RKC School of Strength

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Coaching

How Long Should It Take To Do One Kettlebell Get-Up?

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Ryan Jankowitz, RKC-II Coaching Getup Practice

Occasionally, trainees ask me how long a get-up should take when they’re first learning how to do one. I think it’s a really great question and I’m glad when they ask it—because it means that they are probably starting to really dig kettlebell training. But, my answer always seems to surprise them just a bit. When I tell them that a solid get-up takes at least 30 seconds per side, they start to realize that this exercise requires patience.

My best get-ups tend to take around 36 seconds (clearly, I love to time things). It seems to take about 36 seconds for me to feel like I am owning each stage of the get-up while taking my time.

Each stage of the get-up is equally important and demands equal attention. If one stage is rushed or not performed well, that weak link may negatively impact the rest of the movement. There’s nothing worse than trying to adjust your position while holding a heavy hunk of iron over your head.

I’ve found that going back to naked (no weight) get-ups or using a very light kettlebell with a 3-5 second pause at each stage for several reps is a great drill for reinforcing patience. These drills also allow you or your client to get very familiar with how each stage of the get-up should feel.

Ryan Jankowitz, RKC-II and Master RKC Michael Krivka demonstrate the get-up at a recent HKC workshop in Gathersburg, MD.
Ryan Jankowitz, RKC-II and Master RKC Michael Krivka demonstrate the get-up at a recent HKC workshop in Gaithersburg, MD.

My intent in writing this blog post was to create a discussion and learn what other kettlebell instructors and enthusiasts think about the timing of a get-up. Have you found an optimal time for the get-up? How long do you think a kettlebell get-up should take? Please leave your answers in the comments section at the end of this post.

I feel that being patient with kettlebell training pays off big time in the long term. In a time when people want to do more exercises faster and faster, sometimes slowing down is actually the best approach.

Performing one repetition of the get-up masterfully is far superior to performing ten sloppy reps. Really, this can be said for any exercise—quality over quantity. If you take your time and master the basics, the rest will fall into place.

All of my best kettlebell lifts and personal goals have come years after I first picked up a kettlebell. I’m in this for the long haul and sometimes I have to remind myself to slow down.

Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Stay Strong.

***

Ryan Jankowitz, RKC-II Instructor, CK-FMS, is a life-long athlete who can’t imagine sitting behind a desk. He enjoys sharing his passion for fitness and spreading the RKC knowledge. Ryan provides online kettlebell training and in-person training in the DC Metro area. You can reach him at ryan@rjkettlebell.com or through his website rjkettlebell.com.

Coaching the Kettlebell Coach

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Master RKC Chris Holder Coaching RKC Coaches

After attending and passing an HKC or RKC Workshop, we’ve done countless swings, feel confident about the material, and want to present the ideas we’ve learned to our clients. If you are like me, you’ve invested a ton of time and effort into other training systems. And you know that it’s difficult to integrate all the moving parts into a single sensible flow of program design.

During a certification weekend, I make a point to lecture on how to coach. “How to coach” is a drastically different subject than “what to coach”. The RKC manual and the instruction protocols we follow to teach the exercises are very thorough. If you’re a smart coach and refer back to the manual, most cases are very simple. But, how to coach it all—that’s an entirely different conversation.

Is this article about coaching style? Yes and no. Is it about coaching procedures? Sort of… I define coaching as the entire approach when teaching the material, the techniques, and the expected intensities for a given set. For great coaches, this is effortless. But, new coaches will need to make a conscious effort to develop the coaching muscle memory before it can become automatic. After twenty years in the college strength and conditioning world, I can confidently tell you that I’m there—but it took time. In this post, I will outline much of what I teach about coaching.

What Modality Are You Teaching?

Kettlebells, Olympic lifts, TRX, and CrossFit all have certain inherent personalities—and your temperament should fit the training setting. For example, when coaching the Olympic lifts, there is a massive psychological component with an athlete who is attempting a personal best. In that moment, you might go from being a coach to a psychotherapist. You might help them manage fear and hesitancy instead of yelling and trying to fire them up.

It’s extremely important to clearly understand the nature of what you are coaching. A yoga instructor yelling for their students to perform various poses will probably not be a yoga instructor for very long. It’s a ridiculous but clear example.

The RKC is a high tension program, which also means it’s high effort. So, an instructor using a very calming yin tone will likely not help their trainee get the most out of a nasty kettlebell swing ladder.

Embody the spirit of what you are coaching.

Who Are You Coaching?

One of my favorite things about the CrossFit community is that the members know today will not be easy. The programming always includes a big push at some point. If I were a box owner, I would assume that most of my clients have some edge, and that I can take them to some of the outer realms of fatigue, burn and through certain pain thresholds.

Conversely, I will never forget my first paying personal training client. At the time I had been coaching college kids for about seven years when I got an email from a woman who had some back pain and wanted to hire me for kettlebell training. We exchanged emails, agreed on a price and planned our first meeting the coming Saturday.

Remember, I had been coaching bulletproof 18-22-year-olds for years—and a severely deconditioned, 70 year old woman who was about 50 pounds overweight walked in! She was carrying two 2lb kettlebells with plastic handles attached to nylon straps which formed what can only be described as oversized hacky sacks. She insisted on using them. While I wanted to ask her where the hell she found that nonsense, I knew that my tough-guy approach was not going to work. I suddenly had to learn how to work with a brand new demographic. Thankfully, I knew that an elderly woman would not respond to me screaming at her to pick up the weight!

Know Your Stuff

Know the information cold, in your sleep, without thinking. Make sure you refer to your RKC or HKC manual many times after your certification weekend. I’ve had the profound luxury of training between 300-500 athletes every day, Monday through Friday. At minimum I’ll led 1,500 individuals in their training (in groups of course) each week. Regardless of the season, my athletes do 100 swings a day. So, that’s 150,000 swings that I could potentially dissect and critique each week. Most personal trainers won’t see that many swings in a year.

My coaching uptake is fast simply because I’m truly immersed in it daily. I see a slew of funky swings, tons of just-right swings, and more horrible swings than any one person should ever have to see. Every day I quickly analyze and pump out corrections at a blistering pace. I’m not a genius, I simply have critiqued—and continue to critique—countless reps.

Watch everything, be an observer at all times. Watch other people’s clients so you can bank reps. Record your own reps with your phone and critique yourself. Be a student every waking moment of the day and deconstruct what you are seeing—pass everything through your RKC filter. Mentally pick apart what you see to sharpen your blade.

I can coach anyone, and it’s not because I’m special. It’s because I’ve been able to constantly analyze and coach for years without pause. It’s nothing you can learn from a book or at a certification weekend. You have to do the time, put in the reps, and see as many repetition attempts as possible.

What To Watch

A good coach has a very specific eye for watching reps. Each exercise has lists of technical requirements. But, all of our movements begin with the feet on the floor—even the get-up. As you watch your clients or athletes train, your eyes should first go to their feet. Many technical errors in the top half of the body can be remedied by correcting the feet—not the chest, shoulder, or even the back. Our feet connect the movement to leverage, support posture, and give the athlete a foundation. The feet are the gateway to all things good. So, your eyes should start at the feet and return there throughout the set.

Breathing is also a frequent cause of technical flaws. When do they inhale? When do they exhale? Are they exhaling completely, or are they sipping and leaking? Know the answers, have a game plan for their breathing, and then coach it. Breathing is more listening than watching.

We have very clear standards for all of our movements. You know them because you were responsible for learning and demonstrating them at your RKC or HKC workshop. We don’t just enforce the standards to complicate the RKC weekend, we enforce them because they almost guarantee safety and without question ensure top performance. You need to coach those standards and elements. While we all eventually develop some degree of stylistic variations of our own, before you teach them to your clients, they should already have a firm handle on the basics. Look for the basics as you watch, and correct accordingly.

Lastly, I want you to pay particular attention to the head and neck. The RKC and HKC curriculum is filled with huge, dynamic movements. We need to understand the potential range of motion of the individual spinal joints. Joints are meant to move—until they are not. Whenever the body is loaded, the spine should stay motionless, unless the exercise is specifically designed for the spine to twist, rotate, flex or extend. The spine doesn’t stop at the shoulders, and most trainers forget that the neck is still part of the spine. I have multiple stories that will give you the chills involving athletes simply turned their heads while under load and breaking their backs. So, without getting into too much gore, the head and neck need to stay relatively motionless any time while the athlete is under load. Correct this immediately.

Chris Holder optimal Coaching Position

Positioning Is Everything

While it is important to watch reps, your orientation to the athlete while observing the reps is just as important.

Unless you are a seasoned pro, you should never watch a rep while standing directly in front of the athlete. Conversely, watching someone from behind is not only a very poor position for catching technical errors, it’s also incredibly creepy. Don’t be a creep.

The best location to watch reps and get the largest amount of information is in front and at a 45 degree angle. This is the most optimal spot for nearly all training methods, not just kettlebell training. It gives you the opportunity to see the most movement through several planes of motion. If you can’t stand at 45 degrees for some reason, then standing directly to the side is the next best option.

Intensity

The word HardStyle should say it all. But, after all my years of coaching one fact is very clear: most coaches and trainers don’t fully understand how much intensity they want from their athletes or clients. They don’t know how hard they should go!

With the grinds, we usually work in sets of 5, 3, and 1, and most of the intensity is handled within the programming. But, if you program your clients’ intensity along with sets and reps, they will make even greater progress in less time. For example, let’s consider pressing 3 sets of 5 reps for each arm. You could tell your client to use a 1:5 tempo (1 or burst up followed by a 5 or slow return). You can use any tempo (1:5, 1:2, 3:2, 5:1…) and any combination of ups and downs to really dial in the intensity.

During RKC Certifications, we teach an “effort dial” drill. While you do kettlebell swings for a set of 10, we yell percentages: 80%, 70%, 60%, 100%, etc. This drill quickly teaches how to dial effort up and down in the real world. But, if I am being totally honest, if you aren’t swinging 100% on all the reps, you are wasting time.

Most people don’t know what hard is, so show them. Most of your clients have never ventured into the pain cave. They might think they have, but most have no idea what it means to push. Show them, but be smart and safe. Let them have a real “that was the absolute maximum I could give and couldn’t muster one more” experience. They will thank you.

Be A Tremendous Communicator

Tremendous… read everything. Expand your vocabulary in general and within the realm of training. I’m notorious for saying that we need to have 14 different ways for saying the same thing. Be comfortable communicating because it is the life blood of your business. If you can’t communicate what you know, who cares what you know!

I studied Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) for two years so I could refine my ability to communicate. Do you need to do that? No, but you should… or you should study something like it. There are multiple ways to communicate with your clients—it’s not all just verbal. When you are trying to get an athlete to push, your words alone might not do it. The tone, volume, and pace of your speech as well as your body language all effect what your client hears and understands. Own all aspects of your communication so the people under your watchful eye clearly understand on what you want.

10 Questions

I drive my assistants and athletes crazy with “10 Questions,” but it’s incredibly effective. Regardless of what I’m teaching to a group—even if it’s review—I end every section with 10 Questions. My students know that we will sit for the rest of the afternoon until they ask me ten questions related to the information we just covered.

This fall, about 100 new athletes will come into my facility to begin their journey as a Cal Poly Mustang. One of the first things I will teach them is how to do kettlebell swings. For most of them, this is their first experience with kettlebells. Since I coach at such a frenetic pace, I have to know that they are absorbing the information. So, we teach for 30-45 minutes, and then regardless of the size of the group, we gather and they are required to ask me 10 questions. This forces us to communicate. Again, I have been talking a mile a minute at them in the session. I need to know if what I’ve tried to convey has reached them. They raise their hands, or I pick on the ones who are trying to hide. Either way, we break the ice and this helps the athletes become more willing to speak to me next time.

It also puts me on the spot. 10 Questions happens several times a day, especially during heavy instruction times. You wouldn’t believe some of the off the wall ideas going through the minds of these athletes. At times they ask questions I’ve never heard before, and it forces me to think. I have had countless “ah-ha” moments mid-sentence while working through an explanation. And if they truly stump me, I have no problem telling them that I don’t know, but will get them an answer as soon as possible.

For those of you who have taken an RKC or HKC where I was the lead instructor, you all know too well about 10 Questions. I do this at every certification I lead, several times a day. 10 questions is beneficial for a deeper understanding, and it quickly creates rapport between the class and myself, but also within the group of attendees. By the end of day one, they have all asked several questions and they naturally become more willing to speak up as the course progresses.

Lastly…

The moment you think you “have it” is the moment you have lost your way. Many of you would faint if you saw my resume, list of experiences, degrees, mentorships and certifications. I’m very lucky. I’ve learned from the absolute best in the world in a myriad of disciplines. My list of mentors is a who’s who of strength and fitness legends. And after all of this, I know that I’m just scratching the surface. The more I learn, the more I realize how much more I need to learn.

Be a student at all times. Listen to everyone—even the folks you think are full of crap. Every time you close your mouth and listen, you will learn something. Approach each day as an opportunity to forge your coaching craft. Read anything you can, attend workshops and certifications on modalities that you might not think are useful. Listen to podcasts and interviews about the movers and shakers in the industry. Refine your coaching to the point where there’s nothing left to correct, then pick it apart and correct it anyway.

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Master RKC Chris Holder is a collegiate strength and conditioning coach professionally for over 15 years having worked at Eastern Kentucky University, Appalachian State University and San Jose State University. He is in his second stint and eighth year at Cal Poly in beautiful San Luis Obispo, CA.

The 2000 graduate of Eastern Kentucky University majored in physical education and earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from Cal Poly in 2005. In February 2012, Holder completed his doctorate in Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy. Under the tutelage of world famous Qigong Grand Master Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson, Dr. Holder conducted groundbreaking research on the effects of Medical Qigong Therapy with athletes in competition. This research has spawned other works and additional studies on the effects of this ancient medical practice and its impact on athletes and athletic performance.

Holder received his American doctorate from the International Institute of Medical Qigong in Monterey, CA, and is also licensed in China to practice medicine from The Western District Qigong Science and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute in Beijing, China.

How to Effectively “Cue” a Client

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Angelo Gala coaching

We all know that communication skills can make or break any relationship. As a coach, you may possess all the knowledge in the world about progressions, regressions, proper loading parameters and rest intervals. But, if the delivery of the material is not understood, your good intentions may fall short. You may even lose an excellent client to a less experienced but more articulate coach. As a coach, learning how to effectively communicate your skillset with your clientele during a training session is paramount.

It’s very easy to get lost in the journey of finding THE magic word that connects with everyone for a particular movement. Let’s first acknowledge that we will never find the perfect way to communicate proper movement mechanics because everyone absorbs new material and ideas differently. A good cue is like a good pass in football. You can throw a “perfect” ball to someone only to watch it bounce right off their finger tips—and you can throw out a prayer that is ripped from the air and ran in for six points. At the end of the day, a good pass is a caught pass. The following are some guidelines that will keep you in the ball park and drive up your success rate.

3 Steps and 3 Articulations of a GREAT Movement “CUE”

If you are teaching a new movement to a single client or to a group (large or small), follow this sequence:

Demonstrate => Teach => Demonstrate

Demonstrate

Your first step is to name the movement or exercise, then immediately demonstrate the proper execution of the movement. Without doing this, you are assuming your clientele already speaks your language.

Teach – It’s as easy as 1,2,3….

Assume nothing, teach everything.

Avoid having your client(s) jump right into the full expression of the movement regardless of their experience levels. Break down the movement into smaller steps (progressions) that will later add up to the movement’s full expression. In the RKC School of Strength, we teach many progressions and regressions for the standard six movements of the Level 1 RKC curriculum.

As a gross generalization, women do a great job communicating what they are FEELING. But, men on the other hand tend to have a more difficulties. Because of this, I always teach coaches to EMBRACE their feminine energy (yes men, we have plenty of it) and to use their words. The more colorfully—but concisely—you can communicate what the client should be FEELING in a given position, the greater chance they have to follow your directions correctly. Imagine you are telling a fitness story. Give them all the gossip and get them excited about what’s about to happen.

Here is how to successfully deliver your material

  1. Tell them and show them where they are going.
  2. Give them clear and concise directions on how to get there.
  3. Let them know how THEY can tell that they have arrived.

Angelo Gala Coaching Cues

My approach to cueing is to deliver the material so the client(s) see it, touch it and feel it. This covers the spectrum of how different people learn. First they visually SEE where I want them to go by demonstrating the skill. We may use tools like PVC pipes, bands or even my hands to TOUCH them, engaging their bodies to find the proper position. Then I ask them to connect to the position by observing or FEELING the internal signs and landmarks of proper alignment.

Demonstrate

Finally, you can pull I all together by demonstrating the proper execution of the movement again. A successful cueing progression through the 3 steps to teaching will often connect some dots previously missed in their first visual interpretation of the movement.

Next time you have the opportunity to teach a new skill or fine tune old skills, give this teaching progression a whirl and notice how the interpretation, execution, and retention of your clients’ skills sky-rocket!

 

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Angelo Gala is a Master RKC, PCC Team Leader and Co-Owner of EDX CrossFit in Lafayette, CO. He has been a fitness professional for over 15 years working day to day with a wide range of clientele. He helps the average “Joe” get fit and out of pain and prepares athletes to qualify and compete at the CrossFit Games. His specialties include improving restricted movement, getting strong(er) and energy system development. Angelo is available for remote coaching and on-site workshops. For scheduling he can be reached at angelo@edxcrossfit.com

Shoulder “Packing”—The Right Way

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Matt Beecroft Shoulder Coaching

The kettlebell community has taught the concept of shoulder packing to stabilize the shoulder for a very long time. I have seen it cued, taught, and discussed for about 14 years! As a Master RKC, I see this concept taught worldwide. But for a long time I’ve wondered if everyone really understands the cues.

The premise of “shoulder packing” is to prevent the shoulders from rising towards the ear at the beginning and end of the press—and to keep the shoulder from excessive elevation during the lock out and overhead lifts. The use of the cue “pack the shoulder” or “engage the lats as you initiate the press” is a simplification for the average client. It cues them to avoid excessively using the upper traps and levators to initiate the press. Instead, they should keep the shoulder stable by engaging all four shoulder rotators, the lower traps, and the subclavius (which helps to seat the clavicle in the sternoclavicular joint).

Most clients are desk athletes that come into our gyms with protracted shoulders and a forward head position. Many of them are also upper trap dominant and have poor T-spine mobility. The easiest cue to help someone keep their shoulders from rising to their ears, and thereby risking shoulder impingement and injury has often been: “pack your shoulders by engaging your lats”. But, a better cue might be to engage your entire mid-back along with the shoulder muscles. And it’s also important to remember that over cueing or using unnecessary cues can lead to other shoulder movement problems and issues.

Let’s explore how the lat attaches to the body from a textbook anatomy perspective. Then from a functional anatomy perspective, we can see what it actually does.

Attachment: Function: Requirements for a great press:
Thoracolumbar fascia: 4-8 vertebrae or illium Humeral extension /adduction Humerus flexion/abduction
Ribs Internal rotation Ext rotation for healthy position
Scapula (40% of population ) Weak horizontal abduction Upward rotation and slight posterior tilt of scapula
Intertubercular groove of humerus Lumber extension Stable core
(can differ for people) Lateral flexion Rib cage in neutral alignment
Involved in core, neck and respiration

 

In the last column above, I’ve described what happens when we press overhead or hold a weight overhead. Activating the lat strongly does the exact opposite of what we want to do when we press or go overhead. When we use the cue “pack the shoulders with the lat”, we can cause scapula depression because of all of its attachment points—which will force the downward rotation of the scapula. This is in direct opposition to the upward rotation of scapula required in an overhead lift. If we “pack the shoulder with the lat” we close the space in the AC joint, and since the lat is also responsible for internal rotation, we are more likely to get some cuff impingement.

Upward rotation of the scapula is perfectly normal and healthy as long as the person has good T-spine mobility and sufficient external rotation of the humerus. In fact, many people need to focus on external rotation when pressing overhead so that they naturally and unconsciously fire the lats, rotator cuff, rhomboids and lower and middle traps in a perfectly synchronized and sequenced way.

Remember, head forward position, poor motor control with the external rotators, and poor T-spine mobility are often the causes of shoulder impingement. When someone performs a good overhead press, they should also have a stable core and neutral rib cage, with no rib flare.

An important component of healthy overhead lifting is unconsciously activating the pesky lower traps in your mid back. While they have no direct control of the humerus, they are an integral part of upward scapular rotation. They are also responsible for some posterior tilt and retraction of the scapula required for correct overhead mechanics.

The activation of the lower trap along with the muscles of the rotator cuff, serratus anterior, rhomboids and lats in the correct sequencing actually helps clear the space in the shoulder for the humerus to move. When we see someone’s shoulder come back to its optimal position, we usually see the upper back contract very subtly. Perhaps the correct strategy for optimal shoulder position is firing the lower traps-not the lats.

The shoulder “packing” cue needs to be used very carefully—much like the cues “pull the belly button in” for core activation (when the core unconsciously fires in a perfectly healthy person), pushing the knees out for correct knee and toe alignment (even when alignment is fine, hence sending someone into varus—the opposite of “valgus” collapse) or the “big chest” cue that can cause undesirable rib flare in some lifts. Trainers should not cue clients on autopilot without observing the actual situation.

Matt Beecroft Shoulder Coaching

Trainers using cues unnecessarily, misunderstanding the nuance and subtleties of the cues, or not understanding the logic behind cues can cause real problems. Better education and understanding of why specific cues are given needs to happen so we can all abide by the first rule of training others: do no harm. Perhaps the cue should be to “activate” the upper back to keep the shoulder in a natural position without overly sucking it down or packing it down. Or maybe some clients would better respond to the cue: “relax the shoulder away from the ear”. Regardless the words chosen, we should only use cues when necessary, not all the time.

Many haphazardly overused cues in the fitness industry also expose a poor understanding of functional anatomy and nuance. Without that understanding, we could be creating some long term negative effects with incorrect cuing. When the shoulder “packs” naturally, it’s a very subtle movement. The human body is amazing, and sometimes trying to outsmart it to make it better can have the opposite result.

 

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Matt Beecroft is a Master RKC, PCC Team Leader and CK-FMS instructor with over 17 years as a personal trainer. He is a national fitness presenter with Thump Boxing, an Expert Level 2 Krav Maga instructor with KMG, Muay Thai coach and movement specialist in systems such as CST, Ground Force Method and Animal Flow. He writes for various publications including Breaking Muscle and Blitz Magazine and can be contacted by his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MeetLifeHeadOn/ or his website https://www.realitysdc.com.au/

Is Certification Worth It?

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Master RKC Michael Krivka Kettlebell Swing

Education, training, and certification are expensive propositions. Training certifications can last several days and cost well into thousands of dollars—even before adding in the cost of time away from your business and family, transportation to and from the certification, hotels and other extraneous expenses. So, if you are going to invest your hard earned cash in a certification, it sure as heck needs to be worth it and then some! I’m not talking about making back your initial investment, but making back the costs several times over. With those parameters in mind, it makes sense to think twice about seeking additional certifications.

Which Certification Should I Attend?

How do you sift through all of the certifications out there to find ones that you can: a) afford to attend, b) allow you to make back your initial investment several times over, and c) provide you with information that will benefit your athletes today and tomorrow?

Consider these items before attending:

  • Location
  • Instructor
  • Certifying organization
  • Credential status
  • Content
  • Can you use the techniques, tips, correctives, regressions and progressions?
  • Does the certification fit the abilities and goals of your client demographic?
  • Can you immediately apply what you’ve learned at the certification to your current clients?
  • Does the certification provide actionable content or is it too specialized, obscure or advanced for your current (or projected) clients?

While all of these criteria are important to consider—and should play a role in the decision making process—what is the most important thing to consider? Far and above all of these considerations should be the contents of the course and how it applies to your clients.

A good certification will provide you with eighty to one hundred percent actionable material. That’s a pretty high percentage, but it also shows that the certification is dialed in and not just hours of “fluff” or useless content. It also shows the maturity of the content, the instructor and the organization behind it. An ideal certification workshop will have little or no wasted time, and the majority of the time will be spent on training and hands-on work to reinforce the principles and techniques taught.

A poor certification will provide you with very little actionable material; less than fifty percent actionable and a high percentage of theory, conjecture and anecdotes. These certifications are “personality-driven” and are usually nothing more than a handful of tips. The remaining time is often spent listening to stories and fluff to fill in the time.

Along with the RKC and PCC, two examples of excellent one-day certifications which provide near one hundred percent actionable material are the HKC (Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification) and the SCC (Strength Calisthenics Certification). Both of these certifications are tremendously powerful and provide attendees with a high percentage of actionable material that they can immediately apply to their current (and future) clients.

Focus on the HKC

The HKC focuses on a very precise number of core techniques; the kettlebell swing, the kettlebell goblet squat and the get-up. These three techniques are individually very powerful, but together are game-changers for athletes of all levels and clients of any caliber.

The kettlebell swing is the foundational ballistic of Hardstyle kettlebell training. It is the base that all ballistic techniques are built upon. Errors and bad habits with the swing will be transferred to all of the other ballistics, so it is imperative that the swing is base lined and solid. The swing has tremendous carryover to athletics and is an amazing conditioning tool. The swing trains and teaches the athlete how to add explosiveness to movement. It “fills in the blanks” of any client’s strength and conditioning program.

Michael Krivka goblet squatThe goblet squat is the foundational grind in Hardstyle kettlebell training. Squatting, while a basic human movement pattern, has become a difficult competency for most people of ANY age. Training with weight machines and avoiding the movement altogether has only exasperated the problem. The goblet squat will help restore lost functionality in those who currently don’t squat and will create a new baseline for those who are currently training with squats.

The get-up is neither a ballistic nor a grind, but rests solidly in the realm of functional movement patterns that set the foundation for excellent movement and mobility. The get-up is unique in that it establishes linkages across the entire body. It trains the athlete to establish positional and transitional strength from the ground to standing, and develops exceptional mobility and range of motion in the hips and shoulders.

In addition to the swing, goblet squat and get-up there are several other techniques that are introduced at the HKC. These techniques reinforce loading and unloading principles, mobility issues, and bracing. In particular, the deadlift, the RKC plank and the “naked” get-up are taught and examined so that the trainer has an even greater understanding of the three primary kettlebell techniques.

Focus on the SCC

Like the HKC, the SCC focuses on a very specific group of techniques: push-ups, pull-ups, squats, inversions, leg raises and bridges. Even though these techniques are well known—at least superficially—they are infrequently fully explored or understood. At the SCC, these seemingly simple techniques are taught, examined and developed in such a way that a trainer can apply them to any training situation with any client. Key elements of the SCC provide trainers and instructors with the knowledge, tools, and cues to help even the most de-conditioned clients begin their calisthenics journey. Likewise these same elements can be used to continually progress the same basic exercises to elite levels. Body awareness, muscular tension, and coordination are common threads throughout all the drills taught and coached at the SCC.

SCC Austin Group Photo 2017

Push-ups: While nearly everyone has performed a movement called or presented as a push-up, few have really been taught how to do the push-up in a way that will safely and effectively build usable strength. The SCC teaches participants how to coach this powerhouse movement from the ground up. Far from just being an “upper body” exercise, participants are shown how a properly performed push-up engages the whole body.

Pull-ups: The SCC brings this challenging-to-general-populations exercise down to earth. Get your clients of any level started towards this empowering strength and confidence-builder. Even if a client is very de-conditioned, they can still get on the pull-up bar to begin the powerful lead-up drills taught at the SCC.

Squats: As in the HKC, the essential human movement–the squat–is taught in great detail and is regressed and progressed for nearly anyone who walks through the door to train with you. Desk jobs and sedentary lifestyles have robbed many people of their human birthright to squat. The SCC can teach a trainer how to get their clients past bad habits and movement difficulties over time. Basic bodyweight squats have the potential to improve your clients’ quality of life, strength, and injury resistance.

Inversions: Let’s face it, many of our clients will be very uncomfortable getting “upside down”. The SCC teaches several important steps to ease our clients into these healthy, fun, and empowering positions. Crucial cues even experienced trainers may not know will be introduced for headstands and handstands along with gentle alternatives for clients who may not yet be ready.

Leg raises: the leg raise family both on the ground and from the bar are taught at the SCC in great detail. While all the movements taught at the SCC engage the midsection (aka the core or the abs), the leg raises really focus on the area. Desk-bound and sedentary clients often find great relief after conquering the first few steps of the leg raise series. Building a strong midsection—and giving your client the “ab focus” they want (which helps keep them coming back) has so much more benefits beyond an aesthetically pleasing six-pack.

Bridges: While the full bridge is taught, the real gold with the bridge series lies in the earlier steps. Instead of breezing past these powerful mobility and strength enhancers, the SCC teaches the details of these steps. How many of your clients have tight hip flexors and forgotten glutes? The bridge series can be a surprising secret weapon. The very first step is a game changer!

Programming principles and creative modifications are taught for all of the movements in the SCC. Likewise the manual includes sample workouts which will no doubt give you many ideas for creating group and individual programs. When you go back to the gym on Monday to lead your clients or groups, you can bring a new plan of attack.

Adrienne Harvey Senior PCC, RKC-II Push-Up

Summary

At the beginning of this post it was stated that you should be evaluating a certification by looking for one that provides a high percentage of the material being actionable and applicable to your clients. If you look carefully at the content of the HKC and SCC you will see that fully one hundred percent of the material will benefit your clients. This includes clients who previously have experience training with weights or were competitive athletes in the past. It also includes clients who have never had any training, or enough time has passed, that the training is in the distant past and all the skills need to be dusted off and reintroduced. All of techniques can be scaled or modified to meet the needs of your clients, by either making them easier or more difficult, and all contribute to their overall athleticism, mobility and movement. In addition, most of the techniques can be modified or scaled to help work around common injuries/complaints i.e., back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, etc.

Before you decide to spend your time and money on any certification be sure to take some time to evaluate what actionable and applicable skills you are walking away with. Are you going to get skills and understanding that you can use daily with your clients? Bottom line: look for certifications that will allow you to help all of your clients (in a number of areas) as well as give you skills that will help enhance your reputation and increase your income.

Join Master RKC Michael Krivka and Senior PCC, RKC-II Adrienne Harvey at the upcoming SCC/HKC workshop in Gaithersburg, MD February 2018, or look for an SCC/HKC combination workshop weekend in your area.

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Michael A. Krivka, Sr. – Master RKC: Michael A. Krivka, Sr. is a Washington, DC native who has been involved in Kettlebell training for over a decade and is currently a Master RKC and member of the RKC Board of Advisors and the RKC Leadership Team under Dragon Door (where he has been listed as one of the top reviewed RKC’s in the world for the last five years). He is also the author of a bestselling eBook entitled “Code Name: Indestructible” and is in the process of finishing up several other eBooks on Kettlebells, body weight, and the integration of other tools into an effective strength and conditioning program. Mike has traveled extensively throughout the United States teaching Russian Kettlebells to military (USMC, USN, USA and USAF) and law enforcement personnel (FBI, DEA, USSS and CIA)… read more here.

Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, has been RKC Certified since 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified since 2011. Kettlebell and bodyweight training have been crucial in Adrienne’s personal quest for fitness.  A core member of the PCC team, Adrienne loves sharing her knowledge with small groups and individuals. She also loves to develop recipes and workout programs to further support performance, body composition, and of course—FUN. Go to http://www.giryagirl.com for more information about Adrienne.

How to Use RKC Level-II Skills with Everyday Clients

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Ryan Jankowitz Cossack Squat with Kettlebell

I’m writing this blog while on a train back to DC from New York where I had the privilege of assisting Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner at the RKC-II at Catalyst Sport. The weekend before, I had just recertified as an RKC-II in Atlanta with Andrea Du Cane. This has been a whirlwind “East Coast RKC-II tour” and I’ve loved every minute. Needless to say, I have absorbed a lot of great information from many great people, which has given me plenty of food for thought.

One of the many things I really enjoyed during my recent RKC-II experiences was the programming aspect of the course. During my RKC-II recertification, I was tasked with designing a program for a fellow attendee who is within a demographic I usually don’t train—powerlifters. This challenging assignment forced me out of my wheelhouse to look at programming from a different angle. Then I was also able to hear many different program explanations from great minds in the fitness industry. I came away with many ideas and an interesting question for myself: “Ryan, how will you incorporate this awesome RKC-II information into a typical client’s workout program?”

My typical client is a working professional whose goals might include:

  • Getting out of pain
  • Preparing for a 5k
  • Losing weight and improving muscle definition

The client may be dealing with one or several of the following challenges:

  • Lack of mobility/tightness
  • Stress
  • Lack of time

I wanted to know how to incorporate challenging moves like tactical pull-ups, pistols, windmills, or jerks into a program for my clients. The answer lies in the progressions toward these technical and demanding movements.

For example, the tactical pull-up is a movement many of my clients can’t do yet, or aren’t interested in learning—and that’s okay. But, the different hollow positions on the ground are great for EVERY SINGLE CLIENT. My clients want core work and I want them to create a solid cylinder of muscle. Boom, done! When the time is right to approach the bar for hollow hangs, leg raises or pull-ups, they will already understand how to stay tight.

Ryan Jankowitz Hollow Hold
Hollow hold
Ryan Jankowitz Back pressure crunch with leg raise
Back pressure crunch with leg raised.

The pistol is an awesome movement for developing serious leg strength and it’s a great party trick. But, is it a goal that my clients want to achieve? Unfortunately not, and no one has ever told me they wanted to learn the pistol. However, the progressions leading up to the pistol are fantastic for many clients. The Cossack squat and close stance squat both provide new challenges to the squat pattern and add variety to our training sessions. I really love the airborne lunge in every form—assisted, counter balanced with a kettlebell, and bodyweight. It’s a challenging movement that requires focus and balance. The movement also requires hip dissociation—one hip goes into flexion while the other is extended. Since everyone experiences hip dissociation when they walk or run, training the airborne lunge can help improve our clients’ gait patterns.

Ryan Jankowitz Airborne Lunge

The windmill is a fantastic movement for improving hip and thoracic spine mobility while stabilizing the shoulder. I love the progressions because they can be easily added to any warm-up. These thoracic spine mobility drills can be done on the floor without any equipment and added to a naked get-up practice. The good morning stretch—with feet forward and pointed at 45 degrees—is a valuable drill since it really stretches the hamstrings and calves while preparing the lower body for any hinge movements in the session.

Ryan Jankowitz Good Morning

Lastly, the jerk has quickly become one of my favorite exercises due to its high metabolic demand on the body and required athleticism. The jerk can be a challenging movement to learn, but again the progressions are useful for everyday clients. I have successfully taught the long push press and push press to the many clients who have owned the front squat and overhead press. While these progressions are definitely for clients with an advanced skill level, that skill level is absolutely attainable for those who have built a solid foundation of strength and mobility.

As a fitness professional I feel that it’s important to evolve, expand my knowledge, and add more tools to my “toolbox”. The RKC-II curriculum has done just that for me and I highly recommend pursuing this great certification.

Stay Strong,
Ryan Jankowitz

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Ryan Jankowitz, RKC-II Instructor, CK-FMS, is a life-long athlete who can’t imagine sitting behind a desk. He enjoys sharing his passion for fitness and spreading the RKC knowledge. Ryan operates a remote fitness coaching service, RJ Kettlebell, and is available for private kettlebell workshops as well. You can reach him at rjankowitz@gmail.com. He also works with clients and teaches kettlebell classes at Fitness on the Run in Alexandria, Virginia. If you’re in the area, come swing some bells with Ryan.

Does the Snatch Test Really Matter?

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Every RKC instructor has gone through the rigorous snatch test. This is five minutes of full effort—snatching a kettlebell for 100 repetitions. Ask anyone who has done it and they will tell you the joys of the test. Many RKC candidates are nervous and frightened when it comes to the snatch test. They end up putting so much effort and stress about test that they miss the big picture of what the weekend is really about—learning.

William Sturgeon Kettlebell SnatchesThe RKC is known as the School of Strength because we educate candidates on how to teach strength to others. As we all know the title of RKC instructor is not given, it’s earned. One of the requirements is the snatch test and it’s part of the right of passage to earn your title as an RKC instructor. But, I want to bring this to everyone’s attention: your ability to safely instruct kettlebell training is not related to how fast you finish your snatch test.

The biggest test that many people underestimate and under-prepare for is the coaching aspect of the certification. I can say that I fell into this when I first got certified. I put so much effort in preparing for the snatch test that I didn’t want to focus on anything else. I passed my RKC that weekend, but I wish I would have put more effort and focus on the coaching part of the weekend. As candidates, you are surrounded by other fitness professionals with years of experience—many people also undervalue this aspect of the weekend. Taking in all the cues and corrections the instructors have to offer is so important for growth as teacher of strength.

One year after my certification, I was able to attend another RKC as a volunteer. The candidate coached me though the swing and the plank. And while he used good cues and good progressions, he ultimately did not pass the snatch test. But, he wasn’t bothered by that, his focus was on passing the other two tests—the coaching test and the technique test. This was a good candidate who had his priorities straight. A year later I was able to assist at an RKC Workshop, and this was my opportunity to share with the candidates the importance of coaching. I assured them that the focus for the weekend was to learn how to teach and perform proper kettlebell technique, not to finish the five minute snatch test in four minutes. Knowing how to properly progress and regress a client means you are competent in coaching while keeping your clients safe.

William Sturgeon Get-Ups

Safety is our number one goal when we working with clients. Making sure that you put a bigger focus on the learning aspect of the weekend will lead you to a successful career in coaching. The RKC is more than just a certification, it’s a system that has principles that apply to all areas of fitness. If you place priority on passing your snatch test and not your ability to coach, you are doing yourself a disservice. Focus on reading your manual and taking notes, I have had the opportunity to assist at an RKC and an HKC, both times I advised the candidates to grab their manuals and write notes. The master instructors have been teaching for years, they will often give cues or corrections that are no in the manual that will be beneficial to remember, so make sure to take notes.

Passing your certification comes with three big tests, your ability to perform the exercises with proper technique, your ability to coach, and your snatch test. This should be the order of importance when you are preparing for your RKC. You will become a teacher of strength, and will show your clients what you learned with proper coaching. Take time to understand that the snatch test is not the most important part of becoming an RKC instructor.

Here are some of my favorite coaching cues to correct the swing:

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William Sturgeon, RKC II trains clients at his gym, Restored Strength. Contact him through his website at RestoredStrength.com or follow him on Facebook: facebook.com/restoredstrength

Discover the Greatness that Lies Within You

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Lori Crock Movestrong Kettlebells

This is the time of year when people adopt new healthy habits.

Gym owners and fitness professionals see an increase in inquiries, and we make an effort to differentiate ourselves from others.

In reflecting on this, and thinking about those of us who teach the RKC System of Strength, I believe it boils down to this: we are on a mission to help you…

Discover the greatness that lies within you.

Your greatness is already there. No matter where you are on your fitness journey.

It’s our job, as coaches, trainers, teachers—whatever you want to call us—to help you manifest this greatness in your training because this greatness carries into everyday life in many ways. Here are some examples:

  • Learning to bend and move using your hips to protect the lumbar spine.
  • Keeping tension out of your neck as you move and lift.
  • Engaging the strong back and abdominal muscles to ease the load on your shoulders.
  • Lifting, carrying and putting down heavy objects safely and efficiently.
  • Moving with ease in positions like the squat and lunge, before loading up with weight.
  • Understanding good posture and how to maintain it in your daily activities.

Lori Crock coaches a kettlebell student at MoveStrong Kettlebells

We coaches are challenged to create meaningful opportunities for you to learn, excel and reach past what you thought was physically possible. Here are some examples:

  • Guiding you from the hip hinge to the kettlebell deadlift, to the swing, to the snatch.
  • Challenging you to set up and finish every movement with the same mindfulness and attention to technique.
  • Helping you learn to listen to your body and understand the difference in feeling fresh, safely challenged, or fatigued. Then we teach you how to applying this to your daily training.
  • Regressing and progressing your training so that you look at your fitness journey in terms of months and years, rather than days and weeks.
  • Teaching you about mobility and recovery. And making it as high a priority as strength and conditioning.

Every time you train it’s a time to discover something new about you.

We who are coaches, trainers, teachers see it every day. We see smart training transform peoples’ lives. They soon have more enthusiasm, confidence, freedom, and joy in their bodies—in addition to the physical results. We see this as greatness and we want this for you.

Greatness has many faces. It’s showing up. It’s learning to move in new ways. It’s lifting heavy, heavier, heaviest. It’s a finding new grace and ease in your body. It’s listening, feeling, understanding. It’s getting up and down off the floor. It’s going faster and farther. It’s moving slower and more methodically. It’s trying something you feared.

Acknowledge improvement and celebrate this as greatness every time you train.

For the seemingly ordinary experience of moving and lifting, learning and practicing, training and recovering, whether alone or with others, touches not only the physical, but also the mental and emotional side deep inside us. This keeps us coming back for more.

For many of us, the most profound moments of discovery occur when we find a weakness, address it, then seek to rise up and defeat it.

Discovery takes courage. Discovery takes mental focus. Discovery takes patience.

We know that some physical skills take years to achieve, let alone perfect. Some physical skills might not be achievable because our bodies are different than they once were. How we respond to this can speed up or slow down the discovery process.

RKC snatch test John at Movestrong Kettlebells

We have imperfections and limitations that have stories behind them. Genetics, athletics, relationships, work, play, and life all impact how we move and feel. However, this shouldn’t stop us.

Stories mean we lived a little or maybe a lot. Some of us have been in harm’s way. Our movement and life stories might not be what we’d like them to be because things are not always within our control … but we can still make progress.

Our everyday lives, and our physical lives, intertwine and support one another.

The coach, trainer, teacher is challenged to work with you in a way that honors your past, guides you in present, and prepares you for the future so that you discover the greatness that lies within you.

 

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Lori Crock is an RKC Team Leader, PCC, and FMS-II strength and movement coach who owns MoveStrong Kettlebells in Dublin, Ohio. Lori teaches small group strength classes where she is inspired by her students who see their training as vital to their productive and happy lives. You can reach Lori at lori@movestrongkbs.com, her website, and follow her on Facebook.

Be More Human

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Kettlebell One Arm Swing

I’m in a great position nowadays. I get to counsel many younger coaches and hopefully teach them the lessons I wish I’d known when I was first starting in fitness. Even so, I keep hearing the same question:

“Which book or program do I use… so I don’t make mistakes?”

I always have to explain that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Mistakes are only a problem if they’re repeated. That philosophy really resonates with me because I grew up in a family of teachers. My mother, father, grandmother, and my aunt were all teachers and professors.

This is why I don’t ever consider mistakes to be a bad thing. In fact, the mistakes I’ve made have helped me become the coach I am today! Through that evolution and experience, my thoughts on “strength training” have changed quite drastically.

I went through several stages of what I THOUGHT strength training was all about:

  • Lifting as heavy as possible
  • Getting as tired as possible
  • Doing the “magical” lifts

If you can name it, then I have probably tried it at one point or another. But, nothing ever felt quite right until now. Now, what I see as strength is actually inspired by the old ideas from physical culture. Originally, exercise was never solely a physical venture, but included the whole person.

Then I realized that the real purpose of strength training was to help people become better humans.

At every RKC and DVRT program, I ask the class, “Do you believe in functional training?” Almost everyone does, but they look puzzled when I ask them to define functional training. Usually I get answers like, “Functional training makes people better in their lives.”

Who could argue with such an answer, even if it is really vague. But, approaching a training methodology in this philosophical way gives us no clear vision. We often forget what makes us human. Yes, people will tell us that we squat, hinge, push, and pull, but a list of such general movements is almost as vague as the term “functional training”!

I ask our classes to think about THE most common movement they all perform. I get answers like squats and deadlifts—but how much of that do you really do during the course of a day? The answer I am REALLY looking for is “walking”! Did you just hit yourself in the forehead? Walking contains elements of many different movement patterns that most people would consider to be part of a training program. I bring up walking because most of our REAL human activities are not singular motions found in the gym, but a combination of simultaneous movement patterns.

I know, we think of walking as simple, while a swing or snatch is complex. Everyone can walk, but not everyone can do a Turkish get-up. Well, lets put it this way—not everyone walks well! To put things in perspective, my wife, a physical therapist, spent a whole semester learning gait analysis (watching and examining how people walk). And most experts agree that there are between six and eight phases to the act of walking. Not so simple, right?

Lifting more for the sake of lifting more doesn’t really do us any good unless it increases our movement efficiency. Renowned physical therapist, Gray Cook, had a really good statement about this type of training:

“In other words, we want adaptable strength that can work in changing environments. Adaptable strength is developed though complex movement patterns, not over-rehearsed, over-coached lifts in a never-changing environment. The athlete, warrior, outdoor enthusiast or physical adventurer embraces change and challenge, while the gym rat needs comfort and consistency for a happy workout.”

How does this idea apply to your strength training? We tend to live in a value system where the heavier weight is the better option, while we forget the benefits of moving to more complex movements.

https://youtu.be/Tqed0CCRhPY

A few weekends ago, I taught a sold out New York RKC. We were discussing the one-arm kettlebell swing, and I asked the class what real life movement it most resembled. People looked at each other, and a few shouted out answers before I simply said, “Walking”. You would have thought I had had a mic drop moment when I gave the answer in that context.

Why walking? Because it includes reciprocal arm swing. This basically means that your arm swings with the opposite leg. This movement pattern happens for many reasons, but we all do it. Walking also requires us to push down into the ground and project our bodies forward. Guess what else walking needs? (Hint: the answer is also one of the biggest reasons that we swing only to chest height and not over our heads.)

I’m not saying that the one-arm swing is EXACTLY like walking, but it involves the same foundational skills required in this very common human motion we perform every day. With this in mind, you might appreciate that the BEST exercise might not be the one that is only heavier, but the one which places a more complex demand on the body and requires us to become better moving humans!

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Sign up for the Las Vegas RKC with Master RKC Josh Henkin

Josh Henkin, Master 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.

Master RKC Josh Henkin can be reached at info@ultimatesandbagtraining.com or http://DVRTFitness.com. Josh Henkin is also the author of DVRT, The Ultimate Sandbag Training System now available in paperback and ebook format.

5 Reasons Every RKC Should Train for the RKC-II

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Matt Beecroft Kettlebell Pistol

In 2008, in Hungary, I completed my first RKC. As one of the longest-certified RKCs in Australia, one of the most important things that has kept me motivated as an instructor is furthering my education. Constantly learning, evolving and setting new goals every year has kept me passionate about the fitness industry. Most importantly, I have sought out the best knowledge to help my clients be healthier and to become better athletes.

The RKC has always been touted as the “black belt” of kettlebell certifications—and it is! Earning it comes with a great sense of pride, achievement, and status within the kettlebell community. As a martial artist who holds qualifications higher than black belt in two different systems (which took me many years to achieve), I can say that earning your black belt is not an end point. There is much more beyond earning your black belt. In many systems, the black belt is just the beginning—it’s a rite of passage for practice at a deeper level.

For me, earning certifications isn’t about the ranking or increase in my perceived status, nor is it about the piece of paper. It’s is all about what is learned along that journey—that is the real gold. While the certification experience itself is amazing, the golden nuggets are found along your journey to the RKC. And the same is also true for the RKC-II.

I think many people shy away from the RKC Level-II because it may seem like too lofty a goal. The techniques are challenging, and for people without a big background in strength training, the strength prerequisites can be daunting. In the past, people have gotten injured while they were training for it, and some even arrived injured at a Level 2 workshop, knowing they wouldn’t pass the certification. Coincidentally that is exactly what happened to me the first time around. Even though I knew I was injured and wouldn’t pass, I still decided to attend. I traveled to the other side of the world to gain the knowledge and experience to bring back home to my clients. And it was well worth it. Afterwards, I came back home, healed my injury and embarked on a new training program with a coach. I reinvented myself and came back to smash the test and achieve my goal. I had the sweet satisfaction of overcoming my challenges and achieving my long term goal—and not quitting.

However, what I learned along the way was far more valuable. In my own training, the biggest growth periods seem to happen because of an injury. Making mistakes and overcoming obstacles often means big time growth.

As an RKC, the RKC Level-II might be the single best thing you aren’t training for at the moment. Training for and earning your RKC Level-II certification demonstrates a number of things:

  1. It shows that you can be a client.

If you are a personal trainer, but have never trained with a personal trainer or a coach then you will probably struggle to understand the experience of being a client. It’s hard to lead someone through something you haven’t experienced for yourself.

It’s best to train for an RKC workshop or the Level-II by finding an RKC-II instructor to train you and write a program for you. This also means you will need to be a client. Dan John has eloquently said, “ A coach who coaches himself has an idiot for a client”. While I was able to train myself for the RKC—at the time, there were only a few RKCs spread out across Australia, so training with an RKC meant a few hours on a plane for a training session—training myself for the RKC Level-II wasn’t as successful. I needed someone to carefully assess my level, weaknesses, strengths, and technique. I needed honest feedback and a program specifically designed for me and my level of training at the time. This kind of instruction can only happen face to face, not with cookie-cutter, generic training programs. I needed a program written by a skilled coach.

  1. It shows that you are coachable and can follow a program.

The only program that works is the one you will actually follow—and the devil is in the details. Preparing for and passing the RKC Level-II demonstrates that you can follow multiple programs for a long period of time. At the time of my first RKC Level-II certification, the guys had to press ½ their bodyweight. Without enough absolute strength in the “strength bank” for a few years prior, candidates would need to follow a strict program to increase their overall strength over a period of six months to two years. In my opinion, many people attempt the Level-II too soon after their RKC Level-I. They sometimes overestimate how strong and mobile they are, only to discover that they may need another six months to a year—or even longer to really be prepared. Following a program also shows that even as a coach, you are still coachable.

  1. It shows you can take care of your body and auto-regulate your training.

In the lead up to my RKC Level-II, I became too focused on quantity to get the volume up for my big lifts. Once I started sacrificing quality for quantity, and pushed through workouts when I was fatigued, it only led to one thing—injury. Statistically, I am sure about 30% of potential candidates don’t make it to the Level-II because of shoulder or other injuries. Another 30% (or probably more) arrive to the certification with an injury. Preparing for and passing the Level-II demonstrates that you can sweep emotions aside, listen to your body, and auto-regulate your training so that you do not get injured. In other words, it demonstrates that you can train intelligently.

  1. It shows you have learned about programming and progressions.

How do you improve program-writing skills? You improve by following a great program a coach has written specifically for you. Some of the biggest things I learned while training for my Level-II were about writing programs. I learned the most by talking to my coach and trying to understand the “whys” of my program. My understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of particular exercises and programming principles skyrocketed. Learning from a textbook will only get you so far. Nothing can replace the experience—and more importantly the feeling—of following specific programming, particular exercises, and how they all fit together. Writing programs is a science and an art. Many trainers make the mistake of writing programs for clients without first testing them on themselves or someone else. It helps to know firsthand how these programs and exercises will affect your clients. It is challenging to know when a client is ready to progress, and when to hold off. Learning progressions and regressions of kettlebell exercises is a big part of programming, and you learn all of this on the road to the RKC Level-II.

  1. It shows you have the required mobility, stability and strength.

Learning and successfully executing the windmill, pistol, jerk, and bent press means you have earned the prerequisite mobility, stability and strength! These lifts demand that that you have the required blend of t-spine, hip, and ankle mobility/stability and strength. These specific lifts are a demonstration of your athleticism. Some trainers may say that these lifts are “circus tricks” and there is no need for clients to learn them, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Comments like these often come from trainers who don’t have the athleticism to do these techniques well, if they can even do them at all. While the bent press is an old-time strongman lift, it is also the perfect demonstration of hip mobility, thoracic mobility, and shoulder stability. Old-time strongman lifts and “circus tricks” like the bent press demonstrate strength, flexibility and athleticism—why wouldn’t I want my clients to possess these attributes? Sure, it is easier to be mediocre and not an athlete, but for those who want to deepen their practice and their movement quality, I can’t think of many other lifts with the perfect blend of athleticism that these lifts demonstrate.

RKC-Level2-LogoSo, are you up for the next challenge in your kettlebell practice? While full of challenges, the road to the RKC Level-II is rich with the priceless experience and knowledge for your development as a girevoy and fitness professional. As a RKC, it could be the single best thing you aren’t training for right now.

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Matthew Beecroft is an RKC Team Leader, PCC, and CK-FMS certified instructor. He is also a GFM and Animal Flow instructor and an Expert Level 2 instructor with Krav Maga Global. As a Muay Thai coach, he has trained amateur and professional Muay Thai champions. He can be contacted through his website: www.realitysdc.com.au