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.

Defining a New “Bodybuilding”

I picked up a copy of Ironman Magazine a while back. It’s bad but not as bad as some of the trainwrecks out there – it’s still bad beyond belief, though. But it was an Arnold edition, so I at least got to see pics of someone who always inspires me.

I was actually excited to see an article about fasting since I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for a long time now. It was basically a negative article with health warnings and a “further studies are needed” attitude. God forbid someone went 30 minutes without drinking a whey protein and dextrose shake. Alas, Ironman…

Once Upon a Time, This Was a HEALTH Subculture…

I mention Randy Roach’s book Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors all the time. I even reviewed Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors here. When you look at bodybuilding or “Physical Culture” from the 30s, 40s and 50s, it’s not unlike a lot of what we’re doing today in the CrossFit, Paleo and Kettlebell communities. It was a low-tech, hard work oriented approach and the men (and women) training at the time were fantastically strong. Bodybuilding as we know it was barely coming into it’s own, and “weightlifting” was where it was at. Obviously, lifts like Squat, Clean and Jerk and Snatch were big. These guys were totally counter-culture with their raw milk and raw egg protein shakes and “obsessive” health practices like sleeping a lot, avoiding stress and training all the time. In THOSE days it was typical for these guys to seek out local farmers and have a standing order for gallons of raw milk and dozens of eggs every week. They were also well acquainted with their local butcher and guys like Armand Tanny made a regular practice of eating raw meat and raw liver.

Here’s John Grimek in 1936:

And here’s Joe Zimmerman – who trained with the ORIGINAL York Barbell guys back in the early days:

BIG thanks to Old Time Strongman for the pic!

And here’s York Barbell Club, Once Upon A Time

BIG thanks to Old Time Strongman for the pic!

And here’s Arnold’s inspiration, role model and mentor, Reg Park:

I’m not sure when the above pic of Reg was taken, but he’s likely drug free here. If he’s not, he was taking barely anything by today’s standards.

Here’s Armand Tanny around 1949-50

Thanks to the IronOnline Health and Fitness Database for this pic of Armand!

And, since this IS part of my blog for the SINS Challenge, here are a few of the women of Muscle Beach in Venice, CA:

Stepping Back to Move Forward

The point is, these were health nuts who happened to be seriously strong and well conditioned – not to mention into gymnastics. Sound like CrossFit at all? I’m taking my shit back to a MUCH simpler time diet, training and lifestyle-wise. Everyone thought I was crazy for dumping my big house with the bigger mortgage and moving to my family’s little beach cottage here to train and write and blog full-time. Yeah, stupid like a fox (It’s a Simpsons quote )

My Own “Golden Age of Bodybuilding”

I’ve had some really good training days. And I had them here in THIS house. My goal is to have them back and do them EVEN BETTER! This is me about 11 years ago:

Looking Toward the Future

As I write this I’m 38 years old. In fact, shit, I’m going to be 39 in July. That’s a dose of reality, huh? Robb Wolf coached me over the phone for a few months last year and he said something that stuck with me. I’ve been dealing with the typical fatigue, poor digestion and myriad other problems created by too much stress and general burnout. Robb – who’s about the same age – said: “This isn’t the stage we want to have set as we move into our 40′s.” That really nailed me. If your health isn’t great NOW what’s it going to be in a few years? The clock is ticking…

Here’s Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple at about 55 years old:

And here’s Jack Lalanne at 40:

Obviously, it’s completely possible to have great health and strength – not to mention look good with your shirt off – into your 40′s and 50′s. IF YOU GET OFF YOUR ASS!

So, this is me getting off my ass…

Here Are MY SINS Challenge Goals

• My Paleo book is released the second Sunday in March of 2011
• On or before May 1, 2011 I want to Back Squat 225lbs for 20 reps without racking the bar and Dip body weight PLUS 80lbs for 6 reps.
• Before August 1, 2011 I want my Handstand Push Ups to be as second nature as regular push ups are now.
• By June 1, 2011 I want to be sleeping soundly through the night and getting a consistent 9-11 hours of sleep EVERY night – Yeah, you read that right. To those who have given me shit about this in the past – and our messed up and deluded society in general – THIS IS HEALTHY people. Just because you and everyone else  lives on caffeine and sleeps 4 hours a night doesn’t mean it’s even REMOTELY healthy. And, besides, I did the same thing for a LONG time and am living with the end result now. I’ll NEVER do it again. I actually ranted about this in my post “Fitness, Healthy, Money and LIES.”
• Starting this spring and on into summer, fall and forever, my diet will be composed of the absolute maximum of local, organic, direct from the farm foods. By the end of the summer I’ll have reliable local sources for eggs, beef, pork, chickens, raw cow and goat milk, organic fruits and vegetables and maybe even some whole grain bread and cheese once in a while.
• Before the end of March 2011 I’ll be consistently training 1-2 days a week at MidCoast CrossFit in Old Saybrook.
• Training 1-2 times a week at a good local yoga studio.
• Training 1-2 times a week in MMA and BJJ again with my friends at Modern Self-Defense Center.
• Within the next year have an exceptional – and non-psychotic – woman in my life. Bonus points if she already CrossFits and eats Paleo
• 10lbs of fat lost
• 10lbs of muscle gained
• Digestion is completely on track
• Within the next year, Practical Paleolithic is THE BEST training, nutrition and motivation blog on the internet. That’s the best in the WORLD, folks…
• Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook is THE BEST training and motivation page on Facebook. Oh, wait, it already IS

That about covers it! There’s probably more, but I’ll leave it there for now… It’s all there for EVERYONE to see and for me to read over and over…

ttys

Adam

This is an advanced goal setting technique that’s been hugely useful to me. It evolved from an Anthony Robbins program I worked through about three years ago – and that program was nothing short of life altering for me.

The basic process is to envision the life you WANT to live – as vividly and in as much detail and depth as possible – and record it in an MS Word file or other word processing document. Using an electronic doc lets you add in pictures, embed videos and links and edit and change to your heart’s content. My current “vision doc” is over 130 pages of text and pics and it’s something that I’ve evolved and edited and changed and read and reread.

“Written Goals” for the 21st Century

A lot of “self-help” types get into written goals. I think of this exercise as written goals on steroids! With an electronic format you can insert all kinds of stuff as you find it and CAPTURE it to inspire you later. Cool pic on a training blog? Copy and paste! Inspiring video? Put the link in your doc! Cool quote on Facebook? Copy and paste! You can get really detailed and crazy with this – and I suggest that you do! The more detail you put into your vision, the more time you spend creating it and the more emotion you give to it, the more fun you’ll have and the more strongly you’ll connect to your goals and dreams.

I’ve been working with mine and editing it for YEARS. Some days I’d spend a lot of time editing it – or just reading it – and other times I’ll go weeks or more without looking at it at all.

Make It Yours

In the end, it’s about what’s useful to YOU. I greatly revised and expanded on the original exercise that Tony Robbins did in “Time of Your Life” and I encourage you to adapt what I show you here to your own purposes. The most important thing is that you feel EXCITED and INSPIRED and JACKED UP to train and go out and MAKE YOUR GOALS HAPPEN when you work on this thing or read it. Put as much time and detail as you want and make it FUN and deeply INSPIRING to you!

It’s a really fun process and it’s pulled me through a lot of really though times – times when all I had the energy for was to imagine the life I would eventually have and the great health and training that was in my future. And that future IS coming to be! Think of this document as a target or a compass that keeps you on course and helps you adjust your course as you grow and evolve.

Here are the seven sections from Anthony Robbins’ original exercise and a short description of each…

Your Ultimate Vision

This is the really fun part. Find some quiet time and imagine what you would accomplish, what your life would be like and WHO YOU WOULD BE if there were NO LIMITS. Imagine it in as much detail as possible and don’t censor yourself at all. When I did this for the first time I actually saw who I TRULY wanted to be – and it WASN’T who I was at the time and it wasn’t even where I was heading. Imagining the life I wanted with no limitations completely changed the course of my life.

Take some time, put on some music and GET INSPIRED. Imagine your BEST SELF and your ULTIMATE LIFE if you could live any life you wanted!

Your Purpose for Achieving Your Vision

Now that you have your vision, you need a purpose to help drive you toward it. This is the WHY of your vision – WHY do you want to be that person? What will it GIVE YOU to have health and vitality and fitness and performance. The purpose part is important because it’s the energy and the drive and the emotion behind the vision you’re striving for!

Roles

This is one Tony Robbins gets kind of silly with and you don’t even really have to do it. The basic idea is to create “roles” or “identities” for yourself. Examples might be: “CrossFit Firebreather,” “Champion Ultra Marathoner,” “Master Martial Artist.” You can be as silly or as serious as you want on these, but the point is to come up with things that will motivate you and remind you of “who you are” when you’re going to work out or are doing the things that will get you to your ultimate vision.

Resources to Help you Achieve the Vision

This is one of my favorite parts of the exercise. When I actually started thinking about ALL the incredible resources I had available to me to make my vision a reality I was blown away! 100s of books, DVDs, a garage full of equipment, 7 different certifications, a TON of friends who CrossFit and even a few who own an affiliate, great teachers and friends in a bunch of different martial arts, all the great blogs out there and my Facebook friends. I could write for DAYS about all the resources I have. When you see it in that way, it’s pretty hard to think you couldn’t achieve your goals. I think you’ll find that you have A LOT more resources that you realize when you sit down and list them

Three to Thrive

This is another good one. What you want to do here is figure out the three MOST important things you need to do on a regular basis to achieve your goals. In other words, what are the THREE things that, if those were ALL you could do, would get you pretty close to your vision. For example, it might be “train at least four days a week,” “eat an all whole food Paleo diet” and “sleep well and keep stress low.” The point is, these are the three MOST IMPORTANT actions you’re going to take on a REGULAR BASIS to achieve the vision you’ve created.

A side note here is that, when I originally created my vision document, I increased this to five. So I had “Five to thrive.” Typical over-achieving from me… I cut it back to three to FORCE myself to focus on the MOST important activities as opposed to having five I was doing inconsistently. Three to thrive is a tool to help you focus on the MOST important aspects of your life. It’s NOT another list of stuff to do…

One Year Goals

This is the big one. Where do you want to be ONE YEAR from now? What are the big ones and some of the smaller ones? 300lb Bench Press? Sub-4 Minute Fran? 90% of your food Paleo and organic? Drop 4% bodyfat? Some of these will take the ENTIRE year and some will happen faster. We get more specific about this in the next section…

Quarterly Goals

Now that you know your One Year Goals, you can break those down into smaller quarterly goals. For example, if your Bench Press is 260 now, you know you need to add 40lbs to the lift over the course of the year. You’d probably want to do something like this: in the First Quarter – add 15lbs, in the Second and Third Quarters add 10lbs per quarter and then add 5lbs over the Forth Quarter to have a 300lb Bench Press in a year’s time. You get the picture.

It’s all about evolution and finding your way…

In the original Anthony Robbins program, the “vision” is about a paragraph and the “purpose” is about the same. I originally did it that way, but found I wanted to expand and add to it over time. The process is SO MUCH FUN when you get into it that it’s hard to leave it at just a little paragraph or two. When you start adding pics and videos and stuff, you’ll start to see how much “inspiration” you can pack into a Word document.

For me, the big payoff from having a written document like this is it serves as a REMINDER to me about where I’m going and who I’m becoming. Like I mentioned in the video, I’ve been through some VERY dark times in the past years and having this “ideal” vision to return to was a major factor in getting through. No matter how bad I felt or how discouraged I was, I could read my goals and my vision and be reminded of what the future could be with enough work and determination.

Like they say, you can’t hit a target that you can’t see!

So, open a fresh new document, think about where you want to be and WHO you want to be and get busy!

I wish you a happy, healthy and successful New Year!

ttys

Adam

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

I just “overheard” something between my friend Merle Mckenzie and one of his athletes from CrossFit Relentless, Brenda.

Merle posted two pics on Facebook with this message:

“Brenda I love you for what you have done to inspire women and men to change their lives. You are without a doubt 100% CrossFit and there is no finer example of what CrossFit and determination can do for someone.”

Here are the pics:

Brenda Starting CrossFit

BRENDA AFTER CrossFit!

The “After” pic above is from this morning – Labor Day 2010. Merle and a bunch of his athletes decided to “work” this morning, so Merle took a bunch of rowers and kettlebells down to the Farmington, CT Reservoir for a little Labor Day WOD. AWESOME STUFF!

Keep doing what you’re doing BOTH OF YOU! You BOTH inspire me and you both ROCK!

ttys

Adam