Clubwork Front Swing exercise

Trainers, teach newbies to learn the kettlebell front swing quickly by having them practice Clubwork front swings. The clubs are easier for the students to swing and reduce the learning curve.

45lb Gamma Cast

Clubwork Inside Mill To Outside Mill Transfer

A simple move to develop coordination. Easy to do, just perform an inside mill as normal and at the bottom of the swing pass the club to the opposite hand to begin performing an outside mill. Try it a few times to get the feel. You can see in the video that my first few swings are 'clunky' but by the 3rd one the smoothness comes out.

Weaker People Can Influence Fitness Trends DadBod

 Recently, an article appeared written by Mackenzie Pearson a 19 year old journalist (sic) regarding the 'Dad Bod'. The dad bod is just that, a doughy version of what once was a slightly muscular young man who's succumbed to the more 'relaxed' lifestyle of Americans. Gone are the days of going to the gym or running an obstacle race and forget about eating right. Enter the new daily routine of relaxing for 5 hours in front of the TV with Dominos ringing the doorbell after putting in a hard day sitting at a desk.

 The author states that women like the dad bod because it doesn't intimidate them, that it's more cuddly, and it never matters what's for dinner. This doesn't compute and further more there isn't enough estrogen to make me fathom these concepts. I think that they're a bunch of crap and notice the subtlety of a much more dangerous beast.

 Enter the sloven woman, the woman who puts leisure above all else. When the fit man encounters one of these during a courting ritual he is immediately red flagged and targeted for ostracization     due to his 'insinuation' that the women must be on his fitness level. Instantly, her brain sees herself a year from that moment immersed into a lifestyle of fitness, meal prepping, and hard work. Not a rational choice for the sloven woman because it goes against her lifestyle. Also the appearance of a man with lower testosterone is less threatening to her demands.

 Maybe it is time for some to do an honest evaluation of their own lifestyle and admit to not wanting to work hard to stay healthy instead of easily creating a buzz phrase that says, "he's more acceptable to me because he won't have any expectations that I'll have to work at." Stop trying to create a socially usable excuse to describe your own lack of drive. Instead of telling men that the dad bod is ok, tell the world why you are a couch potato. Why take from men that which is naturally programmed in their hard wiring - to accept challenges, to be strong, to compete, etc and reduce it to conform to, for lack of a better word, lazy?

My 12 Hr a Days/7 Days a Week DadBod
1997

Being In The Moment of Movement

Today's training was my typical Monday workout. It's clubwork. it's always clubwork and maybe some sprinting. Today, I hearkened to some fine words while grinding out my reps. Concentrating on the feeling of moving the club, rather than just moving it. I became aware of subtleties that have plagued past workouts where I became frustrated with my lack of skill, and more often than not, blaming the poorly executed rep on too heavy a weight or being too tired. 

Using An Adex Club For Leg Training

 I do perform 'tune up' metcons on my off days. Either doing clubwork Tabatas or 100+ rep schemes that serve 3 purposes. The first is the obvious, to build endurance and burn the fat off my belly. Second reason is to do some opposite direction work from my normal clubwork training. The third and becoming the more important reason, is to practice the movements I do for heavy training days with a lighter weight. If you are a veteran of heavy clubwork, then you know the difference between doing an inside mill with a 15 pound club vs. a 35 pound club. If you aren't, you need to try this shit out! Back to my point - I use my Adex Club set to 15 pounds for my 'off' days. This way, I get the high reps and concentrate on where the club is, how it rotates, and what each part of my arm and body is doing. This changes to me controlling the club rather than letting it hurl itself around me.

 I first took notice of being in the moment of exercise when I read Scott Shetler's Abundant Health article about QiGong and being in the moment of performing a movement in a relaxed state. Concentrate on the flow of energy when doing QiGong or Tai Chi. Chip Conrad also has numerous articles that he's written about enjoying the moment of exercise. Chip says that we shouldn't look at exercise as drudgery, but to study it while actually doing it, to gauge how our body feels and where it is in space. This may sound very 'heady' and almost spiritual, but it opens up the mind's eye to better performance for the next time we attempt that movement. This practice has taught me when I up the weight on my club, I have to process the movement to be sure it's going correctly.

 The gist of the story is to practice movement, especially complex movements. Revert back on your off days to some lighter work and take the time to 'feel' what is going on. You'll surprise yourself when you hit the gym on your regular days and feel the progress in your body. It's the beginning of the difference between being good and being great. Move and enjoy it.

Defining Toughness

 When recently asked what toughness was. I gave it some thought, and what came to mind was an excerpt of Teddy Roosevelt's great speech "Citizenship In A Republic" and it's passage;

 "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 

 Physical strength can be measured by lifting a weight, by running a race, or swimming a distance. Toughness has to be shown. It is shown when the underdog defeats a champion. It is shown, when, even if one fails, he pulls himself up to rally at it another time. Toughness is the tenacity one attacks a challenge with, not yielding a single drop of sweat until it's laid to rest. 

 Toughness isn't learned. It resides deep within us, and has to be coaxed from one's heart. When you see a man with a shovel and the hole he is charged to dig is large, will his strength determine the speed at which he digs, or will it be his persistence to get that task done? Sure, the strong will have an easier go at it, but it's the toughness of that man, when his strength is all but gone, to get that hole dug. Holding fast to your beliefs is toughness. Facing fears is toughness. Following through on a project is toughness. Adhering to a routine is toughness. Being uncomfortable without complaint is toughness. Effort is toughness.

 In this day of automation and instant gratification, is our toughness being washed away from us? Do we as humans have the guts to participate in the very things that defined the generations before us? Is the toughness that helped us flourish as a species dwindling from our very DNA to the point that future generations will crumble from the weight of world? One would hope not. Challenge yourself, make yourself tougher, the rest of humanity is watching.

Keeping It New

 It seems that for many of us, fitness is a way of life, and it seems, that it has always been our way. Throughout the lay-offs, injuries, and excuses about not having the time, we have begun a hundred beginnings and still persist. Fitness is ingrained in the human DNA. We are born both hunter and gatherer. Nature has given us the natural ability to chase a meal for miles and carry it home, or spend the day bending repetitiously to only have to carry the bounty back to our dwellings. The human body was designed for hard physical work but the advent of industrialization reduced much of that activity. 

 Now a days, we humans seek out ways to be active beyond our jobs. We join gyms and do the prescribed 3 X 10 workout of bench press to get our activity. After some time, that activity becomes rote, boring, and common. We have an inherent desire to try something different but don't know what or, even worse, don't know what will be an acceptable form of exercise to our peers. Try telling your bench press only buddies that you go to yoga class. Tell the ladies in the spinning class that you do 300 front swings with a 16kg kettlebell. The looks and comments that follow will sometimes amaze, keep in mind the fact that kettlebells and yoga are pretty common forms of fitness. Despite the exposure to the mindless comments, some continue to learn new ways to train, to stay strong, and challenge ourselves.

 Our peer groups seem to not invite change, especially when it has to do with the betterment of one of the individuals. Hierarchy is now challenged. The once leader of the bench press group is now trumped by the curious individual's discovery of a new way. Defense mode starts in the form of negativity toward the new activity by berating it. "Yoga is for women." "300 swings with that heavy thing? You'll look like a man." These comments are meant to determine others from joining and sometimes they work. For the most part, the curious individual continues his new found passion and becomes the trail blazer, leaving the others to discover unconventional fitness when it becomes more mainstream. Look at Crossfit, once known as circuit training in its primitive form, had no appeal to us in Junior High School. The reason? No scheduled heavy movements and the added running, so the common conception was it was for girls. Speaking of girls, they were encouraged to 'shape and tone' then. This was tunnel vision of the first degree. Looking back, if anyone had kept on doing circuit training from the '70's until now, they'd be smashing WOD's like crazy today.

 The sum of this article is a slight delve into the realities of discovering a new fitness trend - especially an unconventional one. The world longs for change yet refuses it in the same breath. We have all the proof about fitness, and yet, on it's most exposed level is still it is a cult, a sub-culture lying deep beneath a potato chip and onion dip crusted society that lays on excuses formed by negativity. This conditioning makes it harder for those who have broken through that crust, embraced a form of fitness, yet refuse to see another. Only the brave who will explore other paths, openly regarding all movement as fitness, will truly achieve a life of effortless motion.