I try to be positive as much as I can be. My goal is to help as many folks hit their fitness goals as possible. I’ve found that the best way to do that is to make sure that people have a clear understanding of how what they eat has a huge impact on results and by focusing on a “less is more” philosophy when it comes to programming your workouts for success.

I’m not in the entertainment business. So the programs I design for my clients are geared to results and nothing else. My private clients learn how to do a few things well. Maybe 9 exercises at most.  Often they will do fewer than that. Mastery is important for the sake of safety, as well as performance. And the safer you are and the better you perform will certainly impact your results.

Jumping from one exercise to another does nothing for you. No one has ever been able to show me any credible evidence or research that “shocking” the muscles by introducing new exercises gives better results. All it does is increase the chance of injury; especially for someone who isn’t ultra fit to begin with.

Honestly, I’ve created such resilience in my body using my Hard Style training that when I did recently introduce two new things into my routine I didn’t get sore at all. It’s that famous “What the Hell” effect. If you’d never boxed, how would you feel after your first session? Or if you hadn’t bench pressed in at least 20 years? In both cases, no soreness at all. And I assure you that the sessions weren’t easy for me. I wasn’t loafing.

I raise these points as it relates to some interesting news I just received. As you may know, I participated in the “Art of Strength” kettlebell certification two years ago almost exactly. It was a one day event that was billed as an opportunity to learn how to instruct. Interesting as there was no one there to teach. I think there were 10 students and we learned a little bit about a lot. But we didn’t learn to instruct. I was more than mildly disappointed. Well, it seems that AOS is now marketing itself as the greatest thing since sliced bread in the fitness world. In fact, what prompted me to write this post was that an RKC is videotaped saying that AOS is better than the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) certification. I learned more in the first five minutes of Power To the People than I learned in 24 hours at AOS.

I checked out the latest on AOS and it seems that they certification teaches you how to execute and teach 50 different exercises over three days. How could anyone learn how to do 50 things with any skill, much less be able to teach them all after 72 hours? No way in heck can that happen. So what is AOS guilty of? Mainly thinking that clients need entertainment. Clients are mostly entertained by results. Results come from intelligent programming. Results come from safety. Results come from “less is more.”

At the Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certification we learn to teach 6 things. 6. In three days. Interesting, huh? The most important thing we learn though, in my opinion, is what the Hardstyle School of Strength is. Hardstyle is applicable to training with kettlebells, barbells, bodyweight exercises and dumbbells. Kettlebells are perhaps the easiest tool to apply the techniques. If the kettlebell is your only resistance tool, than you aren’t getting nearly as much out of your training as you could. That said kettlebells are the best fitness tool to come to market (in this case return to market) in the last decade. Use them. But I suggest that you have a few more tools at your disposal as well.

What do you use? Please let us know.