Great Weekend

This past weekend was the infamous, at least locally, Warrior Dash. I initially signed up for the Warrior Dash within the first 5 minutes of learning about it. I was on Dragon Door one day when it came up as a topic on the forums. I love Ninja Warrior on G-4 and knew that it was for me. I was so excited that I even talked Amazing Athletes Corporate into signing up for the SoCal event.

There was only one thing that I forgot and that was the fact that I hate running. I positively do not like to run as a training tool. I do not ever derive any pleasure from it at all. I used to really like it, but woke up one day in the Army and realized that it sucked to have to run!

I was actually happy to be injured and not be able to run. I then decided that since I could not/would not train by running that I would just skip the the entire event. I continued to train with kettlebells. Since signing up I went through ETK Program Minimum, performing swings up to 15 minutes and Get Up progressions for up to 25 minutes. I then started on Return of the Kettlebell and I am on my third week of that program now. I finished the first week of the ballistic block on Saturday.

I woke up Sunday morning and decided that I was going to go through with the Warrior Dash. I am so glad that I did it. I had a lot of fun. I was only able to be there to complete the Dash and not do anything else. I wish that I could have stayed as they had some cool activities to such as: Stone Heaving, Ax Throwing, Turkey Legs, Beer and Bands.

I ended up starting in the middle of the pack of a wave of 500 people. I was worried that I would be sucking some wind pretty fast. I was wrong! I kept up a good pace through the whole course. It was messy! I do not think that I have played in that much mud since being 8. The mud was like ice in some areas. People were unable to stand as they tried to get through it. People even  lost shoes in the mud bogs.

The only area that I had any issue with was the lake and the log crossing. It was at the half way point of the Dash. The water was fairly deep and we had to get over or under logs that would roll. I made it over all but the last one as the water was over my head. Then I had to swim the rest of the way across the pond. I was tired and I do not float. That was not a good combo. I was more tired after that section then any other. There was some nice slick mud to walk through right after the lake that allowed me to get by wind back. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing till the finish line!

I do not know my time yet, as they have not posted them. I think I made the course in 35-40min. I was pretty happy with that time, especially since I do not run. I woke up today felling great with very little soreness.

This leads me to believe that kettlebells are incredible tools. I know that in the old days of working out less then smartly, there would have been no way that I could have completed a 3.5 mile run without running before hand. Enter the Kettlebell works! RKC is the way to go.

May 4th will be our first class at Eclipse! Join us for a great time and great program.

Training News

I am starting a kettlebell training program at Eclipse Fitness - Rockwall on Tuesday, May 4th. If you want to learn the proper way to train with kettlebells this is the program for you. Class size is limited to insure that you receive the most benefit possible.

The schedule:

Tuesday 6:30pm
Thursday 6:30pm
Saturday 8am

If you are interested please email me at brittstrainingsystems@gmail.com.

Classes will be fun, challenging and worth your time. We guarantee you will be satisfied with the results.

RTK

I am finishing up my second week of Return of the Kettlebell with pretty good progress. I actually have my heavy day left this week. I am on 5 Ladders a lot faster than I thought I would be. It is a great program, even if I was not quite as ready for it as I should have been.

I can tell a big difference in my pressing and snatch techniques as I progress. I have been working a lot of RKC Arm bars as well as Z-Health techniques such as the A/P Thoracic Glide. I really seemed to have gained a lot more mobility in my shoulders as the weeks have passed. It really comes down to doing the prehab work. I am pretty disciplined about working the area prior to the full training session. I have been having some pain in my shoulder, but not during presses or snatches. The pain is present only on rotational movements such as Get Ups and does not rotate. I am able to work around it as there is no pain with my chosen program. I will not train through injury or pain anymore. If I learn nothing else from all of the much smarter RKC’s it is to not train through injury and screw myself up for longer.

I will be starting the Ballistic Block next Tuesday. I am excited and expect it will take me a couple of weeks to really get the form down. I will have to tape it to see where to fix it. That means I will be posting more screw ups!

I will be starting kettlebell group classes and individual training next month at Eclipse Fitness in Rockwall. I will post more as it becomes set. I am pretty psyched about it. Spreding love to more victims!

I cannot stress enough about the great opportunity of a DFW Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification. If you are wanting to be the best, this is the place to start. I will be an Assistant at the HKC and also have a student going through it. Go Jaqui!

Professor Joe R. Lansdale

Did not realize that it had been so long since I lost posted anything. It has been a busy couple of weeks with business and training. I have been working a modified RTK style program to make sure I had the form and techniques down. I have my second week of the grind block to work on this week.

This is video of my Instructor Joe R Lansdale. It is great to finally have some good clips of him to post. The beating dummy is my friend Adam Coats. He will be up in June to train with us. I am thinking of making it a seminar.

Lesson Learned

I noticed that I was getting lazy on form on a few techniques again. The principle of SAID, Specific Adaption to Imposed Demand raised its ugly head and bit me on the buttocks! I was getting really good at those performing those crappy reps. Which makes sense as the principle states that we will get “better” at whatever we do, for good or bad. I ended up tweaking my shoulder a little bit on a less than ideal snatch with a heavy kettlebell. It really seems to require 100 good reps to undo the damage of 1 bad rep. That might not be the reality for everyone, but unfortunately it is mine.

I also learned this week that strength is a skill. I know that we talk about it as RKCs. I knew it intellectually, but had to earn the knowledge physically and emotionally. The requirement for the Return of The Kettlebell is completion of the SSST and a press with half bodyweight kettlebell. The 40kg is my benchmark. I have pressed it for multiple reps in the past, it has just been a while… I started RTK and decided pretty early that I was not quite ready for it. I was a little weaker then I should have been as the skill has eroded! I think it has been six months or longer since I pressed the 40kg. In the words of the great Homer, “D’oh!” I will say that the program is awesome; I was just not where I needed to be to do it justice.

Where does that leave me? I am not at square one at least. I am going to modify the program somewhat to reacquire the old skills. I am going to work on them over the next few weeks by working double snatches, presses and squats along with swings. I am going to hopefully work back into the 32s for good form snatches and presses. This week will be 16kgs and 24kgs and I might keep it there for two weeks before moving up. I am not in a super hurry as the Summit of Strength is not until August! (Hate to embarrass myself!)

I will be an assistant at the June 12th HKC in Ft. Worth. This is a great program if you have a desire to teach or just want to improve your own skills. We have one person from our group going at this time. I am going to convince some more hopefully!

We have a few other things in the works also. I hope to have a set kettlebell base to call home starting in May! We are working on a training DVD for martial arts. It will include self defense and kettlebells together. It is still in the planning stages and will be knocked out in June. We are also going to have a Martial Arts/Kettlebell Workshop in June!

Shen Chuan

Most everything we do is about patterning. Be it the way we move on an everyday basis or a skill set that we are trying to learn. I always teach my guys that there is no need to blaze through techniques at Mach 1. When you train like that you tend to not make contact. As my friend Tony Blauer always says, "Don't Practice Missing!" The skill sets that we put up here are not spontaneous moves, but a skill and tool to have in the system.

We try to train in a manner so that no matter what is thrown at us, we have seen the attack before. That helps keep us from being vapor locked with a threat we have never seen before. More wisdom from Tony, there are only a few attacks that actually occur in a real fight and they are pretty much haymakers, shoves, tackles and crappy linear kicks.

We will be posting some High Gear and Shockknife videos soon to show a little reality! The first clip is actually the first skill set from our system. I caught Brent on the brachial plexus and had to catch him.

I am always trying to multitask also!