I learned the value of using partial lifts from Strongman Bud Jeffries and Kettlebell
Expert Mike Mahler.
This type of lift will help you move to much heavier weights in a progressive manner.
They take a lot out of you fast, so they are usually done in low reps & sets.
Still have a way to go on this, but making progress each training session.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Early registration dsicount is almost over!
You love KB training right?
So why waste 50 bucks by missing the early registration discount?
Register now, right here
So why waste 50 bucks by missing the early registration discount?
Register now, right here
Monday, June 23, 2008
6th workout with 106lb kettlebell
I had just got over being really sick for about 5 days and I was determined that, by GOD'S grace, I was going to workout today! I was not going to get side-tracked due to the inconvenience of temporarily being sick, period!
In this workout, first I did cleans with 70, 88, & 106lb KBs from the platform.
Next I did some 106lb cleans from the hang position.
After that, it was heavy partial pushpresses with the 106lb, followed by pushpresses with the 70 & 88lb. I wrapped it up with 150 body punches on the heavy bag.
Lots of fun!
In this workout, first I did cleans with 70, 88, & 106lb KBs from the platform.
Next I did some 106lb cleans from the hang position.
After that, it was heavy partial pushpresses with the 106lb, followed by pushpresses with the 70 & 88lb. I wrapped it up with 150 body punches on the heavy bag.
Lots of fun!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
1st brave person in our new KB Boot Camp
Chris just came back from an ankle injury (volleyball, not kettlebells) and got right back in to training this week.
Watch video
Watch video
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Excellent KB resource website
Thanks to Jeff Waters, we are now aware of his KB website
I'll be visiting it frequently for sure.
Thanks Jeff!
I'll be visiting it frequently for sure.
Thanks Jeff!
Early Bird Discount for next KB seminar ends June 30
Just a reminder that the $50.00 discount for the upcoming "Kettlebell Training for Combat Athletes" seminar by Jason C. Brown, owner of CrossFit Philly and Kettlebell Athletics will end on June 30, 2008.
You can register today at CrossFit Gulf Coast
We are limited to the first 30 paid registrations.
Ed, here's the slideshow & a video from the Police/Firefighter Olympics
This is your buddy Rob in action
Here's the slideshow, some of these guys were at my kettlebell demo last weekend at my friend Erik Marshall's new MMA school GRand Opening
Here's the slideshow, some of these guys were at my kettlebell demo last weekend at my friend Erik Marshall's new MMA school GRand Opening
Monday, June 16, 2008
Finally got the clean with 106lb kettlebell
Mike Mahler was the one who originally taught me how to work with heavy KBs.
I learned this type of clean from him Thanks Mike!
Had to start off with assisted cleans at first, but it's starting to come together.
Dropped it a few times (thank GOD it missed my foot). Practice, practice, practice!
I learned this type of clean from him Thanks Mike!
Had to start off with assisted cleans at first, but it's starting to come together.
Dropped it a few times (thank GOD it missed my foot). Practice, practice, practice!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Is this your event?
Ed, from Hobe Sound, is supposed to be in town for the Fire/Police Olympics next week.
I think this is the correct link for information.
Help me out Ed!
I'd like to cover your event for Fight Zone Magazine
I think this is the correct link for information.
Help me out Ed!
I'd like to cover your event for Fight Zone Magazine
This might look like work, but to me it's fun
The KB swings with 106lb are really fun! WooHoo!
This is the 4th time I've used that weight, progress is slow, but steady.
This is the 4th time I've used that weight, progress is slow, but steady.
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Power Of Play
In our quest for health and physical fitness, many of us have been asking the wrong questions about our bodies. people with a cosmetic orientation ask "How good can I look?" Those with an athletic orientation ask "How can I beat the competition?" People with a medical orientation ask, "How can I stave off dread diseases?"
These are not bad questions, but in terms of promoting widespread improvements in human health, they are not really on target. The questions we should be asking are "How gracefully can I move?" "How vigorous can I be?" "How good can I feel?" and perhaps most importantly, "How much fun can I have in the process?"
Play is the most underrated part of the modern physical education experience. Play is for kids, so we're told. Work is for adults. Woe to any adult who actually admits to playing. Play is considered frivolous, unproductive, selfish and self-indulgent. It has no validity and no justification. This bias against play is so pervasive that the only way we can get away with playful movement is to disguise it under a cloak of labor or sporting achievement. If you want to move your body in public, be sure to call what you're doing a "work out", lest anyone question your motives.
Opponents of play are clearly suffering from an excess of gravity. Nose to the grindstone and fingers to the bone. Stop playing and grow up. Results are what matter. Just get it done. Achievement is paramount. The grim warrior wins the battle. I labor, therefore I am.
In today's culture, this anti-play orientation compromises the lives of millions of people. Play is essential to animal wholeness and must be considered a part of a complete education at all levels. Living without play is not a noble and commendable approach to life, it is a deficiency and an aberration. Absence of play is not a sign of maturity, it is a sign of pathology.
Many Americans find this idea of legitimizing play difficult to comprehend. We reflexively assume that the best way to condition our bodies is to do something called a "work out". Presumably, this term is a consequence of our Puritanical roots and a by-product of industrialization. Naturally, it implies the need for labor, as in those cases when a relationship goes bad and we have to "work it out". According to this orientation, if you've got a problem, labor is the solution.
As it so often happens, language determines our attitude as well as the result. If you call it a "work out", you're going to enter the experience with a set of assumptions, namely that physical movement is labor. This work ethic leads directly to a "work out ethic", a belief that the amount of work performed is the measure of the person and that more is necessarily better. Obviously, this is not a good place to begin a physical training program. When we begin physical education with the word "work", it's not hard to understand that people fail to get excited.
The Benefits Of Play
The benefits of play are both broad and deep; broad i the sense that a playful attitude can give us pleasure across a wide range of activities,deep in the sense that play can be truly profound.
On a physical level, all of the well-established benefits of exercise also come to us with physical play. We've all heard the list by now:increased cardiopulmonary function,improved strength and endurance, greater flexibility, coordination and balance. Whatever exercise gives us, play can also give us.
Yes, in a strictly scientific sense, play might not always deliver the ideal kind of movement for elite athletic fitness. If you're scampering around the field, starting and stopping erratically or throwing your head back in laughter, you might not keep your heart rate in the target zone continuously and you might not do enough sets and reps to stimulate major tissue changes.
But in the real world, play trumps the scientifically correct methods for the simple fact that people are more likely to actually do it. Play can give us many of the benefits of laborious exercise, but it can also give us something that many workouts cannot; a sense of joy. And in non-human animals, play delivers just fine. The playful dog doesn't do sets , reps or check his heart rate, he gets in shape entirely without labor.
The other wonderful thing about play is that it levels out our social hierarchies as it makes physical education more egalitarian. Success in play is a personal judgement call; no one can rank our performance, no one can claim alpha status as the "most playful" and no one can put us down. There can be no MVP, no top 10, no Hall of Fame. You get to make the call on the quality of your own experience. If you're having fun, you're doing it right.
Being subjective, play can't be measured, broken down or analyzed. There can be no stats or spreadsheets, no Olympic finals,no standings. Fun is in the body and the spirit of the player, not i the eyes of the judges or on the faces of stopwatches. There can be no standards, no qualification rounds, no eliminations;just experience. No shoe contracts to the best players, no endorsement deals to those who get the most pleasure out of movement. It's up to us; we get what we play for.
These are not bad questions, but in terms of promoting widespread improvements in human health, they are not really on target. The questions we should be asking are "How gracefully can I move?" "How vigorous can I be?" "How good can I feel?" and perhaps most importantly, "How much fun can I have in the process?"
Play is the most underrated part of the modern physical education experience. Play is for kids, so we're told. Work is for adults. Woe to any adult who actually admits to playing. Play is considered frivolous, unproductive, selfish and self-indulgent. It has no validity and no justification. This bias against play is so pervasive that the only way we can get away with playful movement is to disguise it under a cloak of labor or sporting achievement. If you want to move your body in public, be sure to call what you're doing a "work out", lest anyone question your motives.
Opponents of play are clearly suffering from an excess of gravity. Nose to the grindstone and fingers to the bone. Stop playing and grow up. Results are what matter. Just get it done. Achievement is paramount. The grim warrior wins the battle. I labor, therefore I am.
In today's culture, this anti-play orientation compromises the lives of millions of people. Play is essential to animal wholeness and must be considered a part of a complete education at all levels. Living without play is not a noble and commendable approach to life, it is a deficiency and an aberration. Absence of play is not a sign of maturity, it is a sign of pathology.
Many Americans find this idea of legitimizing play difficult to comprehend. We reflexively assume that the best way to condition our bodies is to do something called a "work out". Presumably, this term is a consequence of our Puritanical roots and a by-product of industrialization. Naturally, it implies the need for labor, as in those cases when a relationship goes bad and we have to "work it out". According to this orientation, if you've got a problem, labor is the solution.
As it so often happens, language determines our attitude as well as the result. If you call it a "work out", you're going to enter the experience with a set of assumptions, namely that physical movement is labor. This work ethic leads directly to a "work out ethic", a belief that the amount of work performed is the measure of the person and that more is necessarily better. Obviously, this is not a good place to begin a physical training program. When we begin physical education with the word "work", it's not hard to understand that people fail to get excited.
The Benefits Of Play
The benefits of play are both broad and deep; broad i the sense that a playful attitude can give us pleasure across a wide range of activities,deep in the sense that play can be truly profound.
On a physical level, all of the well-established benefits of exercise also come to us with physical play. We've all heard the list by now:increased cardiopulmonary function,improved strength and endurance, greater flexibility, coordination and balance. Whatever exercise gives us, play can also give us.
Yes, in a strictly scientific sense, play might not always deliver the ideal kind of movement for elite athletic fitness. If you're scampering around the field, starting and stopping erratically or throwing your head back in laughter, you might not keep your heart rate in the target zone continuously and you might not do enough sets and reps to stimulate major tissue changes.
But in the real world, play trumps the scientifically correct methods for the simple fact that people are more likely to actually do it. Play can give us many of the benefits of laborious exercise, but it can also give us something that many workouts cannot; a sense of joy. And in non-human animals, play delivers just fine. The playful dog doesn't do sets , reps or check his heart rate, he gets in shape entirely without labor.
The other wonderful thing about play is that it levels out our social hierarchies as it makes physical education more egalitarian. Success in play is a personal judgement call; no one can rank our performance, no one can claim alpha status as the "most playful" and no one can put us down. There can be no MVP, no top 10, no Hall of Fame. You get to make the call on the quality of your own experience. If you're having fun, you're doing it right.
Being subjective, play can't be measured, broken down or analyzed. There can be no stats or spreadsheets, no Olympic finals,no standings. Fun is in the body and the spirit of the player, not i the eyes of the judges or on the faces of stopwatches. There can be no standards, no qualification rounds, no eliminations;just experience. No shoe contracts to the best players, no endorsement deals to those who get the most pleasure out of movement. It's up to us; we get what we play for.
Monday, June 9, 2008
High pulls with 106lb kettlebell (3rd workout with this weight)
I'm journaling my training with the 106lb kettlebell; this is my 3rd workout with "Big Mamba".
Want to be able to press this by August 28, 2008 (my 58th birthday).
The videos are helping me to check my technique as I go along. I am thankful to be able to get this thing moving vertically at all, now I need to concentrate on keeping my feet from moving so much. This hunk of iron really challenges my balance.
Will stay at it until I get it right!
By the way, I added a 22lb weight vest to make it more "fun" :)
Want to be able to press this by August 28, 2008 (my 58th birthday).
The videos are helping me to check my technique as I go along. I am thankful to be able to get this thing moving vertically at all, now I need to concentrate on keeping my feet from moving so much. This hunk of iron really challenges my balance.
Will stay at it until I get it right!
By the way, I added a 22lb weight vest to make it more "fun" :)
Friday, June 6, 2008
Kettlebell Training for Combat Athletes Seminar
We are honored to have Jason C. Brown, from CrossFit Philly, coming down to do this excellent seminar Sept. 5-6, 2008.
He is one of the best KB instructors on the planet, and recently his gym was voted the "Best of Philly" and Jason was voted Best RKC KB Instructor too!
You really don't want to deny yourself this training experience.
Register today right here!
He is one of the best KB instructors on the planet, and recently his gym was voted the "Best of Philly" and Jason was voted Best RKC KB Instructor too!
You really don't want to deny yourself this training experience.
Register today right here!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Glad to seee more people posting here!
I am glad to see all of you on this blog!
You're insights, accomplishments, goals, etc. are important so please share them.
Thanks for taking the time to be here!
You're insights, accomplishments, goals, etc. are important so please share them.
Thanks for taking the time to be here!
Big Mamba has arrived
Got my first 48 kg/106 lb kettlebell yesterday, and had to try it out!
Sarting off with some one-arm deadlifts, swings, & high pulls. Next week will start getting the clean.
Hopefully I can hit my goal of a 106 lb press by my 58th birthday in August.
Prayin' I make it!
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