We get all caught up in the finer things in life so often that we forget what is most important. We focus on new trends instead of tried and true effectiveness. There are a lot of innovative new technologies that change our lives for the better. Yet for every successful invention, there's thousands of dead ideas lying on the side of the road. 

Stop trying to be different for the sake of being different. Experimenting is fun, but you know what's more fun? Getting better and seeing massive results. If you're doing a bunch of silly shit, always looking for the next big thing, knock it off! Get back to your roots, keep things simple and skyrocket your gains and really enhance your performance. Here is a quick video of simple training (assuming you have the requisite skill), with very limited equipment, that has the potential to boost almost anyones performance. Use what you have wisely and get your mindset to achieve greatness with what you have available instead of focusing on what you are lacking. It does not matter if you only have a barbell, or just a dumbbell, or only a rock. As long as you have an able body and a dedicated attitude, you can achieve greatness. 

Check out our private membership site, The Consummate Athlete, FREE for a week, then only $9.99 a month after that. Cancel anytime with no questions asked, just be ready for my momma to kick in your back door and threaten you with that crazy big wooden spoon of hers, that shit hurts! Also, please check out our new tee shirts and hoodies here. 

Nobody likes a messy snatch. I am well aware that my technique is not perfect, largely due to my overhead mobility. That is what happens from years of banging around on the gridiron. But, I think that this quick and random tip can help your transition and save your hands when training your snatch. Please express your opinions, especially if you have been training with kettlebells and have experience with different styles. 

When I decided to hold my first kettlebell and bodyweight training seminar, I knew I would have a few hours to teach several people the very basics of the style of the training I use with high frequency in my daily life. Being a busy man with a schedule that has me traveling regularly, with limited time to get to the gym as much as I would like, and having limited equipment while on the go, I knew there was a way for me to keep things simple and brutally effective to get amazing results with a minimalist approach. 


Even if I am not traveling, I regularly use bodyweight training because it makes me feel good, increases my relative strength and dramatically enhances my mobility. This, in turn, reduces any pain I might be experiencing from the rigors of daily life. Spending long hours in bad positions with poor posture can cause anyone serious body pains in their back, hips, neck and shoulders. But a few minutes of strategic bodyweight movements can help strengthen the body and reverse the pains and issues that we put ourselves through. 


I regularly travel by car, so bringing a bunch of gym equipment is not an option, and finding a gym on the road is a guaranteed hassle I don't want to deal with. As long as you have your body, you have the very best piece of equipment ever invented. And anyone can throw a kettlebell in the back seat to add some external resistance as well. 

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In my personal training, nothing gets my conditioning to higher level than some bodyweight drills combined with high intensity kettlebell training. The problem most people make with this type of training is not having good technique with a single movement or lift, then doing it for high repetitions. This not only will give you minimal results, but can also have detrimental effects in the long run of your training. 


A major, and often overlooked, aspect of fitness and strength training is alignment and positioning. If your body is in poor alignment while moving heavy loads or performing many reps, you are unnecessarily risking injury, as well as cheating yourself better results from your training. Putting your body in the best position possible allows for enhanced strength, better health and increased fitness, which is what we all want anyway...better results. 

The specifics of the workshop weren't primarily geared towards crushing people with high rep bodyweight conditioning workouts. It was, however, focused on  learning and teaching the fundamentals of kettlebell lifting technique and proper progressions to gain strength with bodyweight movements from beginner to advanced level athletes. 


There is something for everybody, regardless of your fitness level. I show how to do beginner pushups to advanced level one arm variations, and everything in between to prevent plateaus from occurring. The same goes for other basic movements like squats, pullups, and myriad other less common bodyweight strength training movements to add to your arsenal for athletic domination. 


Once you learn exactly how to do the movements with sound technique, you have infinite different programs and systems you can use to enhance your current training and athleticism. Don't continue training with horrible form and sweating through ugly reps. Take the time to learn proper technique and watch your performance skyrocket in no time. Stop skipping steps in your bodyweight strength training and continue climbing the hill instead of spending most of your time on a plateau. 

To be completely honest about the videos from the workshop, they are not the highest quality. If you have seen my YouTube videos, it is very similar, and was recorded with the same camera. There are times in the video when the audio isn't very great, and there are times when I stutter, because I am not the greatest speaker. It is what it is, you will, however, get some really great audio of some of us farting and burping pretty loud as we train for a few hours. I didn't edit out all the weird stuff, it's in there. I only edited out the resting. So, if you are a TSS fan, like our style of training, and have trained for a while yourself, you know what goes on in a home or garage gym. Shit happens, you laugh it off, and continue to get strong as hell. My intentions were to put on a great seminar for those that attended. They were not intended to create a top selling DVD. But I was asked by many who could not attend if I would record it, so by popular demand, here is what I got. In the future, I will have million dollar cameras and fitness models in bikinis demonstrating exercises while I yell like Gilad, but for now, this video set is me and a few athletes training in a garage, getting strong and learning some damn good training techniques. I hope you enjoy. 

The Strength Shop Kettlebell and Bodyweight Training Workshop

A comprehensive and progressive approach to increased bodyweight strength training and kettlebell lifting technique for improved posture, fitness and athleticism.

Available soon:

When I decided to hold my first kettlebell and bodyweight training seminar, I knew I would have a few hours to teach several people the very basics of the style of the training I use with high frequency in my daily life. Being a busy man with a schedule that has me traveling regularly, with limited time to get to the gym as much as I would like, and having limited equipment while on the go, I knew there was a way for me to keep things simple and brutally effective to get amazing results with a minimalist approach. 


Even if I am not traveling, I regularly use bodyweight training because it makes me feel good, increases my relative strength and dramatically enhances my mobility. This, in turn, reduces any pain I might be experiencing from the rigors of daily life. Spending long hours in bad positions with poor posture can cause anyone serious body pains in their back, hips, neck and shoulders. But a few minutes of strategic bodyweight movements can help strengthen the body and reverse the pains and issues that we put ourselves through. 


I regularly travel by car, so bringing a bunch of gym equipment is not an option, and finding a gym on the road is a guaranteed hassle I don't want to deal with. As long as you have your body, you have the very best piece of equipment ever invented. And anyone can throw a kettlebell in the back seat to add some external resistance as well. 


In my personal training, nothing gets my conditioning to higher level than some bodyweight drills combined with high intensity kettlebell training. The problem most people make with this type of training is not having good technique with a single movement or lift, then doing it for high repetitions. This not only will give you minimal results, but can also have detrimental effects in the long run of your training. 


A major, and often overlooked, aspect of fitness and strength training is alignment and positioning. If your body is in poor alignment while moving heavy loads or performing many reps, you are unnecessarily risking injury, as well as cheating yourself better results from your training. Putting your body in the best position possible allows for enhanced strength, better health and increased fitness, which is what we all want anyway...better results. 


The specifics of the workshop weren't primarily geared towards crushing people with high rep bodyweight conditioning workouts. It was, however, focused on  learning and teaching the fundamentals of kettlebell lifting technique and proper progressions to gain strength with bodyweight movements from beginner to advanced level athletes. 


There is something for everybody, regardless of your fitness level. I show how to do beginner pushups to advanced level one arm variations, and everything in between to prevent plateaus from occurring. The same goes for other basic movements like squats, pullups, and myriad other less common bodyweight strength training movements to add to your arsenal for athletic domination. 


Once you learn exactly how to do the movements with sound technique, you have infinite different programs and systems you can use to enhance your current training and athleticism. Don't continue training with horrible form and sweating through ugly reps. Take the time to learn proper technique and watch your performance skyrocket in no time. Stop skipping steps in your bodyweight strength training and continue climbing the hill instead of spending most of your time on a plateau. 


To be completely honest about the videos from the workshop, they are not the highest quality. If you have seen my YouTube videos, it is very similar, and was recorded with the same camera. There are times in the video when the audio isn't very great, and there are times when I stutter, because I am not the greatest speaker. It is what it is, you will, however, get some really great audio of some of us farting and burping pretty loud as we train for a few hours. I didn't edit out all the weird stuff, it's in there. I only edited out the resting. So, if you are a TSS fan, like our style of training, and have trained for a while yourself, you know what goes on in a home or garage gym. Shit happens, you laugh it off, and continue to get strong as hell. My intentions were to put on a great seminar for those that attended. They were not intended to create a top selling DVD. But I was asked by many who could not attend if I would record it, so by popular demand, here is what I got. In the future, I will have million dollar cameras and fitness models in bikinis demonstrating exercises while I yell like Gilad, but for now, this video set is me and a few athletes training in a garage, getting strong and learning some damn good training techniques. I hope you enjoy. 



The Strength Shop Kettlebell and Bodyweight Training Workshop

A comprehensive and progressive approach to increased bodyweight strength training and kettlebell lifting technique for improved posture, fitness and athleticism.



TESTIMONIALS:

This is the final installment of the Donnie Presentation. I think you'll have some fun watching Zach and I lift The Beast While Donnie cracks some jokes.

I put together a video last week of a workout I did using kettlebells and bodyweight, it felt great to move around a lot and essentially hit the whole body. I tried to balance my pushing and pulling exercises, as well as hit a good amount of power and stability. Sometimes people neglect certain aspects in their training, but this is a good way to cover the bases. Let me know what you think in the comments and I will explain the exercise selection if necessary.

There are very few exercises you can do that have as much value, bang for your buck, as the swing. It is simple to learn, not easy to master, and has tremendous carryover to everyday life. We can perform this exercise almost anywhere, with a variety of implements, and it forces you to learn how to user your body in a synergistic fashion. In other words, it helps you become a better athlete. As an added bonus, you burn a ton of fat, which is probably the biggest sales pitch of the movement to the general public. However, we are not the general public. We are the athletic, the few who have chosen to do what is necessary to become the very best version of ourselves. That usually means making the harder decision. A decision that screams, "I will not settle for average!"  Just because things aren't lined up perfectly in your life, does not mean that you can't make the best out of what you have available to you. Some people make excuses why they can't do certain things, while others find ways how to get things done. In this video I perform a few variations of one of my favorite exercises, the swing, and show how it's not necessarily about the kettlebell. Although the kettlebell is my preferred tool for this exercise, if you don't have one available to you, you can still move your ass and get things done. 



Don't forget about The Strength Shop's Kettlebell and Bodyweight Training Workshop we have coming up next weekend, 11/06/10. We have just a few spaces left and it's the end of the road on this deal. If you're on the fence, time to make a move. It's gonna be a great day of training. Check it out here. 


As always, drop a comment above and let us know some of your favorite swing variations and what you had to do to accommodate certain situations. If we reach a whopping 10 comments, I'll make my next video a video of your choice. We will take a poll I guess. Post up, buddy. 

1.) KB clean and push press 12-10-8-6
-increase weight, use DB's if necessary

2a.) Bench Press 4x1-1-1
2b.) Face pulls + scarecrows 4x8-10
-use rings or suspension trainer

3a.) Ring pushups x minimum 80 total reps in as few sets as possible
3b.) Pullups x minimum 80 total reps in as few sets as possible
-after every broken set, switch exercises
-if you do a set of 30, then 22, then 18, for a total of 70, don't just do 10 more and quit, give it your best effort on your last set and every set

3-5 rounds

4a.) Double Unders x 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds
4b.) KB Swings x 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds
4c.) Burpees x 30 seconds
- rest 30 seconds

Count total reps of each



Don't forget our kettlebell and bodyweight workshop is coming up on the 6th of November! Get on board! E-mail me today!!

There are obviously several different ways to achieve this elusive status. But quite possibly my favorite way to become a badass is to perform tons of clean and jerks, and all the variations. If you don't have a barbell, flip a tire. No tire? Find a big rock or log, pick it up and throw it. This will not require nearly as much technique, but you will get dirty points, and that counts for something. I got away from all heavy lifting for a little while, but I am making a comeback.  Here is my first attempt at moving any weight in over a month. My form is sloppy, try to find my faults. Its like a Where's Waldo? poster with 88 Waldo's! Nonetheless, I felt great with some weight in my hands, lots of recovery work to follow. My favorite recovery methods are the proper use of kettlebell and bodyweight mobility drills. These things keep me healthy and able to perform at a high level of performance. 


On another note, there have been a few spots already taken for the TSS Kettlebell & Bodyweight Workshop on 11/06/10, which is exciting! There are still a few spots left at the discounted rate. Don't wait, take action now. We will be covering kettlebell basics for beginners and progress to the level of attendees in addition to a ton of bodyweight drills and mobility work. It is going to be a lot of fun and very exciting, I can't wait to hit the mats with some of you guys. Email me for info on the workshop. 


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Notice how the kettlebell sits in the palm of the girevik in the above photo. Sergey Rachinskiy is a Russian and World champion in his sport, he is worth learning from. He punched his hand all the way through the handle of the bell so it sits on his lifeline in his palm, meaning there is little or no visible palm showing under the bells handle. Do this and you will have a much stronger overhead position.

1a. 1 arm KB snatch 4x6-8
1b. Band pull aparts 4x20


2. BB 3 position snatch 5x3 
-high hang, below knee, floor

3. Deadlift 6x4


4a. GHR 3x10
4b. Jumping lunges/bulgarian split squats 3x10/10

5a. Ab rollouts 3x10-15
5b. Reverse hypers 3x10-15