I have good news to report:

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.

One of the perks of running antiagingkettlebell.com is meeting people who have come face to face with a challenge and have decided to overcome it.  As we all know, diabetes is a common challenge in our day and age.

by Sean Schniederjan, RKC

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.

Many instructors say that the kettlebell swing is the starting point for all or most kettlebell exercises.  There is something even more fundamental and it is something that most people brush over.  I’m talking about the kettlebell deadlift.  If you look at the top google searches for how to swing a kettlebell not much is said about the kettlebell deadlift and how it is the foundation of a proper, safe, and effective kettlebell swing.

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 shoul