Last year – 2011 – was the first year for both The Beast of the East Fitness Festival and The IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast. The Beast of the East drew 200 athletes from all over for CrossFit, Weightlifting and other events. The Kettlebell Beast had a great turnout of 16 athletes competing in the traditional Girevoy Sport events – Long Cycle, Biathlon and Snatch.

Highlights from The 2011 East Coast Kettlebell Beast…

This year, we’re expecting at least DOUBLE the athlete turnout – athletes started registering in March when the competition was first announced – and we’re looking forward to having an even smoother and more organized and MORE FUN event this year!

This year, The Beast of the East Fitness Festival will run from Friday, October 12th to Sunday, October 14th. The IKFF Kettlebell Beast will be held on Saturday, October 13th at 12pm. Weigh-ins will happen the morning of the event.

This Year – Awesome Training Opportunities are Available Too…

The Kettlebell Beast and Beast of the East have grown into yearly events now and all the organizers are working hard to realize the original vision of the weekend being “a CrossFit Games and Arnold Sports Expo for the East Coast.” To this end, Ken Blackburn will be running a 3 hour Kettlebell Workshop on Friday night before the Kettlebell Beast and there’s also the possibility of getting a full two day Certified Kettlebell Teacher Level 1 Cert on the Thursday and Friday before the event!

You can register for the Kettlebell Workshop on the IKFF site and you can comment below or contact me if you’re interested in the CKT 1. If we get enough commitments for the CKT 1, we’ll be able to offer it!

Get Registered Early!

Again this year, The IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast will have the following events:

• Snatch
• Biathlon
• Jerk
• Long Cycle

For some basic info and explanation on these events and how a Kettlebell Sport competition is run, you can read my post: A Competition Kettlebell Primer.

Here’s the registration link – http://kettlebeast-eorg.eventbrite.com/ – for the 2012 IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast. Contact me if you have any questions and we’ll see you in October!

ttys

Adam

Fitness Culture is Alive and Well in Connecticut…

Wow! What a weekend! Honestly, I’m still recovering from The Beast of the East Fitness Festival that happened October 8 and 9th, 2011 on the Durham Fair Grounds in Durham, CT! It was a GREAT time! Besides all the CrossFit craziness at The Beast, it was the first year for me promoting and running the IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast Competition. The turnout for The Kettlebell Beast was excellent – 16 athletes – and spectator and coach turnout was just good!

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a great highlights video from The 2011 Kettlebell Beast that I posted on YouTube:

BTW, if you want to see ALL the action from The Kettlebell Beast, check out the event’s dedicated YouTube Channel where I’ll be sharing individual competitor videos very soon!

So, what happened? Here are the scores, reps, etc from everyone who competed at The 2011 IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast Competition:

2011 IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast Competition Results (Click on the image for a larger view!)

There were some really outstanding and inspiring performances!

The top lifter in Men’s Biathlon was Will Metcalf who nailed 115 reps in the Kettlebell Jerk with a pair of 24 kg Kettlebells, followed an hour later by a Right and Left total of 180 Kettlebell Snatches with 24kg! You can see some of Will’s great work in the pic below as well as the videos! Will’s wife, Melissa also put in an outstanding Biathlon performance with 140 reps in the Jerk and 148 in the Snatch with a 12kg Kettlebell! (BTW, if you’re not completely clear on how a Kettlebell competition works, here’s a blog post that should explain it!) A pic of Melissa is also below…

In the Women’s Long Cycle (Clean and Jerk), there were a bunch of outstanding performances including Donna Sheridan with 69 total reps in the Long Cycle with a 16kg Kettlebell for Women’s Best Lifter of the meet!

Another performance worth a mention is Scott Tighe’s AWESOME set of Kettlebell Jerks with TWO 32kg bells. Scott nailed a full 56 reps in the 10:00 minute time limit!

There Were Plenty of AWESOME First Time Performances Too…

And, there were a bunch of first time competitors too. This is something I LOVE to see! Kettlebell Sport has so many great aspects to it and seeing it spread to new people with a competition like this is a huge thrill…

The Weekend Wasn’t ALL About Kettlebells, Though…

I made a ton of new friends at The Beast  and reconnected with some old ones! Our Facebook friend, Torrey, came out from Dirty Jersey (aka, New Jersey ) and CrossFit 908 to hang out. She even brought me and Michelle T-Shirts!

I had a great time meeting everyone and signing books! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! Oh yeah, and my “neighbors” at my booth from Beast Bars were cool too! Look them up on Facebook!

And, Finally, BIG Thanks to…

Merle McKenzie and Glenn Perra, Jr. from CrossFit Relentless and CrossFit 033

Terri Parker from Red Barn Fitness

Bryce Graskoski from CrossFit Religion

Ken Blackburn and IKFF

BTW, You Can STILL Get a Kettlebell Beast Shirt Here On Spreadshirt…

Shirts and sweatshirts are right here in the Practical Paleolithic Kettlebell Store!

ttys

Adam

Since I announced that I’d be putting on an IKFF Sanctioned Kettlebell Competition at The Beast of the East Fitness Expo here in Connecticut in October 2011, I’ve had a lot of questions about just what exactly a “Kettlebell Competition” is. So, I put this little primer together just to give my friends who have been asking a little something to help them along. The competition itself is The IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast and you can follow that link to read more about it and register.

Carrie swinging a kettlbell at CrossFit Relentless

I’m also putting this out there for those who have decided NOT to compete in The Beast of the East, but still want to get some competition experience. Here’s why: there’s just over two months now until The Beast. If you’re a CrossFitter and you chose one or two kettlebell events to enter, you could keep doing your regular CrossFit training and add in kettlebell technique work and a few longer sets to prep for the competition. Knowing what the event is going to be TWO MONTHS OUT is a big advantage for those with “competition jitters” that are particularly intense when faced with the “Unknown and Unknowable” aspect of CrossFit-style competition. This gives you TWO MONTHS to train one or two movements knowing EXACTLY what’s expected on competition day. Yeah, it’s still going to be HARD – but at least you know what you’re getting into ahead of time

How a Kettlebell Competition works…

Kettlebell Competition is done on a 10 minute time limit. Basically, each event is a 10 Minute AMRAP (where AMRAP = As Many Reps As Possible). If you’re doing Kettlebell Clean and Jerk (Also called “Long Cycle”), you choose your Kettlebell Weight (Men use one bell in each hand, women use only a single bell with ONE hand switch allowed in 10 minutes.) and you do max reps of Clean and Jerk in the 10 minute time limit without putting the Kettlebell or Kettlebells down. If you can’t finish the full 10 minutes, you terminate your set when you have to by putting the Kettlebells down.

Here’s Ken Blackburn, IKFF Director of Operations, doing a shorter set of Kettlebell Clean and Jerk (Long Cycle):

And here’s my friend Sincere Hogan from NewWarriorTraining.com doing a 10 minute set of Long Cycle in competition:

Another Kettlebell Event is the Snatch. Here’s a vid of Sally from New Warrior Training doing a 10 minute snatch set at The IKFF Nationals Kettebell Competition last year in 2010:

And, there will be some other crazy stuff…

Because Merle and Glenn from CrossFit Relentless and CrossFit 033 are involved in this whole thing, we also decided to add in some other wacky events. These will NOT be IKFF sanctioned but WILL be a lot of fun! Currently, we have a Kettlebell Turkish Get Up for One Rep Max Weight competition scheduled. There will also likely be some other stuff thrown in as well.

Here’s my friend Jason Marshall, RKC doing a Turkish Get Up with a 48kg (106lbs) Kettlebell and some other classic lifts:

And here’s Steve Cotter doing some INSANE stuff with some Kettlebells:

That’s it for now. Drop me an email if you have questions and GET YOURSELF REGISTERED for The Kettlebell Beast!

ttys

Adam

The Announcement…

Everyone involved with the Beast of the East Fitness Competition being held here in Connecticut October 8-9, 2011 is VERY excited about this new event! The event is The IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast that is now part of The Beast of the East Fitness Competition. The IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast will be a FULLY SANCTIONED IKFF Kettlebell Competition!

There are plenty more details to follow, but the competition will be open to men and women and there will be multiple weight classes and Kettlebell weights as per IKFF guidelines.

The Events…

Events will include the Kettlebell Snatch, Kettlebell Jerk, Kettlebell Long Cycle (Clean and Jerk) and Biathalon (Snatch and Jerk). Since most of us involved with The Beast of the East are a little crazy – it’s a CrossFit thing – there will also be some non-sanctioned events like a Turkish Get Up Competition and some others that will be open to anyone who wants to give them a shot – and sign the waiver

More Info to Come!

The registration link is LIVE and the $50 early registration fee is good until August 31, 2011 (September 1, 2011 the registration fee goes to $75). Here’s the registration link for the Kettlebell Beast! http://kettlebellbeast.eventbrite.com/

Drop me an email at adam@practicalpaleolithic.com if you have questions or you’re interested in helping out at the competition. We need judges and all around help for this contest!

ttys

Adam

Today’s question comes from Tiffany on Facebook. Here it is!

“Hello Adam

I have been a follower of SINS for awhile now and would like to say thank you for the information, inspiration, and motivation that is put out there. If you have a minute, I was hoping you could give some advice or point me in the right directions?
I have been doing P90X for a year now and would like to move on to something new… I have been researching kettlebells for a few weeks. I just purchased an instructional video by Pavel and “The Kettlebell Goddess workout”. As far as an at-home workout, is this a good place to start? After reading the comments on the kettleworx infomercial I definitely do not want to make the wrong choice. I’m sure taking classes from a certified instructor would be better, but I cannot find any kettlebell classes in the Cincy area. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Tiff”

Thanks again for your question, Tiff!

Here are useful links that I mentioned in the video:

International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation

Dragon Door

Dr. Mark Cheng and Kettlebells Los Angeles

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

But THIS has surprised us…

Something has been coming up more and more – and there is a hefty component of pissing and moaning to it. I guess that’s the internet for you and the nature of the Free Speech we are so blessed to have. When I wrote the original post I was really talking about CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES more than anything else and celebrating the fact that we’re moving toward a world where it’s acceptable – and cool – for women to be strong.

There were some mixed reactions to my friend Jen’s post about “Strong is the New Skinny” on her blog. This got me thinking and I wanted to get some of my thoughts on the topic out there.

The SHORT story is:

If a woman is naturally skinny that doesn’t mean she’s anorexic or can’t wear one of Marsha’s shirts any more than any male with a bench press over 300lbs is a steroid-taking meathead.

Here’s Marsha being strong AND Skinny:

And here’s our friend Jen Bolduc being strong AND skinny

I have a personal connection to this movement on at least two levels

I guess, I’m going to need to write a male version of “Strong is the New Skinny.” Something like “Strong is the New Big” or some such. (I’ll probably have to write it right after this so it doesn’t get ripped off LOL). When I was younger I suffered from tremendous pressure to be bigger, stronger and more athletic. I remember force-feeding myself HUGE quantities of food for years and resorting to other some less than healthy practices. My friends and I also piled STUPID amounts of weight on the bar and used less-than-great form to move it around. It’s much less than the “be skinny” pressure for women – but there is HUGE pressure on young men to be strong, muscular, athletic and able to fight.

I remember being at the point I was carrying enough muscle that (and doing ZERO cardio out of fear I’d lose an ounce) I got out of breath going up stairs – and I actually thought that was COOL. I also remember my girlfriend telling me that I “couldn’t be on top anymore” when I was at my heaviest – 225lbs at 5’9″. It’s all funny now, but it was just as dumb as the girls who starve themselves to be more “attractive.” One girlfriend I had would “diet” on tea, cigarettes, popsicles and pickles – and NOTHING else for days at a time. She also told me how, when she was in High School, she and her friends used to have “contests” to see who could lose the most weight. At this point in my life, I would have either gotten her on a good Paleo diet or run for the door – but back then all I knew is I had a “hot” girlfriend with great abs… DUMB!

The other issue I have here is on the other side. I’ve also dated women who were neither strong nor skinny. My passion has always been for training and my attitude for training women has always been “Let’s get you strong and training and eating right and see where your body ‘ends up’.” My attitude about women and their bodies boils down to this: Get strong, get healthy, eat for health and be THE BEST DAMN YOU YOU CAN BE! That is sexy and THAT is “Strong is the New Skinny!”

On some level, I had my good friend Katie (Lively) in mind when I wrote the original “Strong is the New Skinny” post. She was just finishing High School and seriously wanted to get into modeling and acting. She’d apparently been told she needed to lose about 10 pounds and get more portfolio pics done. The fact that I was training her with CrossFit and Kettlebells obviously wasn’t making her any smaller. And, of course this was the same girl who RAN OVER the girls on the other High School Lacrosse teams after less than a year of working with me.

Here’s Lively being strong and not-skinny-enough to be a “model.” And, YES, that’s a 40kg Kettlebell…

And, here she is responding to my “encouragement” to get back to her round of Wall Balls

There’s another great story about a relationship I had here too. A girlfriend had asked me to give her a diet and a workout program – and BEGGED me to push her and help her stay on track – and then proceeded to skip workouts and – as it was admitted to me later – get up in the middle of the night to eat a pint of Ben and Jerry’s or an entire package of Oreos. While I WRACKED MY BRAIN to try and figure out why her diet wasn’t working! After the Oreo admission I was pretty sure I had the answer Now, what’s better is that her “official” story to her friends and family was: “Adam is a diet Nazi who won’t accept me for who I am and wants me to be a 90lb bimbo.”

What “Strong is the New Skinny” IS NOT

Continuing on with my Oreo story from above, can we all PLEASE agree that “Strong is the New Skinny” is IS NOT an excuse to NOT work hard, NOT eat right and NOT do your best to look THE WAY YOU WANT TO LOOK?

And, can we PLEASE agree that “Strong is the New Skinny” IS NOT another weapon to use against anyone who isn’t what WE think they should be?

I mean, really! It’s “Strong is the NEW Skinny” not “Strong is the New Skinny is a New Way to Hate on People with Something We Don’t Have and Want OR Something We Don’t Have and DON’T Want!”

And, can we PLEASE agree that getting strong, might, in some cases also make you more on the “skinny” side than you were when you started? “Strong AND Skinny is the New Skinny” just doesn’t have the same ring to it though

Can’t we all just get along? LOL

This affects men too…

Off topic or not, here are my thoughts on the male side of the body image thing:

Personally, I think the same movement and societal changes that led to “Strong is the New Skinny” have led to the demise of interest in the HUGE bodybuilder bodies that are drug produced. For a lot of young men there’s big pressure to be unrealistically huge and muscular and this leads a good number to steroid use. This DOES NOT mean I’m going to go around saying anyone with a body builder body is wrong or on drugs.

For men, I think there’s more acceptance of “less” muscular bodies that are strong and perform – look at UFC guys like GSP. I think this type of body has made it more “OK” for men to be muscular and athletic as opposed to huge, just like CrossFit has made it more “OK” for women to be muscular, strong and train hard.

George St. Pierre

The POINT is, there is plenty of room for interpretation on healthy, sexy and functional bodies – male and female – and WE as individuals have more control over that interpretation than ever before. Personally, it makes me VERY HAPPY that body images like those in this post are in the media and are showing up more and more.

What the hell is this guy rambling about?!?

OK, I’ve circled the airport long enough. I’m going to land the plane now…

TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” is about women deciding FOR THEMSELVES what they want to look like and who they want to be.

TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” is about women being STRONG and TRAINING HARD and TRAINING “LIKE A GUY.”

TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” is about increasing EVERYONE’S awareness that WE – us as individuals – have a serious level of control over stereotypes and norms and what is accepted and what future generations see. We – each and every one of us – has the ability, tools and OBLIGATION to lead and inspire future generations and create a better world. I recently had a woman – a blogger no less – tell me this could never happen because “men” still control the media and it’s impossible to change the current stereotypes. Well… “Men” may still control the print media to some degree, but there’s this thing called the “internet” that has made it possible to spread all kinds of “crazy” ideas on these things called blogs and there’s this new thing called Facebook that has spread an idea or two here and there. I mean, even a fringe wacko like me can get his crazy ideas out. (A diet with no grains? This guy is insane! He’s not even a Registered Dietitian…) And, in case you’ve had your head stuck in the sand – or someplace else – the “male controlled” print media ain’t doing so hot right now. Just ask Seth Godin…

And finally, TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” means women can kick ass with barbells and Kettlebells and tires and sandbags and whatever CrossFit nastiness they can find. And it also means a woman can sit down with a pile of bacon and some red meat and know it’s healthy and feel OK about herself while she does it. Because NOBODY wants to be THIS guy…

ttys

Adam

Written by Howie Brewer exclusively for Practical Paleolithic and all the friends of “Strong is the New Skinny!”

(Note:  This article assumes that the reader has been properly trained in the kettlebell lifts.  If not already, please be sure to learn these lifts from an experienced teacher.)

It is pretty well accepted that if one were stranded on a desert island with a single kettlebell and were magically constrained to be able to perform only one lift, that the one arm long cycle would be the lift of choice.  Why?  Because this one lift incorporates both a push and a pull movement, hitting all of the major muscle groups, while doing a pretty good job of shifting the cardio-respiratory system into overdrive.

I’m going to talk to you about the three variations of the one arm long cycle lift – long cycle press, long cycle push press and long cycle jerk –how to program them and how to synergistically intensify their effect.

Kettlebell Long Cycle?

For those of you who have never heard the term “long cycle”, it is just a fancy way of saying that before each rep – press, push press or jerk – that you will be cleaning the bell into its rack position first.  Therefore one rep consists of both a clean and a press (or push press or jerk).

I’m calling the long cycle lifts the ultimate in strength endurance because this lift allows itself to be trained for long, extended sets without ever putting the kettlebell down.  It’s not uncommon to hear of people performing a 20 minute long cycle set. The reason for this is because in this lift, one is able to rest in two places, in the rack and overhead.  Having these places to rest, one can catch their breath and adjust their pace as necessary.

So how do we program this lift? If you are a beginner, start with a two minute set.  Perform one minute with one hand, then switch and perform for a second minute on the other hand.  In the beginning, don’t worry about your pace. Just concentrate on your technique.  Make sure each rep is perfect.  It should always be about quality, not quantity.   (I’m assuming we are training for strength, health and fitness.)

As one begins to progress in the lift, start stretching out the length of the set, switching hands at points that make sense.  For example, let’s say you’re now comfortable with a two minute set and you want to up it to three minutes.  You have two choices, make your hand switch at the one minute mark, as before, and then when you hit the two minute mark, switch back for 30 seconds on your first hand, before switching back again for your final 30 seconds.  Or if you are up to it, simply perform the first 90 seconds on your first hand and switch for 90 seconds on your other hand.

The point is, in order to build your strength endurance in this lift, continue to stretch out the length of your set, switching hands as often as you like, as long as you can balance the time on each hand equally and continue to perform for your desired duration.

OK, so how do you intensify this lift?  I’m going to discuss three ways.

The first way is to increase the amount of time each hand performs the lift before switching to the other hand.  If you have worked up to an eight minute set, switching hands every minute, you can now perform the lift switching hands every two minutes, and so on.

The second way is to vary your pace throughout your set.  Here you can be creative.  Start your first minute(s) on each hand at a moderate pace.  Then increase the next minutes to a faster pace.  Then modulate your pace up and down as you see fit.  This is sort of like interval training within a single set.  One example is to start slow and continue to increase your pace each time you change hands or complete a pair of minutes.  Another example is to increase and decrease your pace like a pyramid throughout your set so that your fastest interval occurs half way through the set.  No matter how you design the set, you can easily count your total reps by the end, which will give you a benchmark for future sessions.

Finally, let’s discuss how we can combine the three variations of this lift into one synergistically, evil set.  As you are familiar, each lift from press, to push press, to jerk, uses less and less deltoid strength to get the kettlebell overhead, respectively, and uses more and more leg drive to lift the bell.  We can use this to our advantage if it is our intent to decimate ourselves in our workout.  (And this is also a favorite of mine.)

What we do is start the set off performing the long cycle press.  Here we are using delts and triceps to press the bell out.  These are relatively small muscles that will begin to burn relatively quickly when one is using a respectable weight.  As the delts and tris begin to fatigue, without ending the set, we switch over to the long cycle push press.  Doing this, we now allow our legs to start to contribute to the lift, taking the brunt of the movement off of the delts and tris.  We continue with the push press until our delts are screaming for mercy.  It is at this point that we ultimately switch over to the long cycle jerk.  Here we are using almost all leg drive to get that bell overhead.  The shoulders are now being used simply to stabilize the bell in the overhead position.  (This isn’t to say it’ll be easy.)  And we finish this grueling set as best as possible using the jerk to get the bell overhead.  Cunningly evil, ain’t it?

So there you have some ideas on how to take the one arm long cycle lift and use it to become stronger, fiercer and unstoppable. Most important is that you know how to perform each of these lifts correctly before diving off of the deep end with your training.  So please, be sure that you know what you are doing before increasing the intensity of your lifts.  Understand and be competent with the basics before getting fancy.  You’d be surprised how far along one can get with just the basics.  Now let’s go and lift!

In the photos: Amy Moore. Amy currently holds Rank 2 in biathlon (jerk and snatch) with the World Kettlebell Club.

Howie Brewer
Kettlebells NY
Master Trainer, World Kettlebell Club
Sports Performance Coach, USA Weightlifting
www.kettlebellsny.com

UPDATE: THANK YOU, EVERYONE! Thank you to everyone who has RT’ed or Facebooked or whatever’ed this post. I am absolutely HUMBLED by the response! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Please connect with me if you’d like, wherever you’d like! Adam

P.S. – Marsha says “thanks” too!

I have to thank my friend Marsha (and her boobs) for posting a pic of her new shirt on Facebook and inspiring this post. It got me thinking. Have body images changed that much for women recently? And does it have anything to do with the CrossFit movement and the changes that are going on in fitness? I was pretty inspired recently by this Ice Chamber video my friend Bob Garon posted:

Women kicking ass with kettlebells. Now that’s cool. And those are heavy ‘bells too! Purple is 20kg, Green is 24kg and Yellow is 16kg. No joke…

My challenge to women and the media

I say, MAKE strong the new skinny. Never mind what the status quo is. FUCK THE STATUS QUO! I say, to use Seth Godin’s term, be The Purple Cow. Now, I know women and the term “cow” shouldn’t really be used together, so before I get pummeled I’ll explain. A “Purple Cow” is something remarkable. In a world with more and more advertising “noise” and where there’s someone already filling virtually every need and every niche, a Purple Cow is something that stands out. A brown cow is boring, but a Purple Cow is REMARKABLE.

If you’re a muscular woman, go after mainstream exposure. Let’s take muscular women out of the bodybuilding subculture and put them in the mainstream.

And if you’re a “regular girl” who wants to model, never mind if you’re not “thin” enough. Build the body YOU WANT and shop your portfolio around until someone wants to take a chance on someone who doesn’t look like everyone else. Better yet, read “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuck and fuck the “shop your portfolio around” part. Build your own following online and let the agencies COME TO YOU.

Think it can’t happen? Watch Gary rant and rave in this video and THEN tell me you have no chance of getting the exposure you want or changing what’s considered attractive or acceptable in the mainstream…

What Gary is saying – in between swearing and getting excited – is that we don’t need to deal with gatekeepers anymore. Social media changed all that. Gary’s message: Do what you love, build a following online – through tons of hard work – and let your online presence take you where you want to go. You have the power because of social media now. All it takes is desire and hard work.

I wanna see a girl with some muscles in the Victoria’s Secret catalog in the next few years. What do YOU think? If you agree, pass this blog post around and get busy!

ttys

Adam

I’ve been working with some form of a Paleo or Paleolithic diet for over 6 years now. I’ve written a lot about the diet and I’ve even summed up the basics in a Paleo Primer and my Free eBook download. I’ve also been part of the Kettlebell community since 2007 and the CrossFit community since 2008.

As I said in my post “Welcome to My Gym,” I’ve been training a lot more Kettlebells lately – particularly the basics. So, I’ve sort of made my way “back” to the Kettlebell community after spending a ton of time with CrossFitters.

Every Community has Its Own World View and Preferences

I tend to look at the post-internet fitness communities as having a lot more similarities than differences. “Post-internet” being things like Kettlebells, CrossFit, Paleo diet and lifestyle and some of the more progressive martial arts and functional strength groups. CrossFit has done a great job of both uniting a TON of different disciplines and bringing together a bunch of seemingly “unrelated” communities” and – at the very same time – it’s managed to galvanize a certain world view and collection of methods that’s accepting to SOME new input but not to others.

I’ve always been the CrossFit guy with the Kettlebell bias. When I ran my CrossFit affiliate I always had a lot more Kettlebell stuff going on than most others. At the same time, I’m the Kettlebell guy that REALLY likes CrossFit methods and loves to play with the Olympic lifts and crazy-ass Met Con WODs that scare some of my Kettlebell friends. Add to this my LONG history in Martial Arts and traditional weight lifting and things get really eclectic. (I’m actually working on a concept I call Transdisciplinary Fitness. More to come on that…)

The Paleo Diet is THE Diet – End of Story

Bold statement, right? Particularly with all the “this diet vs. that diet” bullshit floating around. It’s out of control actually. My friend Robb Wolf has a book coming out September 2010 called “The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet.” And that pretty much sums it up. The Paleo Diet IS the original human diet – the diet we evolved on over the course of over 2,000,000 years. And, if you want some science to back that up there is more than enough to keep you reading for a long, long time. You can start with Loren Cordain’s Page. Cordain is a researcher at Colorado State University and he’s published a ton in real peer-reviewed scientific journals. In other words – real science.

Science aside, there’s the whole “empirical” thing that CrossFit and Coach Glassman took to an outstanding level. If it works, use it. The Paleo Diet works. It’s worked for me and many, many others.

Kettlebell Training and Paleo Nutrition

I guess the weird thing about being involved in a bunch of different training communities is that you don’t always have a sense of where one ends and the other begins. Ask me about diet and my response is: “Paleo. Duh.” Followed by a few hours of enthusiastic knowledge-spilling.

What I sometimes forget is that:

1. Not everyone has been exposed to and steeped in the Paleo Diet culture
2. If you’re not “in on” the whole Paleo Diet movement, it can look like just another “diet of the week” from the outside – It isn’t

I was finding this more and more with my Kettlebell friends. I’m not sure why, but there hasn’t been a real “unified” nutrition movement within the Kettlebell communities. In a way this is good, because you avoid the freak show that happened between CrossFit and Robb Wolf. On the other hand, it’s bad because Kettlebell enthusiasts are sort of left to fend for themselves in the sea of diet bullshit and information that the rest of the world has to contend with. As athletes, we really don’t have the luxury of stumbling around the diet issue in the dark for years. Too much wasted time and lost progress.

Why is the Paleo Diet a Perfect Fit for Kettlebell Training?

A good Paleo Diet addresses food quality – Food quality is something I think a lot of people are confused on because of all the marketing influences we get exposed to. In particular, the marketing influences we DON’T know about. When I think of the GARBAGE I used to eat and think I was eating healthy… Paleo will steer you AWAY from anything that comes in a package or has a label and TOWARD natural things that have been around for a very, very long time. Some Paleo dieters – like me – will also insist on as much organic food as possible.

The Paleo Diet is an anti-inflammation diet – If you’re training hard, you’re going to be dealing with inflammation. Because it emphasizes foods low in Omega-6 fats and high in Omega-3s, Paleo is an anti-inflammatory diet. AND, Paleo removes two of the WORST offenders when it comes to promoting and prolonging inflammation – grains (particularly wheat) and cow dairy. Add to this a focus on good sources of EPA and DHA from fish oil and you have a home run as far as fighting inflammation! Check out a great article Robb Wolf did on fish oil, EPA, DHA and Vitamins A, D and K. Also, check out this blog post by Mark Sisson on inflammation.

The Paleo Diet is full of good fats and low in bad ones – This kind of goes along with both of the above points. Good fats – Omega 3s – help fight inflammation. Bad fats – Omega 6s – can bring on inflammation and a ton of other health issues. Check out Kurt Harris, MD’s blog for a primer on fats.

The Paleo Diet controls insulin levels – When you drop grains, sugar and processed foods while increasing your intake of vegetables and meat you automatically make a big advance in lowering the amount of insulin you produce in a 24-hour period. This helps burn fat, keeps blood sugar more stable and can have some BIG health benefits later on in life.

The Paleo Diet is high in protein – What can I say. Protein is KING for building muscle. Everyone knows that.

The Paleo Diet incorporates short fasts – Since many people in the Kettlebell community are familiar with Ori Hofmekler’s Warrior Diet, the idea of short fasts won’t be too new. The Paleo Diet looks at intermittent fasting from an evolutionary perspective. And, my personal opinion is that a Warrior-style diet with Paleo foods will work out a lot better – particularly because Paleo excludes beans, legumes and grains.

Where to go from here?

Here are some resources you can check out to see if a Paleo-style diet might work for you:

My Paleo Primer

My Free eBook “Making a Paleolithic Diet Work for You”

Robb Wolf’s site – be sure to check out his AWESOME series of podcasts “The Paleolithic Solution” on the site or iTunes.

Mark Sisson’s Blog – Mark’s Daily Apple

This lecture by Paleo Diet author Loren Cordain

Nikki Young’s interview with me on her blog, Living Paleo

A two part interview I did on the Paleo Diet with the Hartford Examiner

That should be enough to get you “started”

Let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out – and “like” – my new page on Facebook: Kettlebells + Paleo

ttys

Adam

My "Home Gym"

What do you REALLY need to get in a good workout?

My life is a bit disorganized and crazy at the moment. Let’s call it “fluid” or “in flux” instead I’m living in my family’s little summer cottage in Old Saybrook and I have a “limited” amount of stuff to train with. I have:

• An Olympic bar and two 25lb bumper plates
• A bunch of kettlebells from 12kg to 24kg
• A chalk/puke bucket
• A 20lb Med Ball
• A GymBoss Timer

I also have a BEAUTIFUL little beach neighborhood that gets little traffic other than all the golf carts and it has a NASTY hill for sprints.

And, you know what? I’ve trained my ass off this summer with ZERO boredom. You don’t need much if you want to be honest about it…

Swings, Comrade, Swings…

I’m also seeing the value and beauty in the basics again. Having a limited amount of stuff to work with gives you a different perspective. I work two handed swings ALMOST EVERY DAY and find nuances in them almost every time that I hadn’t noticed before. Let alone the stuff you find in timed sets of kettlebell snatch or long cycle. You could train a lifetime with a few kettlebells and a timer. Combine in the CrossFit stuff you can do with a Med Ball and a 95lb Olympic barbell and you’re good to go. INFINITE POSSIBILITIES. All the other stuff is cool: rings, rowers, pull up bars, bench presses, max weight, etc., etc… But at times that stuff can be a distraction too.

There are no Quantum Leaps…

I’m also learning that there are no quantum leaps in fitness – or anything else for that matter. You get from here to there one step at a time. One TINY step at a time. Sometimes they’re so small you miss them. You get there by doing and “doing” happens in the here and now. Not later. NOW.

Are you living it RIGHT NOW?

Are you living in the present or are you living in the future? Hopefully, you’re not living in the past… It’s tempting to think about all our great goals and where we can be in a few months or a year. And, the truth is, we CAN make tremendous progress if we set goals and work toward them. But the “work toward them” is the interesting part. You can set a goal out a few weeks or a few months, but it’s easy to live in the future that way. Lately I’ve been asking myself if I’m living the life I want RIGHT NOW. Am I training RIGHT NOW? Am I perfecting my technique RIGHT NOW? Is my diet clean and Paleo and what my body needs RIGHT NOW? It’s too easy to set future goals and have it amount to a self-help, super-slick way of procrastinating and “I’ll do it later.” DO IT RIGHT NOW! Fall is almost here. Then winter. Then guess what? It’ll be spring again. Where can you be in the spring if you get on it RIGHT NOW?

I’m going to keep a real close eye on myself in the coming weeks and months. I have a lot of things I want for the near future, but I’m going to be damn sure I’m doing what I want and need to be doing IN THE PRESENT to get myself there. Otherwise, all the goal setting stuff is just mental masturbation…

And, if you’re trying to do too much and your head is spinning (not to mention your “wheels” are spinning) check out my post “Is Your Lifestyle Sustainable?”

ttys

Adam