to train with intention progressively, intelligently and with as many different modalities as the heart desires. Do this and the body and mind will be forever grateful.

It’s in the Hips, Part 2

September 25, 2013 By Mark Bixby 2 Comments

In part one of this four-part series, I talked about how hip stiffness is usually part of a larger complex of stiff tissues and joints throughout the body. I then offered a very basic mobilization sequence starting with a knee sit and progressing to a standing hip extension/flexion drill. In this second part of the series, I will discuss more dynamic strategies for opening the hips and hamstrings to produce the active and resilient flexibility needed for sport.

After finishing the initial PCC with Al, Danny, Steven and Adrienne, I had the opportunity to attend the GAIN Conference hosted by Vern Gambetta at Rice University in Houston. This five day event, which started each day at 6:30AM on the Rice track and concluded at 9:30PM at the Valhalla Pub, included lectures and practical sessions hosted by luminaries in Olympic, collegiate and professional athletics.

One of the most inspiring presenters was Jim Radcliffe, Head of Strength and Conditioning at the University of Oregon for the past 28 years. It was immediately obvious that Jimmy was first and foremost a “movement” guy, who happened to be applying his principles in one of the most successful and well-funded athletic departments in the world. He spoke of growing up in northern California where he climbed trees and ran through the woods acquiring strength, mobility and coordination in a natural environment. He then discussed how his strength and conditioning program for Oregon football was based upon the natural movements he grew up with. Jimmy said that probably only 25% of his team’s work is done with weights. And much of the weight work, such as his Good Morning sequence, adds movement into the progressions.

Jimmy’s training template is as follows (in this order): dynamic mobility, “pillars of strength” (reflexive core stability drills), two stations of hip hinging drills, two weight-based stations (usually Olympic-style lifts), and agility work. The athletes do much of this work barefoot, and the agility work is often done in Oregon’s 40-Meter sandpit. Most importantly, Jimmy uses what he calls a “Jet Tempo” in his workouts to mimic the pace that Oregon football has become famous for. He emphasizes that he does no additional “conditioning” work to supplement his workouts. As he wants every rep to be explosive, he has no interest in training kids to do cardio at less than game pace because he doesn’t want to create “slow” neural adaptations.

The video that follows is an adaptation of the dynamic mobility drills Jimmy had us do in one of our practical sessions at GAIN. He said the athletes spend 3-5 minutes max doing this before going on to their reflexive core work. As Pavel demonstrated in Super Joints, Beyond Stretching and Relax into Stretch, athletes need to be flexible in athletic positions. They need mobility/stability under the incredible amount of tension produced by making high-speed cuts and other athletic moves. This sequence is a great way to loosen up the hips and hamstrings to prepare your body for whatever intense workout you may have in store for it.

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Mark Bixby is a Dragon Door RKC Team Leader, PCC Instructor and MovNat Instructor. He discovered kettlebells in 2002 and found that they are the quickest, most effective way to train. A combination of past injuries and persistent low physical self-image had caused Mark to have severe posture issues and chronic back pain. Kettlebells taught Mark how to use his hips so that he didn’t tuck his pelvis and slump with his posture. He grew taller, stronger and more confident. More than six years later, Mark has accomplished huge gains in strength, flexibility and stability and he finds that kettlebells still present significant physical and technical challenges. Because the skill set can always be refined, kettlebells continue to push Mark towards higher levels of body awareness and fitness. Mark can be reached through: http://www.dkbfitness.com/.

2 of the MOST Common Kettlebell Mistakes

September 18, 2013 By Josh Henkin 9 Comments

If you train long enough there is one absolute guarantee, you will make mistakes! Most people look at mistakes as a negative, but in fact they teach us so many valuable lessons. We learn what works for us as individuals, we realize that different points in our lives require different types of training, an understanding that our needs change as we go through our journey of fitness will evolve. You see, the only way you actually learn these lessons is by making many of these mistakes.

I hope to save you a bit of time from 20 years of training so that you don’t have to learn all these lessons on your own! When comes to training with kettlebells for the past ten years I have also ran into many trainees that seem to run into many of the same issues.

By writing this article I hope to help you learn from my own experiences. Yes, you will make mistakes, but realize the only really bad mistake is the one you keep repeating! Hopefully I can help you avoid those times of frustration with two of the most common mistakes and result haltering kettlebelI mistakes.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Any time you start something new, it is cool, it is exciting, it is motivating. Unfortunately, just as many times we take a good idea and take it to the extreme. Getting reintroduced to kettlebells for me in 2002 was the first time that I saw pressing weight overhead being heavily promoted as a means of improving health and performance.

Many fitness programs were still touting overhead work as dangerous to the shoulder. However, the RKC focused on many overhead lifts as a means of having a healthy and strong upper body. Overhead lifts were about integrating the lower body, trunk, and upper body in one efficient and highly effective unit.

What was the mistake? Many people went from very little experience of lifting overhead to 90% of their program or more being overhead lifts. I started to see an influx of people with overtraining injuries because like anything good, people tended to overdue it!

What should you do instead? Instead of taking a good thing and going to the extreme, slowly integrate new ideas and exercises into your routine. Nothing wrong with adding 2-3 sets of 3-5 repetitions of a new exercise into your training program. That ends up being about 15 repetitions, instead of 30 plus repetitions that I would see in most new training programs.

Find out how your body responds, see if you are ready to do more or if your body needs more preparation. One of the hardest things for many of us to do is to slow ourselves down. Trust me, patience has the reward of long-term progress and injury free training versus the instant progress many see from just doing something new and stalling early and developing issues!

Not a Balanced Routine

You just read about exercise x, it is the new exercise that basically is suppose to solve ALL your training needs. This is the ONLY exercise you ever need to use a again. What do you do? If you are like most of us, you do as you are told. You focus on this one, okay, maybe two different lifts and POOF, all your training needs are solved!

The reality is that most of us need much more variety, especially earlier in training. Whether you are referencing legendary coaches and scientists like Tudor Bompa that spoke of an “anatomical adaptation phase”, periodization models that spoke of “general physical preparation”, or even old time strongmen that used a wide array of gymnastic and strength training exercises to build a strong foundation before more focused training. In any of these situations, the best coaches and athletes realized a need to prepare the body for more intense training.

I remember many people coming to me so excited to start kettlebell training and when I asked them how much exercise they had been doing most hadn’t done anything with great intensity for some time. Looking at their training they were doing one to three kettlebell exercises. Many times with the same movement patterns.

Here is a common kettlebell routine I would see.

Kettlebell Swings 3 x 15
Kettlebell Clean and Press 3 x 5
Kettlebell Snatches 3 x 10

I am taking some liberties with the programming, but you get the idea. All three have a two legged hip hinge movement, all done explosively. There is no squatting, no lunging, no single leg work, no stability exercises. Two out of the three exercises are overhead movements there is no upper body pulling at all. You start to see such movements are quite unbalanced. How might I change this routine? Here is something I loved to provide with beginners.

Workout 1

Goblet Drop Lunge 2 x 6 each side
Rows 2 x 8-10
Suitcase Deadlift 2 x 8-10 per side
Overhead Press 2 x 5 each side
Front Plank 2 x 30 seconds

Workout 2

Single Leg Deadlift 2 x 6 each side
Assisted Pull-ups (Band or otherwise) 2 x 6-8
Front Squat 2 x 6-8
Get-up Sit-up 2 x 5 each side
Mountain Climber 2 30 seconds

You can see there are two more exercises per routine, but that isn’t the big difference. In each routine we get a far more well rounded movement based program. We place the most challenging exercises first and more isolated or stable exercises later. There is single leg work, balance of pushing and pulling, working different angles, and a compliment of squatting, lunging, pulling, and foundational stability.

Most people make the mistake of over doing or not doing enough for their fitness in the initial stages. A good base of fitness helps prepare the body for more intense programs later on.

One of my favorite stories to illustrate my point is follows the path of a young man. In his early 20’s this well built young man (with limited training experience) told me he hurt his back deadlifting. I asked to see his technique and program. His technique needed a few tweaks, but his program needed far more!

I asked him, “Where did you get this program?” He replied, “It is what elite powerlifters do!” “How long have you been training?” I had to ask, “About six months.” After asking him to repeat to me who the program was for a few times he understood his mistake. I wasn’t trying to embarrass the young man, but rather remind him that following the right program for your current ability level helps you get to higher and higher levels.

If you follow these two simple rules I ensure you that you will have many years of success. It can be hard in this day and age of instant gratification to have the discipline to have patience and honesty with where you are currently starting. However, if you are able to implement these ideas, the rewards are years of successful training with the greater chances of experiencing plateaus and injury!

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About Josh: 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.

4 Secrets to Engaging and Retaining Clients

September 11, 2013 By Brian Wright 2 Comments

So many of us as trainers, coaches, and fitness business owners get caught up in studying our craft…sometimes to a fault.
We work on programs for clients, we study manuals, we read blogs, and we attend countless workshops.

I have a long list of letters after my name, so clearly I am not saying that I am above any of that, or even non-supportive of it! In fact, I believe that we as a fitness professional community need MORE quality education. It is through that knowledge base that the RKC, CK-FMS, Primal Move Cert, PCC, and other personal training certifications helps us to change our clients’ lives for the better!

I am suggesting that perhaps we focus too much on the specifics of delivering program instead of the overall feelings those programs are supposed to create.

Let’s ask ourselves what people want…

They want to feel successful
They want recognition
They want a sense of belonging
They want to have fun

No matter how great of a program coach you are (and there have been some of the best in the business to have called themselves RKC’s), your clients will not stick with you unless their needs and wants are being met immediately. No matter how great of a marketer you are, you will not be able to hold onto those that the message reaches unless they have feelings of complete satisfaction relatively early into your program.

How do we create these feelings as business owners?

We might need to become better instructors! The answers are not in more education in this case. They are also not in attending another workshop to learn corrections, form and technique, or even which direct mail campaign to write. The answer is that we need to create a tribe feeling that people flock to in droves.

People want to feel successful. On the first day of training – either in a group or individually, people need to feel like they can do it right away. I believe as good instructors, we can find certain exercises that they can complete while being challenged. These exercises need to have benefit and they need to be within your program framework. That way you will maintain your fluid message, illustrate your passion appropriately, and be able to build on your education model.

For example, if a client goes through the RKC plank, the deadlift motion, some FMS style corrections, and maybe completes a few static stomp deadlifts or even some “sloppy” low swings within the first hour they meet you, they may not feel the same sense of accomplishment you do as their instructor. They have no real patience for the end product. You may have had this client sign up for a full 12 weeks, (as I hope you do in your training agreements) but without some immediate successes, they will be hard pressed to be engaged.

As a business owner – when is the best time to get a referral? Within the first 2 weeks of a new client signing up! Because they are excited! They want to tell people about the program they just signed up for; they want to share their successes! GIVE THEM SOME right away.

Focusing my attention on getting my clients success fast, I use the TRX. The program has a quick learning curve with good strength circuits. I bring in the Kettlebell early as well, as it often times is a major reason why people have sought me out. I teach them the RKC plank and explain to them that a 10 second plank is a great tension practice (most people can find decent tension for 10 seconds). I teach them the deadlift and the beginnings of the swing, but for many their success is in TRX inverted rows, TRX counter balance squats (even while holding a racked Kettlebell if they have the strength), and in feeling a good plank. They feel like they get their expectations met right away (I’m working hard from day 1) as well as moving closer to better understanding tension and the proper neural patterns I want to teach. It’s a win/win scenario!

Here’s the key – no matter what they do, I make it a big deal!!!!! That’s their success – that you are VERY proud of them, happy for their effort, their accomplishment, and their decision to begin a workable program! As their sessions click on, they start swinging, doing presses, pushups, a flexed arm hang or assisted pull-up – these are GREAT accomplishments! They get written down, they form the beginnings of their 6 week goals, and they feel like they are doing well right from day 1.

They want recognition. Clients feel successful because you are recognizing them. Blast them out on Facebook, put them in your newsletter, but best of all – just send them a text or phone call. People see that a FB blast or newsletter mostly helps YOU out – to promote your business. (It’s still important, but it’s second to the personal relationship building that a one on one contact can forge). If you are managing trainers, then not only coach them to do this for their individual clients, but as the business owner – do this as well!!! Remember, the clients write their checks to your business and your program philosophy – not to their individual trainer. It is ultimately your responsibility to keep those clients happy – that comes with their feelings of success and getting the personal recognition they deserve.

They want a sense of belonging. You know what line people remember from the TV show Cheers? It’s the line about everyone knowing your name. You know why CrossFit is so successful (a multi-million dollar business)? It’s because of their community they have created! As business owners of outdoor/in-home training businesses, training studios, or just a handful of neighborhood clients, it is our responsibility to create a tribe! Our clients are the members and we’re the chiefs. Who sets the tone? We do! Who does the work? They do! All you have to do is create the model. Here are some suggestions:

Motivational music THEY like is a must.

A slow clap build up before the start of a PR attempt or a difficult circuit/work set

Inclusion of team work drills like team carries and races against time, I go/you go drills, friendly competition (if it fits into your community – it mostly does not fit into mine). Borrow ideas from team sports blogs and books. Coaches are great resources for how to bring a team together. This mostly applies to the group training model – but it doesn’t have to be! Who’s the teammate for a one-on-one training session? You are! Get in there and do the carry with them!

Lastly, people want to have fun. Most people don’t really want an exercise regimen or physical therapy program. But they see it as necessary to their health; they see value, and they probably don’t hate it once they start. That’s not good enough! Even though it’s sometimes painful, we can create an environment that people love! Play games, make them laugh (while they are working!), come up with themed sessions. As trainers, we have the best jobs in the world. We are teachers of recess! I always tell my students –this should be the most fun you have all day! The 3 hours I see them each week should be fun, exciting, and fulfilling on all levels!

All of these four points do not negate a progressive, safe, and workable program approach. You still can teach all the fantastic things we learn in the workshops and certifications we attend. We can help people improve their ankle dorsi flexion with FMS corrections, we can improve their squat pattern, and we can get them strong and conditioned swing/goblet ladders. We can do all this while we are playing music, making jokes about tough love to check core tension, joining in on their goblet squats – being a teammate in their pain – keeping energy high over the loud “eye of the tiger” music we blast and congratulating them on their effort.

Using the 4 key elements for engaging and retaining clients, here’s a sample group session (can be modified for an individual session very easily):

2-3 mins foam rolling and general prep (as people trickle in – it’s the “how you doing” time)

2 -3 mins of meditation – I turn off the lights, I tell people to forget about their days, and think about the tasks at hand – basically a mental awareness time with drills on “really feeling” their bodies. (I play some hokey meditative music at this point – something I can joke about later on) – but I believe there is still real value in this for my program

5-10 mins of primal move, dynamic warm-up, general corrections (naked getups or drills with pauses for dorsi flexion focus, T-spine rotation repetitions, bridge variations depending skill levels (there’s a progression for all)

5-8 mins of loaded prep – deadlifts, carries/holds, plank drills, more corrections that feel harder maybe (face the wall squats for example) goblet pry stretches, or stick overhead squats, maybe a few swings (no more than 50 – 5×10 at most)

Note: (We are 20 mins into the session and so far have not done any WORK, but we have laid foundations, prep, addressed progressive corrections and of course furthered the culture of the tribe – that we are here for your total health with high emphasis on your mental state, your mobility, and your feelings of fun)

The Program sometimes has a theme – today is Aug 6th – so we will do the devil’s workout – 6 -6 -6
6 double KB Deadlifts
6 pushup variation – 1 arm progressions for advanced, just good quality range of motion for others
6 double clean and squat

NEXT Series
6 TRX Rows – pretty aggressive in the angle
6 double clean and press
6 kneeling windmills (3 each)

NEXT Series
6 overhead lunges
6 double swings or heavy 2 hand swings
6 getups to the hand (floor press, elbow, hand ) 3 each hand
That’s 6-6-6

10 mins conditioning games

Then we do trivia questions about the other members in class – I have asked each person to write down 2 little known facts about themselves (what country were they in when their first son was born? What position did they play in high school football?) and other things people can guess at. The class then will buzz in and attempt to answer. A right answer means they get to choose from one of 6 low skill conditioning exercises, a wrong one means I get to choose.

Exercise list

Burpees
Carries
Stair sprints
Hollow rocks for time
Crawls
Sand bag drag

5 mins recovery – static stretching, rolling or other low grade correctional drill.

That’s the hour – I’ll point out successes, bring the entire “team” together in shared pain, joy and camaraderie. Come renewal time – we’ll rely on this “tribe” experience to drive not only the business success – but their success in that they are sticking to a program for years!

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About Brian Wright MS, CSCS, RKCII, NSCA-CPT: Brian is the Owner of BW-PT and Director of Sport and Spine Athletics, with 13 Studios in the DC metro area with over 520 average sessions per month. There’s a renewal rate of 83% on our personal training packages and group training packages.

Want a Foolproof Planning System for Group Workouts?

September 5, 2013 By Andrew Read 2 Comments

Just like there’s more than one way to skin a cat there are many, many ways to create a training plan. When it comes to training individuals this is usually fairly easy as you are able to adjust according to the individual’s response to the previous sessions and there can be a large amount of communication back and forth regarding what they enjoyed, felt was beneficial or potentially too much for them. But that relatively straight forward planning process changes immensely when you start to look at group training.

I know many trainers these days have gone to group training in an effort to better leverage their time but one of the consequences of training a group is that everything has to become far more general and very often individual needs are lost in the change. Recently there was a post on the Dragon Door Certified Instructors facebook page regarding just this problem so I thought it might be helpful to outline a system that allows you to plan any workout.

The thing about this system is that I found out recently that it is also the exact same method being used to plan sessions by guys like Alwyn Cosgrove. The main thought that goes through my head when I train groups is that I want to be sure that we hit the most important things for everyone. Everyone needs more mobility and core work, no questions. So no matter what we need to hit those things in every single session. Not only that, but as Ian King told me we need to make sure that we place our priorities first in the session so that we can attack then when we have the most focus and energy. It’s no good saying we’re all about core training and doing five minutes of it tacked on at the end of the session.

While these two things need addressing we also need to understand that while strength is important so is movement. And if, like many, you came to kettlebells to increase athleticism then we need some form of movement work in our session too. This doesn’t mean we need to go jumping around like a ninja on amphetamines but it does mean we should consider doing some work that isn’t bilateral and maybe is from a split or single leg stance, or it could be rotational work, or may even include some running or agility drills.

Finally, no matter how people choose to argue it, there needs to be some kind of fitness or conditioning work. Your heart is a muscle too and needs to be worked through all ranges for health. However, this work can take many forms from competitive games like a head to head workout, or a simple run around the block. The actual format doesn’t matter as long as you do something that gets your heart rate up.

I’m reluctant to call these rules, as I think of them more as a set of guidelines as to how a session should be run to ensure that we make the most of the time we have for training. Warm up Extra mobility work based on your warm up. Core work. Skill practice, power and speed work.Strength.Competition/ conditioning /Cool down.

I won’t dwell on warming up too much as I hope most people understand what it is for. A warm up should start generally and end specifically. If your session is to include overhead pressing, for instance, a warm up might have joint rotations through the major joints, then stick dislocates, Y and T work with a light band and then some light pressing. All of this lets you know where your body is up to prior to actually testing it with today’s main work. The warm up includes essential mobility work. Good examples include, after joint rotations, brettzels, armbars, and Cossack squats. The next stage of the warm up is often forgotten except by veteran trainers, or those who have finally understood that they have issues that need to be constantly addressed. A good option here is to allow people five minutes of their own time to address their individual needs based on what they felt was stiff or tight during the warm up. This is also a great time for all your lazy clients to do the therapy work that their physiotherapist gave to them, because there’s a large chance that it isn’t being done at home. This extra mobility work can be different from session to session and is not set in stone – it needs to be driven entirely individually.

I’ve been on both sides of the core training argument. From, “I lift heavy therefore my core gets all the work it really needs in preventing my trunk from collapsing” to doing specific core only sessions twice a week that were an hour each. Unfortunately my clients don’t have two spare hours each week to do core only work but I can make sure that they do at least some each time they train. Core work needs to involve both resistance to flexion and rotation such as planks, as well as exercises that strengthen those functions like sit ups or hanging leg raises as well as exercises like the get up or windmill that tie them all together. I know many will suggest that it not a good idea to hit core work before you do any heavy lifting but the reality is that most people are lifting nowhere near their absolute potential and whatever fatigue you cause in the muscles that stabilize the spine is negligible compared to the benefits you get from putting this most vital piece of the training plan at the front of the session when it can be addressed with full attention.

In terms of training sequencing you should always hit the most demanding efforts before the less demanding efforts. This can be a little confusing as many equate work that leaves them out of breath as demanding, however in this context it relates to CNS demand. So speed and power exercises go before maximal strength work, which goes before strength endurance work, which in turn goes before pure endurance work. If there is no need for speed and power work within the session, and for many there isn’t as the risk is simply too high versus the possible reward, you can still use low level power activities such as jumping rope, or skipping and running drills. These will serve to really wake the system up and get it ready for the main body of the workout. Strength work will form the majority of your training session.

Maximal strength has a carryover to many other activities and is also the thing that is most responsible for changing people’s bodies the quickest when combined with a good diet. The competition and conditioning phase is an ideal part to set up a head to head style workout, or do any of a number of complexes or hybrid workouts such as higher rep kettlebell ballistics combined with endurance activities like running or rowing. Finally the cool down should include the same elements that were included in the warm up. This is a final chance to check that the body is still operating at least as well as it did when you started as well as a chance to bring the body and mind back to a resting state.

Here’s a sample session with the deadlift as the main lift:

Warm up

Butt touches (face away from wall and hip hinge until your butt kisses the wall, then extend hips until lockout). 3 x 20.
Body weight single leg deadlifts for 10 each leg paired with 10 body weight squats. Repeat sequence so you’ve done 20 reps for each.
Lunge walk x 10m forward and back. Crawl x 10m forward and back.
Two-hand swing 2 x 20. Extra mobility – Towel toe touches. (Roll up a towel and place it between legs, just above the knees. Reach down and touch the ground, squeezing the towel hard between your knees. Bend your legs as needed to touch the ground). Pair this with cobra stretches. 2 x 10 each.

Core work

Get up 1/1Crawl 10m forward and back Plank hold for 60 seconds. Repeat three times.

Power and speed work

Power clean 5 sets of 3.

Strength

Deadlift 1 x 10 @50%, 1 x 5 @ 70%, 1 x 3 @80% then 5 x 2 @90%

Competition/ Conditioning

Kettlebell snatch x 10/10
One hand swing x 10/10
Row 250m Repeat five times.

No rest between exercises but take two minutes rest between rounds. The goal is to keep the rowing pace even through all five rounds. (FYI the standard at my gym for this is a 24kg for men and holding under 50 seconds for the 250m row, and for ladies the 16kg bell and holding under 60 seconds for the row). Cool down – Repeat the warm up sequence in reverse so that you start with the twenty rep sets of swings and finish with the butt touches.

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About Andrew Read, Master RKC, Dragon Door Australia: Andrew Read, Master 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.

My Weight Loss Struggle

August 28, 2013 By Laurel Blackburn 64 Comments

I’ve been thinking about writing this blog for quite a while. I’ve been struggling with this issue since I was a teenager. I know I am not alone.

This blog won’t give you the latest weight loss secret, nor will it give you a really incredible workout. As a matter of fact, it won’t give you any answers. My hope is that it starts a conversation that needs to happen.
It’s time for me to get honest with myself and it’s time for me to get honest with others.

I need to hear about other people out there who struggle with the same issues as I do. I know I am not alone. I see it in others, I see it in my clients, I see it all over social media and I see it in my family.

My issue is my love/hate affair with my body. I can’t even tell you when or why this started. All I know is that I have fought with my body image and my weight since I started junior high school. I have no idea whether or not I was actually overweight, but that does not even matter. I thought I was overweight and thus began decades of self-loathing, countless diets and a trip to a 28 day eating disorder clinic.

laurel3 — On left: At leadership meeting, very ashamed about weight /
On right: Starting another diet

At 20 years old and after the birth of my first son, my goal was to weigh in the double digits. Imagine my elation when I tipped the scales at 99 pounds. I was on top of the world. That number meant that I was finally a success and that I was attractive.

Of course it didn’t last long. Before I knew it, I ballooned to a whopping 119 pounds. I felt like a failure. Suddenly I went from feeling attractive to feeling like a monster. I was buying a size 20 in clothes to hide my hideous body.

I only wore clothes that hid my massive frame. It was then that I sought help and entered treatment for my eating disorder. I never considered myself anorexic nor bulimic, I went because I was a straight up binge eater and my weight was out of control. Again I only weighed 119 pounds.

One of the things we had to do was exercise. I felt so hideous that my workout clothes consisted of my huge potato sack skirt that reached the floor and a huge over-sized shirt. After all, I didn’t want anyone to see how big I was.

I spent 28 days in treatment and left the same as when I went in.

laurel2 — On left: Weight down, feel great /
On right: Weight up again – note the baggy clothes

Over the past decades, I have gained and lost 20 pounds.

My biggest weight loss successes came when I was competing in bodybuilding. Those were the days. Some how I managed to stay with a strict diet for 12 weeks. I ate by the clock every 2-3 hours. My meals consisted of boiled chicken, rice, cold sweet potatoes and broccoli. It wasn’t good, but it was what I ate. Food was not longer enjoyable. I even traveled to Las Vegas on vacation for a week with my cooler full of food.

On the day of my contests, my body fat was approximately, 18% and yet I still had a wad of fat on the back of my legs. I guess I should mention that I am of Hispanic, Italian descent. We have some meaty thighs! God, how I hate them.

It took about 3-4 weeks after each contest to gain back 20 pounds. I had no idea how to transition back to normal eating. I went from a ripped, lean size 0, back to what I felt was a fat, over weight woman.

The next few years, I gained and lost 15-20 pounds through various diets and exercise plans.

Now I sit here writing this, ashamed. I am 51 years old and I’m still struggling with weight and body image.

Laurel5 — **On left: Weight up… Again / On right: Starting yet another diet…**

As fitness professional, I know better. But, first and foremost, I am a woman. I am woman who has struggled with her weight, self-image, self-esteem and body image for 40 years.

Trust me, I have done every diet out there. I have done Paleo, I have done the Whole30, I have gone off sugar, I have gone off carbs, I have detoxed, I have done Precision Nutrition, I have eaten low fat, high fat, low protein, high protein, I have kept food journals. I have counted calories and I have measured my food. I have done tons of cardio, I have lifted heavy weights…I have done it all.

I still go through the same emotions and behaviors. I lose around 7-10 pounds. I feel great. I feel attractive. I feel successful. I go shopping and buy cute clothes and wear them with pride. Then I gain the weight back. My self-esteem, body image and confidence go to hell. I go back to my baggy clothes.

So, is there a point in life and I am asking anyone who is reading this blog, in which you stop the madness and just accept who you are, accept and love your body and quit torturing yourself? Or do you continue the self-destructive mental and physical abuse?

At 51 years old, I’m tired of fighting this. I’m tired of hating and fighting with my body. I want to enjoy my life and I want to just enjoy food. Damnit, I want to eat cake and not feel like a loser and not feel judged and not feel guilty.

I know I am not alone. I have clients who have been coming to me for years who pretty much do the same. We have transformation contests with pretty amazing results. After the contest is over, they end up where they started. I have clients who, after coming for years look pretty much the same. They work hard, their health has improved tremendously, but they are still overweight. Is that so bad?

As fitness professionals, we post before and after pictures of our best client’s transformations. However, when I see group pictures of clients working out, there are some who are over weight and obese and I know those clients have been coming to those classes for a very long time. It happens in gyms, in boot camps, in Kettlebell classes and in Crossfit.

Now I know that other fitness professionals will judge me because I am fitness professional and I should look the part. What is the part? Many of my new clients, when asked what their goals are, say they want arms like mine.

One of the things I am guilty of that just adds fuel to my already low self-esteem fire is that I compare myself to other women on Facebook who are leaner and stronger. I know those are part of the issues I need to work on.

I don’t know the answers. I don’t know what to tell my clients who struggle with the same issues. When is it time to quit the madness?

Laurel4 — **On left: Weight back up, ashamed.. / On right: Diet success, feeling great**

One thing that really helps me is to understand different body types. We are all different. I will never be a skinny girl even though I have tried. My brothers and my oldest son struggle to put on weight. They are tall and thin with nice long legs. My sisters and I are short with short, muscular legs. No matter how hard I try and how lean I get, I will not have tall, lean legs. I know I can have a lean upper body, but my legs will always be and look heavier.

One of the things that help me, is the website that has pictures of some of the world’s most elite athletes. You will see they have completely different body types depending on their sport. None of them are the same.

http://reelfoto.blogspot.com/2012/08/howard-schatz-and-beverly-ornstein.html

I am not writing this blog to get pity and I am certainly not writing it to get any more advice.

If you are one of those who have never struggled with weight, or if you are one of those who have fought the weight loss battle and won, without having to fight the demons of self-loathing and constant failures, then you will never be able to wrap your head around this. As fitness professionals however, we need to understand that for some of your clients that struggle with this, we have to understand and we have to be able to help them.

Another diet, another food journal and harder workouts will not take care of the underlying emotional issues surrounding this issue.

So what are we to do?

Is quitting the madness and focusing on health instead of losing weight so bad? Do we support and affirm their efforts on improving their health or are we focused on their weight loss?

Do we refer them out for help, for counseling?

I go to counseling and have been on anti-depressants since I was a teenager. Many of our clients have never been and maybe it’s time. Do we do them a disservice by not addressing this issue?

I ask you to please share this blog in the hopes that it helps someone and starts a conversation that I think needs to happen. I really put myself out there and I would like to think I didn’t do this in vain.

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Laurel Blackburn is an RKC Team Leader and owner of Boot Camp Fitness and Training and Tallahassee Kettlebells. Look for Laurel at www.bootcampstogo.com or www.tallahasseekettlebells.com.

At 51, she is out to prove that age is just a number. Her goal is to motivate and inspire people everywhere, both young and old that strength, flexibility and mobility can get better with age. Follow her adventures on her blog: www.SuperStrongNana.com.

Dirty Dozen Move # 5: The Kettlebell Press

August 21, 2013 By Phil Ross Leave a Comment

**Spencer Ross Demonstrates the Kettlebell Press**

There are not too many many things cooler than pressing heavy weight over your head. The Kettlebell press is one of the best methods available to enable you to achieve these great feats of strength.

You may say that I can press dumbbells and barbells and get the same effect. Yes, you can press dumbbells and barbells – and there is nothing wrong with it. However for the “Best Bang for your Buck,” maximum shoulder load with reduced shoulder stress and a greater recruitment of stabilizers, the Kettlebell Press can’t be beat.

The Kettlebell Press differs from the dumbbell press and the barbell press in several ways. Dumbbells and barbells have a unilateral weight distribution, so there is a less of a need for the body make adjustments. Due to the shape of the Kettlebell, with it’s offset Center of Gravity (COG), the position of the weight constantly changes during the movement of the press. This requires more involvement of the core, stabilizers and lats to complete the movement. The pressing motion starts in a racked position with a tensioning of the body ends with the full lockout and the arm pressing the Kettlebell in line with or slighting behind the ear. This motion upward is accomplished with a “J” pattern of travel. The degree of the “J” may vary from practitioner to practitioner.

When pressing, you not only want to focus on pressing the bell skyward, but think about pressing your body away from the bell as well. This will also aid you in rooting with the floor and employing total body tension. We also need to pay particular attention to the width of your stance. Experiment with the wider then more narrow stance. You will discover that you are able to create more tension with a less than shoulder width stance.

As with many Kettlebell exercises, root with the floor, bring your coccyx to your naval, contract your glutes and abs, pack your shoulders and engage your lats. Focus on an exhale with the eccentric movement of the press and an inhale with the concentric portion, all accomplished while maintaining tension and compression.

When pressing heavier Kettlebells, you may employ a slight hip hitch to the opposite side of your pressing hand. This will help you recruit more of your lats. However, be certain no to go so far as to turn the press into a side press. In addition to the Military or Kettlebell Press and the Heavy Press there are many other presses with Kettlebells. Push Press, Jerk Press, Bottoms-up Press, Waiters Press, Side Press and the Bent Press, to name a few. There are also dual bell versions of most of the aforementioned.

Good luck with discovering or enhancing your Kettlebell Pressing Skills! If you have any any questions or comments on this introduction to the Kettlebell Press or any of the other Dirty Dozen Exercises, do not hesitate to contact me.

Train Hard and Train Often – Coach Phil

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About Master RKC Phil Ross: Master RKC, 8^th Degree Black Belt, Specialist in Bodyweight Strength, PCC and CK-FMS Certified. His 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.

Revenge of the Lunge!

August 14, 2013 By Josh Henkin 8 Comments

One is for serious strength.

The other is for firming and toning.

One is for packing on functional muscle.

The other is to sculpt.

One is for increased performance in just about everything.

The other goes well with spandex.

What are these two contrasting things? I am comparing how most people in fitness see squats and lunges. The squat has long been held up as “the king” of lower body exercises while the lunge has often been seen as the token exercise that you do because it is suppose to be good for you. However, you would never dream of emphasizing the lunge over the squat, or would you?

For quite some time I had the above belief, especially during my days competing in Strongman. Real strength was reserved for squats, deadlifts, cleans and such. Why waste precious energy on an exercise that many coaches think we can save for music pumping aerobic classes?

Something interesting began to happen though. As I kept going heavier in my training my body started feeling it. Stiffness, tightness, and little increase in my performance made me begin to wonder if there was a better way to really get strong and fit.

It wasn’t just casual aches and pains, I began to see my recovery take much longer, I saw my training being based around what didn’t hurt that day. How in the world could I go against the gospel of strength training though?

Really only one reason would be good enough to go against such established beliefs, I felt and performed better when I made lunges more of a core lift in my programs! Why? Why in the world would I have started seeing better results from implementing lunges not as an accessory exercise, but a focused lift?

I began to wonder why, after all I can theorize things such as better hip stability, building more mobility, fixing imbalances, hmmm, might be something here.

While I am from the first person to think lunges are worthwhile, is there anything more than my anecdotal evidence though? Is this just some silly controversy I am trying to begin?

A 1999 study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, set out to find different levels of muscle activation by some common lower body exercises. In this study, both squats and lunges were included. The results?

The researchers studied glute max, glute medius, and hamstrings. All three are important in hip stability and power production. According to the EMG activity of 12 trained individuals there were three interesting findings;

“For the gluteus maximus, squats elicited significantly more muscle activation than both the horizontal and vertical leg presses, but showed no significant differences in EMG activity when compared to the other exercises.” (yes including lunges)

“Results for the gluteus medius showed that quadruped hip extensions, step- ups and lunges generated significantly more muscle activation than squats.”

“Finally, for the hamstrings quadruped hip extensions, step-ups, lunges and four-way hip extensions garnered significantly more EMG activity than squats…”

Hmm, isolated study? How about a study where researchers from the University of Arkansas and Eastern Kentucky University looked at muscle activity of squats compared to lunges. The study looked at female college athletes and found, “ that there was no greater muscle activation when performing any of the squat depths to that of the body weight lunge. It was revealed that the body weight lunge did indeed produce more activation in the majority of all muscles analyzed when compared to the three squat depths.”

Why mention the body weight lunge? The real shock here is that the lunge was compared to a weighted squat! That says a lot about the power lunges do possess.

Don’t worry though, all this lunge talk doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the squat. I just want to open your eyes to the often overlooked lunge and maybe have all of us re-evaluate how we implement this great drill.

More Than One Plane

The lunge represents a less stable body position, this level of instability actually causes a lot of often underutilized muscles to turn on. Turning on these smaller muscles (stabilizers) helps build strength in a more indirect route. By improving the whole body stability of the body we develop a stronger foundation in which to develop force and strength. As goes the old saying, “you are only as strong as your weakest link!”

The less stable body positions also represent a highly underutilized form of training, multi-planar. Basically, multi-planar training is when we move in one plane of motion (there are three in natural human movement) and resist motion in other planes.

Even something as simple as walking actually has us moving in all three planes at once, however, we rarely train this in the gym. Remember, we want to connect our strength training to our every day living as much as possible.

What does multi-planar training look like? When we step forward in a lunge we actually are also resisting forces that are pushing us to the side and trying to make us rotate. We can use kettlebells to actually enhance this effect.

Multi-planar training increases stability, makes our nervous system smarter, and yes, can be awesome for improving conditioning. This is something we don’t really get the opportunity to train in our more stable lifts such as squats and deadlifts.

More Than Up and Down

Think of your favorite athlete, look how we do most things in life, rarely in either case do we see movements that are strictly up and down patterns. We are reaching, twisting, moving in all sorts of positions often at once. This is something we can really use the lunge to help improve.

One of the more overlooked benefits of lunging is the fact we don’t just get force when we move up and down, but by lunging in different directions we get some really unique forces acting upon the body. A big reason that knowing the right direction to progress your lunges is important is because we can greatly increase the intensity of a lunge just by changing direction.

For example, when we lunge forward, more of our body must be decelerated as we step forward than when we step backwards. Drop lunging (lunging backwards) keeps our most of our center of mass over our base of support. Huh? Forward lunging is harder than backward lunging because we have more of our body to stop as we step in that direction. This is something we see very often in sport and every day life.

Consider all the various directions we can step when we lunge and you have a wide array of ways to progress and challenge the lunge beyond just the weights you use!

Bring in the Kettlebells

Kettlebells add such a great dimension to the lunge. With all the patterns that kettlebells can create, there seems to be infinite ways to progress the lunge outside of just going heavier. Today’s training video actually features how we manipulate kettlebell holding positions to create some very unique training effects .

Using these strategies allow you to use kettlebells for more than just adding weight to the body. There becomes specific means of challenging the various benefits of lunging.

Since we often program the most demanding exercise (in both coordination and neurological energy) first, you might find that you start prioritizing your kettlebell lunges and then perform some of your squats and deadlifts after. You may even be more shocked that you get better at squats and deadlifts even though you have de-emphasized them.

Once you try these kettlebell lunge variations you might find the lunge having its revenge in your workouts as well!

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References: Also: Dwelly, P., Oliver, G. Blair, H., Keeley, D. Hoffman, H, “Improved Muscle Activation in Performing A Body Weight Lunge Compared to the Traditional Back Squat,” University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA

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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.

It’s in the Hips: Part 1

August 7, 2013 By Mark Bixby 1 Comment

This blog initiates the first in a series of 4 posts with companion videos about effective ways to better utilize the hips. While I’ve invented nothing in the series, I have hopefully ordered things in such a way—from simple to more complex—that those who practice these time-efficient drills will experience success at each point along the way. In the end, you’ll be crawling, squatting, running and jumping more efficiently.

Two years ago on Thanksgiving, I sat down in front of the wooden stove with my wife, mother-in-law, and daughters. They all sat comfortably on their knees, butts to heels. Given that my 63-year-old mother-in-law (with a hip replacement) could sit with ease in that position, I thought I could easily join her and dropped down in a knee sit. I sensed immediately that I might never stand again; either my knees were going to dislocate or my quads snap. Unable to conceal the distress on my contorted face, the ladies assembled asked if I needed an ambulance. I explained that the position created an unbearable stretch through the knee and quads, to which they responded they could all sit easily in the position for hours and not feel a thing.

Moral of the Story: Your tight hips are probably surrounded by lots of other tight muscles/tissue, especially if you are a dude.

While the RKC hip flexor stretch is probably the most commonly applied hip remediation in our community, we forget that many people don’t feel it in their hips because their quads are so tight that the stretch doesn’t travel above the thigh. One great solution is to practice your knee sits. We all have ample opportunities to sit, so we might as well use some of that time to increase our mobility.

Two weeks ago, MovNat Founder Erwan Le Corre led a wilderness survival training session that he kicked off in our gym. He sat on his knees as he explained some of his principles of natural movement. All of the men in attendance copied his seated position. One of them squirmed around uncomfortably until Erwan asked him if he was injured. The man replied that he had sprained his ankle a while back and that the position just hurt. Erwan said, “I’ve sprained my ankle lots of times, and sitting this way is no problem. You just don’t ever sit this way, right?” Like so many of you (especially men) reading this, he couldn’t disagree. The SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) tells us that we adapt to what we do. Sit on your knees more regularly and, as I’ve discovered through persistence, you can lose the wince and hang out a while.

The following video sequence shows a progression of moves from knee sits to active hip stretches that should knock the rust off of the joints from your feet up through your spine. It’s just a further reminder that your tight hips are probably a product of your tight everything else. Practice these, and my next blog, with a more dynamic series of hip openers, should come more easily.

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