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.
