Category Archives: Goal Setting

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

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/

 

Just get it done.

Seems People love to make empty promises to themselves. I want to do “X” by “Y”. Strike up the band, fireworks, Yah Rah Rah, then when “Y” comes around the goal of “X” is nowhere to be seen..
I’m sure you have heard/see these many, many times but here you go once again..

4 steps to get it done..
Step 1 Goal Setting
Set reachable short tem goals that can be quickly achieved with a slight amount of effort. Then set another and another, these mini goals quickly stack up and steam roll in the direction of a bigger goal. When you set these goals build a support group. Find like minded people and resources to help keep you focused on your goals.
Step 2 Commit yourself to change
Look back at where you’ve been, at what got you to where your at now, habits, attitude, actions. Now change them, they didn’t work so change them.

Step 3 Understand Setting and Keeping Your Priorities
Get your priorities in order. Who is going to do “XYZ”, that you absolutely have to do, if you can’t? You should be priority one, and as you progress through your goals this priority should never shange

Step 4 Live it
When you reach a goal let people know about it. Tell them how, teach them. The more you help others do what you have been able to do. This will motivate you to keep your commitment.

Sounds to easy doesn’t it. It is.

Two Pints

I found this all over the inter-web, it’s a great life lesson to follow

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of red wine………

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, without speaking he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full of golf balls? They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two pints of Beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
Now, said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.’

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else; the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.’

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. Do one more run down the ski slope. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.

The professor smiled. ‘I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of pints of Beer with a friend.’

Share this with a friends.

1%

Part 2

Talking last about being 1% better at 100 different things, in order to do this takes Practice. Its believed that in order to be and expert at something you need to have completed 10,000 hours of practice of that particular task. This is shown in Olympic athletes, top Pro athletes.( Jordan, Woods, etc. ) top performers ( Bach, etc. ) Now you may be thinking ” I’ve practiced 10,000 hours at my work.” That makes me an expert. Which you may have but there is just one more word to add to Practice, “Deliberate”. How much time do you spend on your specific work task? How much is on other things? Now how many hours of Deliberate Practice to you have?
So now back to our Fitness theme. When your going though your fitness program how much time do you spend focusing on the movements? Or are you just trying to get though it? When you block out all other thoughts and just focus on the movement at hand, your results will change, body shape improves, strength elevates, fat shreds off and most importantly safety increases. So with your 1% improvement goals, Deliberate Practice can be applied to; Breathing, the Hike, Swing, Pop n Lock, Rooting and so many more.

1%

Part 1

Can you make yourself 1% better? What if you make yourself 1% better at 100 things?

Many people set goals to be 100% better than someone or at something.. Is it even possible to be 100% better than someone? Probably not, but can you be 1% better at 100 things? Studies on Olympics have shown the difference between a Gold metal and 4th place is 1%. Whether its distance, weight or time it all works out to be 1%. The Olympic motto is ” swifter, higher, stronger ” not ” swiftest. highest, strongest. ” Which should mean working on getting better at something everyday. So if its good enough for the elite of the elite, why shouldn’t it be good enough for you?

Since we are talking Kettlebells, what could you do to improve your kettlebell practice by 1%. Of course each of the RKC 6 can be improved with deliberate practice. ( “Whats that?” you say? We’ll address that in the next post ) How about simple things that once improved will have a ripple effect to improve something in all the RKC 6. Here is a simple list; Power Breathing, Hike, Rooting, Hip Mobility, Shoulder Stability and the list can go on. 1% improvement of any of these techniques can improve all of our RKC 6.

Tim Shuman RKCII