Sean:   Geoff – thank you for taking the time to do this interview.  Last time we talked you said something like this: just  like a computer programmer has his or her own language, yours is exercise programming – after years of practice.  What does it take for a professional to design programs that WORK?

=> No problem, Sean. Glad to be able to do it.

Regarding the language thing, you just have to do a lot of reading and experimenting. Some things look great on paper  but fail miserably in the real world. You have to be willing to put your time in and make mistakes, both personally and professionally. Just because your program works for you doesn’t mean it’ll work for the next person. So you have to have a large and broad population to experiment on over a certain length of time. I’ve been fortunate in my career because I’ve trained all types of populations – from elite athletes, military and law enforcement, to post-rehab and the elderly. A lot of my current clients I’ve trained for 5 to 10 years, so I’ve been able to experiment on them and really see the long term adaptations.

There are shortcuts to take, like modeling the success of others, which I used when I first got into the field, but over time you have to be able to understand the mechanisms behind why things work. If you don’t, you’ll be very limited to what types of programs you can put together. And therefore you’ll be very limited to what types of results you can achieve.

You recently put out a book called Kettlebell Express! with over 49 different kettlebell workouts in them, all of them designed to be done in a maximum weekly workout time of 60-90 minutes. Would these programs work the same if they were bodyweight or barbell instead of kettlebell?  Is there a specific benefit to using these programs with kettlebells?

=> The closest match you would get is with barbells. Obviously you can’t do swings with a barbell, so you’d have to come up with a substitute. Most people can’t do Get Ups with a barbell either. But you most certainly can squat, press, clean, snatch, push press and jerk. The downside with using barbells though is that they tend to be less forgiving with their technique then the kettlebells. There’s less room for error and therefore more chance of injury.

Bodyweight exercises only would require a different structure, but in theory you could make them “the same.” The benefit to using kettlebells is, as I mentioned, they’re more forgiving with technical errors. They’re easier to learn I think for most lifts, they’re require little space to use, and most people can easily store them at home. Not the case with a barbell.

What would you say to someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience in designing kettlebell programs but have the commitment to religiously set aside time to do their workouts.  Should they look into dropping what they’re doing to follow a professionally designed program?

=> It’s really all about time and energy. If you’re a naturally inquisitive person who likes to tinker with stuff and have the time and patience to test stuff out on yourself, then by all means design your own programs. Most of us, although we may be inquisitive, don’t really have the time and patience to see if a program is going to work – to get us the results we’re looking for – whatever they may be – stronger, leaner, etc. So using a program designed by a professional makes good sense from a time and energy perspective too.

But there’s an ugly side to this question that many people don’t want to face. Should you “have to pay” money (such an ugly word!) for a high quality program? Everything in life is a trade off. You want to change your oil and rummage around the engine in your car on the weekend to “save some money” or do you want to be playing with your kids? You’re going to spend something – time, energy, or money. Most of the time you’ll spend some combination of the three. I always weigh time and energy over money. If it’ll save me time and energy, I’ll buy it. That’s how I operate cause I know I can always use that time and energy to get more money when I need it. Most people don’t look at life that way. And that’s why their always in a state of lack or want. Sorry to wax philosophical there, Sean, but this is something I really struggled with when I was younger and once I figured it out, life, and what I got out of life was much, much better, much more rewarding, and much more enjoyable.

So it makes great sense to save yourself headaches and hassle by following a professionally designed program. Plus, if you look at anyone who’s been successful in any area of their lives, most of them have had some sort of help, some sort of guidance or coaching. That’s all a professionally designed program is – a simple form of coaching.

You’ve got over 49 different kettlebell programs in Kettlebell Express!  As a consumer myself, I was shocked to see such a huge number of programs. How long did it take you to sit down and compile such a large number of programs? 

=> Thanks, Sean. That really was what I was going for. I wanted to literally SHOCK the person who opened up the book and show them just how much could be done with what little they thought they had. As far as how long it took, hmmm… I don’t really remember. It was a project I’d had envisioned in my mind for quite some time before I put it together. I wrote most of it in 30-60 minute chunks during the first 2-3 months of our son’s life. The longest part of it was just detailing out the progressions of each program. But as I said, I already had most of the programs in my mind.

How did you discover the magic of the OPTIMAL DURATION for kettlebell workouts?

=> It was really through personal trial and error and in training my clients over the years. Most people need time to decompress between their work day and their workouts and then another transition period between their workouts and the rest of their day. We often call those first piece a warm up and the last a cool down. Those are both around 10 minutes each. And then most of us only have enough energy to really focus and produce the highest quality physical work for between 20 and 30 minutes at a clip. That’s what I’ve noticed with myself and with my clients and athletes over the last 20 years. You know, there’s just this period during your workout that you get in the proverbial zone and get work done. The harder the work, the shorter the duration your in there – that zone-state.

Plus, I’ve been through several really stressful periods over the last 4-5 years and each time, I find that I only have the energy to do one, maybe two exercises and not for very long either. So I found that maybe just sets of pull-ups for 15 minutes was all I felt I had time and energy for. Then I’d do them and at the end of the 15 minute period, I felt 1) great for having done something and 2) like I wanted to keep going and do more. I wouldn’t though. I’d just “bank” that energy for the next workout – save it up. And that always worked.

I tried this with my low motivation clients and it worked great for them too. Just short, little bite-sized workouts 10-15 minutes at a clip. And that was enough to get them traction and start seeing results again.

So a few questions here about hormones and working out –

What causes stress?  What can a person reasonably expect in terms of stress reduction from following your programs?

=> Anything can cause stress, Sean. But I think it’s important to know that there are two forms of stress – “Eustress” – or “good stress” and “Distress” – or bad stress. On an emotional level, it’s all about perception. For example, a joke can be funny to one person – eustress, and offensive to another – distress. On a physical level what makes one thing stressful and another not is based on a person’s state of adaptation – their general health and overall physical well-being and fitness levels. Walking a mile maybe very therapeutic for one – eustress, and a true workout for another – distress.

The reason many of us work out (at least with kettlebells) is to look and feel better. Whether that’s translated into training for strength like a particular goal – the Beast Tamer Challenge – or to hack of 20 pounds, we attempt to use the bells as a means of eustress. And emotionally, for most of us during the workout, it is a form of eustress. But to our bodyies we are in what’s known as a catabolic state – where there is cellular breakdown – and that is form of distress.

Compound that physical state, with the stressful emotional states most of us face every day – deadlines at work, idiot bosses, screaming kids – and then there becomes too much distress in our lives. Too much of that bad stress is when our bodies start to break down (and our minds), and we stop seeing positive results – or worse yet – we keep on pushing harder and start seeing strength levels decrease and body fat increase and even injuries.

That’s where those shorter workouts help to correct this stress imbalance. Traditional workouts are usually 45-60 minutes three times per week, which doesn’t sound like that much. But to someone who’s working 60-70 hours per week, it’s tough to find the time and balance the rest of life. Just thinking about doing so can even be stressful! The shorter workouts help relieve the emotional stress and rebalance the body’s stress hormones – adrenaline and cortisol.

So by following these shorter program in “Kettlebell Express!” you can expect to feel less stressed out, more in control of your life, and you’ll see physical changes too. I’ve gotten quite a few emails from customers thanking me for these and telling me that they’re losing fat without changing anything other than their workouts.

I remember early in my Kettlebell teaching career, I made the comment in class to “rest your elbow on your hip bone”. A couple of people in the class looked at me funny and then proceeded to slouch down with a flexed spine. I looked at them and realized it was literally impossible for them to touch their elbow to their hipbone without sacrificing their back.

I have a relatively short torso in relation to my legs and arm length so it was easy for me to do that while keeping my core and back braced and strong. But someone with a long torso and short arms can not do that without risking their posture.

Body Types and Lifting

This is just one example of where our build and body type will literally affect your form and training.

Perhaps an even greater influence on training is leg length.  Short vs long legs can nearly make or break certain types of athletes.

For instance, shorter legs make it much easier to squat.

Think of it this way: you have a shorter distance to travel to hit the bottom. Add to that strong thick legs and a long torso and you are looking at a natural born squatter!

Long arms can also affect pressing, although there are many other considerations, but if you look at someone with very long arms…. And they are trying to press the beast vs a guy who has shorter arms, if strength is equal, who has more load over time? The long arm guy of course.

It does seem like to be a general strength athlete you’ll have the advantage with a relatively long torso and shorter arms and legs. This is no excuse for those with the reverse, you can still achieve great feats of strength.

However, if your sport is speed and endurance like runners, sprinters and throwers, it is an advantage to have longer levers.

Let’s look at deadlifting.  What’s interesting here is that you can adjust your
deadlifting stance to suit your build. A more traditional deadlift stance with the
feet closer together will work great for someone who has shorter legs and a wider stance, or sumo style can work better for those with longer legs.

Does this mean you’ll never squat heavy if you have long legs?  No, but it will mean that you’ll have to work at finding your optimal training position and you’ll have to work perhaps harder than someone who is built to squat. Pavel likes to describe the way he looks when he squats “like a spider” with his knees up to his ears! He can still pull and squat an amazing amount of load.

Let’s look at the rack position. A big chested power-lifter is going to have to hold the Kettlebell a little more across his body at an angle. In fact, for really big guys with a lot of upper body mass, they not be comfortable holding a Kettlebell in the rack or “clean” position. And even more importantly, they might find it very uncomfortable if not impossible to do 2-handed swings. They just have too much muscle to get their hands into the handle of a Kettlebell. In that case, you can have them do towel swings until they progress to single arm Kettlebell swings.

What Instructors Need to Do:

This brings me back to the point about training others. Squats, deadlifts and the rack position will look different on different people. As an instructor, you have to remember what may work for you and your build may not work for your client. You will need to coach them to find the safest and most effective position, stance and groove for all their strength and dynamic lifts. It may be a bit challenging initially, but your job is to make sure everyone is working moving, lifting and working with the best possible pattern for their body.

What Users Need to Do:

As a user, you have to play around with different positions and work with a trainer who understands and has experience with optimizing different body types.

To find out what kind of mobility and kettlebell exercises Andrea teaches and how to program them, check out The Ageless Body.  For visual instruction on different body types and kettlebell instruction, mobility training and programming, check out the Kettlebell Boomer DVD.

This is the first kettlebell book that my wife has purchased.  I have a row of them on my bookshelf.

I came home for lunch one day and caught my wife researching Tracy Reifkind’s new book The Swing!: Lose the Fat and Get Fit with This Revolutionary Kettlebell Program

During the “rise of the kettlebell,” most if not all resources have been “how to’s,” abstracted from the people who benefit from using them.  How to do a swing, a Turkish get up, how to program snatches, etc.  There has never been a detailed account of how these how-to’s have affected and changed the life of the person who uses them.

We’ve seen bits and pieces of how kettlebells have helped people lose weight, gain confidence, improve health, cure joint issues, etc. on the blogs but we’ve not seen the proverbial microscope take on one subject’s change in detail in a 200 page book.

That book has arrived. “The Swing!” gives you the details of these three areas:

1.) Tracy’s personal story and the psychology behind radical transformation

2.) How to swing a kettlebell and how to program your swings into your life in only 2 sessions per week – and how to build up enormous volume quickly and efficiently

3.) How to eat right – from fast food garbage to nutrient rich home cooked meals (at home or on the go)

Tracy’s Transformation

Despite the title,Tracy’s progressions for teaching the swing and how to program it from radical changes in weight loss (Tracylost 120 pounds in around one year’s time), and muscular development (Tracyis now ripped) are one third of this book.

The first third is Tracy’s personal story and how she came to the point in her life where she committed to losing weight and reclaiming her health and life back.  I have never come across such a detailed look into the psychology that goes into this kind of transformation.

Tracy says that when she was overweight, she was “numb” to her body.  She paid zero attention to it.  She bragged to her co-workers “I can eat whatever I want,” yet secretly she was growing more and more frightened about the state of her health.  Not only was she overweight, but the digestive problems that come with being so overweight were getting worse.  The threat of heart disease loomed and occupied her thoughts more and more with each day.  But on the outside these fears were hidden.

So how does someone in such a state go from this:

To this:

Something I’ve noticed about transformations is that the person’s will power subsists prior to the transformation, it just hasn’t shown itself.  The person’s will power is hiding, looking for the opportunity to act.  This is true of Bonnie (who went from immobile “Frozen” shoulder to certified HKC in her 60s) and its true of Tracy.

Tracy relates how even though she was overweight and totally disconnected from and disinterested in her body, she had a competitive spirit.  She enjoys the TV show “Survivor” and secretly wished to be able to compete in the show even though she knew she couldn’t because of her poor physical condition.

So when a weight loss office pool came together with a cash prize for whoever lost the most weight came along, Tracy KNEW she would win.  She writes that the others didn’t even suspect she would want to enter the competition, let alone win it.

The spirit, or will power, of the “Swing Queen,” as Tracy is now called, was there before the physical transformation took place.  That coincidental office weight loss competition was the opportunity Tracy was waiting for to begin her transformation.  She confesses in the book that she didn’t know how it would happen, but she knew that is would happen.

Tracy’s powerful transformation with the kettlebell (and diet) has now spilled out into the most widely distributed kettlebell book ever published.  I never thought I’d see the hip hinge taught at the front shelves of Barnes and Noble.

“The Swing!” will be the occasion for hundreds if not thousands of new physical transformations – from overweight and dull – to chiseled, fit, and almost super humanly strong and conditioned.

There are so many other stories and revelations in the first third of the book that I’d like to write about, but don’t want to give too much away.

The Swing!

The second third of the book is devoted to teaching the swing and how to program it.  I’ve been around the kettlebell swing for awhile and was surprised to pick up quite a few new tricks and insights into ways to learn the swing and how to effectively program it.  Tracy uses these same progressions with her own private clients, so you know they are the best.

Tracy gives you what the swing is and what it isn’t and how to distinguish a real swing from an imposter, with big pictures and simple instruction.  She shows how to get the motion of the swing without picking up a bell and what to do when you’re waiting for your kettlebell order to arrive, so that you can start your own transformation the second you put the book down.  She shows you helpful stretches and how to fix tweaks in shoulders and back that can come with the learning the skill of swinging a kettlebell.

The programming section is every bit as transformative as the body that uses it.  Tracy shows you how to go to a few sets of “air swings” – swings without a bell – to behemoth workout sessions that, according to my count, have you doing over 500 swings in a single workout.

Since two handed swings smoke the grip, yet have the advantage of being a more symmetrical lift, Tracy shows you how to mix in one arm and other swing variations in combination with the classic two handed swing so you can get the most out of two arm swings.  I found this very helpful as two handed swings quickly smoke my grip.

For Mark Reifkind fans (Tracy’s husband – a former powerlifter, bodybuilder, strongman, gymnast – basically an encycopdia of knowledge of the human body), he makes several appearances to break down complicated concepts such as aerobic vs. anaroebic work and its relation to the swing and how to get BOTH through working up to a certain point using Tracy’s progressions.  Tracy and Mark have a gift of making difficult subjects easy to understand.

The training log lingo that Tracy uses might take some time to get used to since most people aren’t in the habit of logging workouts and using the special abbreviations that make journaling easy to use.  My wife had some questions about it and I was able to explain it to her based on my years of experience of swinging a kettlebell.  Its just a matter of getting used to it.

If you want to know how to go from a totally neglected body, overweight, weak and tired body to –literelly- super human work capacity with the lean, muscular body that comes with it, then Tracy shows you every detail in this section of the book.

Diet

The last section is about diet and nutrition and how the two are essential for transformation.  If you aren’t squared away on exactly what food provides the most nutirtion, how to control your calories for weight loss or “super fast” weight loss, then this is essential reading.  There is a section on a general food outline that shows how the different kinds of food are processed by the body and how to take advantage of the science for faster body transformation.

If you already have this background and want some recipes and ideas of how to program nutritious and delicious food that fit your schedule of calories, this book has a lot of ideas.

Tracy has gone from reliant on fast food to preparing her own nutrition plan using…real food.  Like most Americans she was stuck in a carb first, vegetables last habit of eating.  She shows how to turn this paradigm upside down, how to program it, and how to learn to love cooking nutritiously for yourself and/or your family.

There’s a lot more in this section but don’t have the space to review it.

Who’s it for?

Get this book if you are not satisfied with your diet and/or kettlebell training.  The psychological, physical, and practical tools that are contained in this book are invaluable.

What I like most about this book is seeing the diet information and kettlebell information converge into one comprehensive lifestyle.  I hope to see more books with both of these facets in the future.

The value here is pretty outstanding.

Click here to pick up a hard cover copy on amazon for under $20:

I had to help a friend last weekend help take his mother, who is in her nineties, out of her house to the car to take her to the hospital.  She is almost completely immobile.

My friend is in his low 60s.

I volunteered to carry her myself, but instead the instructions were to have her sit on a chair and I would take one side of the chair and my friend the other.  Having me carry her “would look silly” to the neighbors.  [And having two grown men carry grandma like Cleopatra wouldn't?]

The caravan out to the car involved walking a few steps through the foyer, down the two front porch steps and across the front sidewalk about 20 paces to the car in the driveway.

My friend owns his own business and works hard every day.  He is far from negligent about his health: he eats right and goes to his gym several times a week.  I’ve heard him talk about how he goes every day after work.  When he was younger he was very good at his sport and came close to playing it professionally.

When he’s at the gym he spends most of his time on a treadmill and then sits down to do some resitance training on the machines.

Aging: Movement and Posture

At her last Anti-Aging Workshop, Andrea DuCane said something really cool.

She said (paraphrasing here) “I can tell people have movement problems by looking at them.”  She then taught us how to do the same (along with some more technical stuff).

My friend is an easy target, as are most Americans.  His posture is kind of hunched over.  He has very tight hip flexors from sitting most of his life.  He will avoid using his butt at all costs.  He very likely hasn’t hip hinged since he was a kid.

His movement and posture have deteriorated over the years, despite all the time, money, and effort he’s been spending on his cardio and even strength at his gym.

Knowing this, I was concerned that he was my lifting partner with the responsibility of holding a 94 year old woman 3-4 feet off the ground for 45 seconds or so.

My worries were confirmed when his every day posture went to lifting posture.  His posture, quite predictably, went from bad to worse.  His back rounded, his hips when forward instead of back, and all the weight distribution went to his toes.  It was the perfect example of how not to do that.

I said a little prayer for poor grandma.

Effect on Cardio Health

Down the 2 steps and a little over halfway across the 20 pace walk to the car, my friend’s face was flushed and he was pouring with sweat.  Granted, this was an awkward, unstable load.  But grandma couldn’t weight much over 100 pounds.

He looked at me, with an honest sense of dread in his eyes and said “Sean…ah to be young again.”

Yes, I am chronologically younger than he is and there isn’t anything that can be done about that fact.

But chronological age is not the problem here.  Its the fact he had no clue how to use his body.

His problem is that he has very poor posture and mobility.   When he has to exert himself, even slightly, his poorly structured body cannot handle it.  When you think of everything that man has invested in his health and well being for most of his adult life, you start to wonder about things.

His problem has been compounding for a long time and it is going to continue to get worse if he doesn’t do something about it.

His current gym membership is powerless to fix this problem.  100% futile.

His heart functions just fine as long as he’s in his very narrow comfort zone.  If he gets out of for more than 5 seconds, everyone knows about it.

He could EASILY fix this, if he wanted to.

We have a relationship where I would feel highly uncomfortable suggesting anything to him, let alone shaking up his physical routine with a trip to an RKC (or any experienced kettlebell instructor) instead of the gym he’s been going to for years.  Maybe I should anyways the next time I see him just to ease my conscience.

The Problem with the Anti-Aging Industry

This whole episode got me thinking about the anti aging industry.  The estimated size of this industry is 96 billion dollars.

If you go on google and type in “anti aging” you get pages and pages and pages of skin cream type products or other anti aging cosmetics.

My friend’s workouts seem to be more cosmetic.  A physical task that wasn’t very difficult made him feel old.

Just like any product, the anti aging product addresses a problem.  Getting old is unpleasant and we buy things to hopefully reverse the effects of aging.  We exercise and eat healthy to resist the effects of aging.

Shouldn’t we try to anti-age from inside first?  Correct our posture and movement and get some confidence going with lifting fairly heavy objects and then go from there?

I’m working on a book review about a transformation that goes deep on just how radical this “movement transformation” is for anti aging and how its effects go far beyond knowing how to lift something and possessing improved endurance and even “feeling” younger.

It shows how this person gets stronger and feels younger with every passing year instead of the opposite.  The problem of aging has been minimized, drastically.

There are people right now calling the anti aging industry “bad” and saying“it should go back to the hell it came from.”  (Maybe they just needed a warm glass of milk and a nap?)

Really?  This isn’t realistic. To do away with this industry you have to do away with the human urge to combat the negative effects of aging and that won’t happen.  To do that you have to deny there are in fact negative effects of aging – which I don’t see happening any time soon.

Rethinking Anti-Aging

It might be hubris on my part, but I want us to rethink what “anti-aging” means without demonizing it.

There are good things about aging, and there are bad things, just like anything else.

If you could be stronger and more mobile than you ever were in addition to the experience and wisdom you get from aging, would you?

You can have the best cosmetics money can buy, but if you don’t do something about your posture and movement then you’re stuck in my friend’s shoes: doing any little thing outside your narrow comfort zone makes you feel old.

You feel old when you could feel younger, maybe even a lot younger.

This isn’t an attack on anti-aging cosmetic products, merely stating their limitations.  Cosmetics can’t help with this facet of aging.

If you don’t anti-age through posture and movement as a means to building strength, your body is going to fall apart much faster than it otherwise would or has to.

If My friend Knew How to Use His Body

With the right strength and movement tools the situation with my friend would have had a different result.

He would have easily lifted his side, walked down the steps and over to the car: no sweat, no weakness, no problem.

He wouldn’t have said “ah to be young again,” because he wouldn’t have felt old.

They all three agree on one critical thing about working out (if you want
strength, fat loss, quickness, a twinkle in the eye and an anti-aged look):
don’t over do it.

20 minutes with your bells or bodyweight or both will do more for you than
longer workouts that have you feel like you were run over a truck. These
longer sessions actually accelerate aging and mess with your hormones (so
I’m told).

Here are 13 benefits to short, purposeful 20 minute workouts:

-Improves sexual function
-Changes in gene expression (like reversing the “obese” gene, etc.)
-Better Skin
-Healthy Eyes
-Better Sleep
-A Sharper Brain
-Fewer Migraines (or frequent to ZERO in my case)
-Boosted Immunity
-More cheerful disposition
-More Birthdays
-More time to do other stuff (like time with loved ones)
-More time to rest and recover (just as important as exercising for fat loss
and building strength)
-Money saved from spending less on items pertaining to improving some of the
above

My own trial and error over the years has been confirmed the advice of these
three trainers.

A few years back I got in the groove with 20 minute workouts.

I basically did 10 minutes of swings, rest a minute or two, then 10 minutes
of TGUs three times per week.

I did this for somewhere between 1 and 2 months.

Got an email from someone selling hormone products (testosterone) and the
benefits of taking these hormone enhancers.

Reading down the list of benefits in this email (hard to remember – but
probably similar to the one above) and thinking:

“I already have all of those.”

Not only that, but at the time I wanted a “mutant” secret service snatch
test score (As many snatches as you can in 10 minutes, men use a 53 pound
bell, women a 16kg). Anything “Secret Service” is cool in my book.

After a few months of these 20 minute workouts (used a 24kg, 32kg or 40 kg
bell depending on the day), picked up the 24kg, set the timer, and clocked
in 240 reps in the SSST…massive PR that far exceeded my expectations.

20 minutes: not too much, not too little: just right.

Your strength and conditioning…in addition to the more important stuff
listed above…will improve, perhaps even drastically.

That’s why I was absolutely thrilled when I saw that someone who really
understood the science behind these short yet jaw droppingly effective
workouts mapped out OVER 90 PROGRAMS just for you

- figure out what your goal is, what kind of bells you have to use – and
plug in your program. Your program will dictate what you do for the next
month or two.

Its like buying seeds from the store…you plant them and enjoy the fruits.

Have a Master RKC get you your seeds.

I crunched the numbers for you, 92 of these programs is approximately
1,656 workouts.

That’s 1,656 workouts. In your private file.

You won’t do all of them, but you will find one or two that you really like.
I’m halfway done with my second one.

If Geoff charged 50 cents a workout that would come to $828.00. I wonder
how much time it took to come up with all of these.

You’ll be surprised how simple these programs are. Usually based around two
or three exercises.

Grab your 1,656 time saving, stress relieving, hormonally charged workouts before Geoff raises the price.

I’ve been wanting to share this story with you for awhile but was waiting for the last piece.

At the workshop in Orlando last September we met Bonnie. Like everyone at this workshop, she was intensely interested in living a strong and healthy life, and being a personal trainer, sharing this information to help transform her clients.

I remember her giving me some solid nutrition advice: don’t consume anything mass produced with more than 5 ingredients (or something similar to that). I was drinking a store bought “health” beverage that had more than 5 ingredients, more like 55….and most of them had long, chemically sounding names.

Journey to the Workshop

Before meeting Bonnie at the workshop, I was inspired by the fact that she made the trip.

She had emailed me one month prior and told me that she was in her 60s and lived in Alaska.  The workshop was in Orlando. I told her I thought the workshop would be helpful.

She decided to attend, and made the long , trans Canadian, trans-US flight.

You can see her level of commitment from knowing this one fact alone.

She had a great workshop, and having not been exposed to the high
quality of training in the RKC/HKC world she learned a lot:

A Fixed Problem

“Thank you Andrea, for re-enforcing what you taught us at the Ageless Body Workshop in Orlando. I’ve used several of your mobility drills for myself and my clients. I am so happy to report that my left shoulder (almost immobile in September before the Workshop) is doing quite well and I am almost (I did it once) able to do a get-up with my body weight supported on my left arm!!! This is huge!!

Thank you for showing me ways to unlock my shoulder along with many, many other ”tricks”.”

Bonnie has kept in touch. She wanted to further pursue her training and knowledge, for herself and her clients in Anchorage.

She emailed me soon after the workshop and asked if she could do the HKC or RKC:

“Do you think–seeing me and my abilities– that I could do an HKC workshop and get that certification? I want to do the CK-FMS in June 2012, but it says that I need to be an RKC and I don’t believe that will happen for me before June or ever for that matter! Not that I wouldn’t love to be an RKC……but won’t be ready before June of 2012.”

Journey to HKC

Due to shoulder mobility issues (which I’m starting to discover more and more are quite common), I advised keeping conservative and shooting for the HKC.

Bonnie took off for the December 11, 2011 HKC in Houston instructed by Franz Snideman (I’ve known Franz for years. He is not only one of the
smartest and most diligent trainers I’ve met, but also one of the most supportive and genuinely helpful guys around. It was a perfect fit.)

I followed up and asked Bonnie about her HKC experience:

“My experience at the HKC was fantastic! What a great group of guys that led/taught us. Franz Snideman was the lead presenter and he was wonderful! I did not complete my hang–but I have 90 days to send a video in and then I will get my Certification. I did pass all the other “legs” so the hang is all I have to do! Considering where my shoulder was in September–I feel like I’ve made such progress–unbelievable!!”

One of the requirements to become HKC certified is hold yourself on a pull up bar, elbows at ninety degrees and chin over the bar, for 15 seconds. It would take some work and some time.

I’ve been waiting for this email, and it came last week:

“Just wanted you to know that I got my HKC cert. I did have to do the 15 second hang away from the actual event–but I got it done and got my piece of paper.  Thanks so much for your and Andrea’s support.

I love your emails [get on our email list by signing up for the free 20 page report on the upper right]. I am so glad that Andrea is putting on more Ageless Body Workshops. That workshop in Orlando was the one thing that really turned my attitude toward my clients and business around!! We need to get the word out to people that they actually need it!! I’ve been focusing more on joint mobility and muscle flexibility with my clients and they are so grateful!”

If you’re in Alaska, stop by and train with Bonnie.

RKC?

“RKC? WOW! That’s tempting, but right now I have to concentrate on my business.  I looked at the requirements for the RKC the other day and the snatches are out of my league right now. I’ll work on it, you can bet on that!!”

Congratulations Bonnie and thanks for letting us share your story!

If you don’t work out and want to start, you need to do a lot less than you think to achieve fat loss, strength, less stress, or whatever your goal is.

If you work out too much and are experiencing fatigue, stress, sleep problems, and perhaps injury – then you will get better results by doing less work.

Why to let a professional design your workout for you

Do you want to put on that new roof or get someone who installs three roofs a week for the past twenty years to do it?

Why does a program like Enter the Kettlebell! work so well?

Because you let Pavel, or whoever the professional programmer is, do the thinking and programming for you.  You can’t mess it up, so long as you do it.  You always know what your next workout is going to be.  Just make sure their are testimonials to back up the credentials of the professional programmer.

Its like having a good accountant or financial advisor.  You sit back and let them to the work so you can play with your cats, go bowling, or read The Federalist.

Here’s two things that happened when I “hired” Pavel to design my kettlebell workout (I bought the book):

1.)   Didn’t do the mobility and flexibility moves Pavel suggests…after awhile got injured.  Didn’t follow the program closely enough.  Yes, the minor stuff is something you have to do, its there for a reason.

2.)  Took Pavel’s advice and skipped the variety day and didn’t do too much (some poor souls would always try to add another program on top of Pavel’s program.  That’s a recipe for stress and failure)…so I hit the goals of the program.

The Secret to Effective Programming: Less is More

The latter point regarding not doing much hits upon an immortal lesson for programming your workouts, that might be considered counter cultural:

Less is more.

I read about a very strong, world class deadlifter Jeff Steinberg who recently PRd: 655×2 at a bodyweight at around 177.

Now Jeff is in another cosmos than perhaps everone, but I found something interesting in his programming, something that us mere mortals can apply to what we’re doing, generally.

He did ONE deadlift session per week.  It was a hard session and he did other complimentary work plus his sport during the week, but his bread and butter was the ONE session per week.  He did three four week blocks (only 12 sessions) and even skipped one!

So we shouldn’t panic if we miss a workout.  REST IS GOOD.

I asked Geoff Neupert about programming deadlifts and chin ups per his Permanent Weight Loss exercise plan.

I had been doing two days a week, one 5×5 with lighter weights and one 3×3 going a bit heavier.  I was concerned this “wasn’t enough” or I might be “doing something wrong.”

Geoff basically had me look at the big picture, beyond the lifting to other aspects of my life.  I’m a pretty busy person, several jobs, and have a family to take care of.  The last thing I need is to do too much with my workouts.  He said three days a week of pulling (for fat loss) is ideal, but for someone like myself there’s nothing wrong with two days a week.

In fact, the lighter load is much better because two days a week means less stress on my body and more time to do other things, like doing sodokus and watching Family Feud.

Talk about perspective.  Its easy doing two days a week when you put it like that!

The Problem with Today’s Fitness Industry

Dan John talks about one of the big problems in the fitness industry these days.  People want to train like Spartans, Ultimate Fighters and Professional Football players.  Those things are all cool, don’t get me wrong.  I want to fight off the zombie attack just like the next person.

BUT:

Why do so many people compound the stress of their lives and accelerate aging and injury by killing themselves in the gym?

If you are going to spend time working out, at least consider these two things:

-How is what you are doing fitting in with the rest of your life?  Is it helping you or hindering you?

-How is what you are doing now going to affect your body in 20-30 years?

Andrea talks about how she does not do long, marathon workouts.  She does relatively short sessions, 10-15 minutes a few times a week.  And if you’ve seen her, well, you know she is in very good shape and looks very young.

There is a scientific basis for the results that come from low stress, short, anti aging workouts.

But still, some people are set on really long, drawn out, “hardcore” workouts.

500 snatches, 100 pushups and 100 pull ups 3 times a week is fun, and if you can do that you are a strong person, but if you keep doing that you are going to mess up your body.  I think something like Crossfit is a cool idea, but I’m interested to see what that kind of workout over time does to this generation of athletes.

Some Feedback from Our Subscribers on “Less is More”

“I am, at 60, learning to train ‘smarter’. I am going back to the basics: how to use my kettlebells safely, in proper form. How long I workout, is NOT important, doing the moves in good form, safely IS.” – Vanessa

“love it…right on.

best results in my life in the past 1 year with ETK, PTTP and Dan
Johns 40 day program” -Chris

Short AND Long Term Vision

We are hardwired for two ways of thinking: what is immediate and what is long term.  Unlike animals we can look into the future and reason and predict the same.

We can say “I’m not going to eat this cookie in front of me (immediate) because my goal is to lose 40 pounds by this summer (long term).

Work Out Abuse

Working out is like anything else, it can be abused.  Working out improperly, whether with poor form or too much volume or too much weight, can mess up your body just as much as it can conduce to your overall health and well being, the assumed reason you bother to work out in the first place.

The Ageless Body is about training intelligently for strength and well being today and how it will affect our body 20 years from now.

Equally important to actually working out is what you do and what you DON’T do.

Here is some interesting scientific backing about why this works (and not to mention a way to get your hands on over 90 of these destressing, anti aging exercise PROGRAMS…not single workouts but entire programs).

Not only do you save a ton of time and have more energy from doing shorter anti aging workouts, you’ll also learn how this is a big secret for relieving stress in your life.

This October will be 4 years since I’ve entered the world of the RKC.  It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done physically.  I thought I was going in to learn kettlebells and to test my guts, but the weekend ended up changing my life.

Kettlebells sucked me in from the first workout I experienced back in 2005.  I don’t know if it was the immediate strength I felt in the posterior chain, the strength I felt in my grip, or such a soaring heart rate gained in such a little amount of time, I was absolutely hooked.  As Bob Weir says in the Grateful Dead documentary Festival Express in their trans-Canadian journey by train, “we had achieved lift off.”

There was only one place to go with this enthusiasm, the RKC.  I didn’t go because I wanted to be an instructor necessarily; I just wanted to soak in the Taj Mahal of kettlebell training with Pavel.  The testimonials from doctors to professional athletes to strength coaches affected me.  I had to go.  I read about how the three days of intense training coupled with high levels of instruction on the precise use of the kettlebell made this an experience that went beyond run of the mill workshops.  The fact that it had routinely humbled experienced athletes and trainers, with a 30% fail rate, lured me in via a challenge.  This thing had it all.

It took several years to arrange  things.  It didn’t hurt that I moved from Texas to Saint Paul, 10 minutes from Dayton’s Bluff, but it still took roughly 3 years to get signed up.  October 2008.

Unfortunately, something happened to me while playing with a pair of 88 pound bells a few months prior to October 2008.  Lacking the requisite lat and core strength (probably best achieved from bodyweight training that I’d neglected) I attempted a double front squat that was more than I could handle.  My back went into flexion at the bottom and an even line of level 10 pain shot out both sides of the upper lumbar spine.

At the time of the injury, all I could see was the RKC weekend looming a few months ahead.  Unlike the unsuspecting rube who signs up not knowing the intensity of the weekend that lies ahead, I was fully aware that the weekend was “the eliminator.”  This fresh injury was incompatible with the three day war with kettlebells.

Registration was not cancelled or postponed.  There were a few months to recover.  Time heals (some) wounds, and by the time the workshop arrived my back was fine.  The bad thing was that I wasn’t able to train, at all, for those two months leading up to the weekend save a few light go rounds with a 16kg bell days before the weekend.

I arrived in the worst shape I had been since starting kettlebells.  I walked into Dayton’s Bluff afraid.

How to Pass the RKC

Despite being deconditioned and more than a little fearful of getting run over and killed, I did have three years of swings, snatches, cleans, Turkish get ups, and presses under my belt.  Were it not for the that, I would have failed.

What specifically allowed me to get through the weekend was completing the Rite of Passage from Enter the Kettlebell!  In 2007 I put in my time doing swings and snatches, along with a ton of TGUs and presses, as prescribed in the program and hit 240 on the SSST.

High rep swings and snatches reenforces proper grip, which is:

The Easy Way to Correctly Grip a Kettlebell

The way to do this is hold the bell as far to ends of your fingers as possible without letting go of it.  If the bell is down in your palms, then you will get meat grinder hands.  Brett Jones told me he agreed at the meet and greet dinner we had before the weekend.

I did get some minor tears in new places from the sheer enormity of the volume of work we did that weekend, but I didn’t have to wear gloves or cut out socks or doing any taping.  Hand care from grip know-how goes a long way.  I wouldn’t want to do three days of swings with Freddy Krugger hands, and thankfully I didn’t have to.  If I had, I would have quit.  Avoid the additional stress of taping and practice gripping your kettlebell the right way.

How Many Swings at the RKC?

We had a woman in our group at the RKC who counted the number of swings we did, and if memory serves me it was between 700-800 per day.  It’s my understanding that this fluctautes…but still.  This is on top of the demands of having to learn the system well enough to teach it, and the myriad of other workouts and constant mini-workshops on what is taught.

But if you’ve done a whole bunch of snatches in 10 minutes with a somewhat heavy bell that is easily achievable by following ETK, then you can do a whole bunch of swings and snatches dispersed out over three days.  Its still not easy, but your baseline is solid.

So my three (four) things for the passing the RKC are:

1.         Pass the SSST following ETK.  Since you do more get ups than pressing at the RKC and Get Ups strengthen your pressing anyway, do Get Ups more than pressing in your ETK training.

2.         Master gripping the KBs as described above (handles away from palms as close to the ends of fingers as possible without letting go of the bell).

3.         Meet with an RKC or someone who knows good form, especially if you are hurting yourself by using KBs.  Distinguish good pain and bad pain.

4.         Don’t injure yourself in close proximity to the workshop

There are many ways to prepare, but this might be the simplest.  Adding some things such as squats and bodyweight training (push ups, pull ups) would not hurt.  Read the requirements carefully.  There is a pull up test now that they did not have in 2008.

Don’t attempt this course if you are new to kettlebells.  Put your time in before, I’d say at least 6 months-1 year of practice and workouts under your belt.

I won’t forget seeing that guy, who was fairly ripped and strong looking, but failed his snatch test miserably because he had probably picked up a kettlebell maybe two times before showing up, if that.

One more thing: Squats

The most difficult workout for me and for the candidates at the RKC I assisted at in June 2010 was the squat workout on day two.  My memory prevents me from even considering the one I did in 2008, but the one in 2010 was the Dan John Special: 10 swings, 10 goblet squats, 9 swings, 9 goblet squats…on down to 1/1.  Now keep in mind that this is later in day two, after you’ve done a lot of other stuff for almost two solid days.

My point is, make sure you are doing some squats in your training to get your leg strength up to par.  I wasn’t able to do much squat training because of the injury, and that was a huge detriment.  IMO that squat workout is a big “hump” to get over during the weekend.

What Happened

I survived the weekend physically, but it was close.  By day three I remember feeling like a zombie.  I passed the technique tests and the grad workout, but the concentration needed to safely administer the teaching portion of the RKC requirements was not happening.  I was rightfully failed for a substandard job on the teaching segment.

The author, in the white shirt, smiling big to mask the pain. Note: no tape on hands.

I will never forget the verdict discussion with my team leaders.  I wouldn’t receive the RKC title.  There was a lot of compassion on their end.  They knew it had been a three day battle for survival.  They saw that I didn’t walk away like a few of the others that started the weekend but left early.  They saw me close to the edge during Jeff O’Conner’s sadistic squat workout. But facts are facts and I did not safely teach kettlebells to my victim.  That was a dramatic few minutes sitting around that table.

It proved to not be a big deal, because a few weeks later I met with my team leader with a fresh mind and body and demonstrated the requisite skill set in teaching kettlebells safely and received the title I had wanted.

What Happened After That

I didn’t want to just learn from Pavel, I wanted to work with him.  I liked his sense of humor and we had a mutual disgust of communism. I ended up arranging a strength workshop on the beach in Ventura, CA called Hardstyle Ventura with Pavel.  It has been successful for three straight years.  This past year about half the attendees set PRs following Pavel and Master RKC Geoff Neupert’s protocols for heavy double kettlebells.

This was not originally a part of the plan

This has led to a new interest, marketing.  I like telling people about these things, I like trying to find people who can be helped by these things.  Pavel introduced me to John DuCane and we have been working together to promote Andrea’s Ageless Body Workshop, which is growing since its introduction to the market last year.  We have more sign ups for the upcoming workshop from less than a month of marketing than what we did last year from 4.5 months of marketing.

I have a passion for this project because I know that athletics and strength training are wedded to risk, and there are a lot of men and women with joint issues, especially messed up shoulder and hips.  Andrea’s workshop is made to help these issues so that they can move forward with effective kettlebell training.

I was amazed that one of the participants at our first workshop said that he had level 7 shoulder pain and was unable to press prior to the workshop.  He said that after day 1 his pain level was down to zero and during day two his pressing was back, he was repping a 20kg bell thanks to Andrea’s instruction.

We thankfully captured his powerful testimonial on video.

The RKC was the entry way for these new and powerful experiences for me (entry gauntlet might be more accurate).  That challenging weekend was the beginning of a journey I didn’t know I would be on.

So thank you to John and Pavel for not letting the kettlebells remain in the dungeons, but taking a huge risk and presenting them to the market effectively.  They’ve changed a lot of lives, and I’m one of them.

The fact that they made this not only a workshop, but a huge challenge is part of the fun.  I’m not in the armed forces and never played high level sports, so I can look back at this weekend and say “I survived.”  How can that not make you an all around stronger -and stronger willed- person?

If you have the guts and will to claw your way through that weekend then what can you not get through?

If you love kettlebells, for their own sake or for the gold standard of teaching, and you like a challenge, go to the RKC.  If you think you need to take it easy and do a weekend that will help with the joint problems from years of forces against your body and learning kettlebells in a more laid back environment before taking on the RKC, spend two days with Andrea first.  Here’s some footage of an RKC’s impression of the Ageless Body Workshop.

Are you going to the RKC?  Did you pass the RKC?  What did you think?  How did it affect you and your life? Feel free to post your story in the comments.

If you are interested in anti aging, and keeping a relatively pain free, strong and well conditioned body as you age for whatever your sport or activity may be, I suggest learning and doing the following BEFORE jumping into a butt kicking kettlebell swing workout.

The Deadlift: First for a Reason

The kettlebell deadlift, NOT THE SWING, is the starting point of a successful kettlebell career.  It, along with mobility and flexibility training that are built into making a more structurally efficient deadlift is the starting point of “The Ageless Body” in my system.  If your deadlift is wrong, everything after will be affected for the worse.  Spend time getting this dialed in!  It will pay off down the road when you are knocking off sets of kettlebell swings.

Getting your deadlift “dialed in” requires you to understand the HINGE movement. The hinge allows you to learn to move from you hips first and let the knees move as an “after thought”. In other words hips first – knees second. All the while the pelvis and spine remain neutral. It’s worth spending some time with a qualified instructor to guarantee the correct movement pattern to create a stronger, safer and more powerful kettlebell swing.

The key to deadlifting is staying in your own optimal range of motion which means not rounding your upper (thoracic spine) and lower (lumbar spine) back.  Improper movement, rounding, of the upper and lower back not only leads to injury, it accelerates aging.  Bad posture increases aches, pains, and aging while good posture helps prevents aches and pains, increases strength and helps your body fight aging.

The kettlebell deadlift slows things down so that you can work on the basics of hip movement needed for kettlebell ballistics such as swings.  At my Ageless Body workshops we spend considerable time working on getting the spine and hips neutral, and we do this in the context of the kettlebell deadlift.  The deadlift is the place to work on spine and pelvis neutrality, NOT the swing.  By the time you are swinging you are moving too quickly and its harder to work on these things.

We spend time opening up the hips by working on the hip flexor stretch, among other drills, and thoracic mobility drills plus several key shoulder stretches that opens up the thoracic spine and shoulders.  I show you several of these in my Kettlebell Boomer DVD and Ageless Body Book.

What To Do if Your Are Rounding Your Back

A huge advantage to kettlebell deadlifts is that there are so many variations.  In addition to the number of bells you can use, sumo (wide stance) or conventional (narrower, shoulder width stance), suitcase (bell or bells  outside feet) or traditional (bell or bells inside feet), I’m talking about the variation of the HEIGHT of the platform from which you are deadlifting.

Raising the bell (or whatever you’re lifting) is important because when teaching spine neutrality, it takes greater amounts of mobility to keep the spine neutral the closer the bell is to the ground (or on the ground or even below the “ground” with certain set ups we won’t get into here).

Keeping Your Spine Neutral

Why is spine neutrality important?  Most importantly, keeping a neutral spine in a kettlebell deadlift or kettlebell swing is the safest AND strongest position for your back.  The spine transmits force when it is in the neutral position.  Rounding your back, generally, leads to injury and weakness.  When you round your back to lift (there are a very few exceptions with some elite powerlifters who round their backs as a specialized techniques that do not apply to the majority of the population) this indicates you are shifting the load of the weight from the hips and glutes, where the load belongs, to the lower back.  Deadlifting with a rounded back, again, is a recipe for injury.

But a lot of people do not have the hip mobility to come all the way down to pick something off the ground without rounding the lower back.  So we elevate the bell or bells off of boxes.  I like using yoga blocks.  You work reps within your optimum range of motion, the range that allows you to pick up the bell without rounding your back.

Train your body to lift in YOUR biomechanically optimal position.  Own it.  Then move to a shorter box and work on that range of motion until you own that one, and so forth until you are lifting from the ground.  This takes  discipline.  If you care about your spine you will be patient and not lift beyond the limits of your mobility.

Ways to See if Your are Rounding Your Back

A lot of people aren’t aware they are rounding their backs when they deadlift.  Another easy way to work on this is to use a broom stick or dowel to place along the back of the spine to keep it neutral while hip hinging.  Hip hinging is simply standing with feet shoulder distance apart and sitting back, so that your hips move back and not your back or knees.

Another component of the safest and strongest biomechanics for deadlifting is not just keeping the spine neutral, but keeping a neutral pelvis.  This means not having too much of an anterior (forward) or posterior (backward) pelvic tilt.

Your Posterior Chain and “Core”

You will discover by simply lifting a kettlebell with proper form the wonders it will do for your posterior chain (the key to a healthy backside, posture, and a firm butt) and even strengthen the abdominals “core” because of their role in stabilizing the spine.

Think of the spinal muscles and abs as the “tent” that protects the spine.

Having the habit of moving and loading the hips when lifting something removes stress on the back and knees and is therefore a key principle to a pain free back.

There is more to the hip hinge for keeping spinal neutrality in the kettlebell deadlift or swing.

Most people will ignore this drill because it looks simple and the benefits are hidden.  If you are disciplined and practice the deadlift often, then you will enjoy the benefits of a long athletic career and more muscle (muscle mass decreases as we age).

Tips on a Better Deadlift, and then the Swing

Stand with feet shoulder width apart.  Place a kettlebell in between your legs. Sit back and reach for the kettlebell maintaining neutral spine with shins nearly vertical and hips loaded. If you can’t reach the kettlebell maintaining this structure, raise the kettlebells up onto a platform of some kind to guarantee proper alignment, as we discussed above.  Make sure the platform is just the right height, not too high and too low. Second, if you are performing the exercise on your own, use a mirror to watch yourself from the front to help you keep your hips and shoulders straight and in alignment.

1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart.  Place a kettlebell in between your legs.

2. Start pushing your hips back. “Sit back,” do not bend over.  Keep your pelvis and back in a neutral position. DO NOT let your back round.

Sit back to load the hips. Loading the hips makes your back happy.

3. Keep your lats and upper back engaged and don’t let your shoulders roll forward or shrug up. Let you arms stay against the body as long as possible, and reach straight down for the kettlebell.  To what extent do you use your lats?  There is SOME lat engagement and stability, but it’s not a mobility or strengthening drill per se for the lats and shoulders.

4. As you reach for the kettlebell make sure the shoulder picking up the kettlebell is engaged at the lat. Think about keeping your shoulder blade glued to your spine. Notice your arm can pendulum down while your scapula is still pulling in and down the back. If your upper back rounds or your shoulder drops as you move your arm forward you have lost the connection of the arm to the body.

5. Push your hips foreword to full lockout.  It helps to squeeze your glutes together to achieve full lockout.

Helps to squeeze the glutes to achieve full hip extension in the lockout

When this exercise is done correctly, you should feel your hip and leg loaded and your abs and lats engaged.

The Kettlebell Swing

The swing is the “mother of all kettlebell drills”.

It is the “second foundation” from which all other lifts are based.  The basis of the swing is the explosive hip drive, which you should first learn from deadlifting.  Don’t even think about starting to swing until your deadlift is dialed in!

The swing adds a more explosive hip load and hip thrust known as “ballistics.”

The hip mechanics of the deadlift and swing are identical, but the intention is different.  With the deadlift you are lifting the bell up into a lockout position.  In the swing, you are using the explosiveness of your hip drive to project the bell in front of you.

As in the deadlift, you should feel your hip and leg loaded and your abs and lats engaged.

Without mastering this most basic of ballistic moves, you will not be able to take on more complicated kettlebell moves such as the snatch and front squat.

The swing is most important tool to create a strong and healthy back, and powerful hips, which is the basis, all athletic movement.

And of course if you program the swing correctly, it will literally melt fat off your body.

Key points:

1.    Hips and lower body follow a deadlift pattern NOT a squat pattern.

2.    Back must remain straight or neutral throughout the movement

3. Sit back, not down.

Grab the bell and sit back, don't lean or squat

POWER MOVE: NOTICE THE START TO THE DEADLIFT AND SWING IS EXACTLY THE SAME EXCEPT FOR THE PLACEMENT OF THE KETTLEBELL

4. Shins remain as vertical as possible with little to no forward movement of the  knees.

5. Keep heels down and knees must track toes.

6. The feet may turn out SLIGHTLY no more that 45°

7. Actively “hike” the bell behind you, forcefully loading the hips.  This is not a soft  move, “throw” the bell back with the inside of your forearms hitting your inner  upper thighs.  Notice the hip and thoracic mechanics from the deadlift are still there in the kettlebell swing.

Forcefully Hike the bell back at the same time as flexing the hips in order to load the hips

8. Fully extend the hips and knees by squeezing your gluts at the top.

9. Body maintains a straight line at the top; do not let your upper body lean back.

Glutes Sqeezed, a "Standing plank" KB in Straight Line with Arms

10. Kettlebell is an extension of your arm, your shoulder may not shrug up or  forward.

11. Use biomechanical breathing, inhale sharply near the bottom and exhale sharply  as your hips fully extend- not when the kettlebell reaches the top.

Conclusion

Most people have no business jumping directly into kettlebell swings.  Working on hip and shoulder mobility and strengthening them with strategic mobility and stretching exercises and working on the deadlift within the framework of your limitations is the best method for building safe, strong, and effective swings.

It takes some discipline and work, but it is worth it for building an “Ageless Body.”

If you want more, much much (much) more Master Instruction on the safest and most effective (with power to reduce aches and pains) kettlebell instruction plus mobility, sign up for the 2 DAY Ageless Body Workshop.  Save $200 if you register by MIDNIGHT January 31: www.agelessbodyworkshop.com