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RKC School of Strength

Official blog of the RKC

HKC Workshop

5 Reasons Manual Therapists Should Get Their HKC

November 1, 2021 By William Sturgeon Leave a Comment

William Sturgeon performs a half kneeling kettlebell halo

In August of 2020 I started school for massage therapy. My goal was to widen my scope of practice as a coach, so that I could better serve my clients. I will be graduating next month and will be entering the world of manual therapy. This has been something I have been wanting to do for many years. I truly believe that manual therapy and corrective exercise can benefit a lot of people and help them improve their quality of life.

In the world of manual therapy, we often see people who are dealing with neck, shoulder, and low back pain. We treat these symptoms with therapeutic protocols and then move our client into a wellness or as-needed-based plan. Our goal as therapists is to help find the solution to their problem and get them back to active daily living activities.

But, what if we were able to better help our clients gain results by helping them strengthen the areas they are struggling with? This is where kettlebell training can be best tool for the therapist to use to answer this question. Kettlebells have been around for a long time and have been proven to be an effective tool.

William Sturgeon Manual Therapist

As I enter this new industry, there is one thing that I strongly believe in, and that is, massage therapists can enhance their practice by getting their HKC. This post will outline the reasons.

Extra Income

Most massage therapists work an average 20-30 hours per week doing bodywork. In time this does become taxing on the body and will not always be sustainable for long-term. This is where getting your HKC can help you with making more income. You can do this by offering one on one training or by doing this in a group setting. You can make more money in a group setting and also save your energy. But, if you would rather work in a one on one setting, you are able to do so as well. Adding kettlebell training to your list of services takes time away from the table with the clients you already have by helping them in a new way.

William Sturgeon Massage Therapy

Create a Niche

Adding the HKC certification to your practice will help you widen your scope of practice as a therapist and also allow you to specialize in a specific area. If you live in an area where someone is not teaching kettlebell training this is an opportunity for you to bring in a new service and be the leading go to person. I found this to be a very profitable way to become a coach. I’m the only person certified to teach kettlebells in my local area, the next person is 90 minutes away. Since this is the case for me, I am known for being the kettlebell expert in my area. Creating a niche is a powerful tool to have to help separate yourself from your competition.

Help Your Clients Train Safely

Did I mention safety? The RKC is the School of Strength, meaning we place a HIGH priority in educating our students how to train safely with kettlebells. There are many regressions and progressions in the curriculum to help teach your clients the proper technique. When it comes to teaching your clients movement, you always want to place them in the best position to be successful, and the HKC does that well. The best example of how we teach safety is by looking at how much time we spend preparing and teaching students the proper way to perform a hip hinge. The hip hinge is the key to keeping your back safe when using kettlebells. Teaching the hip hinge properly can help clients with low back pain by showing them how to move better.

William Sturgeon Kettlebell Goblet Squat

Kettlebell Are Great For Corrective Exercise

Kettlebells are known for their ability to help correct movement dysfunction. The reason that the kettlebell does such a good job at this is because of the way it’s shaped. The offset weight and handle challenge the body more because of the amount of stability required to use a kettlebell. As we know as therapists, stability is the foundation for injury free movement.  A majority of our clients work office jobs that have them in seated positions for long periods at a time. This can lead to neck, shoulder, and hip dysfunction and tightness. Using some of the exercises taught in the HKC can help your clients with these problems. Take for example someone who is dealing with rotator cuff issues, the kettlebell arm-bar is a great exercise for this.

William Sturgeon performs a kettlebell arm-bar

Learn New Skills

There are many levels to uncover after the HKC, next step is your RKC Level One & then Level Two. Each certification will show you a whole new set of skills to teach yourself and your clients. This will allow for you to expand and widen your skill set as a kettlebell instructor. When we teach people how to use kettlebells we always inform them that strength is a skill. Teaching your clients how to be strong through the skills of the swing, get-up, and squat will be a great base level to a variety of new movements.

Investing in yourself as a kettlebell coach will open new doors for you as a manual therapist. Not only will you be able to help your clients get out of pain with manual work, but you can also help them get stronger and move better. If you are ready to expand your skills and knowledge as a manual therapist, then register for the next HKC!

***

William Sturgeon, RKC Team Leader, 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

Filed Under: Coaching, Fitness Business, Kettlebell Training Tagged With: hkc, HKC Workshop, kettlebell training for manual therapists, kettlebell training for professionals, manual therapy, massage therapists, William Sturgeon

The Power of One Year

May 20, 2015 By Karen Gasparick, HKC 14 Comments

Karen Gasparick HKC

Today I’ve learned that my past is not my future. One year ago, I was a scared physical and emotional wreck. But, a little over one year ago today, I took my first step to change that—I had my first lesson at Superb Health with Nick Lynch, RKC Team Leader.

Historically, I’ve had a difficult relationship with food and exercise. I have always been “the fat kid.” I’m a tall woman at 5’-10”. The kicker is that I was 5’-10” in the 6th or 7th grade. Being a full foot taller than the whole class makes you stand out. Looking back at old photos, I see now that I was actually not obese. However, height and weight charts in the nurse’s office at school didn’t say that. TV didn’t say that. Magazines didn’t say that. All of those things told me I was “the fat kid.”

Karen: approximately 14 years old
Karen: approximately 14 years old

I don’t ever remember wearing “cool” clothes designed for children my age. I was always too tall, too husky. Puberty is already a terrible time for everyone when it comes to coordination and growing. So, being bigger than everyone else and having to wear women’s clothing in middle school rather than clothes from the juniors’ department, being clumsy, and being teased for all of that snowballed into really not caring about what I ate. I thought, “Well, I’m already weird, so who cares.” So I ate—and eventually became obese.

My athletic experiences were also terrible. Gym class uniforms didn’t come in my size, and it hurt to always be picked last for the team. I had straight A’s in every class except for Physical Education and watched my GPA plummet from 4.0 to 3.0 because no one explained how to run effectively or how to do a real “not girl” push-up. The teachers just assumed I wasn’t trying, and my grade in PE reflected it. Eventually, I just stopped trying. I became even unhealthier, physically and mentally.

This eventually led to good grades, a quick-witted sense of humor, and diving head first into the visual arts to cope. I coped with the pain of being a woman with body image issues and a very unhealthy lifestyle.

But coping is not living.

Karen & Beardy: 2000
Karen & Beardy: 2000

My career became my identity. I eventually went back to school and earned my Masters Degree from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Unfortunately, I was still only coping, not living. I was hiding behind what other people told me that I was good at. I love art, learning and writing—these are all true passions. But, it was impossible to fully reap the rewards of the focus and drive I had for my education and career when my physical body was decaying.

So many people, women especially, in similar situations of poor health turn to the well-publicized “solutions” being sold by a huge corporation. I believe that many people with poor health and negative body image issues truly want to get better. But I only seemed to find plenty of quick-fix, faddish “band aids”, and no real solutions. It was all so appealing but temporary, fast, and often dangerous. Of course I purchased these products—and of course they didn’t work! The goal of marketing and advertising is to appeal to the customer’s psychological reactions. Even “solutions” promoted by some physicians are ways to sell pharmaceuticals and bring dollars in to insurance companies and hospitals.

So, what changed for me 365 days ago? Why do I look forward with considerably less fear and the kind of determination that gave me my career?

The first domino fell when our trusted family physician said that both my husband and I were very sick. Her candid explanation of what would happen to us played right into my tendency to worry. I was now afraid of my own poor health, but more terrified to lose my husband. As a team, we had to make health changes. We knew we had to change everything. Our mantra became “not optional.”

My husband, Jim was quick to action with diet, exercise and discipline. I followed, but out of fear. I was coping. I was not living. However, I was slowly coming around by seeing him experience the positive results of a total life change.

Unlike a fad, trend, or pharmaceutical “solution,” we started slow. We did not expect instant results and unlike attempts at changing my body in the past, my personal goals were not related to a number on a scale or a size of clothing.

Karen & Beardy: September 2013
Karen & Beardy: September 2013

We started eating healthier. Slow and steady, first focusing on portion sizes. Next came education on nutrients as fuel rather than eating for boredom or comfort. We started to eliminate alcohol from our social lives and dug out our bicycles from their 10-year hiatus in the basement. Instead of eating out, then hitting a bar for entertainment, we joined up with other friends and rode bikes from coffee shop to park to trail nearly every weekend. Then we started commuting to work on bikes when the weather permitted. We really got into maintaining and fixing our bikes. We bought cool accessories and gear.

Then winter came to Milwaukee and biking stopped. Jim discovered kettlebells and instantly fell in love. I was skeptical and thought it looked dangerous and that it required a lot of coordination. To me, exercising with kettlebells looked like something that belonged in the military, and something that was “for dudes.” But, I was still determined to follow. I focused on our mantra: “not optional.”

Karen at Peninsula Point Lighthouse: First 26 Mile Bike Ride – June 2013
Karen at Peninsula Point Lighthouse: First 26 Mile Bike Ride – June 2013

I focused on the positives I saw—kettlebell training and the accompanying exercises such as ballistic body movements, battle ropes, etc. really looked “cool” in a Rocky Balboa, Sarah Connor kind of way. I have a passion for sports stories (fiction and non-fiction) and this looked like Rocky, Muhammad Ali, Iron Mike Tyson stuff. This was Clubber Lang. This was “Eye of the Tiger.”

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor is shown doing pull ups at the Pescadero State Hospital on the frame of her bed. She was preparing without Universal Machines or sports shakes. “The future’s not set. There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.” That’s in the movie too, and I knew it was true. “Not optional.”

So I signed up for kettlebell class.

In the beginning I needed 3 chairs to do a squat—one for each hand and one for me to sit on. Years of sedentary life and a desk job had destroyed my posture. It took at least 6 weeks to begin to remember each “step” of the Turkish get-up on my own, let alone hold a weight above my head. I swung a 10 pound kettlebell for at least two months.

Karen Before Kettlebells: (Left – “ Normal” Posture & Right “Correcting” posture with a broom handle) February 2014
Karen Before Kettlebells: (Left “Normal” Posture, Right “Correcting” posture with a broom handle) February 2014

What changed for me? Why did I continue to come back to Superb Health? Why was quitting never an option? Even though I was struggling, why did coming back every week to Superb Health make me so happy?

In the past, I would have quit even before I started, but now I had a forward focus unlike anything in my life. In hindsight, getting accepted on scholarship to art school, or completing my master’s degree was easier, because I had the talent and love going in. This was different, everything was hard. Yet, everyone at Superb Health was supportive. It was safe. I would not be made fun of. I was encouraged to try. It was ok to go at my own pace. I was instructed with patience. Now, someone took the time to teach me how to do a push-up …and then I did one!

Karen 1 month in at Superb Health 2014
Karen 1 month in at Superb Health 2014

I learned that it’s a forward focus, a safe community, plus support at home that gave me results. I learned to relish each victory. Maybe doing one push up is not significant to anyone else, but to me it was like winning a gold medal. Every victory led me to desire more victories. I wanted to knock down all the dominoes. I learned that coping is not living when I actually felt what living feels like.

Beardy and Karen: Lifestyle 2.0 – September 2014
Karen: Posture 2.0 – September 2014

Less than nine months since my first class at Superb Health, I participated in the HKC in Milwaukee, WI and am now a certified Dragon Door HKC instructor. Each small victory was like a domino that pushed the next domino down. It starts slow, but the chain reaction gains momentum with determination and focus.

“HKC Day” – February 7, 2015
“HKC Day” – February 7, 2015
4/14/15 – “Milwaukee Day” Photo Shoot for The Beardy Apothecary, LLC
4/14/15 – “Milwaukee Day” Photo Shoot for The Beardy Apothecary, LLC

One trip around the sun can truly change a person. Reflecting on the past is still uncomfortable. But, today, it’s glorious. Learning from the past instead of worrying and coping is living. Living is freedom and I want to share this. I know there must be so many people, especially women, who share similar stories. I want to help free others from merely coping. Superb Health, Dragon Door, and the RKC / HKC methods are promoted as beneficial to so many types of people. But what I want to add an 8th item to Dragon Door’s “Our Difference” checklist:

  1. Are you scared? Do you feel like you don’t fit in with the typical “gym scene”? Do you feel like there’s just something “missing” in your life but you can’t put your finger on it? Do you feel like powerful corporations have mistreated you with profits over people as the mission? Do you feel overly self-critical from years of a beat-up psyche? Do you feel like you are so out of shape that you can’t make a change? Do you feel too old to change your health? Do you feel like you are out of options? Are you tired of industry standards of beauty? Are you just coping and not living? It’s time to start living.

I want to thank my husband. Changing your life is hard and his example was all I had in the beginning. I want to thank Nick Lynch at Superb Health for offering our community a safe place for achieving health and fitness goals. I want to thank everyone who is a part of the Superb Health family. They are true friends. Finally, I want to thank Andrea Du Cane from Dragon Door. Andrea taught me how to start turning fear into power, and with that power I’m learning that I can do anything.

I’m so excited to continue to learn and improve. I can’t wait to see what the next trip around the sun brings.

This is living.

“HKC Day” at Superb Health – Milwaukee, WI – February 7, 2015
“HKC Day” at Superb Health – Milwaukee, WI – February 7, 2015

 

 ***

Karen Gasparick is a certified HKC instructor, owns The Beardy Apothecary with her husband Beardy, and is a full time Designer at Interior Systems, Inc. In Milwaukee, WI.

Filed Under: Kettlebell Training, Motivation Tagged With: healthy lifestyle, hkc, HKC Workshop, Karen Gasparick, kettlebell training, lifestyle change, Motivation, posture improvement, Superb Health Milwaukee

Flawless Victory

November 26, 2014 By Steve "Coach Fury" Holiner 3 Comments

HKC NYC with Steve Holiner Group Photo

Winning at video games like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat is all about performing well executed combinations. Linking up the right sequence of punches and kicks can get you that perfect score or a flawless victory.

The same can be said for combining strength training systems. In November, I taught the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training Level 1 Certification and Dragon Door’s HKC Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification over the course of one weekend. I have spoken before about how DVRT (Dynamic Variable Resistance Training) and HKC/RKC strengthen and support each other. Well, this powerhouse certification combination delivered the perfect blend of education and hands-on application that lead to a flawless victory—everyone passed on the day of the HKC. That’s right, we had a 100% pass rate for the HKC.

VideoGameCombo

Isn’t that what we all want? We are all trying to find the very best strategies to fully unlock our own potential.

How did the 100% pass rate at this HKC happen?

Honestly, the DVRT (Dynamic Variable Resistance Training) Level I certification set everyone up for success at the HKC. Often mistaken as just a “sandbag” certification, DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training is a well-rounded system of coaching, progression, and regression of movement. Though the USB (Ultimate Sandbag) is our main line of offense, the DVRT system can be integrated with any implement. Obtaining quality movement is at the core of DVRT. We dig deep into hinging, squatting, pressing and lunging patterns throughout the day. We also teach important factors of stability, optimal breathing and how to create tension in great detail.

You might THINK you know these movements, but the DVRT attacks from a whole new position that both excites and challenges the students.

DVRT Workshop with Steve Holiner group photo

And what most people don’t realize is that the DVRT cert is very physically challenging! The clean and push press test is no joke. Hopefully, people come to the DVRT having trained harder than they might have for an HKC. It’s hard to fail when you are strong and have excellent technique. By day two, all of the candidates were ready to kick HKC butt—and kick it they did!

At the HKC, we cover the kettlebell swing, goblet squat and Turkish get-up in great detail. Candidates are also tested on how well they coach these movements. We dig deeply into many drills which help people learn and troubleshoot the lifts. Much of this information reinforces what we taught at the DVRT. At the HKC the next day, the participants were able to soak in the knowledge then apply it—instead of just hitting a wall or feeling like their central nervous systems were fried.

Just like any video game, to really win you must pick the right characters for your team. I picked a group of awesome characters perfect for the job. Fellow Master DVRTs James Newman and Gavin Van Vlack and DVRT-II Hannah Fons are exceptional coaches I’ve worked with several times in the past. They NEVER disappoint, and have brought so much value and experience to the DVRT cert.

Teaching the get-up at the HKC

For the HKC team, RKCs Jason Kapnick and Joe Boffi are also stellar when it comes to kettlebell training (among their many other skill sets). They also happen to be partners at the host facility (along with the awesome Dr. Kathy Dooley) Catalyst S.P.O.R.T.

So where am I going with this?

MK_FlawlessVictoryIn a time when we are bombarded with fitness trends and certification chasing, it is easy to just “mash buttons” like you would on a video game controller. But, those button mashers usually don’t do too well in the long haul. The smart player, or strength coach, learns how the system works inside and out and then destroys his opponent. DVRT and HKC/RKC are for those that want to be the skilled player. That’s how you earn a flawless victory!

There are many DVRT/HKC Combos in the works.

Now there’s an added bonus if you have the RKC in your sights. Certified HKC instructors will receive an immediate, extra $200.00 discount when they register for a future RKC workshop.

If you are a current HKC Instructor in good standing, receive this immediate, extra discount on an upcoming RKC workshop by simply logging into your account on DragonDoor.com. After adding an RKC Workshop of your choice to your cart, enter the following Promo Code at checkout: HKCSPECIAL

Upcoming DVRT/HKC Workshops:

Onelife Fitness. Kansas City, MO. March 21-22.
DVRT/HKC: http://www.dragondoor.com/workshops/details/dvhk005/
DVRT Only: http://www.dragondoor.com/workshops/details/dvrt005/
HKC Only: http://www.dragondoor.com/workshops/details/hkc369/

Quest Fitness. Guilford, CT. May 16-17.
*Registration opens next week.

Catalyst S.P.O.R.T. New York, NY. November 7-8.
DVRT/HKC: http://www.dragondoor.com/workshops/details/dvhk006/
DVRT Only: http://www.dragondoor.com/workshops/details/dvrt006/
HKC Only: http://www.dragondoor.com/workshops/details/hkc377/

Yours in strength and fury,

-Fury out

Steve “Coach Fury” Holiner, DVRT Master Instructor, Senior RKC, is a proud member of the Ninja Army training staff at Mark Fisher Fitness in NYC. Fury is available for classes, semi-privates, instructor training and programming at MFF. He also has availability for private training at Five Points Academy and Catalyst S.P.O.R.T. Check out www.coachfury.com, facebook.com/coachfury and Twitter @coachfury for more info.

Filed Under: Coaching, Kettlebell Training Tagged With: Coach Fury, dvrt, DVRT Certification, hkc, HKC Workshop, RKC Discount, Steve Holiner, Ultimate Sandbag

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Dragon Door Publications / The author(s) and publisher of this material are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may occur through following the instructions or opinions contained in this material. The activities, physical and otherwise, described herein for informational purposes only, may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people, and the reader(s) should consult a physician before engaging in them.