Category Archives: Challenges

Simple and Sinister

Bringing the focus back…

Justin brought the sexy back,

now Pavel has brought the focus back.

In our world of strength we push the issue of; Patterning, Drilling, and Rep-ing. This being done until the pattern is no longer feed fwd thought process but the automatic “go to” movement, so the exercise can be done when fresh or dog tired without diminishing safety. A simple example would be the Swing.. This movement ,” simple in its complexity, yet beautiful in its simplicity, ” is a BIG Bang for your buck movement. So much so it is called the “Center of the Kettlebell Universe”. Swings are the Foundation of many programs, we have 10000 Swing Challenges, we see 1000 Swing days, throughout the year and other great challenges.. But the question comes, from those Swings is How many are solid Swings? How many of those 1000/10000 Swings are just mailed in? In our world of Patterning we tend to get lazy and just let the body take over. I’m guilty of this myself, been there done that..

But now, enter “Simple and Sinister”. Pavel’s new book on what else, the BASICS.. He takes our beloved Program Minimum, adds a few warm up tweaks, flips it around then calmly demands FOCUS. Gone are the get what you can get done reps in “X” time.. Now your limited, 10 sets of 10 solid Heavy, Hardstyle/Strong/Pavel Swings anyway you want for 100 total quality reps. You notice right from the cover, Pavel’s free hand is used in the single hand Swing. It’s not off to the side, it’s tense right in front of him. You can see the irradiation being used to produce “Total Body Tension” in that Swing. FOCUS. Patterning is great, but without focus they just become, reactions, add focus, they become intentions, intentions lead to more. More; strength, power, fat loss, cardio, flexibility, mobility. And isn’t that what we want?

Now the Get Up gets knocked around a bit as well. Gone are the time of just getting up. Now the heavy weights come out. I believe it was Jeff O’Connor who I first heard say ” We use light weight for corrections, but heavy weight corrects you’. Get Ups with heavy weight really grab your attention. You will focus on owning each position when there is a heavy iron Bell over your head.

And of course where would we be without a test to find baseline?

5 minute Swing test. As many Heavy one arm Swings in 5 minutes. Switch and rest as much as you want.. As you move through “Simple and Sinister” program you will see this number go up…

I recommend it..

Original Strength; What can you learn about movement from a baby?

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Have you noticed Original Strength (OS) is being mentioned everywhere lately? You are probably wondering – what is OS?
Original Strength is a series of movements including rocking, rolling, nodding, and crawling. It uses basic actions that even a baby can do.

These movements are used to:
• Build a resilient body and improve your quality of life!
• Improve your energy, focus and performance!

• Immediately improve your athleticism and strength!

• Overcome nagging injuries and issues quickly!
• Rebuild the movement patterns you were born with!

Don’t worry – it is not complicated! In fact, a baby could do them! OS incorporates movement patterns you have been doing since you were a baby! OS takes you back to the basic/primal movement patterns we used to start walking. Yes everything a baby does before they can actually walk.
You are probably thinking, “I’m an adult, do I really need to be crawling, rolling around the floor?” Your body was not designed to be hunched over a keyboard all day! “The body is built to Move” (Tim Anderson). So back to the baby movements, OS uses these to reset the body and teach you to reconnect the “X” pattern of the body musculature.
Now you’re most likely wondering, “does it work?”
Long answer, “Yes”.

So, I’m bigger than the average Picnic basket-stealing bear. I like to pick up heavy things, and yet I have a slight issue. I have fusion in L3, 4,5 causing 18% loss of mobility (legally handicapped in 48 states). I find that I lean more towards breathing techniques and quadruped wide knee rocking with head nodding, as my daily GTG. Neck rolling, upper body rolling, lower body rolling when my back is really giving me trouble. My go to OS Reset between heavy sets is standing cross crawling (SCC). With SCC, I use various speeds depending on the heavy movement, if it’s a fast movement I go with a slow SCC and vice versa. These are great for slowing down and taking a breather between sets. These simple resets keep my back moving and give me a strong, stable base to pull and press heavy.
But don’t take my word for it. Orlandokettlebells is proud to present Original Strength Orlando, August 24th and 25th. That’s two days with Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert, the founders of Original Strength, to learn the exact techniques, learn teaching progressions, and most importantly ask the questions you want to know.

Check it out here.

http://orlandokb.com/original-strength/

10000 Swing Challenge week 2

Off and running.. Had a bump in the road this weekend, assisted at Orlando RKC, but was able to get some Beast swings in..

Tim 4100
Sara B. 600
Laura 2030
Miyshael 1963
Kelly
Amanda
Adrienne
Sandy
Wade 960
Todd
Chris J 1900
Icey 3384
Chris W
Liezl 4000

10000 Swing Challenge is back

Its time again

The Holidays are here along with loads of temptation. This is a prime time to test your focus. As many of you know getting there is half the battle. Staying there is just as hard.. What works? The basics, Consistency/Time, move it or loose it ( or gain it to be more accurate ). What a great time for the “10000 Swing Challenge.” This should be a good reminder not to blow all your hard work over the past 9 months on candy, cakes, pie, etc..

This challenge is a nice motivator and gives you a light at the end of the tunnel. A good place to reward yourself. Best part is you can swing anytime, am, pm, three times a day or three times a week. You just get it done when you can.

This is how we’ll run our second 10000 Swing Challenge.

Starting November 21, 2009 ending January 2, 2010 ( that works out to 238.1 swings per day ) And yes that does cover three holidays complete with all the parties and nutritional detours.

Everyone who signs in to the Challenge will post there numbers weekly. I’ll then post everyone together so you can see where you stand.

Rules.. just one. SAFETY FIRST, don’t kill yourself just to get numbers. Protect your hands, don’t forget to stretch, no lazy knees, and lead with your hips and hike pass with a purpose.

1 hand swing= 1 swing

two hand swing=1 swing

2 cleans= 1 swing

1 snatch=2 swings

double KB swings= 2 swings

double KB cleans= 1 swing

double KB snatch= 4 swings

Questions let me know.

Good luck.

Get it done Hard Style

10000 Swing Challenge

Ok now we’ve been working and working. We see the results; shape, strength, cardio, and over all well being. So whats missing?

COMPETITION. Its just human nature

While surfing I came across Kerry Kriener-Althen and her Innergrr.blog. Kerry came up with the 10000 Swing Challenge. This challenge is a nice motivator and gives you a light at the end of the tunnel. A good place to reward yourself. Best part is you can swing anytime, am, pm, three times a day or three times a week. You just get it done when you can.

This is how we’ll run our 10000 Swing Challenge.

Starting March 2, 2009 ending April 6, 2009 ( that works out to 238.1 swings per day )