The Actionaut

20 years ago, a new style of music characterized by loud raucous guitar sounds and lazy vocal delivery (according to my computer’s dictionary widget) was born, shelving glam rock and hard rock almost overnight to a dusty cheesy corner.

During the past almost two decades that I’ve been in this country, I’ve seen and even myself explored many training facilities, features, equipment etc, and am realizing that I turned out a to be a creature of that “grunge” era. I don’t need any fancy equipment, shiny machines with multiplanar angles and cables, calorie counting treadmills and alleged performance enhancing compression athletic wear. All I want is a bunch of heavy weights (barbells, kettlebells), some rudimentary tools (sandbag, rope, wooden stick) and a simple plan (no lazy delivery here, though).

The simple plan is pick stuff up, put it back down. Push it or pull it. Be efficient, and do it as many times as possible in a short amount of time, but without killing yourself. Stay fresh at every set, don’t worry about the reps. That’s one plan, one way, and it works. Try it. And turn up the volume on your XM radio to Octane or Lithium.

Comments (1) Sep 26 2011

Last weekend, I had the honor, pleasure and privilege to be invited as an instructor assistant for the RKC weekend workshop in San Diego, CA.

After unloading several thousand pounds worth of kettlebells ranging from 10lb to 106lb (in boxes first, much harder to lift than by the handle, before unpacking them), the instructors were tested on their form in all the drills, including the infamous snatch test, which is 100 reps under 5 minutes with 24kg/53lb for males under 50, 20kg/44lb males over 50 -aka Master Class- and 16kg/35lb for ladies weighing over 123.5lb, 12kg/26lb for ladies under 123.5lb.

We were blessed with weather that was fair compared to last year’s triple digit. People flew from Italy, Singapore, Australia and even North of the border to attend the event. Slightly different format from when I took mine: fewer workouts to punctuate the instruction, but practice was performed with heavier weights. No chickens, no sissifying of the workout or the system. Only grade A1 muscle! We are a school of strength first and foremost. Pavel Tsatsouline, Doug Nepodal (toughest guy in a kilt I ever met), Doc Cheng, Jeff O’Connor, Josh Henkin and Paul Daniels commandeered the instruction with their distinct personalities and abilities.

The demographics spanned the gamut in age, profession and abilities, though everyone showed up, or almost everyone, ready for the event. You HAVE to prepare AT LEAST 6 months prior to attending in building your conditioning. In my group alone, heralded by Mark “Doc” Cheng to whom we owe the high bridge in the Turkish get-Up among many other contributions (and he’s a pretty humble guy, but great to see in action), we had a few 50+ y.o. guys (doctor, wrestling coach, successful entrepreneur), a mother of an RKC instructor, a lawyer who looked like she flew in from Pandora, an Aussie Sheila with athleticism that would rival most men I know, a female EMT who was recertifying and whose skill surpassed most people I know, you get the picture.

Why should you train for the RKC? Whether you want to instruct or push your own limits, you get adopted into a community of skill, knowledge, support and strength that makes every other protocol pale in comparison. While the kettlebells offer many advantages, we can also recognize its limitations, but the protocols taught will allow you to surpass those limitations and carry-over into other modalities with such ease, you may surpass others who’ve trained there for years. Jeff O’Connor, one of the team leaders, even said that if there’s something great and new we don’t have in our system, rest assured it’ll make its way there.

On that note, I read through the new instructor manual and discovered more articles backing up what I am telling you about. Improved cueing, better organization for instruction so that you assimilate the drills faster than before, tools I wish I had myself a couple of years back. And that’s the beauty of the RKC system: like a computer’s operating system, we upgrade, fix the bugs to make the “machine” faster, stronger, more streamlined and efficient. Pavel’s constant research and outside contributions grow the system. Here’s another example: I’ve been working with the TRX for years before even touching a kettlebell. Now, Pavel has a new book and DVD about TRX training which I can’t wait to play with because I KNOW the stuff in it is going to be good!

I’ve helped frail clients get big in record time. I’ve shortened my workouts yet made myself stronger and faster. I got rid of excess information and superfluous moves, going back to what Jeff O’Connor calls “Advanced Basics”. Really, think about it with another quote I once mentioned stating that the difference between a white belt and a black belt is the execution of the basics. A swing is a swing is a swing. How you do it is what matters (meaning: well!)

If you are still curious about kettlebells, email me so I can set up a session for you, to introduce you, or maybe get a group going for an intro workshop. Your training will never be the same afterwards. Your physique and your life will improve.

As Pavel always says or ends his emails with: “Power to you!”

Comments (0) Sep 04 2010

What are Natural Movement Patterns?
The natural movement patterns in our bodies enable us to do things like running, fighting, lifting.  We evolved in an environment where we needed to do intense short exertion with lots of rest or ‘active recovery’ in between.  We might have hunted, fought, run away etc. and then spent the afternoon sitting under a tree or gathering berries… We’re still the same human beings we were over 200,000 years ago! It’s just that we started to farm when we became sedentary, introduced a bunch of ailments, nutritional deficiencies and more as a result for about 10,000 years, and since the industrial revolution, we became modernized, caged humans, akin to living in a zoo! (And we know how animals are meant to live in cages…). Evolution-based fitness systems teach us how to train utilizing the innate gifts nature bestowed upon us that we societally ruin by not using them (entropy). It takes us 9 months to come out perfect and a lifetime to undo it. Evolution-based fitness is about learning how to take full advantage of our movement systems, among others (which I will cover in other posts).

How to Move Pain Free:
The key to getting a lean and pain free wild body is to mimic the movements and intensity that our bodies are designed for. The movements that you do most often:  standing, walking, running, or whatever sport you do e.g. biking, are those which will have most effect on your body.  Doing certain stretches or isolated exercises may help to alleviate pain but you have to change your movement patterns to change the load to your structure and therefore heal or prevent injuries.

Taking Care of the Shoulder (TCS):
In today’s blog post, I want to talk about one of the most commonly affected body parts: the shoulder. Injuries there can be passive, or recurring, chronic or acute, although in my personal belief, if you take care of it and understand its design, you’re less likely to injure yourself under circumstances where you have a semblance of control over your environment (unless someone is purposely attempting to hurt you), like when you ski, climb, play sports or lift (if an accident occurs then, it’s usually a culmination of judgment errors).

Shoulder Evolution:
Our primate cousins’ shoulder girdle is designed of brachiation (picture apes swinging on vines, like Tarzan). We may not swinging on vines daily, but working on expanding our gluteal real estate hunched our desks isn’t what we’re meant to do either when movement is in mind. The majority of our shoulder injuries come from the fact that, due to the lack of brachiation in our daily movement patterns, especially certain body building movements design to “build” the shoulder, our scapula has developed a downward rotation (sagging shoulders, poor posture, tight chest from too much bench pressing…).

Shoulder Mobility:
Stretching movements (like Yoga or Superjoints, Z-Health as well as a series of “wild” or natural movement patterns) aimed at allowing more range of motion can give you the flexibility and mobility you need to open the shoulder girdle. In training, you need to learn how to compress that same joint in order to keep it stable and avoid leaking or dissipating strength by not “connecting” your shoulder, “corkscrewing” it into your torso. That leakage vs linkage, the latter very proper to the RKC system (Russian Kettlebell Certification) is what keeps you strong and injury-free.

Remedy:
Train with me or any RKC certified instructor by visiting dragondoor.com. Or go on a Wildfitness vacation in Africa (make sure to tell them I sent you), which you can find at wildfitness.com

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Comments (1) Dec 17 2009