Kettlebell lifters are usually the most minimalistic among the minimalists.
Practice the Jerk, afterwards the Snatch.
Use Swings, Cleans, Presses, maybe some running and Squats as assistance- exercises.
Some guys who go for a more complete and broader spectrum of fitness, like Steve Cotter of the IKFF, where I got my kettlebell training, use stuff like bumps, Jerk- specific Squats and bodyweight exercises too.
That´s it. That´s the program.
Well...Basically that is enough.
You will be doing a kind of Cardio but at least with weights.
And I think if I´m doing my cardio some day with two 32kg Kettlebells, I won´t be that bad concerning my strength- levels.
Nevertheless, there are differences between lifting a light weight for time or higher reps and lifting a heavier weight for less time or reps.
So the guys at the World Kettlebell Club(http://www.worldkettlebellclub.com/) came up with the StrongSport Ranks.
It consists of one- handed Cleans and Jerks, done separatly, with weights of 20kg up to 36kg for women and 32kg up to 48kg for men.
Sets are around 4min with one hand switch.
Well...That´s it again.
Take something simple and do it until you are technically proficient.
Of course, they did not re-invent the wheel at the WKC.
Almost every occupation which contains physical movement worked with higher resistance:
Runner put on ankle- weights, profesional dancers practice with weighted vests, heavy single repetitions are used to lighten the work with less load.
But, as with the regular Ranks, the StrongSport Ranks are a nice milestone, a beacon to know where you stand, a possibility to measure progress.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 26. Mai 2010
Dienstag, 25. Mai 2010
Symbolism of training - Bodyweight Exercises
In the first post concerning this topic I wrote about the capacity of our mind, be it the concious or the sUbconcious part to gain a deeper message from certain actions, lectures, etc.
Physical training has always been and will always be a mental development as well as a mere change of mass and the ability to use it.
Several things in life caught my special attention.
Physical training, medicine, especially psychiatry and psychotherapy, martial arts.
My long- term goal is to merge those things...
I´m still at the beginning of my journey but while working or at least watching and learning in all those fields I saw one constant:
You start within/ with yourself.
Take physical training:
I do not like my clients jump right ahead in Kettlebell- stuff, exercises with sandbags, etc.
If they got some base, it might be ok.
I prefer to lay some foundation with basic bodyweight exercises like Pushups, Pullups, Bodyweight Squats.
Those exercises give them a chance to experience their body once again, re-gain some basic awareness how their limbs are arranged in the 3-dimensional space and a hint how it may develop in the fourth, it gives us the time to teach basic breathing patterns, posture, build concious tension in the core, fix imbalances.
After that we´ll hit the iron, and then we can hit it hard!
People re-gain a sense of planning their own progressions, using physical exercises to think about their own current status, where they want to go/be after a time-span, looking for the best way to get there and then start working towards that goal.
They have to listen to their body, their mind as well, they have to get to know themselves again. Only then a succesfull training is possible.
Working- out can take you to your physical and mental borders. Once you arrived there you have to evaluate if you are ready to cross them, how far you will go and where to stop to remain healthy and grow even stronger during a phase of supercompensation.
There is even more, but you get my point.
Those are the must-have points of your training.
Now... I have not encountered one form of psychotherapy who does not want to empower their client.
Who does not want them to become aware of who they are by exploring where their weaknesses are, where they are losing their energy, where they are standing, what they want to achieve, what would be the best way to get there?
All this with the own body, focusing on increasing the strength to move oneself in different angles, situations, train various energy systems, play with different levers of your own.
Getting to know myself, making myself stronger concerning my own movement, my own structure.
Bodyweight training... The first step.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Physical training has always been and will always be a mental development as well as a mere change of mass and the ability to use it.
Several things in life caught my special attention.
Physical training, medicine, especially psychiatry and psychotherapy, martial arts.
My long- term goal is to merge those things...
I´m still at the beginning of my journey but while working or at least watching and learning in all those fields I saw one constant:
You start within/ with yourself.
Take physical training:
I do not like my clients jump right ahead in Kettlebell- stuff, exercises with sandbags, etc.
If they got some base, it might be ok.
I prefer to lay some foundation with basic bodyweight exercises like Pushups, Pullups, Bodyweight Squats.
Those exercises give them a chance to experience their body once again, re-gain some basic awareness how their limbs are arranged in the 3-dimensional space and a hint how it may develop in the fourth, it gives us the time to teach basic breathing patterns, posture, build concious tension in the core, fix imbalances.
After that we´ll hit the iron, and then we can hit it hard!
People re-gain a sense of planning their own progressions, using physical exercises to think about their own current status, where they want to go/be after a time-span, looking for the best way to get there and then start working towards that goal.
They have to listen to their body, their mind as well, they have to get to know themselves again. Only then a succesfull training is possible.
Working- out can take you to your physical and mental borders. Once you arrived there you have to evaluate if you are ready to cross them, how far you will go and where to stop to remain healthy and grow even stronger during a phase of supercompensation.
There is even more, but you get my point.
Those are the must-have points of your training.
Now... I have not encountered one form of psychotherapy who does not want to empower their client.
Who does not want them to become aware of who they are by exploring where their weaknesses are, where they are losing their energy, where they are standing, what they want to achieve, what would be the best way to get there?
All this with the own body, focusing on increasing the strength to move oneself in different angles, situations, train various energy systems, play with different levers of your own.
Getting to know myself, making myself stronger concerning my own movement, my own structure.
Bodyweight training... The first step.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 24. Mai 2010
The meaning of life
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his ife is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.
In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
Victor Frankl
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
Victor Frankl
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Dienstag, 18. Mai 2010
Ice Chamber Kettlebell Girls
Truly beautiful performance!!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Samstag, 15. Mai 2010
Donnerstag, 13. Mai 2010
Just curious...
You, too, can’t have a body like this
You, too, can’t have a body like this - Times Online
Horrible where our way of looking only at the surface of things has brought us.
It is time to be able to look ourselves in the eyes again.
Shifting the focus away from the body-fat-percentage, away from using the ration of quads to calves as an indicator of fitness, away from going after the "8-pack" of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or any ot...her shown fake ideals.
Start working out regularly, use exercises for your whole body to develop your whole body and stay healthy!!
Work hard and stop making excuses or looking for the magic pill or exercise to make you "huge", "ripped", whatever!!
Train to be strong, train to be fast, train to be proficient in what you do and you will look strong, you will look fast, you will look proficient!!
A honest hard work will result in a honest, hard body and an honest, tough personality.
Cut the crap!! In ALL AREAS OF LIFE!!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Horrible where our way of looking only at the surface of things has brought us.
It is time to be able to look ourselves in the eyes again.
Shifting the focus away from the body-fat-percentage, away from using the ration of quads to calves as an indicator of fitness, away from going after the "8-pack" of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or any ot...her shown fake ideals.
Start working out regularly, use exercises for your whole body to develop your whole body and stay healthy!!
Work hard and stop making excuses or looking for the magic pill or exercise to make you "huge", "ripped", whatever!!
Train to be strong, train to be fast, train to be proficient in what you do and you will look strong, you will look fast, you will look proficient!!
A honest hard work will result in a honest, hard body and an honest, tough personality.
Cut the crap!! In ALL AREAS OF LIFE!!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
To all the women out there
Most women I talk to about Kettlebells are kind of repelled by the weights used when performing the classic lifts(Jerk, Snatch, LongCycle) or alternative conditioning (Squats, Swings, Military Presses, Turkish Get-Ups,etc.).
They can`t imagine using anything more than 2,5-5kg dumbbells or spinning their brains out on a useless machine designed for rehabilitation.
They think I am (just another) male driven by testosteron unable to consider the abilities and needs of women. ;-D#
Well, take a look of what You are capeable and keep in mind the lady in the video below is using a weight approx. half her bodyweight for each repetition.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 10. Mai 2010
An awesome feat!
An amazing feat of strength endurance by Oleh Ilika.
12h of One arm Kettlebell Jerks with a 24kg bell, only with 2x 5min breaks after 4h each.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Sonntag, 2. Mai 2010
Symbolism of training
I first encountered(meaning the first time I really stopped and thought about the real meaning of the word) symbolism during my basic training in hypnosis.
Experts like Milton Erickson, known as the father of modern day hypnotic psychotherapy, discovered the ability of the mind to grasp the additional meanings/message of activities, words, pictures(material or mental), etc.
For example, M. Erickson used to send patients of his without prior psychotherapy (performed by him, since most of his patients had an extensive record of psychiatric or psychological therapy) to a mountain with the assignement to hike up the mountain, get back down and meet with him the day after.
Quite a lot of people were done with their problems after the trip, altough they had suffered from them for several years in most cases.
One wonders how such things are possible...
One model we can use to explain those wonderful events is found by analyzing symbolism, which describes additional meanings of (living) things, persons, actions, etc.
For example:
- A dove is a bird and often a symbol of peace.
Lets look at the hike again:
The mere fact the therapist did not react the way you expected him to do(starting talking with you about your problems, inducing hypnosis, etc.) "throughs you off" your current model of the world and induces a search (subconciously) for an alternative meaning.
Arrived at the mountain you move yourself up- and forward, you yourself(!!) take single steps to reach a destination given to you by a psychotherapist to whom you travelled in expectation of being helped with a certain problem.
The deeper meaning can, e.g., be you making an effort to reach your goal, not giving up even when facing difficulties (steep inclines, rocks,...), finding your own walking pace, planing steps ahead, reaching the goal and by doing that gaining a different point of view on the world around you.
A simple act like hiking can be much more than reaching a point higher than the one where you started at.
Such symbolism can be sen in many things in our every- day- life.
For myself, my life changed when I started working out.
Of course this is no new experience.
Almost everybody starting with physical activity notices changes, both on the mirror and in ones head. Although the last ones are often less obvious.
For ages it has been known that a strong man has a strong character.
Modern psychosomatic medicine had to work hard to make people remember that! ;-)
It took me some time to notice I had become a diferent person since I started training. I think I evolved, hopefully into someone more positive. ;-)
I am quite happy with whom I have become because most of the problems in my young life I made disappear.
Notice I did not say "most of the problems disappeared"... I MADE THEM DISAPPEAR!!
That is part of the mindset gained from training.
I am a human being and I am a doctor-/psychiatrist- to- be.
Therefore two aspects are most important to me: physical and mental health.
With such a base I´m analyzing my whole training, always looking for clues what part helped which transformation best.
In the next few weeks, I´ll try to explain some of my findings to give you a general idea how you can develop yourself in- and out-side your head.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Experts like Milton Erickson, known as the father of modern day hypnotic psychotherapy, discovered the ability of the mind to grasp the additional meanings/message of activities, words, pictures(material or mental), etc.
For example, M. Erickson used to send patients of his without prior psychotherapy (performed by him, since most of his patients had an extensive record of psychiatric or psychological therapy) to a mountain with the assignement to hike up the mountain, get back down and meet with him the day after.
Quite a lot of people were done with their problems after the trip, altough they had suffered from them for several years in most cases.
One wonders how such things are possible...
One model we can use to explain those wonderful events is found by analyzing symbolism, which describes additional meanings of (living) things, persons, actions, etc.
For example:
- A dove is a bird and often a symbol of peace.
Lets look at the hike again:
The mere fact the therapist did not react the way you expected him to do(starting talking with you about your problems, inducing hypnosis, etc.) "throughs you off" your current model of the world and induces a search (subconciously) for an alternative meaning.
Arrived at the mountain you move yourself up- and forward, you yourself(!!) take single steps to reach a destination given to you by a psychotherapist to whom you travelled in expectation of being helped with a certain problem.
The deeper meaning can, e.g., be you making an effort to reach your goal, not giving up even when facing difficulties (steep inclines, rocks,...), finding your own walking pace, planing steps ahead, reaching the goal and by doing that gaining a different point of view on the world around you.
A simple act like hiking can be much more than reaching a point higher than the one where you started at.
Such symbolism can be sen in many things in our every- day- life.
For myself, my life changed when I started working out.
Of course this is no new experience.
Almost everybody starting with physical activity notices changes, both on the mirror and in ones head. Although the last ones are often less obvious.
For ages it has been known that a strong man has a strong character.
Modern psychosomatic medicine had to work hard to make people remember that! ;-)
It took me some time to notice I had become a diferent person since I started training. I think I evolved, hopefully into someone more positive. ;-)
I am quite happy with whom I have become because most of the problems in my young life I made disappear.
Notice I did not say "most of the problems disappeared"... I MADE THEM DISAPPEAR!!
That is part of the mindset gained from training.
I am a human being and I am a doctor-/psychiatrist- to- be.
Therefore two aspects are most important to me: physical and mental health.
With such a base I´m analyzing my whole training, always looking for clues what part helped which transformation best.
In the next few weeks, I´ll try to explain some of my findings to give you a general idea how you can develop yourself in- and out-side your head.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
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