One of the sites that is on my weekly list is T-Muscle.com (formerly T-Nation.com). Amongst all the bodybuilding articles that don’t interest me that much anymore, you’ll always find gems and cutting edge material from big-time experts in strength and conditioning. 

Despite the name of the site (with the "T" meaning Testosterone), the fact of the matter is that some of the brightest coaches and authors write articles for T-Muscle. So when guys like Mike Boyle, Dan John, Alwyn Cosgrove or Mike Roussell write something, I’m definitely reading it.

Eric Cressey is one of those guys that I’ve been following and reading for a few years.  Last week he wrote an article entitled "What I Learned in 2009" and is a synopsis of some of the most important things that he has learned and began to implement into his practice over the past year.

The point that really struck a chord with me was point # 4…

DO MORE GROUND-TO-STANDING TRANSITIONS

Cressey went on to talk about a rehab specialist from the Czech Republic (Dr. Pavel Kolar) and the research he has done in developmental kinesiology.  Looking back at early motor development - where babies learn how to roll over, get on all 4s, then crawl, then stand and finally walk - Dr. Kolar suggested that we can look at this "ground to standing" development to help us re-establish proper functioning.

So what does this all mean for "regular people" like you and me?

It means that incorporating Turkish Get Ups (or "TGUs") into your regular kettlebell training practice could be beneficial in preventing injury or correcting imbalance. 

Exercises like TGUs or lunges where your back knee slightly touches the ground can help your nervous system "re-learn" some of the the developmental fundamentals that you may have lost because of injury or years and years of bad training technique.

In fact, because of this article and minimal research that I have done on Dr. Kolar’s work, I now have my clients and young athletes doing sprints where they start on their back and are required to turn over and go right into acceleration…kind of like the stuff we did during "old school" PE class.

The bottom line is that as good an exercise as we once believed Turkish Get-Ups to be, this is now more evidence that it could be one of the best exercises that you can do not only to lose fat and build muscle, but to stay healthy and mobile for years and years to come.

If you don’t know how to do a TGU, then check out the video below and let me know if you have any questions…

-Chris Lopez, CSCS, CTT

P.S. Turkish Get-Ups are a staple exercise in the TT Kettlebell Revolution Fat Loss Workouts. Click HERE to learn how to use TGUs in your fat loss program…

=>Get Started with the TT Kettlebell Revolution Fat Loss Workouts

Why?

Because all the movements involved using kettlebells and the bodyweight exercises that you’ll find in the program all require that you use your abs "indirectly".

Just a quick and basic physiology lesson…

Your abs are meant to keep your torso and spine stable. The network of muscles known as your core is essential to stabilizing your entire body during movement.  Your abs are NOT there to bring your chest into your hips (as in a crunching or sit-up motion).  

If that were the case, then your rectus abdominus (your 6-pack muscle) would look more like a hamstring!

But what if we want some extra ab work to add into our KB Revolution workouts?

Well first, we need to use exercises that use our abs the way they were meant to be used.

And we need to use the best bang-for-your-buck exercises. Exercises that force us to stabilize our entire body and really focus on us bracing our abs while we resist rotation or movement.

Below, I’ve thrown together an ideal Ab Finisher Circuit.

Watch the video and let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Have a great weekend! -Chris, CSCS, CTT

OK, so I have to admit, that as much as I am proud to be a Canadian, I’m not much of a hockey fan.

Living in Toronto, I’m a (Maple) Leafs fan. And growing up, I used to play street hockey with my buddies and pretend I was Wayne Gretzky (what Canadian kid didn’t?).

But truth be told, I don’t know how to ice skate. 

I do, however, love to snowboard. I think that stems from the days when I used to ride my Caballero skateboard all over this city as young and care-free punk.  Snowboarding, I guess, seemed like a "mature" transition.

So when Shaun White, the best snowboarder in the world, took to the half-pipe earlier last week, I was glued to the TV set to see what this kid would come up with next.

Athletes like White, Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn all have incredible abs and body control and really know how to use rotational force and their abilities to "anti-rotate" to excel at their respective sports.

So in the spirit of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, here’s how I would train for 2 of the more popular recreational winter sports - skiing and snowboarding - using only Kettlebells and bodyweight exercises.

Both Snowboarding and Skiing involve a lot of isometric strength and endurance.

You have to be able to maintain a certain position - knees bent, butt back, abs tight, forward tuck (for skiing) - for a relatively lengthy period of time.

That said, I think all winter athletes will benefit from some isometric ab work.  Planks, side planks and bridges are king here.  "Core" work is key for any athlete but especially so for those who have to maintain their center of gravity over an object such as set of skis or a snowboard.

Maintaining balance, turning, taking on moguls or jumps or stopping suddenly are controlled through your abs. 

After that, let’s talk about power.  An athlete’s ability to jump, get air and to really accelerate will come from their ability to explosively perform "triple extension" - which is the ability to powerfully extend their hips, knees and ankles (think vertical jumping).

To build that type of power, it would do a lot of good for athletes to do some type of plyometric exercise like box jumps or straight vertical jumps.

One of the biggest mistakes that I’ve seen when performing plyometrics is mistaking them with conditioning exercises. I’ve seen people and trainers do box jumps until they puke and that isn’t how you develop flat out power. Limit your plyometric exercises to 3-5 reps and focus on quality (jumping as high as you can and landing as safely as you can) and you will increase your power.

Lower body endurance is also very important for winter sports. Especially for the recreational athlete.  If you think about a typical ski or snowboarding run, you’re on that hill for anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes on average, swerving, jumping, avoiding obstacles and turning.  You have to remain in an athletic position with relatively good "bounce" in the hips, knees and ankles.  

By far, my favorite KB exercises to perform to help develop endurance and power endurance are the 1-arm KB snatch and 2-arm KB swings.  For those 2 exercises, I suggest you try to get as many reps in as possible within a certain amount of time - say 2 to 5 minutes (similar to the length of a typical ski/snowboard run - I didn’t do that coincidence, btw)

Record your reps for workout 1 and then try to successively beat that record each and every time you attempt the same workout.

Finally, we have to consider the "PRE"-habilitation aspect of training for these sports.

Because you spend a large amount of time in a forward-flexed position, you’ll have to do a few exercises and stretches to counteract the anterior dominance of these sports.  

KB Rows (like renegade rows or 1-arm rows) and chin-ups are great for really balancing out the over use of the muscles in front of your body.  They’ll help you strengthen your shoulder girdle and help you with being able to pull your shoulders back into good posture.

Chances are that after a day of skiing or snowboarding you’ll end up with really tight pecs, hip flexors and quads as well. I suggest getting on a foam roller and rolling out all of your tight areas - especially your upper back - and really stretching out your hip flexors.

In fact, here’s a great video that I did last year of how to really gain mobility in your upper back and help fix your posture…

Being active and enjoying the outdoors is one of the best ways to stay in shape without having to go to the gym. And in the winter months, as much as my family and I love the warm weather, we try to get outside as often as possible.

Snowboarding is one of my favorite activities and I can’t wait until all 7 of us can go on a trip and snowboard together.

-Chris, CSCS, CTT

P.S. It’s not too late to get really well conditioned for the snowboarding season. Get the TT Kettlebell Revolution and get started today!

=> Get Started With The TT Kettlebell Revolution HERE

 The tournament experience went well and they battled the home team for a 5th place finish. Not bad for a bunch of kids who have never played competitive volleyball together before.

 Durning one of our breaks, I sat down with one of the coaches from another team to shoot the breeze and talk about training, athletic development and our kids. He was a first year coach, just like me, and we were trying to pick each other’s brains trying to find new and different methods to help our teams get better.

We talked about dynamic warm-ups, better methods for developing skills and the psychology & personality management that comes with coaching. We agreed on a lot of things.

But, there was one thing that he said that I completely disagreed with…

"We deal with a bunch of low-attention-span-11-year-olds. So when I can’t get them to focus, I have them run laps. They hate running laps and never want to do it, so I figure,  that will motivate them to stay in line. Besides, they need an aerobic-base anyway right?"

This statement was so wrong on so many levels that I had no idea where to begin.  I have to admit, after he said that, anything else that came out of his mouth just sounded like the teacher from those Charlie Brown cartoon specials on CBS - "blah, blah, blah".

I completely shut down.

OK, so how do I liken kettlebell training with 11-year-olds playing volleyball?

Well first, the training method. I have 1.5hrs twice per week to teach a group of 11 year olds to pass, set, dig, attack and serve. That is not a lot of time.

So to waste my time and theirs running laps to build an aerobic-base that isn’t needed in a purely anaerobic sport is irresponsible and almost criminal. (Their parents are pay good money to have me coach them. If I have them run laps, I’m taking valuable teaching time away from their kids).

As a coach, I want my kids to get from point A to point B in the fastest way possible. As a trainer, I want the same thing for my clients. So to do something that is a complete waste of time and is not the most efficient method for fat loss is irresponsible.

If you read this blog, you already know that cardio isn’t the best or most efficient way to burn fat.

Second, using exercise as punishment is a one-way street to turning any individual - child or adult - off of exercise permanently. 

How many times have I heard someone say that they are going for a run because they HAVE to. Not because they enjoy it, but because they feel obligated to.  Or that they have to do their penance on the treadmill because they ate 1/2 a chocolate cake on the weekend?

Do you think that in the long-run they would stick with their exercise program?

Absolutely not.

You need to partake in activities that you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. 

I train with KBs, lift weights, run hills, ride my bike for transportation and eat healthy because I love the way those things make me feel and as crazy as it sounds, that kind of stuff is FUN for me.

Find something that’s FUN for you and be consistent and stick with it. I don’t care what it is, just do it because you love it.

Third, running laps has absolutely no functional carryover into playing any team sport (with maybe the exception of a midfielder in soccer - and that’s a big maybe).

Think about it. What sport, other than running itself, has you moving in a single direction at a low intensity for more than 2 minutes at a time?

All team sports involve involve short bursts of intensity and then a period of recovery. In basketball, you run down the court stop to play defense moving forward, back and side to side and then sprint up the court, again moving in every direction to score a basket.

Soccer, football, lacrosse, volleyball all involve intense periods of multi-directional movement and then several seconds of doing nothing…recovering.

I once read that in an NFL game, in the entire 60-minute game, players are really only playing a total of 18 minutes.

Kettlebell training is the same thing. Short bursts of intense exercise followed by frequent intervals of recovery. It’s like interval training with weights.

And we can both agree that working with weights and doing interval training is the most efficient exercise method for fat loss.  Right?

The bottom line to my rant (yes, it’s a bit of a rant) is that people need to start analyzing exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.

We don’t have a lot of time to waste doing things that are inefficient or not effective anymore. We have families, friends, kids, jobs and lives that require our precious time…our life energy.

Why waste that life energy doing something that isn’t effective or even worse, something that we don’t love?

Chris Lopez, CSCS, CTT

TT Kettlebell Revolution

CHALLENGE WORKOUTS:

So, let’s start out by talking a little bit about the challenge workouts in the TT Kettlebell workouts. 

At the end of every phase you’ll find a high-rep, timed workout.  These high-intensity workouts were designed to give you a rite of passage to the next level.  Each workout must be completed within the required and specified time noted in the chart.

You can attempt these workouts as many times as you wish and whenever you like; however, it is advised to make sure that you complete the entire phase of the program prior to attempting the workout.

There are seven challenge workouts in total, and as each new TT Kettle Bell Revolution program comes out, a corresponding challenge workout will be available as well.  In fact, when our membership site rolls out, the address for that will be www.KettleBellWorkouts.com/members.  There’ll be an entire section devoted to our challenge workouts.

WORKOUT SUMMARY PAGE:

Getting into the workouts now, you’ll find a workout summary page at the beginning of every phase.  The summary page will show you all the workouts in that particular phase and all the exercises involved. 

 TRAINING WORKSHEET:

After the summary page you’ll find a training worksheet for each respective day of the workout for you to record your results. 

Now, I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to use these sheets and record your progress.  Studies have shown that the more information about your workout that you write down, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.  Don’t take this lightly.

Record everything from the way you use to how many reps you finish to how you felt that particular day – everything matters.  When recording, it’s important for you to understand how to progress. 

In this program, we progress by making PRs, or personal records. 

Now, personal records, all that means is that you want to do better.  Each successive attempt at a workout or a lift or exercise.  You want to beat your previous recorded weight or time. That’s why recording your results are critical to your success with this program.

WARM-UP:

Another important element of the program, and one that’s often overlooked, is the warm-up.  Now, I know you’ve heard this time and time again, but it needs to be stressed – each and every time you begin a workout, that you need to warm up.

In this workout there are very specific movement-based exercises and/or stretches that we do for the warm-up. 

The first exercise for the warm-up is the Y squat.  This is an exercise where it involves you holding your hands up straight up over your head as if you were in a 1:00 and 11:00 position, squeezing your shoulder blades down and back and then squatting up and own.

We squat in this Y position to really highlight the upper back area and the flexibility and mobility required in our shoulders for kettle bell training.

The second exercise is a kneeling push-up, or regular push-ups.  Now, this involves two things.  Number one, you getting down on the floor and holding a plank position first, and then squeezing your shoulder blades and bending your elbows as you come down into that push-up.

Now, it’s of utmost importance that you make sure that your chest falls down into the hand area of when you’re pushing up.  I see a lot of people make the mistake of putting their hands out to where their head would be and then lowering themselves so that their shoulders and their neck is all scrunched up when they lower themselves in that push-up position.  We want our shoulders down and away, so make sure that you’re lowering yourself chest-down to the hand area.

Third exercise is maybe a new one to most of you called the rise and shine, and all this involves is you getting down into a crouch position while you’re on your feet, into the fetal position, and then extending your back and your hips, squeezing your glutes, and really opening your chin up and looking up to the sky as you bring your arms up into that Y position again.

What this does is this progresses the pattern of you extending your hips and really forces you to open up all the tight anterior muscles that get tight from driving too much or from sitting too much or just from everyday life in general.

The third exercise – or sorry, the fourth exercise are stick-ups.  Now, stick-ups are great for your upper back and they’re a great postural exercise, and they’re a little deceiving.  If you do them right you can really feel them.  If you do them wrong then you’re kind of standing on a wall wondering what’s going on.

Stick-ups involve you standing up against the wall with your head, your upper back, your tailbone, and your shoulders in contact with the wall, in addition to your elbows and your knuckles up on the wall.  You’re going to depress your shoulders, squeezing them down and back, and then slowly rise your knuckles and your elbows up on the wall, keeping a good grip in your shoulder blades as you raise your hands up.

Now, the idea behind this stick-up exercise is to make sure that your elbows and your knuckles and shoulders stay in contact with the wall the entire time, and you’re going to perform that as well for ten reps.

After that, and this may seem a little counterintuitive, you’ll see two static stretches. 

Now, the reason why we static-stretch these two particular areas is because we want to create an inhibitory response, or we want to turn off certain muscles just so that we can get the right muscles working when we start doing things with the kettle bell like squatting or swinging or doing kettle bell smashes or anything that involves a hip extension.

So that is your MANDATORY body weight warm-up protocol.  

WOMEN’S PROGRAM:

Now, let’s talk a little bit about going beyond the TT Kettle Bell Revolution.  With your basic package you were given the women’s program in addition to this quick start guide.  With the women’s program the question will arise whether or not you can start right away with that women’s program.

The answer to that question is NO. 

Start with the 28 weeks of the TT Kettle Bell Revolution main ebook first, master the exercises, get through the circuits.  I guarantee you you will get the results that you are looking for.

The women’s program concentrates a little bit more on problem areas that women face, particularly in the arms, in the hips, and in the glutes, or the butt, so you’ll notice that there are a lot more lower body exercises, a lot more exercises for the arms, and everything is done in a circuit style.

DELUXE PROGRAM:

Now, if you’re one of the lucky ones who was able to get the deluxe program, you’ll also notice that there are several different workouts involved with that deluxe package as well.  one of them happens to be the TT Kettle Bell Muscle Program.

Now, this muscle program is a little bit more intense and a little bit more involved in that you will require more than one kettle bell.  With the muscle-building program, we get into more involved exercises that use two kettle bells, like the double kettle bell swing, double kettle bell snatch, overhead lunges involving both kettle bells, in addition to military presses, push presses, and a lot more dynamic work using two kettle bells.

So there are a few tips to help you get off on the right foot with your TT KB workouts.  Train hard, but train safe!

-Chris Lopez, CTT, CSCS

Author, TT Kettlebell Revolution

So, not to "toot" my own horn, but I think I’m pretty good at bodyweight exercises.

BUT, these exercises were kind of humbling.  And I did them with ABSOLUTELY no previous knowledge on how to perform them.  

In fact, this is the FIRST time that I’ve ever tried them.

Check out the video below as I go through a couple of them … and check to see if I make a fool of myself

Check out the TACFit Program HERE and download your free video and ebook with these exercises and a couple more!

Okay, so now that you’re comfortable with the kettle bell weight you’ve chosen, let’s turn our attention to the actual program itself.  

The first question you might have is which part of the program do I start with?

Obviously, if you’ve been training for a little while and you’ve got a lot of experience with kettle bells, then you wouldn’t want to start off at the beginner phase.

Conversely, if you’re an absolute beginner who’s never exercised a day in your life, then starting out by picking up an iron cannonball with a handle on it can be a little intimidating, so let’s start there.

BEGINNER:
Beginners should absolutely start with the beginner phase one workouts.  

These workouts were designed for two reasons:  

One, to teach you the fundamentals of the most common exercises, and by that I don’t just mean kettle bell exercises, but exercise in general.

There are a lot of principles in kettle bell training that carry over into regular exercise with resistance.  You’ll notice that in this phase, body weight training is the most prevalent form of exercise.  

I come from a training philosophy whereby if you can’t handle your own body weight, then you have no business using external resistance – be it a kettle bell, a medicine ball, a barbell, or a dumbbell.  

You need to MASTER THE BASICS first – push-ups, body weight squats.  You need to learn how to squeeze your shoulder blades together without allowing your shoulders to hike up to your ears or how to bend forward without flexing or rounding your back.

The second reason why beginners should start at the beginner phase one is because it teaches you how to use your abs properly.  

Now, I hate using the word "core," but this area of the beginner phase one is called core support because of that reason.  You must learn how to support your torso and midsection area – your core.

This part of the beginner phase one will teach you how to properly brace your abs and show you that your abs aren’t meant to bring your chest into your hips as in a crunch or a sit-up as previously thought years ago, but the actual purpose of your abdominals  is to stabilize your spine and to prevent rotation.

Think of it this way – if your abs were meant to bring your chest into your hips as in a sit-up or a crunch, then it would look like a hamstring because that would be a flexion type of muscle – a single-joint muscle.

But they don’t look like that.  They have lines running both vertically and horizontally across them, because they’re there to stabilize you in all planes of movement, to prevent rotation and to really stabilize your spine and your fragile low back.

INTERMEDIATE:
Okay.  If you’re not an absolute beginner and you have some experience in the weight room and with kettle bells, then my suggestion to you would be to start at the intermediate phase one workouts, with two exceptions.

Number one, you must be able to complete the full core support program found in both of the beginner phases – that is, you must be able to hold a plank for three minutes, hold a side plank for two minutes, hold a hip bridge for three minutes, and hold a prone cobra for three minutes.

Now, this is for your SAFETY only.  Again, kettle bell training involves a lot of stabilization and a lot of focus on bracing your abdominals, so being able to complete that core support program is of the utmost importance.

The second exception is that you must be able to complete the challenge workout in both beginner phases within the required amount of time, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about the challenge workouts in just a second.

ADVANCED:
Now, the question of whether or not you can start right at the advanced phase may come up, and my suggestion to you is no, DON’T START HERE.  The intermediate phase workouts will be a challenge enough for you, even if you have experience in the weight room and you have done a little bit of kettle bell work before.

The intermediate phase of the workout was designed to progress you to the advanced phase.

And by skipping the intermediate phase and going right into the advance, you could be losing a lot of what you will be learning in that critical intermediate phase, as far as basic movements are concerned and learning several techniques to progress you into the more advanced and more strenuous workouts.

So those are your two starting points.  

If you’re an absolute beginner then I say start with the beginner phase one.  If you have experience in the weight room and with kettle bells, then start at intermediate phase one but make sure that you are able to master the core program and both of the challenge workouts found in beginner one and beginner two.

If you are in shape and you’ve done a lot of training before like turbulence training, then mastering those two challenge workouts and the core program should not be a problem at all.  After that, feel free to go right into the intermediate phase and get ready and prepped to get into the advanced phase.

Remember, it’s not a race.  The most important thing is safety and thereby mastering the proper technique to gain the greatest benefits from these kettle bell workouts.

-Chris Lopez, CTT, CSCS

Author, TT Kettlebell Revolution

I’m not into the powdered mass gainers, muscle builders or energy drinks either.

If I do make a shake, it’ll be something like THIS with REAL FOOD like fruits and vegetables, plant-based extracts and coconut milk.

But, I usually train either early in the morning when I can’t run a noisy blender (for fear of waking my wife and 5 kids) or in the middle of the day where I don’t have access to a blender.

So, these are the 2 post-workout nutrition solutions that I turn to…

Do you have any post workout nutrition ideas. I’d love to know, just in case I’m missing something.

Chris Lopez, CTT, CSCS

The general guidelines for picking your kettle bell are as follows:
 

Most women who are beginners would usually start with an eight-kilogram or a 12-kilogram bell, depending on their training age, and by TRAINING AGE I mean how long you’ve been training, not your actual chronological age.

Female Experienced: 

So for example if you’ve been training for several years now and are familiar with the basic exercises of squats and dead lifts, lunges, rows, and presses, then again, depending on how strong you are you may want to start with a 12-kilogram bell, which would be the heavier for women.
 

Female Beginner: 

If you’re an absolute beginner then you should start out with an eight-kilogram bell or even a four or a six-kilogram bell, depending on how confident you are with lifting weight.
 

Male Experienced: 

If you’re a male beginner to kettle bell training but you have experience in the weight room, you can get away with using a 16 to 20-kilogram kettle bell. 

Male Beginner: 

If you’re an absolute beginner then I would suggest, depending on your strength levels, again to start with a 12 or a 16-kilogram bell.

REMEMBER – each individual is different and we learn and adapt to different movements and exercises at our own pace, so put your ego away and start out SLOW and UNDER CONTROL without being too ambitious with how much you think you can lift.  So those are the two starting weights that I would suggest. 

Again, females, eight to 12 kilograms, again, depending on your training age; males, 16 to 20 kilograms, depending on your training age.  Those are the starting points for both.

Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer for you. Train safe and have fun!

-Chris Lopez, CTT, CSCS

Author, TT Kettlebell Revolution

Everyone knows that I LOVE combining bodyweight exercises with my TT Kettlebell Revolution Workouts.

Here are my Top 3 Favorite Bodyweight Exercises of the moment done at my new spot in Toronto, Fortis Fitness.

-Chris