If you're not training like this you're kidding yourself.

Paul Chek is my new hero.
Here's an interview he did for T-nation. He's got the perfect perspective on life, training, health, and spirituality. It's easily one of the best articles I've read on training in a LONG time.

Also check out Mark Reifkind's blog. It's fantastic.

Cast iron cross.

Denmark RKC

I love the sound effects in this video.

Kettlebell Ribbon

Yet another joint mobility drill.

Snatch hints

Snatch hints

From: Jared in MT
Subject: Fitness
Date/Time 2005-03-28 22:29:10
Remote IP: 12.150.67.132
Message

Anyone involved in kettlebells knows that snatches tear up the hands. Anyone in GS knows that torn hands = less than optimum training.

Soapy handle snatches and oven mitts come in handy, but I've found that grip goes too fast if you are working on big sets. These two exercises are also rather hazardous indoors.

I've found a solution that forces a little extra grip work, but still allows for 80-90% max rep range. Fingerless cloth gloves! These dandy little buggers allow the Kettlebell handle to rotate and not tear up your palm calluses and allow your fingers to catch the handle for a more secure & safe snatch. They also pad the wrist just a bit. If you want to work your grip some more, but don't like oven mitts or soap, try the GI surplus green wool glove liners with full fingers. Another excellent & inexpensive tool.

Many of the cloth gloves on the market have the little rubber traction dots. No problem as they are generally not r/l specific. I wear mine on the wrong hands so the dots are on the back.

Improve your snatch

Here's a post from Mike Mahler on improving snatch numbers.

When people say kb's can't get you big I show them pictures of you...they stop talking soon after that!

From: SgtCross
Subject: Fitness
Date/Time 2005-02-01 21:05:35
Remote IP: 70.182.111.139

Message
I am definitely buying your DVD as soon as I have the money! The money of a college student is not too long. It means a lot to your potential customers that you tell them you don't leave any information or exercises out of your materials. It tells us we are getting what we expect and are paying for!

On a side note, my goal is to get up to 30 reps per arm with the 24kg in the snatch. My current best is 15 with each arm. I am wanting to go to the RKC in April. I have been training for about 4 months now at 5'10" and 173 lbs. I know you don't want to give away info in your material for free, but any help you can give would be awesome! Thank you for everything!

Semper Fi,
Ethan Cross, Sgt. USMC

Improving snatch #s. {con’t from above.}

Thanks for the praise and here is what I would do to get your snatch numbers up. Try doing 2x10 7 days a week with the 53lb kettlebell. In week two, do 2x11 7 days a week, week three do 2x12 etc. By week five you will be up to 2x15. Take two days off after week five and test your max. I bet you will nail at least 25 reps. Then start another cycle this time at 12 reps and add a rep every week for five weeks and test your max again.

The key is that you have to do 2 sets every day. Not every other day, not twice a week, but every day. Take two minute breaks between each set. Do no more than two sets. Just get in the pattern of doing two sets everyday no matter what.

Mike Mahler

I love the Turkish Get Up.

Its my new favorite exercise. Just do this one exercise for five minutes straight two or three times a week and bob's yer uncle!! So simple its ridiculous!
And if you want a more complete workout just add a few swings with em and you're good to go. How much easier could it be?

A brief introduction to my kettlebell experiences.

I love Kettlebells, absolutely love them. I think there's probably no other fitness tool in the world as versatile or effective as a single kettlebell. Even just one small one could occupy a stronger than average man for literally years. The sheer number of exercise variations is staggering, it baffles the mind. There are so many variations and combinations and possibilities that one can get overwhelmed really fast. It definitely happened to me. I got "analysis paralysis" and ended up not coming anywhere near my true potential.

I started using the old K-bells about 2 years ago. I got my first one as a birthday present from my girlfriend. I was so excited I was like a kid at Christmas. I could hardly take my eyes off it for the first few days. Its no wonder, I had wanted one for more than 2 years before they were available to me and I had the money.

I started off good. Mostly swings and presses. A good foundation all around. I stuck with this for the first couple months and saw good improvements in my conditioning and muscle tone. But then I started getting greedy. I went ahead and ordered the next biggest bell (the 1.5 pood) and things took a little turn for the worst. I still did mostly swings and presses but I was rushing things way too much. I started getting elbow pain and lower back pain. Then my shoulders starting hurting. All the while I was having to take extra days off to recuperate so my progress was slow and to top it all off my training was entirely inconsistent. I was trying to get everything all at once. I wanted to be better conditioned, stronger, more explosive and agile, gain more muscle mass, have better flexibility and just feel better all around.

My approach wasn't working. Not only was it not working, I knew it wasn't working, and everywhere I looked everyone was talking about the very method I could use to get it to work. It was right in front of my face the whole time, I just needed to open my eyes to see it. Unfortunately I didn't open my eyes until just recently. I've finally stream-lined my training. I'm keeping it simple, keeping sight of one goal at a time, and cherishing my patience. Things are definitely looking up.

Kettlebells

Here's a really good article I found today on Kettlebells.

New-found strength

By BOB MORTENSON
Herald Writer

EVERETT -- Meet a man for whom the kettlebells toll loud and clear.

Everett firefighter Tom Corrigan and his comrades at the Seattle Kettlebell Club have taken a firm grip on a sport that dates back to czarist Russia, a time when every village had its champion strongman.

The Russian kettlebell -- a longtime training tool for the Russian military and Olympic teams -- is a cast-iron weight resembling a cannonball. Flat-bottomed with a thick, rounded handle, kettlebells are measured in Russian poods. A pood equals 16 kilograms, or about 36 pounds for refusenik's who've yet to bow to the decrees of the metric system.

Traditional kettlebells come in weights ranging from one to two poods, but smaller and larger sizes are available. A healthy, average-sized man usually starts with a 36-pounder and gradually increases the weight over time. A novice woman might use a one-half pood kettlebell weighing 18 pounds.

"Technique is utterly important," Corrigan said during an off-duty work out last week at Everett Fire Station No. 3, "because if done incorrectly, this isn't safe. You need to respect it, take your time and work into it."

That means no juggling or one-legged squats, at least not until you become a full-fledged girevik, or kettlebell man, as Corrigan is.

In competition -- the first in the United States took place last November at Harvard University -- athletes perform the clean-and-jerk with two kettlebells and the snatch with one. Both events are scored based on repetitions.

Corrigan's second-place finish in the inaugural Washington State Kettlebell Sport Championship in Seattle on July 26 included snatching 72 pounds from the floor to high above his head 18 times with each hand.

His highlight, however, was attending a seminar featuring Russian fitness and combat expert Pavel Tsatouline, who popularized kettlebell training in this country.

"He's very personable and just a great guy," Corrigan said of the wiry, 175-pound Tsatouline, who has been known to workout with a 97-pound behemoth known as "The Bulldog."

For Corrigan, 37, it is the practical application of his kettlebell workouts that is the attraction. The lack of balance in the swinging kettlebell produces a ballistic-shock effect far more realistic than regular weight training.

"It teaches you to tighten your core and protect the spine with your abs and back, builds grip strength and eye-hand coordination," Corrigan said. "On the job as firefighters, we never lay on a bench and lift in a slow, controlled way. Firefighters lift heavy things, we lift awkward things and we do it in awkward positions."

A former history teacher, Corrigan is fascinated by the tradition of kettlebell training in the Russian military, especially in the special forces, where strength, agility and stamina are requisites.

"For the Russian soldiers in Siberia, you can't go out running with eight feet of snow on the ground," Corrigan said with a laugh.

The long dominance of Soviet Olympic strongmen -- including the great weightlifter Vasily Alexeyev, who was known to warm up by flinging about a 158-pound kettlebell -- was rooted in kettlebell training.

Said Corrigan: "(The Soviets asked) how do you win gold medals? How do you really get strong?"

In recent years the kettlebell has been used by the U.S. military and law-enforcement agencies. Marines undergoing martial arts courses at Quantico, Va., have been exposed to the training and some have taken that knowledge -- and their kettlebells -- to field assignments, according to former Marine Nick Nibler.

Nibler, a police officer and co-owner of a Seattle-based performance training organization, said Corrigan's ringing endorsement of the kettlebell is not surprising.

"It's interesting," Nibler said, "kettlebells seem to generate that in quite a few people."

A former football player and wrestler at Mariner High School, the 6-foot, 210-pound Corrigan was a longtime weight lifter before discovering kettlebells about two years ago. He acknowledged there are benefits to traditional training methods, but asserted many hardcore fitness buffs lack what he calls "Grandpa strength."

"How many times have you seen guys unable to open a jar and then old grandpa comes along and twists it right off?" he asked. "Grandpa strength comes from having done hard, manual labor all of your life."

Corrigan, whose fingers, wrists and elbows are thicker as a direct result of kettlebell training, views the regimen as an alternative for those who don't buck bales or wield wrenches and hammers for a living.

"This builds functional, whole-body strength," Corrigan said as he prepared to do something called a windmill. "It's so much better than those hamster workouts."

Then, leaning sideways, with his left hand nearly touching the ground, he hoisted a 72-pounder aloft with his right. "This builds unbelievable obliques," he said.

Corrigan said a friend dropped his weight from 290 pounds to 215 using kettlebell workouts.

"You can't get a better workout than swinging the kettlebell around," Corrigan said as he demonstrated the crush curl, squeezing the 72-pounder tightly at his waist and curling it to his chest.

If you thought cat juggling was cruel, wait until you see an airborne kettlebell spinning in front of a man's face.

"You catch it, flip it, spin it, catch it, flip it, spin it," Corrigan said. "This is not easy, but it's fun to do."