My Journey to RKC II- Part 3

2 full days of 8 hours of physical and mental training is now complete! I continue to be amazed at the level of training one receives at an RKC Certification. Hands down Pavel is the absolute best in his field.

Today we tackled more on the pull up. Pavel taught a particular drill that made it all click for me today!! This a huge breakthrough for my future pull up training. I was able to perform a single pull up without leaking power at the bottom. Meaning I was able to start from a hollow position!!! YEA!

Other drills taught today were the Viking Push Press, Clean & Jerk, Windmill and the Bent Press. If you asked my favorite, it would be the windmill. This was an exercise which I felt very comfortable but honing my skill on the minute details was truly beneficial for me. My booty is super sore from the Windmill, who knew! My second favorite would be the Clean & Jerk. Although this is not an exercise to be taught to your typical clients, it’s value is truly beneficial to build athleticism and build mass. Here are two great quotes in the presentation given by Dan John (1) you cannot think through a ballistic movement (2) repetition is the mother of implementation.

Lastly of the instruction today, I learned more about the many benefits and drills to improve thoracic mobility. Bottom line…I don’t practice this enough!!!! Thank You David Whitley!

The workouts today were the more challenging than yesterday. We did a VO2 Viking Push Press workout – 10 minutes of 15:15. Our next workout of the day was to earn our lunch. Long cycle Clean & Jerk… need I say more!

I will end this blog on a quote from Pavel.

“Before building strength and endurance you must first have strength to endure”.

Now time for sleep and to rest up for our final day and level II testing!

be strong & be well

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Fireworks at Tennessee Kettlebell

Fireworks at Tennessee Kettlebell
Ok – well maybe not actual fireworks, but I thought it deemed appropriate considering the timing of this post.

We are certainly experiencing our own kind of fireworks at Tennessee Kettlebell and thrilled to have the opportunity to see such awesome results with our clients.

At Tennessee Kettlebell we are passionate about giving our clients more, more than just a good workout. Yes, we are a fitness studio and exercise is why people initially seek us out. People are getting more than just an exercise class when they commit to Tennessee Kettlebell. Our clients have many different goals. These goals range anywhere from improving body composition to improving general health to becoming better at their sport, however, we have learned that the most important aspect for every client is patterning of good habits. Our mission at Tennessee Kettlebell is to help people look better, feel better and move better by increasing mobility, stability and strength.

At Tennessee Kettlebell we are more than a monthly auto draft on your bank account, we are committed to helping you reach your goals, whatever they may be. Our group training atmosphere motivates, encourages and helps hold you accountable to keep your health a top priority. Our programming is based on proven principles from both the RKC, the standard for Kettlebell training and FMS systems. Why listen to what we have to say, here’s what some of our clients are saying about Tennessee Kettlebell.

Tennessee Kettlebell Boot Camp from Tennessee Kettlebell on Vimeo.

Tennessee Kettlebell Spotlight on Marion from Tennessee Kettlebell on Vimeo.

Tennessee Kettlebell Spot Light on Robert from Tennessee Kettlebell on Vimeo.

Untitled from Tennessee Kettlebell on Vimeo.

Weekly Practice

Pull up – do your rep max (body weight or assisted)

Heavy Get up to Standing
OH Walk
Get down
(repeat 2x per side)

Pull up – do your rep max (body weight or assisted)

Heavy hand to hand swings – 15 – 20 reps
(repeat 3x)

Double Clean & Jerk x5 (you can sub push press or military press)
Following last C&J, do 5 Front Squats (do not put bells down b/w jerks and Front Squats)

Repeat the entire sequence 3x

Enjoy, Let me know what you think!
~hd

Weekly Practice – Travel Time

The past two weeks I have been traveling during the week and did not want to break my weekly routine and practice in both nutrition and exercise. Although travel can be dificult with changes in time zones, late night dinners, this does not give you a free for all to ignore your goals. It can even be more dificult when you are away from your “safe zone” or what I like to call my own kitchen. You may have to be a little more flexible with your eating schedules and this is ok, but remember it is your decision the foods you choose to eat. There are acceptable choices when traveling and, remember you can always schedule one of your cheat meals around your travel schedule as I did this week. This did not exempt me however from my weekly practice. The hotel did have a fitness center with free weights so here’s a quick snapshot of what I did this week.

Joint Mobility Warm up – tall and 1/2 kneeling halos – cossacks – hip stretches

35lb free weight – Single Leg Deadlift – 10 per side
25 Burpees
25 V-Ups
25 35lb Squats
35lb free weight – Single Leg Deadlift – 10 per side
20 Burpees
20 V-Ups
20 35lb Squats
35lb free weight – Single Leg Deadlift – 10 per side
15 Burpees
15 V-Ups
15 35lb Squats
35lb free weight – Single Leg Deadlift – 10 per side
10 Burpees
10 V-Ups
10 35lb Squats
35lb free weight – Single Leg Deadlift – 10 per side
5 Burpees
5 V-Ups
5 35lb Squats

Set timer on phone for 30sec work and 15 sec rest – Performed 3 rounds
– Russian Twist – 35lb free weight
– Push ups
– Double Dead Lift – 2 40lb free weights
– Plank

The final round I worked on practicing my Pistol for my RKC Level II training and mixed with some Rows
8 – 35lb rows per side
2-3 full / half pistols per side
6 – 35 lb rows per side
2-3 full / half pistols per side
4 – 35 lb rows per side
2-3 full / half pistols per side
2 – 35 lb rows per side
2-3 full / half pistols per side

Dragon Door TV – Why Kettlebells Rock!

Congrats to my fellow Iron Tamer Peeps for making DD TV! Way to go guys —
Orlando RKC Graduates- Jenni Baker and Drew Massey
HardStyle Cribs – Mark & Nikki Snow at SG Human Performnace

Dragon Door TV — Who is Dan John?

Do you “know” Dan John? Also, a great Episode featuring Jeff and Leslie Branham, RKC Instrucotrs at Equipt Fitness Studio in St. Paul MN.

Weekly Practice from the Hardstyle Diva

This week we put our class through a challenging workout with a mix of swings, lunges, correctional and bodyweight exercises. We had a mix of beginner and advanvced people in class, it was amazing to see not only with the beginners but the advanced folks as well, how adding in a few corrective exercies can improve EVERYONE’S technique. Give it a try & Let me konw what you think.
be strong & be well ~ hd

Perform all exercises below for :30 seconds each for a total of 4 rounds
Hip Flexor Stretch (:30 sec per side)
Heavy Kettlebell Swings
Plank
Tactical Lunge
Hip Bridge
Mountain Climbers (2 rounds) / Burpees (last 2 rounds)
rinse & repeat
After above circuit, we finished up with some walking presses (seesaw presses) and swings outside – we went the length of our parking lot and back. Our protocal for this was :20 sec of work and :10 sec of rest.

What do you have to loose. Can’t wait to hear what you think….patiently waiting!

Tennessee Kettlebell Workshop – January 2010

Kettlebell Workshop January 16th at Tennessee Kettlebell led by Senior RKC Instructor David Whitley along with the RKCs in the IronTamer Clan! Sign up and get one free month of Boot Camp! Details below!

Click here to learn more about our new year, new you workshop!

Click here to learn more about Tennessee Kettlebell
Click here to learn more about Nashivlle Kettlebell & Sr. Instructor Dave Whitley

Tennessee Kettlebell, No complicated Machines, just exercises that produce RESULTS…Learn from the ONLY RKC certified instructors in Middle Tennessee…Get Fit, Get Lean, Get Strong at Tennessee Kettlebell!

All About Protein

Hello!
Great Article about the importance of Protein — take the time to read!

My diet of choice is the Warrior Diet, this diet focuses a lot on protien intake during evening meals and post workout meals. Often times I do not think people realize how little protein they are actually eating, therefore do not get the benfits of of this great nutrient! I was a little leary in reading the beginning part of this article as, I though it would challenge my views on eating large quantities of protien. John Bernardi could not have said it better when he states “Is building muscle the ONLY reason we eat protein?” My faith is restored….Thanks for the rebutal of the recent studies!

Limit Protein to 20g Per Meal?
by John M Berardi, November 4th, 2009.

Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009.

A moderate serving of high-quality protein maximally stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in young and elderly subjects. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2009.

So, what did these landmark studies show?

Well, the first study showed that when college-aged weight-trainers drink 0g, 5g, 10g, 20g, or 40g of protein after a weight training session, muscle protein synthesis is stimulated maximally at the 20g dose. Interestingly, there were no further increases in muscle protein synthesis at the 40g dose.

Similarly, in the second study, when young and elderly volunteers were given 30 or 90g of dietary protein in a single meal, the 30g dose maximally stimulated muscle protein synthesis. Again, there were no further increases in muscle protein synthesis at the 90g dose.

20-30 Grams and No More
Oddly, since the publication of these two studies, I’ve read no less than 2 dozen articles and blog posts suggesting that these two studies definitively close the case on protein intake. Indeed, some authors have even suggested that we’re ignorant wastrels if we dare eat more than 20-30g of protein in a single sitting.

Milk? This is the best you can do? Maybe you should read PN’s All About Milk article.
Here are a few quotes:

“So basically what you’re saying is that we don’t need to consume any more than 20g of high quality protein after exercise. You could get that in a 500ml serving of milk…This info is really going to piss off a bunch of internet keyboard jockeys.”

“I’ve cut back on the amount of protein I eat during most meals…No more slogging down 50-60g in a sitting. “

“Looks like 3 eggs post workout is just as effective as drinking a protein shake. Plus all that extra shake will be wasted.”

And so on…

Is Muscle The Only Reason We Eat Protein?
Now, while I can always appreciate a good muscle protein synthesis study, I sorta wonder if all the hoopla regarding these two studies is doing healthy eaters a service or not.

I mean, it’s definitely a good thing to discover that 30g of protein provides the upper limit of amino acids necessary for maximal protein synthesis at a particular point in time. However, the important, big-picture question is this one…is building muscle the only reason we eat protein?

I think not.

Challenging the notion that eating more than 30g in a sitting is wasteful, here are a few thoughts I sent to a group of colleagues:

1) What Else Will You Eat?
Let’s say you’re on a high calorie diet. Maybe you’re into bodybuilding or you’re training for an athletic event. And now you limit your protein intake to 20-30g per meal. What else do you fill up with? Carbs or fats?

Let’s take an example. Say you’re eating 4000-4500kcal per day for competition, which many larger lifers and athletes will need to do. And let’s say, because of these studies, you limit your protein intake to 5 meals of 20g each. In the end you’ll be getting 100g and 400kcal from protein.

Well, that’s 8% of your diet. What makes up the other 92%? If you’re loading up with that many carbs or fats, body comp can suffer. Remember, the protein is being replaced by macronutrients with lower thermic effects (more on this below).

2) What About The Other Benefits?
Muscle protein synthesis isn’t the only reason to eat more protein. There’s satiety, the thermogenic effects, the impact on the immune system, and more (see below).

Plus, there are probably a few benefits science can’t measure yet. I say the last part because there’s so much experiential evidence suggesting that when you’re training hard and you up your protein, you do better. So maybe we just haven’t looked in the right places to notice the real benefits.

Other Protein Benefits
In an article I wrote a few years back, I listed some of the benefits of eating more protein. And although the article is a few years old, nothing’s really changed since then. Here’s the list:

Increased Thermic Effect of Feeding — While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is roughly double that of carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding/muscle building.

Increased Glucagon — Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.

Metabolic Pathway Adjustment – When a higher protein (20-50% of intake) is followed, a host of metabolic adjustments occur. These include: a down regulation of glycolysis, a reduction in fatty acid synthesis enzymes, increase in gluconeogenesis, a carbohydrate “draining” effect where carbons necessary for ridding the body of amino nitrogen is drawn from glucose.

Increased IGF-1 — Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that’s related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.

Reduction in Cardiovascular Risk — Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.

Improved Weight-Loss Profile —Research by Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 – 1 to 1.4 – 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management (Layman et al 2003 — If you’re at all interested in protein intake, you’ve gotta go read the January and February issues of the Journal of Nutrition. Layman has three interesting articles in the two journals).

Increased Protein Turnover — All tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.

Increased Nitrogen Status — Earlier I indicated that a positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body’s anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.

Increased Provision of Auxiliary Nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it’s important to recognize that we don’t just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered. And don’t forget the vitamins and minerals we get from protein rich foods. (And lest anyone think I’m a shill for the protein powder industry, this last point clearly illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements.)

Looking over this list of benefits, it’s hard to ignore the fact that we don’t just eat protein for its muscle synthetic effect. We eat protein for a bunch of other reasons too. And since a higher protein diet can lead to a better health profile, an increased metabolism, improved body composition, and an improved training response, why would anyone ever try to limit their protein intake to the bare minimum?

Take-Home Message
It seems to me that whether someone’s on a hypoenergetic diet (low calorie) or a hyperenergetic diet (high calorie), the one macronutrient they would want to be sure to “overeat” (relatively speaking) would be protein.

But that’s not what people do, is it? Instead, their protein prejudice often leads them to look for what they consider the bare minimum of protein (whether it’s 20-30g/meal or 0.8g/kg/day), and then overeat carbohydrates and fats instead. That could prove to be a performance – and body composition – mistake.

To this end, my advice is the same as I’ve outlined in the Precision Nutrition System.

Women – 1 serving of lean, complete protein (20-30g) with each meal, every 3 hours or so

Men – 2 servings of lean, complete protein (40-60g) with each meal, every 3 hours or so

This pattern of intake will make sure you’re getting enough protein to reap all the benefits that this macronutrient has to offer. Not just the protein synthetic benefits.