RKC School of Strength

Official blog of the RKC

exercise

How to Keep Training When Life Gets in the Way

By 4 Comments

 

Phil Ross Master RKC One Hand Handstand

Other than the excuse of “I don’t have the money to train”, the other top excuse for not exercising is “I don’t have time”. The money issue is usually more a question of priorities. At my gym, it costs about five dollars a day to join my classes. That’s not much when it seems like many people spend $3 to $5 on their morning coffee, $10-15 on lunch and waste even more on other frivolous expenditures. If it still isn’t in the budget, people can always work out at home with books like Convict Conditioning, Survival Strong, or Master the Kettlebell for a small one-time investment. But, budgeting to join a class could be as easy as packing your lunch and making your own coffee. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I’ve been almost penniless—twice—and never stopped training. Excuses are like armpits, everyone has them and they all stink! But, my focus for this post isn’t savings, it’s time allocation.

“No time, no time, no time…” That’s no excuse. Make time! It doesn’t take much. Pick an activity and do it for one hour, three times a week. Do something else for 20 to 30 minutes a day on your “off days”. If you still can’t manage one hour, three times a week, start by doing this little workout to get your juices flowing—all you need is 30 minutes, a floor and a $10 jump rope:

The goal is 1000 jump rope skips (200 per round for 5 sets), 100 push-ups (25 per round for 4 sets) and 120 abdominals (30 per round for 4 sets). Here’s the order: jump rope, push-ups, abs, jump rope, push-ups, abs, jump rope, push-ups, abs, jump rope, push-ups, abs, jump rope. End the workout with planks, bridges and stretching.

With kettlebells, you can do a 12 or 20 minute Tabata interval sequence. Pick 3 to 5 exercises, and set your interval timer for 20 seconds of work/10 seconds of rest and hit it! Your heart rate will rise and you’ll be sweating in no time! For example, you could pick three exercises like double kettlebell swings, double kettlebell front squats and double kettlebell presses. If you pick five exercises you might add double kettlebell rows and cleans. There are endless combinations. Pick a few that work well together. A bodyweight exercise only version could be burpees, push-ups and abs. End the workout with bridges and stretch out. There are endless possibilities.

Here’s a real life example of how I kept training in a very busy time…

It was crunch time. I had less than three weeks before the photo shoot for my upcoming book with Marty Gallagher, Ferocious Fitness. I needed to be in peak condition, so missing my training was out of the question. My training had been going according to schedule, but then life happened—as it often does—when you own a business, are a parent, a spouse, have older parents, and have dogs, too.

Right before noon, I got a call from my six year old daughter’s school. She was sick and needed to come home. Since my wife was at her job 40 miles away from home, I also needed to take my daughter to the doctor. I told my blue belts what to cover in our noon Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class, and I was out the door.

The first available doctor’s appointment was 2PM, and it was already 12:22 by the time I picked up my little one. After I situated her on the couch at home, I had 1 hour and 38 minutes to workout, eat, shower and get her to the doctor. Game on!

I went into the garage and hit it. I started with the 5 Geometric Bando forms (Point, Square, Cross, T and the Line), three times each. Then I did a nonstop circuit with Neuro-Grip push-ups and kettlebells. I did four sets of the Neuro-Grip push-ups and three sets of the other exercises:

  • 25 Neuro-Grip push-ups
  • 10 hand to hand kettlebell swings
  • Table top push-downs, 10 seconds, 6 reps
  • Single kettlebell front squats, 5 reps each side
  • WOD-QB roller: 5 seconds out and back, 5 reps to the center and each side
  • Single kettlebell high pulls, 8 each side
  • 4 way neck, 10 seconds dynamic tension in each direction
  • Single kettlebell rows, 8 each side

I ended the workout with 5 sets of uneven kettlebell shrugs (20 reps per set). 
Since I didn’t have time for a “real” lunch, I made a shake with a banana, a splash of OJ, water, a tablespoon of peanut butter, and egg white protein powder—then chugged it. I took the next 7 minutes to shower, get dressed and get in the car. (I’m glad I’m bald at times like this!) At 1:45PM we were off to the doctor’s office, and made it on time. It even worked out that we were able to pick up her prescription, and drop her off at home with the sitter by 3:15PM. I had plenty of time to teach my 4PM kettlebell class, and since my wife got home from work early, I was able to teach my classes through 9PM.

I could have easily bypassed the workout and no one would have thought less of me—except for me! My point is that these scenarios happen fairly often. A sick child, a parent who needs help, a dog eating the carpet, network problems at the studio… Life happens, but if you roll with the punches, you can still fit in your workout. You can do it!

Strength and Honor,

Coach Phil

****

Master RKC Phil Ross is the creator of many strength and conditioning programs, including The Kettlebell Workout Library DVD set. Visit www.philross.com to learn about his programs, classes, and workshops. Subscribe to his YouTube channel for more workout and exercise info.

The Mindset of Mastery—From Exercising to Practicing

By 12 Comments

Florian Kiendl Mastery Mindset

Watching any true master perform is always a fascinating experience. To the “average Joe” it looks like magic—he is immediately convinced that the master is a prodigy, and that he himself could never reach such a level. He might wonder why he should even bother trying if his own results will be mediocre at best.

But, when someone who has trod the path to mastery—even in a completely different field—watches the same performance, they understand what it takes to reach a high level of skill, and will value it even more.

What is Mastery?

To most people, mastery means performing at a very high level in a given field. They do not understand that high performance and expertise are actually just mere side effects of true mastery.

In my understanding, the path to mastery begins when someone takes action to deeply and profoundly explore their area of interest. Depending on where they are in their journey, their actual skill level might be high, medium, or even low. But, the difference lies in the approach we take to acquire and improve our skills. The “master to be” focuses on the process of honing and refining his or her skills instead of just quickly producing results. Many great masters of the past in strongman feats, martial arts, or any field of the arts acquired their fame fairly late in life—this is because it took time to achieve their extremely high skill level. But, many of these great masters are still known for their skills today.

Giotto di Bondone, an Italian artist considered to be the pioneer of the Italian Renaissance, was once asked by the emissary of the pope to prove his expertise. So, Giotto drew a perfect freehand circle, knowing that true mastery shows best in details rather than in the final work.

Kettlebell Training Mastery

One great master of our time, Taekwondo Grandmaster Kwon Jae Hwa, put it differently when he stated:

“A black belt is only a white belt who never quit.”

A Word on Competition

These days, when everyone can address the whole world with a few clicks, we are becoming more and more competitive. We humans like to show off our skills, which is a good thing as long as it inspires others to follow along. But when this mutual encouragement turns into a competition, it tends to get ugly. When we compete, the goal often changes from self improvement to fast results for conquering our opponents.

In Germany we have the saying, “Sport ist Mord” which means “sports are murder”. For too many people, this idea is an excuse to be in—and stay in—bad shape. Of course any competitive success comes at a price. In sports, your body pays in the end. High level athletes in almost any discipline have only a few years to earn their fame (and money) before their bodies fail them. Unfortunately this often happens while they are still fairly young.

While I do not oppose competitions, it’s important to keep in mind that the most important reason for exercise and training is to make our bodies as healthy and resilient as possible. If you are a competitive person and like to measure yourself with others, use this trait to keep yourself motivated. But, do not trade a few short moments on the winner’s podium for a lifetime with a healthy body. In my opinion, that trade is never worth it.

To Achieve Mastery, Focus on the Process

To master kettlebell training, you need to increase your knowledge and skills. Try to absorb as much information on the subject as possible, then let your mind make the connections during practice. Every bit of information has its time—you might hear it a hundred times before something suddenly clicks in your mind for the next big leap into mastery. Don’t try to force it, but focus on the process of continual self improvement.

Mastering the Kettlebell

As a martial artist, I got hooked on kettlebells because of the depth of the training. Each and every move—as simple as they might look to the uneducated eye—has loads of subtle details. You can literally practice just the swing for years without ever reaching a point of absolute perfection with the movement. Don’t get me wrong, you do not need to practice the swing or any other RKC move endlessly to get it right. It usually just takes a few weeks to learn all six of the basic exercises in our system. But, once you have learned the basics and decide to really focus on the technique, you will find loads and loads of subtleties to work on for years to come.

Last but not least, kettlebell training has a built-in system to gauge your progress. Whenever you feel like you have mastered a move, start over with a heavier kettlebell.

The reward of this approach to kettlebell training is twofold:

  • You will never get bored, because there will always be something to work towards.
  • You are less likely to get frustrated when your progress slows down (which will happen eventually).

Kettlebell Training Mastery

The RKC System—a Masterpiece of Physical Education

You can greatly advance your kettlebell and trainer skills relatively quickly with the RKC system. Dozens of highly skilled trainers from various fields have combined their skills and nearly 15 years of research to create an almost foolproof system. The RKC can turn any motivated candidate into a highly skilled coach and kettlebell athlete within a few short months. Attending one of the three-day RKC Workshops is the pinnacle of this transformation, but only if the candidate has trained hard in the months before—or after the workshop if they were unprepared.

Taking the RKC certification will turn you into a coach who can watch someone move, then systematically help that person improve their athletic abilities. Say goodbye to trial and error, because the RKC provides the tools to make educated decisions about how to proceed with training, based on your observations.

 

***

RKC Team Leader Florian Kiendl is a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and runs a Martial Arts Gym in a small town close to Munich (Germany). He made it his mission to help his students to improve their movement and overall health. In his search for ways to overcome the movement restrictions of his students (and his own) he found the RKC and now works together with Master RKC Robert Rimoczi and others to help as many people as possible to gain back their Strength and Agility. He writes a regular Blog at blog.kettlebellgermany.de and offers workshops all over Germany teaching the RKC kettlebell exercises: KettlebellGermany.de. If you have questions or comments on the article feel free to email him at florian@kettlebellgermany.de.  Special photos by Florian F. of Flowtography

Why are you working out?

By 1 Comment

Seesaw Press 2 - Red Shirt
Could exercise be fun and help you undo the dysfunction of your daily non-activities?

Most people treat exercise like it is a bad tasting prescription from the doctor.  They HAVE TO do it because someone told them to do it.  And what exactly are they supposed to do?  Well, of course they need to get into shape, because if they get into shape they will reduce their risk of heart disease, cancer and premature death.  At all costs we must avoid death.  Bad news happy campers and kiddie troupers.  It ain’t gonna happen.  For most of us … death is unavoidable.

Here is an alternative plan.  Exercise, work out, train, or play with the purpose of feeling better and being able to live life more fully.  Make yourself strong and mobile and develop some endurance.  As a result of your continued exercise program you should be able to engage in whatever physical activities give you joy.

If you are an American, you probably spend a lot of time at a computer, much of your day sitting at a desk texting, typing, or on the phone, and hour upon hour riding in a car.  As a result of these many cumulative hours spent sitting on your all-too-wide and weak butt, you may be ill equipped to engage in many intense exercises for 1 hour, three times per week.  This amount of exercise will probably not significantly change your weight.  (That is mostly about diet and hormones.) These exercise programs may in fact cause you more harm than good.  Furthermore, the thing you most need is to UNDO the damage done by the hours of maladaptation that is caused by sitting.

jay_thoracic_spineWhat kind of bad stuff is happening to your body and to your natural athleticism as a result of all this seated work?

  1. While you are seated your glutes are generally turned off (as are your abs).  So when you stand your hip flexors will seem overly tight and your pelvis will tip forward.  This puts stress (and excessive curvature) on your lower back.
  2. While working on the computer, your chest is collapsed (adversely affecting your breathing) and your shoulders are rounded forward.  This causes your upper back (or thoracic spine) to become stuck and excessively curved in the opposite direction of your lower back.
  3. Your eyes are fixed on a computer screen in an intermediate distance.  Your inner ear (responsible for balance and coordinated movement) is not being challenged because your body is not changing position.

So, consider this…  Choose some fun and engaging exercises that will help offset or counteract the ill effects of the daily desk job demise.

The kettlebell could be the training tool you have been looking for that will help you begin your rehabilitation.  Unlike most exercises on machines in a gym, kettlebell training requires you to stop sitting and stand up.  This might be the very first step to improved posture and a better you!

The kettlebell swing, the most fundamental move of the RKC system, includes a strong contraction of the glutes at the top of the swing.  This “hip-snap” helps open up the hip flexors and helps teach the athlete to once again contract the glutes during loaded movement.  The kettlebell swing and the lunge position of the Turkish getup both work to open up or release your tight hip flexors.

Putting a kettlebell overhead will help mobilize your upper back (or thoracic spine).  The kettlebell press, the kettlebell snatch, and the Turkish getup all involve movement with a weight overhead.  You must develop a strong, braced posture and a lengthened, erect spinal position to master these techniques.  Once your thoracic spine is mobile and you can neutrally align your pelvis, you are well on your way to improved posture and reaching your next level of athletic performance.

Your vision and vestibular system (the inner ear) will be stimulated whenever you move the torso.  This occurs when you turn around, bend over, lie down, stand up, etc.  The kettlebell swing and the kettlebell snatch both involve a hip hinge and a tipping forward of the torso.  This action will provide a significant amount of sensory input to the brain from the vision and vestibular systems.  An even greater challenge is provided to your balance and sense of 3D orientation while performing the Turkish getup.

The best exercise program for most people is one that UNDOES the damage caused by lack of daily mobility and the hours of our seated work.  Exercise programs must make you feel better, move better, and be able to handle the daily demands of life.  If you workout program isn’t fun, you probably will not be able to sustain the practice for a very long time.

Kettlebell training is fun and challenging and is an engaging skill practice.  Regular practice of the basic kettlebell drills will help you undo some of the damages of the standard American working environment.

***

Jay Armstrong is a Senior RKC, 6 Degree Black Belt TKD, and Master Z-Health Trainer.  The past 30 years have been dedicated to helping others develop confidence through increased strength and pain-free, exceptional mobility.  His quest for knowledge continues.  He runs The Kettlebell Club in Houston, Texas and can be reached here.

Are You Really Missing Out?

By 5 Comments

Josh_HenkinEvery New Years my wife feels like we should do something big! To be honest, I am not all that into going out when so many people are liquored up. I ask her, “why do you want to go out so badly?” She often replies, “cause I don’t want to miss out on anything great!”

The same fear that my wife has about missing something great during New Years is the very same emotion that I think many people in fitness experience. How so? People end up doing everything, every training method, they want to have ever training tool, they have to go to every program under the sun. Why? When I ask people why they do such things, it is often, “I don’t want to be left out”.

I find that staggering, but not shocking. I went through that process in my early career as well. Pretty much any new piece of fitness equipment I got it. Any new program, I had to try it! Then something happened. I changed.

I went from having a extremely packed facility full of equipment to rather bare bones. It wasn’t in an effort to be hip or cool, I just started to realize what I REALLY needed and what really helped the people that I trained. Pretty soon I wasn’t worried that I didn’t perform all the “cool” exercises, I had figured out what worked for what person. I learned the dirty little secret that no single exercise is vital, you have to find the right exercise. Since then, I can’t tell you how much better my own training and that of my clients has been.

That is why I find it interesting when people make strong statements like, “you can’t train only with kettlebells!” Hmmm, you don’t HAVE to train with just kettlebells, but can you?

I hear lots of reasons, “kettlebells don’t go heavy enough”, which leads to “you can’t get really strong”, and of course, “you can’t perform THIS so very important essential exercise.”

Instead of thinking of how training with kettlebells exclusively would make you feel limited. I actually believe it would make your training much smarter! Let me explain by dispelling some of these very common myths.

Kettlebells Don’t Go Heavy Enough

Years ago I heard a well respected strength coach make the argument that kettlebells aren’t that powerful because they only go up to 70 pounds (at the time they did) so they aren’t that great for strength. Ironically, a rather strong person is someone who can manhandle a pair of 70’s (32kgs). How do we have both?

The problem is that most people try to compare the weight of a kettlebell to that of a dumbbell or more problematically a barbell. Sorry, trying to compare the weight of a kettlebell to a barbell is almost apples to oranges. Whether is has to do with the independent movement of the kettlebells, to the different weight distribution, or the fact the holding position of the kettlebell is very different from a barbell. In the end we know one thing and that is weight is not all equal.

I might believe that kettlebells aren’t heavy enough if I routinely saw people throw around double 106 (48kg) bells with ease. However, I find that to be a very rare find.

You Can’t Get Really Strong

To be perfectly honest, this is the one that gets me more wound up. Unfortunately, most people totally screw up the governing principle of strength, the overload principle. The idea of the overload principle leads people to becoming consumed with the idea of load. However, that isn’t what the overload principle actually means. The concept is that we have to provide a stress to the body to cause changes greater than the body experienced before.

The reason that most programs fail is they fall into that trap of just load and forget about the many other variables that actually can play a very important role in improving strength. By not having the small jumps in weight available in kettlebells we can focus on these other concepts.

Other Overload Variables:

-Speed

-Load Position

-Body Position

-Range of Motion

-Volume (amount of work)

-Density (amount of work in a given amount of time)

-Direction of Force

-Type of Muscle Contraction

Each one of these concepts could be an article within themselves. My point though is to show how many other variables most programs fail to actually consider. If we look at each and think about how they play a vital role in strength training and program development, we can see that kettlebells can work incredibly well in all these variables and how the weights of kettlebells could be greatly altered in conjunction with manipulating these different ideas.

We often hear the legend of old time strongmen performing incredible feats of strength. Ironically, most didn’t sit there focusing on adding 2 1/2 pounds to a lift. They intuitively used these other methods to manipulate load. The deadlift didn’t really become a staple lift till 1910-1920 when South African Strongman, Hermann Goerner, made it a focused lift. Bob Hoffman of York Barbell Company really popularized the more familiar barbell that we know in the early 1930’s. My point is that these things we consider soooo important to get strong are really rather new ideas. We have seen people become incredibly strong without the luxury of small weight increases or a wide array of weights for centuries.

The Fitness Cynic

I don’t blame people for being more than a bit skeptical about the idea of getting stronger by JUST using kettlebells. However, since Dragon Door helped bring back kettlebells to the modern fitness world, there have been hundreds of real world stories of people getting darn strong!

Some may feel a bit cynical because there was marketing of kettlebells that helped the movement and therefore, their popularity. Few realize that the barbell become popular because Bob Hoffman and York Barbell were advertising and promoting the benefits of barbell training. Why? They wanted to sell barbells, but also because this is what they truly believed, the barbell was a great and powerful tool that could change people’s lives.

A third reason that I think many people have issues with the idea of kettlebell training only goes back to an interesting piece I saw on CNN about social media. The story told of how less and less young people are using Facebook as their primary social media outlet. Why? Much has to do with the fact it went mainstream. When the grandparents started becoming active on social media, it started to become deemed “less cool” by the younger generation.

Now that you can find infomercials on kettlebells, fitness ads using kettlebells, and just about any fitness media that wants to appear cool. I think some people have fallen victim to the idea that kettlebells aren’t cool because anyone can use them. Funny enough, I think that is what makes them a beautiful tool.

***

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.

The Usual Suspects

By 0 Comments

When I sat with my colleague, good friend and level 4 Z-health trainer / RKC Steve Pucciarelli to create a viable kid’s program to compliment the UTC (www.TheUltimateTransformationChallenge.com), we agreed that kids should be able to identify simple ways to improve performance.  We narrowed a long list to ‘5 usual suspects.’  Having successfully completed that task, we agreed that the information should be presented to EVERYONE, not just kids.

This article demonstrates how proper use of kettlebells can address the FIRST ‘usual suspect;’  however, I will be presenting this material in a ½ day seminar along with RKC / Z- health expert Steve Pucciarelli and RKC Team Leader Matt Maher.  In fact, on July 14th we will address ALL 5 ‘usual suspects.’

Suspect #1:  The “Chest / Reverse breather”

Tphillips_Usual_Suspects

How to address the “chest breather” with kettlebells:

Practice diaphragm breathing

1)    Perform a set of 10 dead swings.  Count each rep out loud at the top of the swing with conviction.  This will assure you have some air in your lungs at the bottom and letting it release up top.  Many people mistakenly breathe in at the top of the swing instead of “spitting the air out.”  Therefore, think about “spitting the air out” at the top of EACH swing along with the rep number you are currently performing.

2)    In between the next set of 10 dead swings, lay on your belly with your elbows under your chest and think about breathing into the floor with your belly.  Allow your belly to naturally push into the floor as you visualize sending your breath deep past your belly button and toward your groin.  Do this for a minute, then perform another set of 10 dead swings.

3)    In between the next set of 10 dead swings lay on your back and allow the back of your head to touch the floor while keeping the neck NEUTRAL.  (Note: If your chin is up then you may need a thin pad to put behind your head).  Once in place, think about keeping the back of your neck long.  Block one nostril with your finger and put the other hand on top of your belly.  Finally, breathe deeply into the belly (as described in #2) while maintaining that long neck and neutral cervical spine.  Do this for one minute, and then perform another set of 10 dead swings.

4)    Once you become comfortable with the 2 breathing techniques described above, try continuing both of those strategies while closing your eyes and consciously attempting to slow your breathing / heart rate.  This should result in relaxation of residual tension in your muscles. Do this for one minute, and then perform another set of 10 dead swings.

Practice Hard style breathing

5)    Rack a pair of kettlebells and get ready for front squats.  Breathe into the diaphragm while standing with the bells racked.  Think about making the belly big, then hold your breath and drop into your front squat.  Initiate the ascent with a loud and abrupt “up” from the belly.  You will only be letting about 10% of your air out when you initiate this sound.

If the sound is initiated incorrectly (from the throat) you will not feel as strong and “connected” on your ascent; however, if the sound is initiated correctly (from the diaphragm) you will hear a better quality of sound and feel a better quality of connection as you ascend.

Understand the difference between the “qualities of sound” in this way:

From the throat think “Bob Dylan”  (INCORRECT)

From the diaphragm think “Pavarotti”  (CORRECT)

Check out high-level powerlifters or strong men as they squat or deadlift heavy weights.  Notice the big breath in, the intensity on their faces and their ability to grind through a heavy rep without panicking.  This is an example of mastery of this technique.  Take a look at powerlifting legend Ed Coan:

Now, try a heavy set of kettlebell front squats.  Perform 5 sets of 5 reps focusing on these principles.  At the top of each rep, take another breath and perform the next repetition.

Practice breathing behind the shield.

6)    Hold 2 heavy, heavy kettlebells in each hand in front of you while standing with your feet spread slightly wider than usual.  Try to create as much tension as possible in your body by doing the following:

a)    Lock your knees and tighten your quads
b)    Squeeze your glutes as hard as possible
c)    Grip the bells with your hands as tight as possible
d)    Tighten your triceps
e)    Tighten your lats
f)    Keep holding… tighter… tighter… tighter!!!

7)    You will notice that if you breathe too deeply and hold your breath as described earlier in the front squat, you will not be able to sustain this amount of intra-abdominal pressure very long.  Therefore, a different approach is required.

8)    Try this:  Get into a front plank position (like a push-up but on your elbows), then close your eyes and imagine someone is about to kick you rapidly in the stomach 10 times in a row.  This should force you to do each of the following:

1)    Tuck your pelvis
2)    Brace your abdominals
3)    Breathe more shallow

This should also STOP you from doing each of the following:

1)    Sagging your belly
2)    Relaxing your mid-section
3)    Putting your lower-back into extension

From this position, try to create as much tension as possible by focusing on squeezing your glutes as hard as you can.  This will help maintain a tucked pelvis and braced abdominals while also giving the opportunity to breathe shallow into the belly.

Here is an example of me utilizing these principles in a plank:

Here is an example of me utilizing these principles in a push-up:

This ability to comfortably breathe shallow “behind” braced abdominals is what we mean by “breathing behind the shield.”

Use this technique for exercises that require isometric holds.  Gymnasts must use this technique on the rings, the parallel bars, etc; however, notice how RELAXED their faces are as they utilize this breathing strategy.  This is an example of mastery of this technique.  However, you can also use this technique during sub-maximal lifting where the goal is to lift a relatively heavy weight for as many reps as you can over a period of time.  Here is an example of me lifting 265 lbs for 30 reps in less than 90 seconds at 165 lbs bodyweight.  After my AAU meet, I elected to try the “feats of strength competition” in Las Vegas last summer.  This was the result using the principles of “breathing behind the shield”:

Practice anatomic breathing:

Suppose the goal is to do as many reps as possible over a longer period of time (perhaps 30 seconds or as long as 5 minutes or more).

Take a light to moderate kettlbell and put it in the rack.  Use your legs to help you push press the weight as fast as possible while maintaining good form.  For me, a 16 kg bell for 30 reps in 30 seconds does the trick.  Take a look:

For this technique I’m using my body as a “spring” and “catching” the bell with my WHOLE BODY.  As the bell descends and hits my body I breathe out to “absorb” the force of the bell, then, immediately redirect the bell upward as I breathe in again.  You can see this type of speed would be impossible if I were to use Hard-Style, / High Tension / Intra-Abdominal breathing described earlier in the front squat.  Instead, I breathe out while moving WITH the force by absorbing this force into the WHOLE BODY, then I “take it somewhere else…” in the example of the push press I absorb and redirect the bell straight back up into the air.

As you can see, breath mastery is critical to performance.  Practice the appropriate techniques depending on the task at hand; however, there is NEVER a reason to be a “chest breather.”

To register for the ½ day seminar on July 14th, contact Master RKC Thomas Phillips at fitforlifemarlboro@yahoo.com sign-ups are limited because this seminar is part of a larger seminar series.

***

tphillips

About Thomas Phillips, Master RKC: Being a good student, teacher and athlete has always been a priority. This is why I choose to remain the student and the teacher in all aspects of life. Other than being a teacher of math and philosophy for the past 13 years, I am also a writer, gym owner, as well as a proud father and husband. I continue to challenge myself physically by competing in… Read more here.

www.fflmarlboro.com
www.TheUltimateTransformationChallenge.com
www.TotalAchievementProgram.com

The Best Kettlebell Exercise You Aren’t Using

By 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

***

Josh_Henkin

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

By 8 Comments

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

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

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

Windshield Wiper

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

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

L – Sit

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

Hanging Leg Raise

—

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