Thursday, October 28, 2010

Southern Florida HKC Certification

My friend Dale Buchanan at Supreme Ultimate Fitness (Boca Raton, FL) is hosting an HKC (Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification) on Dec 4. If you are looking to get certified in Kettlebells, this is the place to go. Also, if your goal is to be an RKC, all funds used for this are applicable to the RKC ==> two certifications for the price of one.

Click the image below to get signed up!


HKC (HardStyle Kettlebell Certified) Instructor Workshops

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

NFL's crackdown on hits to the head and neck!

I want to take the time to address a controversal topic that doesn't have anything direction to do with personal training. It is the increased enforcement of penalties and fines in the NFL on hits to the head and neck. Here are two basic tenets:

1) The NFL HAD to do something, you simply CANNOT have a sport where you have over five people per week being left with concussions or neck injuries. You just can't.

2) Just because a sport is phyiscal does not mean that you can take liberties with your opponent. Having rules that prevent you from taking cheap shots does not make the game any less manly, it makes it more of a sport. Take a cue from other sports, in boxing, can't hit someone in back of the head. Also, if someone is knocked down, the opponent goes to a neutral corner for a standing eight count. In soccer, you can't tackle someone from behind, the risk of career-ending achilles tendon and PCL injuries is too great. In baseball, you can't just throw at somebody's of head. These rules do not make their respective sport less manly in any way.


Now one thing that I do understand is the idea of having to "protect your turf", and these rules might change that. I was a soccer goalie is high school, college, and after college. As a goalie, the bigger part of the penalty box that you can control, the better off your team is. When you have a fifty-fifty ball with an opponent in the air, your opponent has a running start, you don't. You have to protect yourself. If I was in the air, I was going in with an both elbow and one knee up. I was protecting myself. That is OK. I was not taking a swing at someones head or trying to spear them in the face. What the NFL has to do tread that fine line between "not lighting up a defenseless player" and "giving receivers amnesty". I believe that it is not hard, as long as you protect heads and necks while still letting receivers get hit. It is not different than the penalties for rouging the passer/kicker, late hits, clipping, facemasks. These rules make football more of a sport, not less.

Now here are some suggestions that I have.
1) Not only should a violent hit to the head on a defenseless receiver be a fine and a penalty, the player should be ejected. This would stop it more than anything.

2) If a hit to the head is avoidable but not violent, the player should receive a penalty and a warning. After a second warning the player is ejected. If a player is reckless or careless, that is just as bad and being malicious.

I think a lot of headhunting has actually led to some bad tackling technique wise. Maybe if they learn to wrap up better and keep the head up, a lot of this will go away.

Look, it is a physical game, and players will get hurt even on a clean hit (see Romo, Tony). But any head and neck injuries that can be avoided, HAVE TO BE.

Half Off One Hour Fitness Consultation

Looking for a personal training client or kettlebell club client that wants to take their fitness to the next level. 50% off 1 hour fitness consultation. I have never had anyone go through my consultation and not made significant changes in two week (5+ lbs of BF lost of 3+ lbs of muscle mass gained in two weeks).

If you are serious, reply here or send me a message!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Some recent workouts/New influences....

Currently I am focusing on putting on some mass via Return of the Kettlebell (RtK), and it is going pretty well. I have an article pending on that, but I have also been assisting running the group class at Xtreme Athletix. It has been a lot of fun and a real learning experience. Always good to learn different styles of training. This has been more of "boot camp"/Met Con style of training with a lot of influences from gymnastics, Olympic lifting, and yoga - which are three areas where I have very little experience.

Here are some of the variety workouts that I have done - feel free to steal them:

Workout 1: I did this on a day that I did not have time to do my normal RtK Ballistics workout, so I did this instead and did the Ballistics workout the following day:
100 Swings
90 Squats
80 Snatches (40L/40R in any combination)
70 Windshield Wipers
60 Cleans
50 Walking Lunges steps
40 Military Presses (20L/20R any combination)
30 Pushups
20 V-ups
10 Deck Squats
==> I finished this workout with a 24kg in about 23:45. After the workout, I really didn't feel much, but I knew I was going to be sore (no in a good way). Good variety of movement and a good change of pace. Good sweat, but no EPOC. I wonder what would have happened if I used a 32kg.

Workout 2: Various High Octane Cardio intervals with DDR and kettlebell swings.
- 10 rounds of (DDR + Swings: 32kg x 30)
- 12 rounds of (DDR + snatches: 24kg x 10L/10R)
I really liked both of these. Agility, strength endurance, endurance, responding to visual stimuli, and grip training all in one. When you play the Expert songs, the snatches and swings are the recovery for DDR.

Workout 3: 2 1/2 minute workout: 100 32kg KB swings
==> I liked these, didn't love them. Quick and Boring! Felt like I could have gone all day.

Workout 4: Tabata swings: 40kg x 8 x 13 (:20 on/:10 off)
==> Great 4 minute workout, felt and elevated metabolism afterwards

Workout 5:
10 rounds of 10 snatches left/10 snatches right/10 goblet squats
Crush Pushups: 3 x 30 (ribs to forearms)
Front snatches: 10L/10R

Workout 6:
Press Ladders: 3 x 3,5,7 (3,5,7 gets you volume quicker, I like using it)
Metcon: On the 2:00
10 rounds of (10 2ft box jumps, 10 snatches left, 10 snatches right, 10 swings)
==> These are a lot of fun, really teaches glycolytic recovery.

Workout 7:
30-20-10 reps for time
Overhead Barbell Squats (got to work on Barbell Cleans)
Dips
Burpees
==> My Barbell cleans have gotten better, still only using 65 to 95 lbs. Overhead squats with a barbell really help my shoulders. Burpees, as an exercise, are overrated. Finished in 15:45 with 65lbs, then practiced cleans and OH squats with 95lbs.

Workout 8:
For N = 4 to 1 (for time)
200m run; 10*N swings; 10*N Goblet Squats; 10*N Crush Pushups
Next N
==> 21:11 with 32kg bell. The swings I did straight through, the squats in sets of 10, and the crush pushups were done in sets of 10-15. Good systemic response to this workout and hit the legs and upper body pretty good.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Kettlebell Run....Tampa Bay area

The DragondDoor Russian Kettlebell Challenge certification (RKC cert) is coming to Orlando next weekend. I am making a kettlebell run down there from Tampa, and if there are any interested in getting some quality kettlebells, with no shipping charges, contact me faizalenu ( at } yahoo.com.

I prices for the bells can be found here:

http://www.dragondoor.com/kettlebellkettlebells/

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Back on the RTK wagon....

Hey everyone, I am back on the RTK bandwagon. For all those who are considering it, here are some helpful tips:
* If you are going to go in this direction, a "I don't want to gain any weight" attitude is not right for this program. Do something else that will better get you to those goals.

* Respect the systemic overload in this program. If you have other intense stuff you have to do, this program is not for you. If that is your decision, you won't hurt Pavel's feeling, I'm sure.

* Learn how to Jerk correctly.
1) On your cleans, get your hands through the bell. Grip the inside part of the hand, and drive the hands through on the clean.

2) Laterally rotate the shoulders in the rack. The actual Jerk will be more like a barbell and easier on the shoulders (thanks Matt S.)

3) Drop the hips fast, it is not a push press. Try to dip to a catch. Practice feeling the catch with light weight.

4) Get the hands back and head through (eyes facing down on horizon). If you miss on either of these, you will have a hard time locking out. If the hand go straight up, , your front delts take too much of the load. If you look up, the lower back does.

* After the top of your ladder, try to go right into the beginning of the next, even if you are tired. This will compress the workload.

* Some people on the forums seem to be TOO concerned with compressing the workout and use too light a weight. Don't do that.