I figured I’d start a series that goes into more depth about some of the topics both Bud and myself will be covering at our upcoming Super Human Training Workshop.
Far from being just promotional, I aim to teach you some useable information here.
The workshop is set up to cover quite a wide variety of topics. The truth is a certain area may not be the thing you want to learn most about, but another aspect is.
The fact is I’ve gone to events before not real excited about certain topics but then blown away by them when I actually saw the material. Just keep that in mind.
Let’s start with the Kettlebells.
As you likely know I just hit my goal getting 301 snatches with the 24kg kettlebell in 10 minutes and multiple hand switches. (And I plan on beating my own record soon.)
I’m going to be releasing a DVD set that covers everything, and I do mean everything, about technique and training leading up to it. And that will be available soon. Stay tuned for a notice about it later this week.
But of course I’ll also be teaching this material at the workshop. While video is great it is no replacement for hands on work one on one and we promise to deliver tons of that.
Bud has done several workouts involving one, two or three thousand plus kettlebell swings, dependent on the weight he was using. Marathon swing workouts!
He also has a book coming out on the topic. But once again the workshop is the place to learn hands-on.
Here are those informative teaching points I promised. 
Both of us chose a goal, focusing on a single exercise, and went forward with it, seeing just how far we could take it. And it wasn’t an overnight thing. But years of training went into becoming the very best at it.
That single goal focus is HUGE. When you have it you will obtain your goal, assuming the required knowledge and effort is supplied. When you don’t have it you will flounder around (trust me I speak from too much experience).
Another aspect relating specifically to the kettlebell training is how it was structured. Bud and I did quite different things in these regards but there was at least one big commonality. And that was…
Cycling the weights up and down.
You should not only stick to a single weight with any exercise. But by working heavier and lighter you make faster progress.
And I don’t believe this only applies to swings and snatches. In fact, I incorporate it into everything I do these days.
What I just gave you is GOLD. Go re-read it and apply it to your training if you’re not currently doing so.
Swings are Bud’s specialty. Snatches are mine. We’re both fairly decent with push presses and jerks. Actually Bud has done some crazy numbers with those too.
So we will be teaching all of the above.
For some reason, people get messed up on the difference between presses, push presses and jerks. But really its quite simple.
- Presses – No leg dip
- Push Presses – One leg dip
- Jerks – Two leg dips
Understanding them is simple. Doing them is another. I’ve seen far too many people becoming uncoordinated just trying to do a jerk. At the workshop we promise to fix that.
Plus give you the proper way to rack a kettlebell, that will make all the above exercises become easier.
Then there is also the Natural Press which is sort of like an upper body push press. Still no leg drive but using your upper body to explode the weight up.
So that’s what we’re covering in the kettlebells portion of the workshop.
To get more details and sign up go here.
It’s a really cheap price with a bunch of extra goodies thrown on top to sweeten the pot. Be sure to sign up before February 28th for the early bird half off price.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Conditioning, Kettlebells, workshops by on Feb 21st, 2011. 2 Comments. 
I wrote a guest article for Rob Drucker over at OldTimeLifting.com.
This one is called How to Strength and Power with Kettlebells.
Be sure to check it out as well as the other great articles on the site. Rob has a tremendous physical culture knowledge.
Filed under Kettlebells by on Dec 3rd, 2010. Comment.
Have you joined us over at Super Human Training?
We had an awesome call with Andrew Durniat last night. I have three things I’m adding into my workouts immediately not for the sack of adding new stuff, but they’ll directly help me in my goals. Not to mention a few more things to look out for in the near future.
As was expected we blew past the hour mark and went a full 80 minutes. All jam packed with information.
- Are you doing the forgotten barbell lift? I haven’t been but I am now, starting today!
- How to kick off the restrictor plates in your training.
- Why you may want to train in kilograms and not pounds.
- The simple formula to get stronger. So obvious almost no one sees it.
- What’s holding back your squat? Hear two different answers and how to fix your weaknesses.
- What Andrew learned in recent overseas training. The necessary thing that ALL Americans were lacking when it comes to Girevoy Sport. Can you guess what it is?
- How to combine training along with Strongman, Highland Games, GS, and Grip competitions. Discover Andrew’s secrets to effectively getting stronger and excelling in many sports.
- And much more.
You may have missed the call but there is still some time to listen into the replay.
And if you aren’t signed up for the remaining nine calls, what are you waiting for? Make sure to sign up here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 22nd, 2010. Comment.
I received this question the other day after my post on Convict Conditioning, and since it was well thought out I’m going to give an in depth answer.
Hey Logan,
You obviously have far more experience than me and I don’t even compare to you in terms of strength/conditioning. You’ve done an awesome job from what I can see! I’d like your opinion, please I read Coach Wade’s “Convict Conditioning” and I want to do the “Big Six” moves!
Goals – strength in the “Big Six” and mutant conditioning.
Preference for the kettlebell swing.
‘Decent’ recovery abilities.
Equipment – barbell, dumbells, 35lbs & 70lbs kettlebells, & pullup bar.
Not much money.
I was planning on trying out the ‘Veterano’ routine with swings three times a week (light, medium, and heavy swing days). A concern–over training with back bridges and swings.
Do you think this a great way to reach my goals?
Is ‘Veterano’ not enough strength work?
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you & God bless!
David
Considering your goals and equipment, I think what you have laid out is a good plan. If you want to get good at these moves you should do them. Adding in a conditioning component with the kettlebell swing makes it even better.
For those of you who don’t have the book yet the Veterano is a routine that consists of doing a few sets of one of the six exercises each day. In my opinion, since the volume is already kept minimal I believe this program would be better with more frequency.
These moves require a high degree of strength but also a high degree of skill. So practicing them more often should result in faster gains. One thing I learned from Pavel is that its better to do one set of an exercise everyday then six sets one day a week.
For this reason I would modify this routine to do two exercises each day instead of one. One arm pushups and bridges. Handstand pushups with hanging leg raises. And one leg squats with one arm pullups. This way you do each move twice a week instead of just once. Adjust the volume if you have to but I think this will give better results.
I wouldn’t worry about overtraining with the bridges and swings. If you’re knew to bridging or swinging just be sure to ease into it.
A light, medium and heavy swing days is a good way to approach it but I personally never liked light and medium days. When I train I want to go hard all the time. If it works for you do it but here is how I’d approach it.
While swings are one of my favorite exercises I caution you against relying on just one movement for your conditioning. When you do this you may become real efficient at that movement and your conditioning may not actually improve that much.
Its good to have a conditioning goal like a number of swings (see Bud Jeffries recent Kettlebell Swing article) to go after. But its good to have some variety too. Personally I would focus on swings one day a week and do some sort of circuit conditioning on another day. You can mix swings and snatches with other exercises like sprinting, burpees, jumping rope or many others. This’ll give you a different feel and end up being better for your endurance.
In fact this is what I am doing in my training right now except I’m focusing on kettlebell snatches instead of swings.
I hope that helps you out and if you have to ask any follow up questions. Be sure to let me know how you progress.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you want to check out Convict Conditioning, click here.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Workouts by on Jan 27th, 2010. 7 Comments.
Today I’m going to give you a tough kettlebell and bodyweight exercise workout.
I first came up with this workout after hearing reading about Bud Jeffries’ concept of Yardstick Conditioning in Twisted Conditioning 2 several years ago.
I wanted a way to combine kettlebell exercises with bodyweight exercises in a single intense workout that would test overall conditioning as well as build muscular endurance. I picked four exercises that I felt where foundational and ones I wanted to work on. Those exercises are:
Double Kettlebell Jerks
Pushups
Bodyweight Squats
Kettlebell Snatch
(When I originally did this it involved hindu pushups and hindu squats, although when I started doing this workout again recently I’ve done the regular versions of pushups and squats.)
Each exercise is done for 5 minutes straight. Then without a break you move onto the next exercise in the order listed.
The goal is obviously to do the highest number of reps in each exercise.
But another big goal is to get to the point where you can do the exercise without dropping the bells or getting out of position for the whole five minutes. This means you can only rest with the kettlebells in the rack or overhead position for the jerks, and just overhead with the snatches. You can do as many hand switches as you need with the snatches.
On the pushups you stay in the plank position (much easier to maintain five minutes of hindu pushups). With squats its easy to go all five minutes so recently I added cables, a portable power jumper from lifeline, to make them harder.
Of course, in the start do as many sets as you need to do the whole five minutes.
For the kettlebell exercises I use 24 kg bells. You’ll want to start lighter especially if you have no experience with long sets. Eventually I’d like to work up to 32 kg bells. That may take awhile. I shouldn’t have to say it but technique is real important here.
I would recommend only doing this workout once per week mixed in with your other training. And each time you do it you seek to add just a few more reps to each exercise.
It’s a challenging workout. But rewarding and if you enjoy bodyweight exercises and kettlebells it’s a great way to work on those fundamental exercises.
Give it a try and let me know how you do.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Nov 16th, 2009. 2 Comments.
It was just over a week ago. I was doing single arm kettlebell presses. But I wasn’t just using one kettlebell. I was using two in one hand to increase the difficulty.
Everything was going great until the last rep of my last set.
I can’t tell you exactly what happened except I lost control at the top, both kettlebells came down and my fingers got smashed between the handles.
Haven’t felt that kind of pain in some time.
The end of the ring finger on my right hand swelled up and turned black and blue. I thought it was possibly broken at the time but now I think it’ll be all right.
And that brings me to two lessons.
First, be careful. Injuries do occur when lifting and exercising. Almost always its because of neglect or stupidity. Neglecting to keep correct and safe form. Using weights you really shouldn’t be handling (trying to show off or prove something among your buddies). Mostly just getting sloppy when you should be laser focused.
In this case when I lost control I should have just ditched the weights and moved away instead of trying to regain control. Never fight a falling weight!
And if you’re doing certain lifts or feats of strength realize the potential for injury may be increased. Just be aware of the facts if you choose to take certain risks.
This in no way means you shouldn’t lift or exercise. People get injured all the time from doing next to nothing. Be smart and safe and you can train completely injury free.
Sometimes you just need a reminder. Hopefully reading this serves you well so that you don’t have to crush your finger to get back on track.
And secondly, when you do have an injury, train around it. Do not take it as an excuse to layoff completely (of course if its really bad you should do just that). But with a minor injury to any part of the body you can still train other areas.
I was back training the next day. Have hit plenty of PR’s since then. Although some of my hand training had to be cut out I’m still going at it hard.
This doesn’t mean you should be stupid and not let the injury heal. But nothing can stop you when you are on the right track.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Health, Kettlebells, Recovery, Strength Training Concepts by on Jul 24th, 2009. Comment.
I have practiced some GS (girevoy sport) techniques previously. Some of the basic stuff like corkscrewing your arm downward. Although my swings and snatches were rarely done with maximum tension, I now know that what I was doing was pretty far from the real techniques used in kettlebell lifting competitions. Previously, I talked about how I was approaching this whole event. You know, with an open mind and all. So that was not hard. A little more difficult was making my body do things differently then I had been doing all this time.
One of the main things is breathing naturally. Also called anatomical breathing. Basically when you are in a downswing your torso is collapsing so you will breath out. As you come back up you naturally breathe in.
This is fine when you are not under a heavy load. Breathing out as you descend in a squat with 500 pounds on your back would be a bad idea. Kettlebells are relatively light (assuming you use weights you are capable of) so this is not a problem.
The whole idea of bracing for a kettlebell swing (snatch or clean too) is not wrong but a different application. Breathing in one method is optimal for strength and the other for endurance.
So I had to consciously think to breathe out on the way down and round my back. There were many other points like this that I need to work on.
Why would you choose one way of doing things over the other?
Let’s talk about the whole philosophy of the AKC. Valery Federenko is frighteningly strong and enduring. He is a world champion at this stuff. Right there is proof that he knows what he is doing. Many of the techniques he taught us where things he taught himself or learned on the road to doing over 130 Jerks and over 90 Snatches with each hand using 32kg (70 lb.) kettlebells.
Kettlebells are made for these lifts. And high repetitions. These techniques are the optimal way to do that. If you want to reach the highest numbers in these lifts then you should use these techniques. Using kettlebells in other ways can be done. They can be used, and effectively, for bodybuilding or weightlifting, but that is not what they are made for.
Now if you are not competing with kettlebells, would you still want to use these techniques? There is no doubt that properly training in this manner or any other can be very beneficial for health and fitness.
So is training this way better than the Hard-Style method of training? Assuming that the only goal was health and fitness, so that we avoid the argument of different training for different reasons. Or perhaps just martial artists or athletes who want to be in the best shape for their sport. I don’t know for sure. The only thing I can say here is that it would be a fun thing to do a study on.
More coming soon.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Conditioning, Kettlebells, Lifting Technique by on Sep 30th, 2007. Comment.
Tomorrow I will be attending the American Kettlebell Club Certification under World-Champion Girevik Valery Federenko. For those of you who do not know, Girevik is Russian for kettlebell lifter. If you don’t know much about kettlebells read my article What is a Kettlebell and Why Use One? I am not sure exactly what to expect. Previously I had been schooled in the Hard-Style of kettlebell training as popularized by Pavel and Dragondoor. In fact, when I first attended the RKC there was a guest teacher there and that was Valery. What he displayed was impressive.
For the first time I saw the differences between Hard-Style and Girevoy Sport lifting techniques. A talk by Brett Jones on that day about the two styles still stands out in my mind.
Not too long ago a rift occurred in the organization and part of it had to do with the supposed ‘real’ style of kettlebell lifting.
My goal with this is not to enliven the flames and hatred of some people who are so set in one style that they can’t see the benefits of another method. My philosophy is to learn from (and get good at) everything.
Personally I am not going to knock any style of training that works and makes you stronger and more fit. The way I see it now, is that both have there uses.
Will I be singing a different tune after these two days? I doubt it, but time will tell.
The big picture that this brings up is why do you train the way you do and what are you shooting for as your end result?
I will keep you updated on the happenings and see if I can get some video up of the event (at least some of us playing around with the bells).
My goal at this event is to increase my kettlebell lifting technique, broaden my horizons, become a better coach, and of course, have some fun.
I’d be writing more but the drive down to LA was long and now I’m tired. Stay tuned tomorrow for an update.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Kettlebells, Strength Training Concepts by on Sep 28th, 2007. Comment.
