The Kettlebell

It has been a week since I became Russian Kettlebell Certified so I am writing a bit about the RKC and why I like kettlebells so much. First of all, let me say that I chose the RKC for the same reason that I choose anything: it was really hard. The RKC is an expensive certification with very high standards for technique and conditioning. Only 1,200 people have the certification because the 3-day workshop has a 30% failure rate. You have to throw a 53 lb iron weight over your head 100 times in the first 5 minutes of the weekend. Can't do it?  No RKC for you. Most importantly, at the end of the weekend you have to teach a complete novice, right off the street, how to swing a kettlebell. It's the only certification that I have ever seen where you actually are tested on teaching.

But why kettlebells? I obviously like them. I even use one as a logo. But to better answer that question, I thought I'd dedicate the next few blog posts to this piece of iron and what I like to do with it.

First of all, this is a kettlebell. Actually, it's my kettlebell. His name is Daryl and he is 24 kilograms, or about 53 pounds. As you can tell, it's pretty much just a cannonball with a handle on it. It's a (relatively) cheap piece of iron with no moving parts that I have not only integrated into all my training, but into the way I think about strength and conditioning.

Kettlebells are a Russian creation that permeates the fitness culture in that country. Every child learns to use them and every special forces exam or combat sport uses them as a benchmark for personal fitness. Needless to say, it was a Russian who popularized them in America. Pavel Tsatsouline came to the US as a Soviet Master of Sport and competition kettlebell lifter (yeah, they have that) in 1998. In 2001 he wrote "Russian Kettlebell Challenge" and started the RKC, or Russian Kettlebell Certification, which uses Pavel's traditional Russian or "Hard Style" of kettlebell exercise.

Ok, so what do you do with these damn things. Believe it or not, not that much. At the RKC we were tested on 6 exercises. That's it. 36 hours of instruction on how to do and teach 6 exercises: the swing, the get-up, the clean, the press, the front squat, and the snatch. But trust me, you could go your whole life only doing the swing and the get-up and be in better shape than anyone you ran into. I will be doing entries about each of these exercises, so I won't deluge you with why they are so effective now, but I will hit you with the RKC philosophy of strength and conditioning and why I like it so much.

Ask any Olympic Powerlifter what the secret to strength is and they will respond, "tension." Ask gymnast what the secret to perfect form is and they will respond, "tension." Ask any boxer where their power comes from and they will respond, "tension" and hit you in the stomach.  The kettlebell exercises are the safest, most accessible way for anyone to develop tension and the resulting strength which they can use in their everyday lives. RKC or "Hard Style" kettlebells is all about delivering maximum tension at maximum speed over the full range of motion of your major joints. It engages all the major muscle groups in your body at maximum levels and anyone from a teenager to your 85-year-old grandmother can learn it.

But why would anyone want to develop "tension" and power? Maybe you think freeweights is perfectly fine and don't understand what kettlebells will add to your workouts. Well in the next entry I will go into detail on why kettlebell training is great for everyone, but I can sum it up for you with a final thought. There is one sport that we all engage in and strive to be the best we can at which kettlebells are tailor made for improving: Sex.

Next time, Kettlebells for Sex

Your Body is a Tool, not a Temple.

Vanity is a very powerful emotion. We do a lot for the sake of vanity, even if it is completely ridiculous. But one of the things that I have always had trouble doing for the sake of vanity is get in shape. Now if that seems like an odd thing to say, how many people do you know who lost a ton of weight because they "felt fat?" People can go their entire lives feeling fat, but it is usually something else that shakes them up, like health or mortality. But that doesn't seem to change the fact that most people who come to me have fitness goals centered around vanity. Now, the "I wanna look good naked" fitness goal is fine goal. In fact, it might be the hardest goal of all (other than looking good in spandex, which is nigh impossible). But speaking from personal experience, I have rarely found it to be enough to truly motivate me, and that is because I think of my body as a tool, not a temple, and I think I am happier for it.

When someone's only goal is to look good naked, they usually have a static idea of perfection in their head. Paris Hilton, Jennifer Garner, Ryan Reynolds, whatever the body type you have in mind, you imagine yourself attaining some fixed idea of hotness. Statue-like in your perfection, you can be worshiped as the god you are and finally be happy. But that's a myth. Those people don't look like that. They look like that on that day, when the camera took their picture (and when the lighting crew and make-up teams were working too, mind you). So what you experience as you work towards this goal is the heartache associated with what seems like a point on the horizon that moves away just as fast as you approach it. You lose 10 lbs, but you need to lose 10 more. Then 10 more. You gain muscle in your chest, but now your calves are too skinny. This is the point at which even the most dedicated fall off the wagon because it is very hard to maintain motivation when you are striving for a body that is a temple, some mysterious Xanadu that once complete, will finally make you whole. That's because your body isn't a temple built from marble; it's the chisel.

When 5-time UFC Champion Randy Couture (pictured above) was interviewed as part of ESPN Magazine's "Body Issue" he prefaced everything by saying, "I've used my body as a tool for the past 30 years." He was surprised they wanted to take his picture! Athletes like Randy Couture, Venus Williams, or Kara Goucher don't head into the gym twice a day thinking about bikini season. And that's not because they are already perfect. They don't worry about how their body looks because they are too busy worrying about how their body performs. Competition, victory, the opportunity to show off one's skills, these are the things that get people to train harder and stick to their diets. When I started training, the thing that snapped in me and turned me into "Coach Stevo" was not a desire to see my abs. It was remembering what it felt like to use my body in the way that it was intended: as a tool. I started training MMA almost immediately and the weight fell off so fast I couldn't keep gym clothes for longer than a month. But it never felt like work because I was having too much fun!

Now I'm not saying everyone needs to be an athlete, or compete, or even take up a sport. The joy I feel with having a body that works the way I want it to (pain free, strong, and full of stamina) is a joy that I have no matter what I'm doing. Vanity is great, and trust me I like my body a lot more now that it's hot, but that wasn't enough for me. I needed a new way at looking at my goals. And for those of you that doubt the hotness associated with performance, let me leave you with Yelena Isinbayeva. She has used her body as a tool to win Gold Medals in two Olympic Games, but gets upset because people are so distracted by her hotness they forget she is the greatest female pole vaulter in history. And really, with an ass like this, can you blame them?

Get up. Move. Repeat.

I like science. A lot. So a few months ago when I read this article in Time, I got very intrigued. Turns out there is a correlation between people who engage in regular cardiovascular exercise and weight gain. "What the What?!" you might be asking. Well, yes, it's true. Now here come the Personal Trainer Police to take away my license to make people sweat. But before I get hauled off, let me explain.

Most people join a gym, go 2-3 times a week for a few weeks, hop on a treadmill until they break a sweat (15-25 minutes) then leave, only to discover a few weeks later that they have gained weight instead of losing it. The reason is not the time they spent on the treadmill, it's what they did when they left the gym. Hitting the treadmill for 25 minutes  at 6 mph burns about 300 calories. But some points: a) that's faster than a lot of people go (hint: if you are reading while you workout, you aren't trying hard enough) and b) that's not a lot of calories burned. So you've burned 300 calories, but because you sweat a little and got to put on your special shoes, you feel like you've done a good thing. And you have! But feeling this high, as well as the acute insulin response one gets after cardiovascular exercise, you swing by Jamba Juice on the way home and pick up an Power Protein Berry Workout w/ Whey. Well, congrats because you just consumed 490 calories: 190 more than you just burned. And that doesn't include the 490 calorie muffin you pick up at Starbucks now, (because I work out!) or the 250 calorie extra martini you grab on fridays (I earned it!). 6 weeks later, you could weigh 2-3 pounds more than you did before you bought your special shoes.

So what to do? Well the LA Times published a little blog entry today that summarizes some more science that was in the Times article. The answer: just freakin' move more. Walking to work, taking the stairs, not using the remote (heresy!), these are the things that lead to long term weight loss. That is because this type of chronic continual movement does not lead to that "I earned it!" response that acute cardio causes. Now, you should totally do cardio too (that's for your ticker), as well as resistance training to build the muscle that burns the fat to begin with, but it's these life changes that make weight loss permanent.

So thank you, science. Put down the beer, get up, move around, and repeat.

Mobility

One of the problems of being good at something is that you tend to do it to the exclusion of everything else. I happen to be good at running, and it wasn't until I got injured and started training with kettlebells that I noticed that I had the flexibility of an 80-year-old. And I'm sorry, it doesn't matter how fast you are, if you have posture like this guy, it isn't sexy.

The fact is, most men don't stretch. I don't know if it's because yoga looks fruity, or because we think that more power in a narrow range of motion is better than being able to touch our toes. We might have lots of excuses, but there is little science backing us up. The fact is, stretching is good for every athlete. Ligaments and tendons in joints, especially ball-and-socket joints like the hips and shoulders, have crap for bloodflow. When they are injured (and all training produces micro-trauma in these connective tissues) and the body needs to repair the area, the white-blood cells, protein, and hormones necessary to do the repairs are flooded into the bursa sacs surrounding the joints. How do these materials get into the connective tissue from the bursa? Why, by moving the joint through its full range of motion! Stretching is doing just that. The end result is stronger, more injury-resistant joints that will help you stay away from repetitive stress injuries, nasty falls, and over-energetic kimuras.

While training for the RKC, I had to work on my joint mobility. In fact, I might have spent more time stretching than swinging bells. Kettlebells are an amazing tool for increasing your range of motion, but I found it necessary to add static stretching onto every one of my training sessions in order to correct the years I had neglected my joints. But I found something pretty amazing after these sessions: I felt freakin' great after them! Instead of feeling sore, tight, and exhausted like after my usual heavy lifting sessions, after a few minutes of stretching I felt brand, spankin' new. To quote a client of Jordan Vezina RKC, "I feel like I'm walking around in someone else's body!"

So when should you stretch? Always after your muscles are warm. Dynamic stretching that closely mimics the movements you are going to do in your workout should be done immediately after your warm up. I can show you a bunch of these dynamic stretches, just ask. But Static stretching (touching your toes, etc.) actually makes the muscles weaker and will impend heavy resistance training. So save those until after you are done. If you are looking to really increase your range of motion, talk to me about PNF stretching. That stuff is the shizzle.

First Client Goal

So my first client has stated her goal is to lose 30 lbs. That's a net loss of 105,000 calories. My response? Hell yeah!

105,000 calories may seem like a huge amount, but at 2 lbs a week (about as much as you can lose and stil maintain muscle tone and sanity) she only has to workout for about an hour a day and eat 300 less calories a day. Or better yet, exercise 30 -45 minutes a day, eat 300 less calories, and walk more.

Weight loss is not rocket science, it's just simple arithmetic. Follow some simple rules, be consistant, and don't over do it. Coach Stevo can help with all three. This client is on the "Motivated" plan and will be seeing me once a week. Now imagine what your summer would be like with 30 less pounds!