Blog
What’s going on?
A lot! I’ve been pretty overwhelmed lately so I haven’t blogged a lot. So much has been happening that I’m having to process it all slowly. A period of intense growth needs time to sink into your bones for it to become permanent, so that’s where I’ve been.
In terms of training others, here’s a wonderful success story. Jessie is our first female to snatch the 16kg and I’m very proud of her. She works very hard and it shows. This video was a bit unplanned but sometimes good things just happen in training and you just hope to have a camera ready when they do. This happened to be the case here. She has been snatching the 12kg and push pressing the 16kg for a little while now so those prepared her to snatch the 16kg. With the right preparation, the 16kg snatch just fell into place. And the focus on performance has helped her figure goals as well, as you can see. Fat loss isn’t as much an issue when you focus on what you can do rather than just counting calories. She also did a few fat loss challenges with her friends to keep the motivation up and the challenges have greatly helped the process. She shows what hard work in the gym and dedication outside of the gym can get you.
Personally, I’ve been training kettlebell sport lately and it has proved to be quite the challenge. The training is much more focused than what I normally do and that has been teaching me quite a lot. Focusing like a laser beam on one or two things is extremely powerful and therefore slightly uncomfortable. It’s a narrow focus that can propel you forward or cut you like a knife. Sports training is at least partially about learning to find the edge and walk it. It’s tricky. One step back and you don’t do enough. One step too much and you might get hurt. But I’m learning that it’s adding one small bite a day that gets you sustainable progress. Don’t rush it but stay focused on training. Balance that yin and yang of training and recovery to reap the benefits.
In business terms, I’m happy to announce that we have our first full-time trainer starting in September. I’m training him now and I’m looking at all the pieces of the puzzle that make us who we are. What are our influences? What videos did I use the most? What books? What practices and philosophies make us who we are? It’s daunting stuff for sure, but this is a necessary step in the process for our long term growth. I’m excited and honored to be bringing another team member on board!
So that’s it for now. Talk again soon!
Integrity in the process
So I set a goal for myself that was a little ambitious. Okay, it was a lot ambitious: 100 burpess in under 5:00. Yeah it was daunting but I wanted the challenge and I had read another trainer say that NO ONE got their 100 burpess under 5:00 who was unhappy with their body composition results. Cool. I’m there. I also know from my experience that tying a body composition goal to a performance goal is a great way to get you looking great. You focus on the performance and the body results just follow.
But in pursuing the goal, I got off track.
I started my burpess with 100 and timed myself. The first time was already the fasted I had ever done. I started well. Two days later I did them again and got a slightly better time. So far, so good so I started doing them every day. It was really, really hard and I felt sick a few times, but I stuck with it. The times came down slowly and I thought I was making progress.
So one Sunday I wanted to knock out 100 for time just before dinner. We had ordered pizza and I had my wife film me just before it was supposed to get here. The pizza came early, which meant I only did 10 or so burpees but I looked at my form and was disgusted with what I saw. In pursuit of an ever faster time, I was really sacrificing my form. The form in my head that I thought I was doing was NOT what I saw on the camera. All that progress and the self-esteem that came with it got thrown out the window. I felt depressed. The times I was getting didn’t show the whole picture.
So what to do? I could just quietly forget the challenge I made to myself even though I had made it public on my Facebook page. Heck, personal challenges come and go, right? But I couldn’t do that. It didn’t feel right. So instead, I went back to my form by slowing things down and doing the burpees in sets.
My form has improved but of course, my time now sucks. I added about 1:30 to my time. But that’s okay.
The point of all this is to put integrity back into the process. Like me, are you half-assing something to get a better time? Are you cutting corners to beat other people when you know you should be doing it better? Is that having integrity in your fitness?
Taking this route ain’t easy by a long shot. I’m sitting here feeling uncomfortable about all this. The burpees just got a whole lot harder and can I REALLY get them under 5:00? Well, maybe and maybe not. But maybe I can feel proud that I did them the way I want them done. And maybe that’s worth more at the end of the day than just a fast time.
Happy training.
The difference between hard and soft style
Taiwan, like the rest of Asia, is very much a beginners market when it comes to kettlebell training, Crossfit, and other fitness training that is popular in the West. So we need to explain terms sometimes that get thrown around in discussions regarding these fitness trends. The topic today is the difference between hard and soft style kettlebell training.
First of all, let me say that understanding the differences isn’t easy and respect to anyone struggling to understand these terms. I didn’t always understand them either and in fact, it took me about two years to figure out all the terminology surrounding kettlebell training. So I appreciate the effort of those struggling to understand the terms.
The difference in hard style and soft style kettlebell training is mostly the use of tension vs. relaxation. Hard style training is mainly done by Pavel Tsatsouline and his group known as the Russian Kettlebell Club (RKC). Pavel wrote a pair of famous books Power to the People and then Enter the Kettlebell that laid out his ideas about strength training and kettlebell training. Both are excellent books and should be mandatory reading for anyone that really wants to understand kettlebells and/or strength training.
Power to the People explained how to generate tension in the muscles in order to generate strength and Pavel gave numerous examples of how the Russians and other old time strong men used tension to attain very high levels of fitness. As he clearly stated, the ability to generate tension is what is missing in most people’s fitness routines, causing them to get less than satisfactory results. Power revolutionized many people’s thinking on fitness and strength training, in general. Enter the Kettlebell extended those ideas into kettlebell training.
So if we look at the RKC swing, we see why it’s called the “hard style.”
Notice the sharp snap of the knees and the hips, and the deliberate squeezing of the glutes as the kettlebell moves into the top position. The emphasis is on the lower body. The arm is kept straight. What you can’t see is that he is also squeezing his abs as the kettlebell flies up. He deliberately stops the bell at the shoulder height. All these requirements use tension to power the kettlebell up. He also forcefully exhales as the kettlebell comes up and inhales as the kettlebell goes down. This helps generate tension at the top of the swing.
The “soft style” is basically the Girevoy sport swing, Girevoy sport is what kettlebell competition is called. To win a competition, you have to do more repetitions than your opponents in 10:00 events. Efficiency of motion is extremely important. So taking as much tension out of the movement as possible and being as relaxed as you can while still doing the technique is what the soft style does. Here’s what it looks like:
The swing starts at :26. Notice how relaxed he is. The arm is bent, the knees are soft, the kettlebell handle is turned to the side, and the force of the swing is spread over the whole body. What you can’t see is that he is inhaling as the kettlebell comes up, not down as in the hard style swing. Inhaling on the up swing makes the inhale slightly longer, giving you more oxygen, therefore allowing you to do more reps.
I have studied and practiced both of these swings for quite a while and I use and teach both of them. To fully understand kettlebell training, you need to understand both. The advantages of the hard style for beginners are numerous. Hard style builds muscle and strength, plus it burns calories like crazy. Like Pavel said, few people understand how to generate tension, especially in their core, and hard style training is just what they need. Generating tension in the core is core stability and learning how to do it with a kettlebell or in weight training is absolutely vital. Using this tension in pushes and pulls makes all other movements more effective. And using tension means using more muscle, which burns calories by the ton. Beginners can’t go wrong with hard style.
Soft style in my opinion is more advanced and should be done later in one’s training. Once you can generate tension, you have to learn how to relax and become efficient. Think of it like this, hard style gives you a stronger engine, soft style gives you more fuel efficiency. To be complete, you need to learn both.
The one exception is with bodybuilders. It has been my pleasure to train several bodybuilders and they usually have no problem generating tension. In this area, they are way ahead of the normal population. But relaxation can be a big issue with them. They have big, strong engines but all that tension can cause them to gas out quickly. I teach them the soft style swing to get them to relax and improve their efficiency. You simply select the right tool for the job.
So both hard and soft styles exist for valid reasons and both are useful tools in a trainer’s tool box. Train them well and use them as needed.