But seriously. I get this question on a regular basis and while I believe that there is no such thing as a stupid question this is close.

First let me say that belief in what you are doing will certainly have an impact. If you think you are doing something of benefit, then you will get more than if you aren’t happy with your program.

Find something that you enjoy and will stick with for more than a few sessions. Jumping all over the place will get you nowhere. Strength is a skill and it needs to be practiced. A good place to start with kettlebells is Enter The Kettlebell and an RKC instructor.

If you are more geared towards absolute strength than you may either want to consult with Marty Gallagher or at least read the Purposeful Primitive. My own training is a combination of sprints, rugby, weightlifting httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiftFmN8eC4, powerlifting and kettlebells.

In many ways the best thing to do is what you are doing now. That doesn’t mean that your workout can’t, or shouldn’t be, tweaked from time to time but chasing results by switching up programming all the time is a losing proposition.  Just as investors chase returns by buying and selling the latest and greatest stock, many trainees jump from program to program because they aren’t getting as strong as they’d like. Getting strong isn’t an overnight occurrence.  Stick with it and you will get results.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

First, let me say that consistency trumps intensity almost always.  How so? Well, just like building wealth, getting in shape is a process and it can’t be done quickly. It’s best done by an unfailing devotion to your plan.

So what should that plan be? Well it depends on your goals. I find that 99.9% of the population want to look better and be healthier.  So for the time being let’s go for that.

My first question for you would be “what are you eating and putting in your body?” Ditch the processed carbs. Ditch the caffeine. Ditch the nicotine. Sugar? Fugetaboutit! Eat real food and don’t eat anything that is enriched with crap.

Get plenty of sleep. If your health is important to you then what you eat and how you recover is huge. Two reasons you don’t lose weight is you eat “Low fat” shit and sleep 6 hours a day. I can almost guarantee you are carrying extra weight if these two hold true.

But I digress.

Here’s a 4 week program for beginners. First off, be sure  to learn how to do a kettlebell swing properly. Properly means that you learn from a certified RKC. Sorry all you crossfitters out there but the american swing ain’t for beginners and isn’t much better for advanced users.  Don’t try to learn it from YouTube or even Tracy Reikind’s excellent swing video. Hands on instruction is the only way I’ve found that it is learned safely. I’ve only had one person come to me for training who was self taught and swinging well.

Learn the swing, the Get up and the goblet squat. Once these are being done well then you are ready to proceed.

Train 3 says a week. Start with 5 minutes of TGU. In almost all cases this should be a bodyweight exercise at first. Next alternate swings and squats. Add training volume each session. Quality beats quantity. Still, try to do more work each session. You should shoot for sets of 5-10 swings and 5-10 squats. Work for 30 minutes and track your improvement.

What should you expect? Well you will start to notice a markedly better body. You will feel better. You will certainly have more energy.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

I was watching a Kelly Starrett video the other day and he mentioned something about releasing the sacrum. I ended up doing a Google search and found something called the Sacro Wedgy.

Of course I bought the “male” version but they make one especially for women too.

I ordered it Sunday and got it today.

I did my first 20 minute session with it and felt like a new person with new found hip mobility and a body that felt 50 lbs lighter. I am using it right now as I type this. I just got up to check out how I feel and I can’t even describe how great I feel. This is the best I’ve felt in eons.

The company that makes them offers this:

The Sacro Wedgy Male System helps to stabilize the sacrum, allowing the pelvic girdle to relax and return to its normal position of balance. This in turn helps to eliminate symptoms such as pain or numbness radiating down the legs and tightness and pain in the hip area. This version is specially shaped to fit a man’s body. The sacrum is the keystone of your anatomy – the part upon which the spine and most of your weight rests – our center of gravity. When an arch is built, as in construction, the last stone in the arch to go in place is the keystone or wedge-shaped stone. If this wedge is for some reason pulled out of place, the arch will collapse. The sciatic nerve and other nerves extend from the sacrum to all parts of the lower extremities.

For all intents and purposes, this tool acts like mini traction. I can’t wait to see what sort of impact this will have on my training but I can only imagine.

I will report on that in my next blog post but in the meantime I had to share it with you.

Buy this today!

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

Forget anything very specific here. I’m not talking about your deadlift numbers or your RKC snatch test. Simply, I want all of us to be able to lift pain free, move pain free and have excellent cardiovascular health.

I’m going to give you some very valuable and free tools here to be able to enjoy intense training and still be relatively pain free. You’ll end up needing a few lacrosse balls, a Rumble roller, a Grid, some bands and around 15 minutes a day. Dr. Mark Cheng recommended the Rumble Roller a few blog post ago and I bought it straight away. I use it now as much as my Grid.  I have a big Rumble and a short Grid. Grid doesn’t sell one all that wide. You will get so much from investing in the above I can’t even tell you. Do it now. It’s not worth waiting. I move better now at 50 then I could at 25.

Kelly Starrett DPT and the owner of Crossfit San Francisco has perhaps the best website out there to help you   self maintain your body structure while training as hard as possible. A lot of what I’ve learned from his website, Mobility WOD, is painful for sure but it is ALL highly recommended.

First let me give you my opinion on the best way to utilize his site. You are going to want to subscribe to the RSS feed so that you always up to date on what he is sharing.

Next thing you will want to do is use his “Search” future and use an appropriate word for your own challenges. So if you have jacked up shoulders use “shoulders.” If your squat sucks then type in “Hips” or “squat.”

So how has Starrett’s site helped me? Well I do sprints whenever I want to. I combine kettlebells, Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting into a crazy hybrid that leaves me feeling young. I never have pain and I also played a round of golf today with no lower back or hip pain.

Let me give you full disclosure.  I thought my squat was solid until I found MobilityWOD. I thought my hips were hippy and that my base, see feet , was solid. Shoulders seemed  healthy and good to go….Not so much though.  I really was pretty much incorrect. And this site has helped me to no end.  Even better, a few of my clients have raved about how much better they are feeling and moving and that is truly what it’s all about.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

I just finished reading the “Slight Edge” last night and it may be the BEST book that I’ve ever read on changing your philosophy. It is certainly in the Top 5.

If you are serious about making your life successful then please invest in this book or at least see if your local library has it.

The book teaches you how to apply some simple, basic truths to get the results you want. Each one of these principles is so easy to apply and equally easy not to apply. You see, the choice is always yours.

One of the biggest challenges is that what we do today…either that which  will help us or hurt us isn’t necessarily going to show up tomorrow. I see it each January in my Kettlebell business. Folks show up with a New Year’s resolution to get healthier. They work out a few times and amazingly they don’t lose 15 pounds right away. So somehow, they determine that it must not work. In reality, they want to harvest their results before they’ve started, much less finished, sowing the seeds of health.

You see, the “Slight Edge” either works for you or against you. There is a “success curve” and a “failure curve.” For a long time they remain so close to each other on a graph that you may not be able to tell one from another. Then they will veer wildly away from each other. The success curves goes Due North and the failure one Due South.  There are no shortcuts. Time is either your ally or your enemy and all it depends on is if you are applying simple, repeatable positive steps, over time or making simple, errors in judgement over time.

The choice is yours and I can promise you that the Slight Edge will work for you or against you and you will be the one to make the choice!

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

If I give you guidance and you buy into it, then you are lot more likely to get results. If you want to argue and fight about it, then your buy-in is no go0d and your results will reflect that.

I don’t care what we are talking about here. Life, training, business or all of these things.

A 5 x 5 training program will get you a ton stronger.  If you don’t buy into it, then your results will be crappy.  How do I know this? I’ve seen it with certain clients. Both ways. When the belief is in place the results speak for themselves.

I was talking to my good friend Dan Cenidoza about this last week. There are many, many ways to enjoy success in training. Gym Movement works for some people. I can’t argue with that. Dan John’s methods have been proven over and over. Certainly, Marty Gallagher seems to get results. Countless world records performed by his athletes indicate he knows of what he speaks. Does Pavel have knowledge to share? What do you think?

And that question may prove to be the most telling one.

If you don’t believe in your approach, then I can promise you that you won’t get results. I don’t care what others are able to do with the same program. It doesn’t matter. What matters is what you think. Why is this? Because the mind is such a powerful thing.

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

Logan Christopher RKC is a good guy and certainly one of the strongest and fittest men I know. In fact, I even consulted with him to improve my own snatch speed. What we discussed at that time in no way resembles the nonsense he is putting out into the marketplace these days. He does himself, and the truth, dishonor though with his most recent marketing piece.

Logan is known and trusted in the strength world. So trusted in fact, that at least two senior level RKCs sent out emails on his behalf, sharing his most recent “accomplishment.” The problem is that what he said he did and what he actually did, were not congruent.

Logan claimed that he did the Secret Service Snatch test with the 24 kg kettlebell and was able to do 301 repetitions within the 10 minute limit of said test. Problem is they were incomplete reps.

And I am not talking simply semantics here. Just as barbell squat has a prescription to it and  that is “below parallel, the kettlebell snatch rep is described as completed with a locked elbow and a pause at the top.

As I mentioned, at least two top RKCs sent out an announcement regarding this “feat” and their mistake was not viewing the video before they shared it with their following. They both sent out emails of apology stating that they had failed to do their due diligence prior to sharing. They  both “manned up” and said something like that would never occur on their watch again.

Logan on the other hand sent out an email that excuses his lack of movement integrity by saying . “I understand the snatch better than most people out there. I understand that form must be compromised to go this fast. Others do not understand this. But I don’t teach the snatch the way I show it in the
video except to people that are capable of going this fast, which is few and far between. (Actually the majority of the form is the same its just the lockout in question.)”

Seriously? That’s exactly like saying if you are sprinter, “hey I can’t go full speed for 40 yards so let’s go 30 and still say I ran a 4.1 forty.” Even more puzzling is that any sprinter knows that the better your form, the faster you go. Logan says the exact opposite.  I can promise you that a good kettlebell snatch is faster than a bad one. Assuming that the snatch is actually completed. In his case, he shortens the stroke and wants to still call it a snatch. You can’t have it both ways my friend. Sorry.

Still, Logan is a fit, amazingly fit in fact, athlete. So why would he approach the project without integrity? Only he can answer that.

Please share your thoughts.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

The kettlebell is one great fitness tool but like any tool, it can be misused or down right abused.

So why have they bothered to share their nonsense? Well they have correctly identified the kettlebell as a true fat burner but one that will get you stronger and stronger and thus help you burn even more calories as your body becomes a metabolic furnace.

Here is a video that shows you what a good Russian Kettlebell swing should look like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEdUt9qiI-4

I’ve shot it in profile so you easily can see the hip hinge in action. There is little knee bend, my butt shoots back as if to punch. I drive my hips forward after the descent. It is crisp, business like and effective. Breath in as the kettlebell passes your hips on the descent. There is a sharp exhale as you reach the apex and as your shorten the distance from your hips to shoulders. Feel the core tighten as if about to be punched. Your spine should never round but be either extended or neutral. Notice how open my chest remains. Your arms are simply along for the ride. You ARE NOT using your arms to raise the bell. Your hips are the engineer and the arms are the railroad tracks.

Train With Purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

I am not an athlete or a nutritionist. I don’t even belong to a gym.  I’m a grass-based farmer and sustainable foods advocate.  A firm believer in the harmful disconnect from the production and ultimately, the integrity of our food, I’ve chosen to sell directly to eaters through farmers markets and off the farm in an effort to educate more people about the importance of knowing where their food comes from and why production practices impact nutritional quality, our communities and the environment.

The group of customers who has been most interested in the nexus of agricultural practices and how it impacts their bodies are the people tweaking their diets to improve their fitness and athletic performance–many subscribing to the Paleo/Primal principles.  Their quest for a better understanding has, at times, led them to the farm for a personal experience with their protein while it was still in the pasture. Our seemingly disparate worlds collided, friendships were created offering insight into each other’s lives with food being the common denominator.

So I was flabbergasted to find out many of these incredible athletes resorted to whey-based protein powders for a post workout boost. Here are people who dedicate a significant amount of time and money into the physical care of their bodies, who vehemently eschew grains, processed sugar and even dairy, yet they are drinking this…..crap.

To put it bluntly, whey protein concentrates, isolates and hydrolysates are the high-fructose corn syrup of dairy. Our bodies were not designed to process concentrated branched-chain amino acids, they were build to digest whole foods. But that issue aside, my big question is where does the whey come from?

Whey is the liquid left over when milk coagulates into a curd. The presence of globular proteins—meaning the protein is soluble—is a by-product of the industrial cheesemaking process thus making it a regulated waste.  It can’t just be dumped into a public sewage system or out into the environment.  Properly disposing of waste, regardless of industry, equates to cost so it only made sense to find a process to turn a production by-product into another salable product.

Historically, whey, in its liquid form, was fed back to livestock such as pigs and beef cattle. Being an excellent source of usable protein, animals were quick to gain muscle (read: MEAT) so it only seemed the next step was to extend these benefits to people. But liquid whey isn’t exactly the most palatable substance and it’s perishable. By removing the water and leaving only the protein in powered form, companies can more easily process, package and distribute.

Even if it weren’t for all the stabilizers, anti-caking agents, flavorings and even sugars added to whey-based protein supplements, consider the source of the whey. Organic dairy production only comprises ten percent of all domestic dairy output and from that small fraction, only one percent is from grass-based dairies. Thanks to international trade agreements, it’s become even more lucrative for companies to import powdered dairy proteins instead of using domestically produced whey.

Why should this matter?  Chinese protein powder producers are routinely caught adding poisonous compounds such as melamine to their products. Industrial dairy practices, both international and domestic, are heavily dependent on chemical inputs from toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in the animal feeds to the use of synthetic hormones for increased milk production. These toxin, especially heavy metals, often become concentrated in the final product. For anyone concerned about the environment as well as their personal health, these products have an incredibly huge carbon footprint—energy for trucking, energy for processing, packaging materials, distribution logistics—all for what? A few extra calories.

There is no place for ultra-processed whey-based protein powders in the diet of anyone intent on fueling their body with healthy, nutrient-dense foods.  Sure, it’s easier (but not inexpensive) to pick up a canister of mocha cappuccino fudge flavored goop to slug down after an intense work-out.  But if health and fitness enthusiasts would commit a fraction of the same intensity they devote to their workouts to feeding themselves properly with real food, the results would be seen not just in their own physical well-being, but that of the world around them.

———————

Try This Instead

Want to kick the powdered whey habit? Not only is this option Paleo, it will save enough money for a new set of kettle bells.

Bone broth.

Animal bones have been boiled by humans for nutritional value throughout our existence.  Thanks to the industrialized meat industry that has all but removed bones from our modern diets, we are often dependent on costly pills and supplements to deliver the critical micro and macro nutrients our bodies need.

Making your own bone broth is one of the most inexpensive ways of being good to your body.

Start with three to five pounds of raw bones. Don’t go for intact long bone or joints, but look for pieces cut to reveal marrow. Intact joints with the cartilage, capsules, tendons and ligaments intact will provide protein-rich gelatin—a big plus for the health of your own joints. For the more adventurous, heads and feet deliver incredible amounts of natural glucosamine-chondroitin.  An awesome batch of broth should set up like Jell-o when cool.

Put the bones in a large stock pot (or crock pot) cover with water and ½ cup of cider vinegar and let set for an hour. By increasing the acidity, minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and other trace elements leech into the water.

Add aromatics such as onion, celery, carrot, peppercorns, herbs and bring to a boil. Skim off the foamy scum that rises to the top. When the pot quits foaming, reduce the heat and simmer for up to 72 hours adding enough water to keep the bones covered. Strain the solids and you’ll be left with the best liquid you could ever put into your body other than water.

Instead of a whey powder shake, try a mug full of bone broth seasoned with something spicy or add coconut milk and curry. Your body will love you for it.

I’m “Type A” kind of person and getting me to sit still long enough to work on my flexibility has been tough. I’ve been doing self body work for years but never religiously. This morning I just completed my 5th session in five days and I can tell you with no hesitation that I feel tons better.

OK so I’m 49. I wish I knew what I know now at 20. About all things “Strength and Conditioning.” I am stronger now then when in my twenties and I am more mobile too. Not as fast however.

I’ve known for a long time that I should be taking care of my flexibility, I’ve just elected not to do it. Most of my flexibility at this point comes from the eccentric component of kettlebell practice.

But I wanted more. I want to be “game ready” at all times and I want to be able to move freely as well as be strong. As the cold weather has set in I could feel it a bit more than years past and I didn’t like it. So I am choosing to do something about it. Like I said, I’ve done it now for just 5 days in a row. Although I believe that to be a PR, it’s certainly not habitual yet.

I’ve used Pavel’s book Beyond Stretching as my main source of joint mobility work and I’ve elected to use the Grid as my foam roller. I’ve had this book and this foam roller for a long time. And I’ve used them both. I’ve been better about joint work in the past than using my foam roller but I think using both daily is going to be huge for me.

So what am I doing?

I begin each day with joint mobility. I feel better instantly. I use the foam roller post workout. I don’t know if the way I implement the two will work best for you or not. I suggest you use trial and error to find what best suits you.

And please don’t dismiss me if you are 20. You will thank me later. Start doing this stuff now and you will save your body.

One note on foam rolling….It hurts like the dickens when you first start to use it. It won’t hurt at all points on your body but you will be tender at certain spots and those are the areas  you should give special attention to. Also, most foam rollers are of sub-par material and break down quickly. I use the Grid as it is virtually indestructible.

Also the joint work will not be easy either. Practice it and you will really see a difference in range of motion. Just don’t get frustrated at first.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

PS Please post in comment area any questions or concerns.