Understand that there are populations full of folks who ate plenty of meat, drank lots of blood and took a lot of dairy. Check out the Maasai. These folks enjoyed healthy but hard lives with no disease of civilization to speak of.

The Intuit Indians ate nothing but meat and fat for all intents and purposes. Again no really health problems in the society across the board. Nary a fruit or vegetable cross their lips. They thrived.

Naturally, the human race is hunter/gatherers. As Jared Diamond wrote, “Agriculture is perhaps mankind’s greatest mistake.” Borne from agriculture; especially Big Ag is convenience. And convenience is killing us. Convenience means packaging and stabilizers that improve shelf life. The subtraction and/or addition of parts of the food in order to achieve that end. The ease by which we find food has taken the edge off the task. We don’t have to hunt, kill and gather. We are always sure of our next meal. We are never hungry as we never have to go without. A meal is just a microwave and package away. And packaged food is crap. At the local grocery, I count 30 different tomato based pasta sauces. Only three don’t have high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient. Your choice is that you make the sauce at home or you are limited to three jars of choice. HFCS is a triglyceride forming toxin in my opinion and is to be avoided with resolve. And it’s everywhere. So you must become a “label reader” or suffer the consequence of unhealthy blood and excess fat. Not to mention high blood pressure.

Grain is another challenge. It’s cheap to produce and listed in almost all foods. We all have a certain sensitivity to gluten; just to different degrees. Avoid wheat, avoid corn and rice. I try to stay away from oats too but that seems to be less problematic.  The first three are directly linked with the diseases of the West that I am doing all I can to help folks avoid.

Conventional wisdom would tell you otherwise but I don’t find convention to be all that wise. The USDA food pyramid could best be described as a castle built on sand. Lobbyists and special interests have profits to protect. They have little to no interest in your health. Our health system is a sickness model and not one of wellness. There is hardly a profit to be made with wellness.

So what to do?

Well, I choose to put butter on my meatballs. Because I eat from sources I can trust. I use olive oil, raw butter, ghee, coconut oil, Red Palm Oil and plenty of fat from grass fed animals, wild fish and venison. I eat little to no grain fed meat. I avoid farmed fish as well as anything from a feed lot operation. I stay away from hydrogenated oil of any kind. I eat much leafy greens. A lot of other vegetables and some fruit. I do try to limit fructose and you may want to read why here. I don’t drink soda. Diet or sweetened. I like water.

I made the switch to the Primal Blueprint in August 2009. I was 208 lbs and fairly fit. I’m now 48 years old with 8.9% body fat, down from around 15% or so. I am much stronger. Eating fat, at least the right ones from healthy sources, doesn’t fatten you up. Carbs, especially those of the processed variety, and the subsequent insulin response, cause pounds to get packed on to your frame.

I’ve had a number of clients get similar response. They’ve lost in the range of 10-40 lbs. I have personally talked to others who have lost 100 lbs in less than 1 year. If you’re current way of eating isn’t giving you the health and or results you’ve counted on, then I urge you to take a close look at the Primal Blueprint.

Most likely you will feel and look lots better and your blood laboratory results will bear witness.  Other books to consider are “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” “In Defense of Food,” and “Food Rules.”

What are your thoughts or comments?

Live and train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

Personal records (PRs) are certainly important. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think focusing on incremental improvement is a surer way to improve your fitness than focusing on body composition as an example. I strongly believe if the focus is on performance all else will fall in line.
Still, if your focus is only on setting PRs, you will at some point either cross the line into the dreaded place of over trained or worse, injured.

Imagine if you are an NFL football player. You build your foundation. Then you place your improvement on top of the foundation and then you finish up the work. Just like building a house. You have to have a plane and then execute. If you go to the gym and plan on training intuitively each and every workout, then I wish you good luck. And I hope it works out for you.

I show up for each session on an index card. It’s all mapped out the night before. Seems to make sense. Sometimes the workout doesn’t go as planned. I take note and move on. I don’t somehow figure out how I PRed.

I’d venture to say if you have to set new PRs in every workout that you have the emotional intelligence of a 5 year old. Harsh maybe, but true. True PRs are elusive if you are truly fit. For those that feel it is necessary to somehow prove themselves every workout, I’d say “get a life.” Or look at your workouts with intelligence.
Look, no one can improve linearly for long. At some point, the game is up. If you can bench press 100 lbs.,then when will you reach a 200 lb one rep max? Let’s say you can bench add 5 lbs to each bench press session. That may not sound unreasonable. So you’d arrive at 200 in 20 sessions. Or less than 7 weeks if you are benching 3 times a week. 100% gain in 7 weeks is not going to happen for most folks.
So how would you double your one rep max? With patience, intelligence and planning. It’s pretty simple but not easy.
Power To The People from Pavel gives some great programming ideas. If you want to get stronger and you want to do it without injury, then I’d say that it may be one of the best books on the subject. The volume focuses on the dead lift and the barbell side press for sure but the school of strength is “Hardstyle” and can be applied to dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells.
I’m currently using a modified version of the PTTP from Pavel himself. Check it out here and leave any questions or comments for me and I’ll be happy to help you.

Train With Purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

If you are busy and have little time to work out, then the kettlebell swing is all you need to use in order to become fitter. You don’t need a gym. Not a treadmill…Nothing else. Obviously the kettlebell isn’t the only tool available. But if you need a good workout and you need it fast….There really is nothing else.

The swing is the base exercise for all things kettlebell. Master it and you can create your own fitness destiny. As a musician practices her scales each day, serious kettlebell practitioners swing the bell each day.  We must always spend time on the fundamentals.  The dividends are huge.

Let’s discuss some fine points here. I am sure that there will be much disagreement on some of this but my opinion is based off my own training as well as that of my clients.

1. 1. Less Can Be More About once a week I see a Twitter tweet or Facebook status of something like “I just did 300 swings in a row.” Good for them. I can state with much confidence that the swings weren’t done well . Hard Style swings just can’t be done that way. Hardstyle swinging involves lots of short sweet intense sets. That way you work hard. You work smart and get the maximum benefit from creating tension and then relaxing in the same movement.
2. 2. Build A Base Start off doing a few swings well . Add to the total reps by adding more sets. Not more reps. That way you can keep being able to do more of them and stay safe and injury free.  Don’t you train in order to train another day? Getting hurt makes no sense; especially if the injury results from not using your noggin. I highly recommend using an RKC to help you learn correct form. Without fail, when I meet with a new client who has kettlebell experience, as soon as they are doing the swing the right way, everything changes for them. It’s so cool to see.
3. 3. Be Well Recovered Swings are  a full body experience. They will smoke you but since you are using your whole being to do them, you should recover pretty quickly. Still, pay attention and make sure you abort your workout if you just don’t’ have “it” today. That is so much smarter than plowing through a session because you MUST get your workout in. See above regarding injury.

Finally, I can’t urge you strongly enough to see an RKC. Most personal trainers just don’t “get” kettlebells. Surely some do but they are far and wide. You can be pretty confident that you will get quality instruction and an understanding of the Hard Style School of Strength if you work with an RKC.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

I weigh less now than I did in high school and am almost certain that my body composition is better.

I don’t share this to brag. It’s just fact. I’m not extraordinarily gifted genetically. But I’ve always been a hard worker. I enjoy the stress and strain associated with an intense workout session. Never is it a burden. It’s always a joy.

So what’s the point of sharing this with you? Darrell Green, the former NFL superstar, ran a 40 yard dash at age 50. He did it just a few days ago. And he blazed through the tape at 4.43 seconds. Still fast enough to play at the highest level if he so chose.

Apparently in August, he promised himself that he would train and be able to run a sub-4.5 second 40. I’m almost certain that he trained with a purpose, as he had a specific measurable goal in mind. I’m guessing he wrote it down on paper to remind himself each day what was required to meet the objective. I am also certain that he knew exactly how he was going to train each day in order to be successful. He busted his ass but he did it with intention.

He didn’t just go out and run without a plan.

If you have no idea where you want to go, then you can take any direction.

How about this? Why don’t you define what you want. When you want it. And how you are going to get it. Forget Green’s goal of a scorching 40 time. How about your health? Have you defined what you really want? To lose weight isn’t a goal. To lose 15 lbs of fat is more like it.

I think everyone would be much healthier if they had performance goals instead of the more common goal of losing fat.

Do you have performance goals? How about I am going to dead lift 2.5 times my bodyweight by the time by August 24, 2011. Specific enough for you?

If you have performance related goals you’d better be eating well and with your goal in mind. If you say you want to be able to do 100 kettlebell snatches, then you may want to give up cigarettes.  You see, if you have a working  goal, then the health takes care of itself.

Stop chasing your tail.

Please let us know what you want and when you want it by?

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

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.

First thing I did was send out emails to all those who had asked me to coach them and ask them to give me their “whys.” I wanted to find out how badly they wanted to reach their goals. Why they wanted to change? Why they were sick and tired? Why they were motivated? All of their major motivations. From those responses I winnowed the list down to 6 guinea pigs.

The test was for 6 weeks. We did a weekly conference call as well as a weekly private call with each student.  We put together a training plan that was consistent with goals. We formulated nutritional guidelines. The students were held accountable. The results have been astounding and better than I ever conceived. And the results were consistent. Everyone hit their goals. Not one starved to death or was killed by a workout. They all had fun.

I’m not a great salesman. I’m a darn good coach, an effective communicator and will hold you to account. You will reach your goals.

I will only coach 10 people at a time. That is the limit imposed by my family obligations, private training obligations, my kettlebell class obligations and my own training. 3 of my original group have signed on for 3 months so I have 7 available spots. (Update: Once I mailed this out to my blog email list 2 more signed up so there are actually 5 4 places left)

The duration of the program is 12 weeks. If you aren’t satisfied with your current personal situation, then I guarantee you that my program will change your life. You will get much fitter. Have more confidence and it will impact each facet of your life. Nothing will stay the same.

Here’s what you get:

1. A Customized 12 week training program based solely on you and your goals. Nothing will be “cookie cutter” and we will make changes on the fly as needed. We will use the training tools that you have on hand. So you won’t have to buy kettlebells if you don’t have them. We will get results with what you already own or have access to.
2. Accountability: I won’t coddle you and tell you what you want to hear. Your results will be in line with effort and I won’t let you be a slacker.
3. Weekly tasty recipes that will be based on sound nutrition.
4. Conference calls from time to time that will be recored as well as a weekly private one on one call with me your coach. You will have an hour of my undivided attention so you need to call me each week with specifics on what you need to talk about. It is your time.
5. If it isn’t happening for you or you aren’t working hard enough, then I will refund your money pro-rata.

Check out this testimonial:

Sandy,

I found the program without caveat, the best physical training I have
done. The combination of Primal Blueprint eating and custom workout’s
was incredibly effective for me.

I like the fact that you weren’t just a strength coach that threw
workouts at you without the back and forth conversations necessary for a
truly effective program. What works for one person may not work for the
other. The one on one weekly conversations gave the extra push I needed
to keep improving.

Being able to back up our training and advice with reading from books
like “Good Calories, Bad Calories” only made me a more involved part of
my own training. That combined with weekly conference calls from experts
in various fields kept the program interesting and dynamic. Being able
to step away from Conventional Wisdom into the realm of science based
information and training was elegant in its simplicity and in its
results.

Perhaps the only thing I might suggest would be to upload You Tube type
Videos for training.

Mike Kauzlarich

Mike has lost 16 pounds in 6 weeks. (Update This isn’t  a lose “30 pounds in 30 days” program so you can proudly attend a reunion. No…this is life altering in that you will change your lifestyle incrementally, get support doing it and get really strong  at the same time. This is just one story.

If you are interested, then email me so we can set up a time to talk. When you email me include two to three times you would be available to talk . I will get back to you with a number and time to call me. We will need to interview each other. I need to know you are serious and you need to feel that I can actually help you to reach your goals.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

1. First of all your diet is terrible. I estimate that 80% of your body composition is based on how you fuel yourself. As Dave Whitley, Sr. RKC says, “you can’t outsnatch a donut.” I don’t care how much you workout and or how intense your sessions are, you simply won’t get results if you don’t pay attention to how you eat. Sourcing your food is vital. I eat as much local food stuff as I can. I eat grass fed meats, take raw dairy,pastured pig and fowl, belong to a CSA….Do yourself a favor and use http://www.localharvest.org and the read the Primal Blueprint. You will be shocked at what happens. Eat real food. Forget Shakeology and all of that other nonsense. The only thing that Man makes that I take is a Post Workout Smart Bomb. I use one other supplement and that is Cod Liver Oil.
2. You don’t really have a workout plan in place. If you use my daily workouts as your program, then you don’t have one. Those workouts are designed as “variety” days off of your regularly scheduled workouts. They are meant to supplement and be fun. In no way are they customized to your goals. Do you know how to determine your training loads to maximize your personal results? Are you using only kettlebells? Are you using just bodyweight work? Just powerlifting? If you answer “yes” then you are doing yourself a disservice. Use all of the above and periodize your work. I spend about 20 minutes a day working out. That’s it. But it is focused, intense and planned.
3. You also probably jump from program to program. Look, there is no Holy Grail. If you want to get stronger, then you have to stick with one program. Maybe it’s Enter The Kettlebell. Or Power To The People. Or a hybridization of those two. Finish what you start and move on to something else. If you can’t finish, then you can’t succeed. Stop getting seduced by the new “shiny object.”If you are seeking to be entertained by your workout then you will never get anywhere. Trainers who are always mixing it up for their clients aren’t doing their clients justice.  Do few things well and it’s amazing what happens.
4. You are overtraining or training without skill. Focus on quality and not quantity. What difference does it make how may sets and reps  you do, if you are doing them incorrectly? I love it when I read that someone just did 300 swings in a row. C’mon. Make sure you get proper rest and recovery. As Pavel has said time and time again, any moron can design a workout to make someone tired. The question really is “How is the workout impacting your goals?”  Again, a near death experience isn’t really what it’s all about. If you jump all over the place, how do you know if you are getting stronger?

If you want to feel better, look better, get stronger and be leaner than you may decide that using sense will be of benefit. Thoughts? Please leave your comments.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

Here’s a great Chicken Soup Recipe I’ve adapted from my grandmother’s (which also included non-primal egg noodles and matzoh balls).  Feel free to play with the recipe.  The secret ingredient is the dill.

1 organic chicken
6 Cups chicken stock
1-2 cups of water
1 block of chicken buillion (if may be too salty for some – the next time I make it, I’m going to leave it out).
4 organic carrots
3 organic celery stalks
1/2 medium onion
1/2 bunch fresh dill (or less, to taste)

Put everything in a stock pot and cook until the chicken is done, but not falling apart.  Take out chicken, let cool a little – remove all the meat and add back in soup.

Let simmer until hot.

That’s it.  Let each person can add their salt & pepper to their serving.

Nu? So ess, mine kind! (Yiddish for “Eat, my child”)

Renee Musicus

Didn’t get earth shattering results but I did participate. Originally, when I reviewed past results from the experience I knew my numbers wouldn’t be all that exciting relative to the competition but I also knew I didn’t particularly care. I just wanted to do it and wanted to do it each 6 months and see if I could improve my numbers each time.

I’ve been working with Marty Gallagher to improve my raw strength. There is a great possibility that my dead lift will rise by 25% since September when I do the April TSC. Marty has helped me greatly improve my technique and I’ve taken multiple steps backward in load as I’ve improved my method. Not always easy on the ego but for me to hot my medium goal of 2 times bodyweight pull and then get to 2.5 times that I needed to get better. The strength will follow.

The Tactical Pull up has also improved quite a bit. If you want to dial up your pull ups then I think reading either the Naked Warrior or Convict Conditioning would be worth it for you. Pull ups are tough for me and I hate doing them since they are so challenging. Other programs to consider would be the Fighter Pull Up program or Recon Ron’s system. I expect to increase my pull ups by 100% at the April TSC.

Finally, the RKC Kettlebell snatch test. Looking to improve 25% here as well. Find out how I’ve done it here.

Train With Purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC

The ACE kettlebell study is pretty much spot on but I do have a few thoughts I’d care to share. First, this study isn’t based on any new protocols. In fact, it is the exact same work that Kenneth Jay, Master RKC did in the Viking Warrior Conditioning book. I feel strongly that credit should have been given where it was so clearly due. Appalling lack of credit in my opinion. They even go so far as to call it an “exclusive” work.

The second point that ACE raises that is erroneous is that the MVO2 kettlebell workout is not a “Typical kettlebell routine.” Snatches by their very nature aren’t anything but advanced kettlebell work and you need to be in tip top form to even consider the MVO2 protocol. This isn’t for a beginner or even intermediate kettlebell practitioner in my opinion.

Finally, there are any number of blogs that have taken this horse and ridden it even farther down the path of the absurd.  Bloggers have written that you can burn upwards of 1000 calories in a kettlebell workout and maybe you can. But most of them are extrapolating that from this study. Kinda like if you say Usain Bolt can run 40 second 400 meters.  Assuming you could maintain MVO2 for an hour maybe you’d burn that many. If you can snatch for an hour an maintain the snatch per 15 second pace you need a bigger bell. The MV02 component of the Viking Warrior Conditioning program is the base protocol. Once you get  to 40 minutes of snatching on pace you move up. To something more advanced. It’s fun!

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC