Back to the Basics

I have pushed my training pretty hard over the last few months. I have had some nagging little pains and issues lately that are the result of over training(again). I even suffered a spasm in my lower back this weekend, something that has not happened in 2 years. It is pretty easy to over train with all of the teaching I have been doing over the last year. I decided to time off as of last Wednesday and evaluate where I need to go next in my personal training.

It has been long time since I set down and looked at what exercises really set the stage for great returns on training. I spent the last few days really going back over all of the massive amounts of material that I have acquired over the years of KB training and it was clear what I needed to do. Damn that Evil Russian! It came down to going back to the basics, Enter The Kettlebell! Once again, Pavel's genius shines through the darkness to lead the way.

What I have found once again is the power of swings and Get-Ups. The swing is a great foundation for rehabbing and correcting those ills we suffer as members of modern society. The core and posterior chain tends to suffer from our sitting around all day in meetings, drives and entertainment choices. It would not be that big of a deal if we knew how to just get moving. What does the swing do? It requires you to utilize those areas that are atrophying due to lack of use. It adds strength to the core, reducing back pain and rebuilding flexibility. Oh yeah, it burns lots of fat off the body as a perk!

The Get Up as taught by Gray Cook and Bret Jones is an assessment, rehab and strength building gem! The Get Up strengthens every muscle in the body. It builds flexibility, stability and allows you to develop mobility through proper body mechanics. It is almost magical in what it can do. It places a heavy load on the entire body with a reduced risk of injury. It is a basic move that every person performs everyday! The week or so that I worked Get Ups prior to taking time off went a long way toward fixing some shoulder and arm issues that I have been experiencing.

I am looking at a 12 week cycle of the ETK Program minimum. I started it tonight with swings. I began with 3 x 10 sets of Wall Squats, Halos and Pumps. I figured if I was going back to the basics, why not go all the way. I hit 4 sets of 20 swings coupled with 1 minute of movement, i.e. burpees, mountain climbers, side straddle hop for 12 minutes of training. Relax into Stretch finished it off for tonight. Tomorrow will be Get-Ups. Lets see how this goes.

I

Playing Hit and Miss

It has been a crazy few weeks of training. I have been fairly consistent, but in no way as consistent as I would like. I injured my shoulder and right arm doing heavy pullups with the 88. It set me back a few weeks on my goals as the injury kept me from being able to turn my wrist. I was able to work on VO2 Max and Get ups. In some ways the injury helped me. i was forced to evaluate my techniques and really focus on my Get Up form. I noticed that it actually helped my shoulder. It did that through the mobility and flexibility inherent in Hard Style. The T-Spine mobility that is stressed in Kalos Thenos created a distinct release of my upper neck and shoulder. There was an immediate lessening of the pain and dysfunction that I had been experiencing. This coupled with Joint Mobility and some Z Health has made this heal much faster then I thought.

I have decided to open up some training time again. I have had quite a few people ask me to start training people again. I have some lunch time and afternoons open if interested. I am also doing some online training if that works better. Please email me at brittstrainingsystems@gmail.com if interested. I am still running group classes on Saturdays and we are going to start a 6 week program on the 11th. we have room to add more people.

Once again, I have failed to blog. Bad Paul!

I came across this clip this morning and thought it was pretty cool.



The workouts have not been as good as they have been. I have a nagging injury in my forearm that causes me to not be able to rotate my hand well. I am able to hit VO2 Max and Get-Ups and have been really working on those two exercises. I have also been a wuss and have been training indoors the last couple of weeks. I hate being a wimp, but it has been warm in the garage!

I have been looking back at my posts and I realize that it has been pretty sporadic lately. If that was not enough of a clue, my best buddy told me I have been crappy at posting. No excuses other than I am trying to explode my main business, which is happening. I love training adults, but helping out kids is really fun. What a great thing it is to help kids develop great fundamentals and healthy habits. That being said, there should not be any kids reading this stuff.

I picked up a mew camera the other day and started playing with it. I can now see what I was doing wrong at the RKC. I am not fully locking out my right elbow. I am working on that through the use of video. I wish that I had started this earlier, it would have prevented a bad habit from developing. I have come to see that video taping can help with how I do and how I teach techniques.

I will be putting video up now more consistently and of a greater variety. I have been asked to put up the group workouts also and may videotape the exercises. The Shen Chuan has been going really well. We have been hitting our groundwork phase and everyone is progressing well. I would love to get out to Salt Lake City to train with Jake Shannon really put some catch wrestling into the mix. We already do quite a bit as Joe Lansdale's father was a carnival wrestler back in the day. Joe hurts you with his stuff!

I have started showing more of my edged weapon stuff in class. i am honing it up in the hopes of teaching a class in the DFW area at a local knife makers place. I hope to meet up with him soon, now that I have some time during the day. I am picking up one of his blades in the near future.

I have gone back to Viking Warrior Conditioning and really love it. I think that it is the way to train. I do not see any cardio program giving you the same benefits, especially in as short a time period. I have dropped down to the 16kg and really want to own the program. It has gone better this time around as I have more rest lately. I am coupling it with a 3 x 3 program of basics - Military Press, Squats and Pullups.

This weeks group training was:

3 x 3 clean and press
3 x 3 squat
3 x 3 row
3 x 3 windmill

I had everyone use a heavier weight then normal. There were several people that were shocked by the weights they were able to handle. I had two people really own the next weight up! Go Jaqui!



Awesome Submission

MMA Submission Of The Year - Watch more Funny Videos

Don't do this at home!

Sometimes you have to wonder how people have become certified as trainers. I would love to know the reasoning that went along with this exercise. At some point they had to think, "Hey, this would be cool!"

I have never seen anything so out in left field. The potential for injury and a lack of common sense is astounding. I really can't say enough...

Training has been going pretty well lately. I have started a 5 x 5 program for a 6-8 week period. I love Kenneth Jay's Viking Warrior Conditioning, but had to take a break. I was burned out from just training 6 hours or more a day. It is a nice change and gives me a chance to work on double kettlebell drills for a while.

I have stopped taking on new clients lately. I have been really busy with my main focus, Amazing Athletes. I am not planning on having any workshops until maybe July or August.We have had some great opportunities to reach young kids with the message of fitness and we are trying to make the best of it. There is such a large percentage of overweight kids, that anything that reaches them is a positive.

reaching for the dream...

I try to keep things positive on this blog. I also live my life that way. I always try to reach higher and achieve what I want to achieve. It is really cool to find examples of people breaking from their shell to work at achieving their dreams. This lady is positive and has great talent, she just needed an outlet. I wish I could sing...



Susan Boyle Stuns Crowd with Epic Singing - Watch more Funny Videos

Impressive Skill

Modern Samurai Cuts Flying BB in Half - Watch more Funny Videos