Category Archives: Back Pain

Ageless Body Book Review

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By Sean

The Ageless Body eBook

If you you want explanations and big pictures of Andrea guiding you through key joint mobility, muscle flexibity and bodyweight and kettlebell strength and conditioning moves and a full 6 week “ramp up” and full strength and conditioning program right now, then you will find this information helpful.

Andrea has been a Senior/Master level instructor in the RKC for almost 10 years.  She’s CK-FMS, Z-Health and Pilates certified. Few trainers posses such a vast “tool box” of exercises and practical teaching ability and range that Andrea has.

The Ageless Body is a set of how to material, equipped with giant pictures, on joint mobility, flexibility and strength and conditioning movements plus a charted section on programming that shows you how to plug them in to your day to day existence.

One of the little perks of producing the Ageless Body Workshop with Andrea was that I got a sneak peak of this book early this summer and have been using it frequently as a resource for this project and my own practice.

Two Parts to this Review

For this review, I want to share the chapter breakdown with some brief commentary to give you an overview of the contents, plus fill it in with a few stories from the Ageless Body Workshop.

Lastly I’ll mention who I think it is for and who it isn’t for.

Chapter Breakdown of the Book

Chapter 1: Intro/How to Use the Book

Chapter 2: Medical Disclaimer

Chapter 3: Kettlebell Safety

Chapter 4: Prep Drills

- How to get a nuetral pelvis and spine

- Proper hip hinge

- Hip hinge strategies for different levels

- Hip flexor stretch for different levels

- T-spine rotation for different levels.

Chapter 5: Warm Up (Complete Joint Mobility Program that mobilizes the major and minor joints of the body in one to several different ways, depending on the joint).

Chapter 6: Main Kettlebell Exercises

- Deadlift for different levels and varieties, single and two legged, with trouble shooting,

- Varieties of kettlebell carries

- Varying degrees of the plank

- Kettlebell Swing,

- 4 Variations on the Kettlebell press,

- Progressions for goblet squat

- Different level variations for the Russian twist for spinal rotation and abdominal strength.

Chapter 7: The Get Up – Pictures and descriptions and break down for each part of the movement.

Chapter 8: Balance Drills – We don’t want any falls.  These are the drills Andrea teaches to keep your sense of balance.

Chapter 9: Cool Down Stretches (Andrea is a flexibility expert.  These are her 7 fundamental “go to” stretches)

-Hip Flexor Stretch

-Half Pigeon (Figure 4), Variations

-Quad Stretches, Variations

-Hamstring Stretch, Variations

-Runner’s Stretch

-More T-Spine Rotation

-Down Dog

Chapter 10: Advanced Kettlebell Exercises

-Clean

-Double Swing

-Double Clean

-Double Press

-Front Squat

-Goblet Squat with Curl

-Goblet Squat with front raise

-Snatch

Chapter 11: Planning Your Workouts

Chapter 12: Six Week Ramp Up & Six Week Program

Chapter 13: Strength Workout (6 Rounds)

Chapter 14: Cardio Workout (6 Rounds)

You can see that this is a comprehensive product.

Overview

The first 10 chapters show you how to do the moves (light descriptions + pictures), and chapters 11-14 show you how to plug them into to a weekly routine.

Andrea teaches to do prep drills and joint mobility before even touching a kettlebell.  Pavel teaches the same in Enter the Kettlebell!  Nothing new, it is a more effective way of getting the most of out of your kettlebell practice. Ageless Body gives you a full joint mobility program with movements from Pavel’s Super Joints, CK-FMS and Z-Health and and tips for neutralizing pelvis and spine to give a foundation for safe lifting.

The breakdown of main kettlebell exercises vs. advanced is very important for learning kettlebells the right way.

If you own the main exercises, the more advanced ones will be a lot easier.  Respect the order and perfect the beginner moves.

Andrea discusses this in this podcast.

Andrea breaks down all the exercises, like she does in the Kettlebell Boomer DVD to fit the level of the raw beginner/de-conditioned (unloaded hip hinge – no kettlebell) to more advanced (double kettlebell deadlift) to use an example for Andrea’s deadlift progression.  So you are sure to find the appropriate level for your practice.

Who Is This For?

The Ageless Body is ideal for beginners. Dan John, Masters Weightlifting Champ, author of Easy Strength, and Senior RKC says that he uses this program, which throws a slight wrench to the theory that this is only for beginners.  Coach says “this program makes me do what I know I need.” That should give any seasoned kettlebell practitioner serious pause.

If you’ve been doing kettlebells (or any strength program) for a long time and don’t do much flexibility or mobility training and you are getting stiff and achy, this will help you.  If you are into sports and are developing dysfunctional joints, this information will help.

At the Ageless Body workshop, we had two martial artists who were interested in kettlebells, but had hip and shoulder dysfunctions, respectively, that prohibited them from taking their KB practice where they wanted. Using many of the tools featured in this book, Andrea helped these gentlemen regain function in their hips and shoulders which cleared the way for a more productive kettlebell practice.

At the same time, I saw Andrea use these tools to teach kettlebells effectively to older trainees.

How does the same material help both tough as nails martial artists and your grandmother?  Because it starts at the beginning and doesn’t leave anything out.

I think RKCs and HKCs will benefit from this book because it gives a template for bringing de-conditioned clients back to strength and conditioning while (likely) teaching some new or perhaps neglected tools along the way.  It never hurts to hear a reminder on what works.  There were two attendees at the workshop who signed up because they thought this information would help them intelligently train for taking the RKC.  RKCs showed up to learn the tools to bring kettlebells to Boomer aged clients.

Who is this book NOT for?  

More advanced athletes who have a handle on their aches and pains and people looking for a lot of analysis in the subjects covered.  This it not a theoretical book, at all.  It is a “do this” book. People who already know how to program kettlebell workouts, flexibility and joint mobility and have a sizable tool box of Andrea’s “Three Pillars” of Strength, Flexibility and Mobility won’t need it.

Get Your Ageless Body Hardcover Book HERE

Get Your Ageless Body E-Book HERE

Convict Conditioning 2 Review

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By Sean Schniederjan RKC

I want to make an odd recommendation.  Yesterday I bought the sequel to a book I own.  Just like the first one, I read it cover to cover in one sitting (they’re both around 300 pages).

If you look at only appearances, a book called “Convict Conditioning” would have little to do with “The Ageless Body.”

But if you look at content, there is a substantial amount of overlap.

The author is Paul Wade, a man who has spent a considerable amount of his younger years in various California prisons.  He is obsessed with physical excellence and used his time to pick up information on transforming physiques for “survival strength.”

Survival in prison is different from the outside world, but the overall intent is the same: we need above average strength in order to survive and to carry our bodies into our older years.

The sequel has more than one anecdote about people using Coach Wade’s methods to rehab serious injuries and he tells of some old time hard men who were extremely strong and impressive looking into their golden years.

This material is ordered to longevity.

Because of his experiences, Wade prefers bodyweight training to lifting, kettlebells included.  He makes a pretty strong case in both books.  I will never give up my kettlebells though, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t and won’t put into practice Wade’s methods.

Bodyweight training is entrenched into the RKC.  Strength is strength.  Understanding key bodyweight concepts translates to stronger kettlebelling.  Andrea taught this over the weekend and Pavel teaches it at every RKC.

The first Convict Conditioning book is about progressing into Wade’s “Big Six” bodyweight exercises: Squats, Pushups, Leg Raises, Bridging, Pull Ups, and Handstand Pushups.  These are big, compound movements that utilize our biggest muscles.  No matter what your level, there is something in there for you.  The progressions start off super easy, ie wall pushups and standing vertical pull ups.  Wade makes the argument that these easier moves, if performed with the right form, have a healing effect on our joints and bodies. He goes more into this theme in the sequel.

Convict Conditioning 2 delves into Wade’s theories on joint health and flexibility.  He goes into coach mode as he uses pictures of different types of muscle stretching, passive and active, to teach how and more importantly when to use each.  He is a proponent of active muscle stretching, or as he sometimes calls it tension-flexion or supple strength.

I agree with Dan John.  The reason to get this book is Coach’s “trifecta” for fixing banged up athletes.  He tells some great stories (in my opinion Wade is a good story teller) in that section and then goes on to explain and teach the three moves that in his opinion offer the biggest bang for your rehabilitative buck.  Just like his strength philosophy, the trifecta is broken into the three categories of movement: posterior chain, anterior chain, and lateral chain. After reading through his progressions for each and how he came up with them, I could not help thinking that this guy is a mad scientist. An original thinker.

If you are into mutant strength, there is something for you as there is in the first.  He’ll teach you how to progress into two types of bodyweight flags for insane lateral chain strength.  Just like Convict Conditioning 1, the progressions are logical and simple to follow. Even if you aren’t interested in doing flags (there’s a picture of what a flag is on the book cover at the bottom of this review), then the easier movements from the progressions are beneficial and accessible. Coach explains how the movements from the first Convict Conditioning will strengthen your lateral chain but how the flag progressions take it to another level.

Another progression series he gives is on the question of how to develop grip strength using your body weight. This chapter is gold, because he goes through I believe nine grip maneuvers and the pros and cons of each. At the end he gives you what he considers the best exercise for giving you mitts of steel without lifting external weights. If you are into grip training you will like this chapter.

He also teaches progressions and theories for calf strength and how to balance out the opposing muscle, the tibia.  He gives the layout for how to use joint mobility and what works and doesn’t.

My favorite part of the book is the story of Wade’s devastating hip injury that he received in the 1982 San Quentin riot.  As you can imagine, the story itself is very intense.  It really drew me in.  He puts you in that prison yard on that day. Reading that section gave me goosebumps. He talks about the vulnerability he felt after the injury when hobbling on crutches past the prison gangs.

His obsession with knowledge of the body comes to light as he talks about how he poured over books from the prison library to learn how to heal what his doctor called a permanent hip injury.  He rightly felt he needed to heal himself – fast – to avoid getting labelled as weak or soft, which is obviously deadly when you are living in prison. He gives the methods he used to fully heal that same hip in six weeks, despite his doc’s warning that the effects would be permanent.  He says that since then he had no further issues with that hip and it is stronger than its ever been.  I don’t know how a book on training can get more intense, dramatic, and at the same time useful as this.

One more thing.  Paul Wade has a unique ability of explaining physiological and kinesiological concepts in very simple ways.  As an amateur, I really (really) appreciate that.

The only negative thought I had on my first reading was that the progressions are laid out in a less straight forward way.  The progressions are laid out at a kindergarten level in Convict Conditioning 1, and in Convict Conditioning 2 in a third grade level, so you have to think a little more.  I think the first book spoiled me little.  Wah!  I have to think a little and flip back a page or two.  As soon as I used that perspective it didn’t bother me as much.

The last part of the book deals with miscellaneous health topics such as drugs, alcohol (pruno anyone?), nutrition, dealing with injuries, to mind training.  The mind training comes from Wade’s unique perspective as someone who spent 20+ years behind bars and the “darkness” or isolation that comes with it.  Wade is from an older generation that had more common sense. Being behind bars for so long and removed from the outside world, seems to me, helped him preserve it. It serves him well in his writing and coaching.

As I read this and the first one, I wondered how this man went from being incarcerated and addicted to drugs to helping massive amounts of people get on the path to strength and health, and passionately so. There is a redemptive quality to this story that enhances all of the training information in its own inimitable way.

Paul Wade is a man obsessed with health, strength, and well being. He offers a perspective that few can. My real complaint is that we get this glimpse into what he has lived and his training methods, but we can’t train with him. How awesome would that be? For now we have his books and that ain’t bad.

If you are interested in well being: joint mobility, flexibility, and strength do not think twice about buying this book.  The information is so vast and at the same time dramatic and well told I felt like it worth far more than $39. As I read through it, gleaning something from every single paragraph I felt it would easily be worth 3 times what I invested and I know I’ll keep coming back to it for the rest of my life.

Get your digital copy of Convict Conditioning 2 Here:

Convict Conditioning 2 ebook

Convict Conditioning 2

If you haven’t picked up the first one, you should do that too (in regular or e-format):

Convict Conditioning 1

Andrea Du Cane Speaks! How Kettlebells Anti Age You…

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Host Bryan Malatesta, RKC asks Master RKC Andrea Du Cane about the new Ageless Body project and how it came about.

Andrea breaks down what you lose when you age and let your health go and how an all around kettlebell and mobility program fixes it.  She talks general principles and stories of people she has helped.

Tune in and enjoy!

“The power is within us and the kettlebell is the tool to do it.” – Andrea Du Cane

http://agelessbodyblog.com/podcasts/AgelessbodyBlogPodcast20110917.mp3

 

The Single Most Beneficial Tool for Lower Back Tightness and Pain – And How and When to Do It

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The Hip Flexor stretch is the single most beneficial tool for lower back tightness and pain and hip and groin pain.

What it does is stretch the illiopsas and hip flexor muscles. These muscles attach at the lower back and pelvis. So if they are tight they pull on the lower back and sacrum causing pain and more flexion, which then causes even more pain and problems.

So doing the Hip Flexor stretch at least once a day will alleviate much of the lower back pain people experience.

It is also very important to stretch out after exercise and you can also do the stretch before performing your front squats to “unlock” the hips to get down deeper.”

Senior RKC Mark Toomey also suggest adding a static hang from a pull up bar and rolling around on the floor with your hands over your head, which is also a fun thing to do anyway.

Here Andrea lays out the guidelines for executing a perfect RKC Hip Flexor Stretch.  The Hip Flexor Stretches you see some people do (say, if you do a google image search) and the RKC Hip Flexor stretch differ only in the subtleties.  On the outside, they look like the same move.

But knowing these subtleties will give you a more effective stretch.

Hip Flexor Stretch: WHEN to do it, HOW to do it.

Start by kneeling with one leg forward on a soft surface with your hips squared straight ahead and level.

Your legs should be hip distance apart and should both follow imaginary parallel lines.

Place your hands on your hips or the small of your back.  Squeeze your glutes and push forward with your pelvis; simultaneously reaching your head to the ceiling and LENGTHENING your spine.

Keep the posterior “tuck” of the pelvis as you move forward and only go as far as you can go without losing it.

Do not allow your forward knee to travel over your toes. Exhale as you go forward and inhale as you come back up, repeat a few times moving in and out of the stretch in a gentle rhythm.

Repeat on your other leg.

This stretch should be done after every workout, and if you are one of those extra tight through the hip you should do it before swings and squats.
If you are extremely tight, it should be done every day.
Andrea will be demonstrating the subtleties of this stretch along with her “big 5″ stretches for Ageless Body training March 3/4 at the Ageless Body Workshop in Minneapolis.  There are currently 3 spots left.

How to Program Mobility, Flexibility, and Kettlebell Strength and Cardio Work

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Andrea teaches that the three pillars of the Ageless Body are Mobility, Flexibility and Strength/Cardio.

The reason for this is pretty simple: we need to move well to lift well and not be in pain, we need muscle (because it deteriotes as we age), and we need a strong heart for obvious reasons.

Andrea’s system teaches correct mobility and flexibility to move well and eliminate or lessen back, shoulder, hip, and knee pain.  This gives the foundation for safe and effective kettlebell practice, which delivers strength and cardio depending on the application.

Some thoughts on the relation between mobility, flexibility and swinging a kettlebell are here

Andrea has a content rich DVD on all three of these things called the Kettlebell Boomer (soon to be retitled the Ageless Body).

The main reason we wanted to change the title is because what Andrea teaches to acheive an Ageless Body is universal, while ”Boomer” is not.  “Boomer” is restricted to one particular generation of people.

Senior RKC and Fulbrite Scholar Dan John uses this program because he points out “it makes me do what I know I need to do.”

This isn’t rocket science.  It is knowing what to do and then doing it.

In the DVD, Andrea shows you exactly what to do for optimal mobility and flexibility.  She teaches how to do kettlebells safely and effectively and then leads you through several strength and cardio workouts.

Some of the kettlebell moves taught are the Deadlift, Hardstyle Swing and Turkish Get Up and Bodyweight essentials like the plank.

Andrea scales all the exercises to whatever your level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

All of this information clocks in at nearly 3 hours.  Get Your Copy of the DVD here:

Andrea’s DVD on Flexibility, Mobility and Kettlebells

How to Program Flexibility, Mobility, and Kettlebell Practice

OK, now here is a question from DVD user Catherine from Pennsylvania. Catherine, first of all I agree with Andrea, nice job grabbing the bull by the horns, getting the DVD and USING it!  We can all learn from your example.

Here Catherine asks a great question on programming.  Below, Andrea gives a sample program of how to put mobility, flexibility, strength, and cardio into your weekly practice.  Set aside some time for your self and do it!  And enjoy the body transformation!

Catherine: Hi Andrea, I now have you KB Boomer DVD and am working through it. I’m 51 and 50+ pounds overweight. The closest RKC-FMS is over an hour away, but I plan on seeing him (once) in a month or two. Meanwhile – after the first time I worked through all of the instruction on the DVD, my glutes and lower back hurt (in a good way) for 3 days! After 3 days rest, I did the cardio session for the first time and I’ve been feeling the same muscles for two days now. I didn’t get through the 3rd round of swings. (Too winded). I was using a 12 kg kettlebell.

I plan on doing the warmup every day, and want to do kb work 3 days a week. I want to be able to do lighter movements (walking, elliptical) on other days without wrecking the muscle recuperation. How should I use the DVD?

Andrea: First of all I’d like to congratulate you for jumping in with both feet! It is a brave thing you’ve done, starting an intense exercise program without expert coaching and guidance. My Boomer DVD is the best way to start, but it still is an intense workout.

You don’t mention your fitness level or athletic background, so I’ll assume you are new to kettlebells and have not been exercising regularly.

I mention in the introduction (and there is much more detail into “ramping up” and programming in my upcoming book “The Ageless Body”), that you should spend the first few days going over and practicing the Prep exercises and Warm Up. Then start with the Instructional section and the basic drills. Once you have progressed through all the exercises, spending a couple of days on each, you will be ready to complete a full workout.

Because you didn’t ramp up your skills, technique and muscles you were extra sore after the first workout.

I also mention in the dvd, ALWAYS work at your own pace. Slow down, stop the DVD, switch to the beginner level if you had been following the intermediate etc.  Those are all ways to make sure you are training at a safe and appropriate level.

Once you are feeling good about the workouts, your weekly workout schedule should look something like this:

Day 1  (Warm Up) STRENGTH (Flexibility)
Day 2  Prep drills (Corrective), Warm up (Mobility), Stretching (Flexibility)
Day 3 (Warm Up) CARDIO (Flexibility)
Day 4 (Warm Up) Get UP, STRENGTH (Flexibility)
Day 5 Prep drills, Warm up, Get UP
Day 6  (Warm Up) STRENGTH and/or CARDIO (Flexibility)
Day 7  Rest

This is just a sample of how you can mix it up, notice you are giving your body a chance to rest on the prep and warm up days.

Remember you should ALWAYS do the warm up and cool down stretching. On your rest days just skip the actual workout, but use the warmup (mobility) and prep (corrective) and stretches (flexibility) to give your body an active rest.

Good luck and enjoy!!

To learn the right flexibility, mobility, and kettlebell moves from the Master RKC, grab your copy of Andrea’s DVD here:

Andrea’s Kettlebell, Flexibility and Mobility Program

 

3 Ways to Mobilize Your Hips and Why It is Critical

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Last night I was reading a monstrosity (in a good way) of a book by Gray Cook called Movement.  Gray is a consultant to pro sports team and teaches mobility and movement screen certifications, among other things.  This is one of those books where you have to have an intense desire to know what the author is saying, because you have to keep looking up words and reading sentences over and over again.  It is like drinking water from a fire hose.  But any little thing you get is worth more than gold.

He said something that harmonized with what I read in Andrea’s new book (not yet available).  Out of all the different kinds of movement, Gray says that hip and shoulder mobility are the true “primitive” foundations of movement.  This doesn’t mean ankle mobility or other kinds of mobility aren’t as important, its just that hip and shoulder are the most basic. So even though they aren’t more important, they have a certain privilege.

Toe Touching

The toe touch is a good indicator of hip mobility.  And this is really a question of having long, strong hamstrings.  If you do, then go can keep your legs nice and straight and bend over and grab your toes without contorting your back or bending your knees.  In other words your gluteals will be engaged, even in a somewhat “extreme” position.

The fact that you utilize your glute muscles is a good indicator of correct hip movement.

Unfortunately, our society has forgotten about our butts.

I think this is a big reason for aging and a big reason for people trying to stay active and getting hurt.

How to pick up an object

When you go to pick up a kettlebell, or any object, “sit back” and don’t bend over or scoop your knees.

But this is how many people move.  What does it tell us?  The glutes are these big slabs of muscle and instead of “sitting back” and actually using them people want to bend or scoop and end up using smaller muscles that weren’t meant for loading like the low back and knees.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that moving and lifting this way is an injury waiting to happen.  It is also AGING waiting to happen.

So practice using your glutes.  Here’s how.

Picking Stuff Up Vs. Squatting

Its important to keep in mind that the squatting movement and deadlifting movement are similar, yet different.

Both use the glutes, but the intention is different.  With the deadlift, you want to shoot your hips back, NOT down or back and down.

A good drill to practice this is to face away from a wall and “punch” your glutes against the wall.  You want to move farther away from the wall and keep hitting it with your hips WITHOUT letting your shins go less the perpendicular towards the wall.  Keep your shins at or close to perpendicular.

Secret to Mobile Hips

Here’s a big secret to hip mobility.  It is very easy when the right muscles are long and strong, not short and tight.

And the two big ones are the hamstrings, that we mentioned, and the hip flexor muscles that become tight when we sit all day.

The name “hip flexor” tells us these muscles flex the hips…so if they are tight then you will have trouble flexing your hips.

Fishing analogy

I was trying to think of an analogy to explain this and kept coming back to fishing, even though I haven’t fished since I was a kid (shame on me).

Say you want to cast your line out into the middle of the lake.  The ability to do that depends on the length of your string.

Same with the right use of your hips when you pick something up.  You want to “cast” your hips backward and you can’t do that if your hamstrings and hips flexors are tight.

good cast:long fishing line::mobile hips:long HFs and hamstrings

So what’s the best way to loosen the hamstrings and hip flexors?

Last year I was assisting at the RKC and a Master RKC noticed my low back would round downwards when I deadlifting, an “anterior tilt.”  It wasn’t staying neutral.  He wouldn’t help me solve my problem but Pavel did.

Pavel suggested what I later came to learn Gray Cook suggests for tight hamstrings.  The active and passive straight leg raise.  This simple exercise is cash money.  Gray points out there is much more to this exercise than stretching your hamstrings (which is fascinating to discover), but still it is great for stretching your hamstrings, probably the best one there is.  I really like to use a belt and do the passive leg raise.  In Movement, I believe Gray uses the passive leg raise to help achieve a better active straight leg raise.  And it certainly does that.

Pelvic Tilt

 

My low back was tilting anteriorly, towards the front.  My hamstrings and hip flexors were tight so they were “pulling” my low back anteriorly. Pavel and Gray suggest the obvious.  Lengthen those muscles enjoy a more neutral spine, or perhaps a slight posterior tilt but not too much.

Hip Flexor Stretching

For the hip flexors you can’t go wrong with the “RKC hip flexor stretch.”  There is now an RKC Hip Flexor 2.0 which I’m not familiar with enough to break down, but I remember when Pavel introduced it he gave some credit to Andrea for helping develop it.  Do you like how we talk about stretches like computer programs?  Version 2.0…developing…its so bizarre.  But Andrea has so much dance experience it makes sense that she would help with the flexibility developments.

Another tip Pavel gave me for my hips was face the wall deadlifts.  These are awesome…and hard.  You just face the wall and shoot your hips back.  If you have tight hamstrings and hip flexors you won’t be able to go very far.  This move brings it all together and forces a healthy posterior pelvic tilt.

So to increase your hip mobility try these three things:

Active/passive straight leg raise
Hip Flexor Stretch (I’ll put links to HF and ASLR and PSLR when I find good ones…in the meantime google them).
Face the Wall Deadlift

After doing these things daily, through deliberate practice NOT working out, to failure, etc. let’s come back to our starting point.  I bet your toe touch will be better.

Have fun with your Hip Mobility: Load 

But we don’t do this to touch our toes, as amusing as that is.  We want to have mobile hips so we can safely and strongly lift stuff.

Now that we use our glutes…we want to load them up with weight.  That’s what they are for.

Once you have mobile hips then you should start deadlifting or better yet, the most explosive deadlift there is: the hardstyle kettlebell swing…a veritable fat burning machine.

See how it all ties together?

Aging hates this information.

The Most Important Anti Aging Technique has Nothing to do with Kettlebells

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Movement is Prior to Strength: Learn it and Live It

Its almost cliché these days: you have to earn stability.  If you can’t move your body under control using full ranges of motion then you shouldn’t be loading it up with weight.

This is natural.  We move first and gain strength afterwards.  Toddlers have little time for squat racks, but they squat all the time from the ground up.  They move first and load later.  This is the message from Grey Cook and the CK-FMS and you won’t find much in terms of deviation from this philosophy in the Ageless Body.

The same pattern of mobility-then-stability that we live by naturally in our earliest development needs to be constantly revisited and lived throughout our lives.  How Ageless is that?  What works for an 8 year old works for an 80 year old.

Mobility is the foundation, when you lose it then losing the ability to exercise might be the least of your worries.

Building the habit of mobility is the cornerstone of an Ageless Body.  A habit is repeated action…what you do every day.  This doesn’t mean doing a few shoulder circles in the mirror before you go to press!

Our practice of mobility must be frequent, deliberate and precise.

Having a mobile body will not only make you less prone to injury or stiffness- it also “programs” our body to become stronger.

Indian Clubs are a perfect example.  Ask anyone who has gone through Indian Club exercising with proper form – which are designed to mobilize shoulder, elbows and wrists if their push ups or presses are stronger the next day.  Mobility makes you stronger!

Our joints want movement and will reward us if we pay attention to mobility and frequently practice it.

Don’t deprive your joints of what they want…because if you do they will make you pay for it!

We are interested in the science of mobility insofar as it helps give us an Ageless Body.

Moving your joints creates synovial fluid that in turns reduces friction in the synovial joints.  And who wants friction in their joints?  Frankenstein maybe but I hope not you.

Frequent joint mobility puts you in the Ageless Body Mindset

Its easier to practice mobility when you use kettlebells for overall health and longevity so you can keep playing than when you are trying to impress people with heavy lifting.  There is a discipline to it.

We use kettlebells as a tool to stay strong throughout our life so we can keep dancing, water skiing, golfing, gardening, throwing people around…whatever, not to post youtube videos!

Andrea really helped me to understand this mindset personally when we met a few weeks ago.  She asked me: do you want to PR or be able to keep doing your favorite activity?

I hate to admit this, but I will: for a long time I trained to impress people.  What is more impressive, doing a Turkish Get Up holding a 32kg and 24kg kettlebell in one hand, or having the kind of patience and discipline to practice mobility and strength every day?  I was younger then and obviously didn’t think about it in this way.

The problem is, what is most impressive (I hope you said that daily practice is more impressive) is hidden.

But aren’t the greatest things in life hidden?

The problem for most of us is, daily practice isn’t a home run like a huge PR, its more like good pitching and sound defense.  Pitching and defense wins championships.  Daily (or almost daily) practice of mobility and moderate doses of strength and cardio training with kettlebells will win you an Ageless Body.

Mark Reifkind, Master RKC says people get it wrong.  “Glory is temporary, pain is forever.”

And who knows what we’re doing every single day besides ourselves?  We have to think about what is really impressive.  The habit is impressive.  Being smart and giving our bodies what it wants and needs every single day is impressive.

Consistency trumps Intensity

This is my all time favorite strength quote.  I think if we can discover and live this for ourselves, then we are more then half way there.  This is coming from Mark Reifkind, a world champion power lifter:

“And in those simple beautiful movements I remembered what was really important in training; that consistency trumps intensity; all the time. That intensity is born from consistency. That one cannot force it, one has to lay in wait for it, patiently, instinctively, calmly and be ready to grab it when Grace lays it down in front of you.”

We have to start seeing the journey as what is worth chasing, not a momentary moment of false glory.  This gets at the heart of the Ageless Body.  I don’t care if you are 20 or 80 if you train you have to learn this.

There’s always someone else stronger, and if you push your body to extremes it will most likely haunt you.

If you are training this way, develop patience and start practicing mobility and get more moderate in your strength practice.  Long term you will be much stronger for it.

If you have the habit, different strength applications will be easier.  We’ll talk more about that later.

This approach will paradoxically make you stronger.

I know in my own practice recently I can do more strength applications than I could before, even the heavy get up – without caring about doing a heavy get up.

The habit of daily strength and mobility practice yields long term strength and the ability to keep doing whatever your favorite sport is, with less or no pain.

Andrea preaches that we do mobility before lifting.

So I asked Andrea to share with us the three most important mobility drills.

Principles are Broader than Specific Exercises or Movements

Like the sage that she is, she did not give us three mobility drills.  She has given us four principles.

Principles are more important than drills, because a principle is a source.  If we understand principles, we understand everything else.  Why?  Because the water flows from the source.  If you know where the source is, you know where all the water is, its just a matter of drawing it out.

If you know the principles of strength, then you can use any tool, kettlebells, bodyweight, whatever to become strong.

So Andrea has given us the principles of mobility.  She didn’t invent them of course, but she knows what ones are the most important from her own experience and research.

The Four Critical Areas to Mobilize

The three most important areas in your body to mobilize – that means ability to move under control from within through full range of motion for that joint – is ankles, hips and shoulders.  There are in fact four top three mobility drills: thoracic spine mobility is the fourth.

So if you already have your favorite ankle, hip, shoulder and T-Spine mobility drills, then do more of them!  Every day if possible!

If you don’t have a favorite or want to know THE BEST ways to mobilize these areas, post a question on the blog!

Train Ageless!