Franz Snideman Interview Part 3: Getting Bulky with Kettlebells, KB Athletics & Kettlebell Mommies

“Keep it simple.  Heavy swings.  Heavy deadlifts.  Heavy squats.  Maybe some heavy chins and presses.  That’s about as sexy as I get, and that’s all I need. ”

Sr RKC Franz Snideman

Here is the last instalment of our interview with Sr. RKC Franz Snideman.  If you missed Part 1 you can read it HERE.  If you missed Part 2, you can read it HERE.

Today, we talk about why a tape measure can be a woman’s best friend, how to train with KBs if you’re an athlete and we talk about a ridiculously strong “Kettlebell Mommy”.

We pick up where we left off last week with the 2nd most popular myth about kettlebell training (WOMEN PAY ATTENTION!)…

FS: I would say myth number two – and I primarily hear this from women – but it’s that kettlebells make you big.  Kettlebells make you bulky.  And that’s absolutely not true.  I would assume maybe if a woman was very androgenic and had a lot of testosterone and a lot of anabolic hormones in her body, which there aren’t that many women like that, and ate a lot of food.  Yeah, they might be able to put on some bulk and some size doing incredible amounts of volume and weight.

But the chances of the average woman doing that are pretty much, it’s impossible.  It’s next to nil.  It’s not going to happen.  If anything would happen is as women, and I’m always trying to put muscle on women, because muscle is the only tissue in your body that metabolically does anything.

So should women be trying to build muscle?  Absolutely.  It’s hard to do.  It’s not easy to do. 

It’s hard for me to build muscle.  So for women who just by birth don’t have the anabolic hormones floating around in their bloodstream it’s not an easy thing to do.  Can they build muscle?  Yes.  Is it easy?  No.

But often what happens is when women actually see a muscle for the first time on their leg they just assume, “Oh my god, I’m getting huge.  I’m getting bulky.”  And when you measure them, you actually take a measuring tape and measure them, most often than not they’re smaller.  They actually lost inches.  And this is definitely good, if there are any trainers listening to this call, it’s to measure your clients.  If body fat loss is an issue, and body fat loss I think for most people, it’s probably why you’re in business and why I’m in business.  People just want to look better.  “I don’t care about functioning well.  I just want to look better.”

Obviously, and I think you do too, we try to get them to function better.  But what we try to do is to basically show them, “Listen, you’re not getting bigger.  You’re actually getting leaner.  You’re getting smaller.  You are not getting bigger.  Just because you can see a muscle it doesn’t mean that you’re actually turning into Arnold Schwarzenegger.  You’re actually seeing definition in your arms for the first time.  You’re not getting bigger.  Trust me, you’re not getting bigger.”

So I would say that’s a myth that if women just touch weights, even if they look at weights they’re just going to blow up and turn into – it’s objectively incorrect because if they’re following their diet, if somebody is on a structured dietary program and they’re on a structured training program with kettlebells, all we have to do is just take measurements.  “Okay, fine.  You think you’re getting bigger.  No you’re not.  You just lost two inches in your thighs.  You’re not bigger.  In fact, I bet your jeans fit a lot better than they ever have.”

So that’s probably more a myth I hear from women.  And I’m sure you’ve probably heard the same things.  “Oh, I’m getting bigger.”  No you’re not.  You’re not getting bigger.  Actually, you’re just getting athletic.  And sometimes women, they start to shift.  The actual shape of their body starts to shift.  Or maybe there’s a little bit of transformation in how the actual legs start to look.  And they can kind of misconstrue that as, “Oh, I’m getting bigger.”  No you’re not.  You’re actually just looking athletic.  You actually have glutes.  You actually have muscles in the right area.

=> How to Lose Fat and Look Athletic with Kettlebells

And I think the main key for people is if you just educate them.  Just educate them on why they need to build muscle, what the importance is long-term.  And even not just for fitness, just for health.  Just for surviving on this planet longer, muscle’s a pretty good thing to have.  But really dispelling that myth just through objective proof.  If people are training well and eating well, they’re not going to get bigger.  They’ll get small.

CL:  I know I’ve got quite a few readers who are interested in the performance side of things.  So I wanted to ask you, being someone who also trains athletes, have you seen performance enhancement when you transitioned your training to using kettlebells?

FS: I’ve seen training improvement.  It’s a little hard for me to answer that question because I’ve always sprinted.  I’ve never not sprinted.  And as I’ve gotten older I’ve just gotten a little bit slower.  I’m not quite as fast as I was in my 20s.  But I think what the kettlebells have done for me is they’ve allowed me to kind of maintain an adequate level of speed that doesn’t make me totally depressed.

But I think what’s more interesting is that the actual clients that I train, really specifically my high school athletes.  What we’ve been able to see is the drop in their times, is a drop in their 40 time, a drop in their 100 meter time, better 400 meter splits, depending on what type of race they train.

So I would say that usually the slower the athlete or the less genetically blessed the athlete is with fast switch fiber, maybe they just don’t have a lot of fast switch fiber.  The things like swings and snatched coupled with heavy deadlifts and squats definitely make them faster.  In my files that I have there’s a direct correlation from improving their swing technique, improving the amount of volume, but actually improving the amount of weight that they can swing.  Teaching them to produce more force quickly has translated into better sprint times.

I haven’t necessarily done that with me, just because I’ve been sprinting.  But I can say that when I do focus on my swings, and I specifically focus on heavy two-handed swings, I have a lot more pop in my stride.  I just feel like I have a lot more explosion as I’m running down the track.

But I’m also a huge believer also in absolute strength.  So maybe force development and just learning to produce force under heavier loads, even though you’re not moving as quickly.  I think that’s extremely beneficial as well.  So that could be a heavy deadlift, it could be a heavy squat.  But what I have found is that the combination is very deadly.  It’s very good.  To get an athlete strong build their glass. 

Get them a bigger glass so their absolute strength is better.  But that’s only half of it.  They’re not power lifters, you don’t want to turn them into power lifters or Olympic lifters, but coupled with swings, snatches.

And again, in my experience, I’m just speaking from my experience, heavy two-handed swings for sprinters.  For athletes that need more speed is absolutely underrated.  Once your technique’s good enough to handle heavy weight, obviously you need to qualify them so that it’s safe, get them doing heavy two-handed swings.  That is going to increase their ability to produce force and to sprint.  That’s assuming that they’re actually training.

So if all they’re doing is kettlebells and weightlifting and they’re not actually spending time doing their sport, whether it be football, baseball or tennis, they still have to spend about 80 percent of their time actually doing their sport.  But those athletes that do that, they spend the necessary time on their sport and then the other 20 percent is their training and their correctives.

Keep it simple.  Heavy swings.  Heavy deadlifts.  Heavy squats.  Maybe some heavy chins and presses.  That’s about as sexy as I get, and that’s all I need.

I fill in getups definitely for correctives.  If they can handle heavy weight I do.  I use it more as a corrective.  But as far as building absolute strength I just use the presses, the pull-ups, weighted chins.  I keep it as simple as possible, but I also pick movements that are pretty damn effective.  You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  There are a lot of good movements that we already know about.  Get them good at those movements.  And definitely heavy two-handed swings.  Watch their sprint times get better.

CL: That’s a great philosophy.  I like the keep it simple philosophy.  And I think this directly applies not only to athletes but to general population as well.  People are always looking for that sexy answer.   

If you could tell me, if you’ve only got ten minutes to train and you’ve got to get out with your wife.  It’s time to go out to dinner but you haven’t had your workout in, what do you do?  Ten minutes.

FS: Me personally, I would do complexes.  I think complexes, especially with two kettlebells, are probably the most advanced but the most results producing way to train, period.  And it could be done with one kettlebell, it could be done with two kettlebells.  A complex is essentially taking three or four exercises, completing anywhere from maybe two to three to five reps in a row of each exercise but with zero rests.

So for example, let’s say I take a double snatch, a double press, a double front squat and let’s say a double swing. So what I would do is let’s say I grab the double 24 kilos.  So I grab two kettlebells of equal size.  I do five double snatches.  Immediately without rest I go into five military presses.  Immediately without rest I go into five front squats.  Immediately without rest, with never setting the kettlebells down, I do five swings.  Again, that’s just an example of what a complex could be.

I would hit as many rounds of that as I could in ten minutes.  I’m done.  In fact, that’s usually how I train.  My training sessions are usually between 15 to 20 minutes tops.  And that’s pretty much how I train.  So funny that you mention that, but that’s kind of how I train.  So complexes for me are just a phenomenal way.

Maybe another workout I would do is I would do swings and getups for ten minutes.  I might do singles.  I might take a medium-ish weight with getups, depending on the day, depending on my previous training.  And I might do a getup right, getup left, 20 swings.  And I’ll get as many rounds of that as I can in ten minutes.

So really if you pick big, big movements that are worth doing maybe a couple of ballistic exercises like swings and snatches and cleans, and take a couple of strength exercises like squats, presses, maybe some rows, maybe some getups.  Just pick those, alternate them for ten minutes, rest as you need to, you’re done.

That’s about as simple as it gets.  Not simple to do.  But as far as programming.  Most people that are super busy if they just did that three or four times a week they would look pretty good in about a year.  They would not recognize themselves in a year if they did that.

CL: Let’s give people a bit of a background in your personal life.  Why would you only have ten minutes to work out?  You’re a dad, as I know, of two, right?

FS: Well, yeah.  I’ve got two kids.  I’ve got almost a four-year-old daughter and a 17-month-old boy.  I run a very busy personal training studio which is a kettlebell studio downtown La Jolla, which is a suburb of San Diego.  Mondays and Wednesdays I see anywhere from 8 to 12 clients.  And I’m just busy.  I teach seminars about once or twice a month on weekends.  And often I just don’t have the physical energy to train for an hour every day.  And not only that, I love to train but I don’t love to train more than I do hanging out with my family.

I love training, but I use training to help me get the results I need and to keep me healthy so I can enjoy life and I can travel and have fun.  Obviously there has to be some credibility.  I have to physically be able to do what I do to be able to teach it.  I will not teach movements that I’m not good at.  That’s why I don’t do any barbell Olympic lifting.  Not because I don’t like it, because I suck at it.  I’ve tried it.  I absolutely suck at barbell Olympic lifting.  I don’t do it.  And if somebody wants to do it I refer them to somebody else.  I think kettlebells can be just as effective.  You can’t put as much load on the bar, but it’s an easier learning curve for most people.  So for me that is my Olympic lifting is I use kettlebells.

But yeah, you’re busy Chris.  A ton of people listening to this call are busy.  People aren’t getting less busy.  People are getting more busy.  So that means that you need to be extremely selective with your training, and you need to be smart.  Big movements, don’t rest a whole lot.  Obviously it kind of depends on your goal.  But just for kind of general health and muscle and fat loss, complexes, getups and swings.  It doesn’t need to be super fancy.  The most important thing is you’ve just got to do it.  And ten minutes, anybody can carve out ten minutes out of their day.  Anybody.  I don’t care who you are.  I don’t care how busy you are.  You’ve got ten minutes to train, absolutely.

CL: Absolutely.  I couldn’t agree with you more.  Even with five kids and two businesses and all of the other stuff going on in my life, ten minutes is all I need which is why I got you on the phone because I know you have the same philosophy.  So that’s great.  So we touched a little bit on your family life.  Your wife Yoana, she’s into kettlebells, isn’t she?  

FS: Yeah.  She’s a mutation.  She’s about as mutant-like, and I say that in a good way.  She has some mutant gene that I don’t think very many people have in the world.  But yeah, she’s about 5’1″ maybe, and she’s stronger than most 200-pound women.  She’s won the Tactical Strength Challenge, which is a national competition, twice.  Which is one rep max deadlift, max pull-ups and a five minute snatch test with a 16 kilo.  I think she got 130 or something.  So she’s as fit and as freaky strong as you get.  But she’s an inspiration towards a lot of people just because she’s so tiny and because her relative strength is just so psycho.

She recently came out with a book called “Kettlebell Mommy“, which basically is a journal of her two pregnancies with our two kids.  And it just shows and it inspires people to say, “Hey, pregnancy is not a disease.  If you’re pregnant it doesn’t mean you can’t train.”  It does mean that you should probably be fit before going into pregnancy.  And she talks about that.  You definitely don’t want to start kettlebell training if you’ve never used it before during pregnancy.  Her book is for people that have been using kettlebells.

But as she says, as long as you don’t have any complications during your pregnancy, as long as the doctors say it’s okay, and you’ve already been training, you don’t need to stop your life.  She has a great thing.  It’s not a virus.  It’s not a disease.  Life doesn’t stop when you’re pregnant.  You still need to keep yourself healthy.  Why would lying on the couch and eating food and not moving be healthy?  No, keep moving.  You will naturally scale it back because you’ll have to, but you can train.

And that was her message in the book.  She wants to encourage people you can train your entire pregnancy, you just need to be smart and you need to do your homework before.  Go into kettlebells with some fitness.  Go into your pregnancy with some prior background.  And then you’ll have a much better experience, you’ll have a much better labor.  And I saw.  It was unbelievable.  She bounced back in like 28 days.  She was back to her former herself with the ripped abs and the muscles.  Pretty impressive.

So I’m a firm believer that kettlebell training done prior to pregnancy will get women to not only obviously have a healthier pregnancy, but they will bounce back much faster having kids.  I hope that kind of encourages some of the females, or even some of the trainers that are listening to this call that have clients that are pregnant or that are thinking of getting pregnant.

Training during pregnancy I think is a huge field that’s going to become more popular, especially as medical science and as we learn more and research more on the benefits of being safe, continuing to do some resistance training, simplistic training and just general exercise and movement.

CL: Great stuff, man.  Can you tell us where we can find out a little bit more about you, where we can start reading up and following up on what’s going on with you and Yoana and the family and the business and the HKC.  And if anybody wants to learn more about you where do they go?

FS: Thanks for the kind words, Chris.  That’s very nice.  Basically our website is probably the first place to go.  It’s RevolutionLaJolla.com.  And you spell La Jolla L-A-J-O-L-L-A.  RevolutionLaJolla.com.  If you click on that it’s got links to our products and our eBooks, our DVDs.  We have several work along DVDs that are kettlebell-based.  Yoana has her book, which is “Kettlebell Mommy”, on there.  And we also have links to our Facebook and our Twitter accounts.  That’s probably maybe the fastest way to kind of follow us.  And also we have our blogs on there.  We update our blogs every now and then, so that’s kind of another way to find us.

But other than that, we love what we do and we feel very, very fortunate, kind of like you, that we’re able to follow our passion and to wake up every morning and love life and love that we can empower people to lead better lives.  And ultimately just become better people just because our bodies, minds and souls work better.  And yeah, it’s a total blessing to be able to do what we do.

And I appreciate people like you, Chris, that take this information.  And obviously you are a big influence, and you have influenced a ton of people.  So I want to commend you on your passion and your dedication to the industry making it better and bringing up quality stuff.  So I want to thank you for that, Chris.

CL: Thanks a bunch, Franz.  It was a great call.  Thanks so much for being on it.  And this is Chris Lopez and KettlebellWorkouts.com signing off.