Last weekend the Ice Chamber added two more Masters of Sport to the list.  Congratulations to Sara and Surya who both achieved this ranking with the WKC in women's long cycle.  This is a remarkable achievement both for these talented athletes and for the Ice Chamber team.  You will be hard pressed to find a more decorated team anywhere, particularly in the USA where this sport is in its infancy.  There are four ladies on the team.  Jess was the first female to achieve Master of Sport in long cycle and Maya has achieved CMS (Candidate for Master of Sport) ranking in both traditional and long cycle.  Sharing in the success of these athletes is their coach Steven Khuong. 

I first met Steven and his team about two years ago at Ken Blackburn's meet in Flint Michigan.  I was immediately struck by the excellent technique his athletes displayed.  All the reps looked the same and they were sharp and quick.  At the time they had only been training kettlebells for a few months!  I was shocked.  Even more impressive is the fact that they are continually improving.  In addition to all of that, the Ice Chamber has done a lot to promote kettlebell sport.  I suppose it doesn't hurt that the team is comprised of attractive young ladies.  The general public, I believe, wants the fitness look  and that is what drives the majority to train.  Thus the look goes a long way.  It is really much more than that though.  Because of their ability to relate to people,create excitement, and ultimately deliver the goods,
the Ice Chamber has really put the sport on the map.  They have been featured on ABC's View From the Bay  and in the Wall Street Journal for example.  Not too shabby. 

Like I said, lots to talk about.   I want to bring up the latest endeavor from the American Kettlebell Club.  They recently introduced a new spin on kettlebell lifting which they refer to as " Strongman ".  The rules of this game are pretty simple.  It is one arm jerks and one arm cleans.  Only one hand switch is permitted.  The lifter gets 4 minutes for each drill and jerks are done first followed by a rest period of at least 30 min and then cleans.  There is a ranking system.  For men it starts at 32kg and goes up in 4kg increments all the way to 48kg, for women it starts at 20kg and goes up to 36kg.  To make rank you need to do 24 reps per side per event. That means for example for a female competitor would achieve the highest rank if she could do 24/24 jerks and 24/24 cleans with the 36kg bell within the 4 minutes allotted for each event.  There are no weight classes so its pretty simple. Score is based on combined totals of lowest arm total for each event, for example if I did 15 jerks with my right and 2 with my left and then 10 cleans with my left and 20 with my right my total score would be 12.  Even though you can move up in rank it doesn't mean you'll win a contest.  At the end of the day its all about reps.  These events make for some interesting contests.  Even at the debut there was a nice contest going.  The 48kg Battle of the Andrews may indeed become the stuff of legend:  Andrew Durniat vs Andy Fitting.  After all the smoke cleared Andy Fitting won with 36/36 jerks and 37/37 cleans for a total of 73.  Andrew Durniat had a score of 70.  I am willing to bet this friendly rivalry isn't over.  These guys are going to continue to train and compete.  In addition the event was well received by both the kettlebell and strongman communities so I fully expect some other big strong guys are gonna roll up on this.  Attention John Buckley, Ken Blackburn, Mike Mahler and anyone who has one of my monster bells.  I think those may be very useful in training for this stuff. I suspect soon there may be a need to increase the weights in this game as the Andrews are already making the 48kg bell look too easy!

I see several advantages to this type of event.  First it is one bell so folks aren't as limited by flexibility.  Second heavy weights are used and everybody likes displays of strength. Third the sets are shorter so it is more fun for spectators.  Watching someone suffer for ten minutes as in traditional kettlebell sport seems a little less appealing to some for whatever reason.  I also think this is a great way to get more folks into kettlebells.  I haven't seen any youtube footage of the battle yet but I suspect it will be forthcoming soon.  Not to worry.  For your viewing pleasure here is Andy Fitting setting a world record with the heaviest official kettlebell in the world.  I wonder where that came from? ; ).  72kg 19Jerks!  This is insane.  This bell has to be experienced in person before you can get your head around how heavy it feels.  It wants to crush you.  If you are in the neighborhood stop by and you can see the crown bell I have in my basement.  I won't even go near that gravity hog.  It is practically glued to the ground. 

Way to go Andy.  Funny thing is the heaviest bell Andy has is the 52kg Buffalo bell I made for him.  It must be something in the water there.

Yes indeed, I made it to the Arnold for the second year in a row.  The "haunted house of fitness" as Ken Blackburn called it last year, was bigger and badder than ever.  I should have set up a booth selling breast augmentation revisions and/or  BiPAP/CPAP machines.  I would have had lots of customers.  As usual I felt like I just didn't fit in, I am just too small and I wasn't wearing a shirt with skulls on it.  No matter, I was there for the kettlebells. 

The IKFF hosted a meet at this years convention and it was very well done.  I have to thank Ken Blackburn and his team for doing an outstanding job of organizing this.  Rebecca Cate did a superb  job of organizing the judges and making sure the flights were all on time.  A lot of folks competed and it couldn't have been any better.  Thanks to all the judges, lifters and everyone who brought bells for the competition.  Usually organizing this sort of an event is like trying to herd cats; it is exponentially worse in the chaotic environment that is the Arnold.  These guys made it look easy.  There were some outstanding performances.  Particularly noteworthy was Sara Lieber who did 133 reps in one arm long cycle with 20kg.  This is a Master of Sport World Class level of performance!  Strong work!

Overall it was a great time and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a set.  I did a set of long cycle with the 24kg bells.  I just wanted to go the full ten minutes so i was happy.  Although I was pleased, every time I do this I can't help but wonder "what the hell am I doing this for?".  I rationalize it like this:  Since we really have no natural predators (i.e. large animals are not chasing us down and eating us), we need to have some way to challenge ourselves.  Since it isn't coming from the external environment it must come from within.  That has to be it.  I think I also answered another question I posed recently to a colleague of mine.  He had just returned from riding motorcycles through Central America.  Sounds ok at first glance.  However the rest of the story is that he and the other guys he was with had no real itinerary and nothing but a gps.  I guess not all the towns were gringo friendly.  Different strokes for different folks I suppose.  Fortunately lifting kettlebells seems unlikely to lead to a scene reminiscent of "Deliverance" in Spanish.  Maybe it is time they shot a new version of that, motorbikes instead of rafts, Central America instead of Georgia, marimbas instead of banjos...  It could happen.

Back to the Arnold.  Here are a few pics:

First we have John Wild Buckley.  Johnny Depp on steroids, I think that is what Ken called him.  Here he is picking up a surprised young lady.  Security was not amused when their tasers only served to make John angry.


Next up we have Eric, Ken, and Boris still celebrating the Canadian Hockey golds at Vancouver.  No wait, that was just after Ken finished an impressive set of long cycle. 


I was surprised at the amount of emotion shown by some of the competitors.  Here Phil breaks down sobbing after Ken led off the meet with a soul-stirring rendition of "Wind beneath my wings".  Just funny how this picture turned out, particularly if you look directly above them.  Sometimes you don't need photoshop.


In any case there is lots more to talk about so this place may be a little busy for the next few days.  Stay tuned....

As requested I will go into a little bit more detail about my battle with plantar fasciitis.  The usual caveat applies here.  If you are having a problem it is always best to check with your physician.  Although I am a physician and occasionally play one on TV, I do not dispense medical advice via this blog.  I am just relaying my personal experience and what worked for me. 

My problem started a little less than a year ago.  If we want to play the blame game, credit goes to my buddy Barry.  I visited him in California and had a session with this ART guy that he recommended.  This fellow picked up on my tight IT band really quick and went to town on it.  He also said my feet were flat and I tended to pronate.  After I told him I was running in Nike Frees he told me I needed more support.  I immediately picked up a pair of Brooks and hit the streets.  I remember thinking, "man these things really put me on the balls of my feet".  My calves were feeling it.  A few weeks later, it was a Sunday, I thought I had stepped on a stone.  I kept looking for a bruise on my heel.  This continued to worsen until I asked my podiatrist friend about it.  Within 5 seconds I had my diagnosis.  Plantar fasciitis.  He gave me a script for some custom orthotics.  I never got them.  I talked to another buddy who actually makes orthotics and he told me it was a waste of time as far as plantar fasciitis was concerned.  He told me all I needed to know that day.  For whatever reason it didn't sink in.  His advice:  "stretch your damn calves".  That was all I needed to do but I wasn't doing it right.  So for the next several months I took a shotgun approach to my fasciitis.  I saw my massage therapist.  He got medieval on my feet and it hurt like hell and it pretty much cured it for about a week or two. Then it was back.  Classic PF, pain was worse in the morning with the first step or just after sitting for a while.  Not good.  I spend most of the day on my feet and the kettlebell sport training and attempts at running weren't helping. GS was out and so was running.  I spent a lot of time doing more strength training and I got more focused on my concept II rower.  One nice thing was I beat my 7 min goal on the 2000m row.  That's one goal knocked down for the year.  I also picked up a Strassburg sock for night time.  This helped quite a bit.  You can check that out here.  It took a little getting used to but I think it helped.
I also got some inserts for my shoes that I liked.  They were $20 per pair, way cheaper than custom orthotics.  Here is the link to the inserts.  I still keep them in my work shoes because they don't bother me and I am used to them.  Did they help?  Probably.  They certainly didn't make things worse. 

What really did the trick for me though was getting serious about the stretching.  I was using a weak approach where I would stretch them for 30 seconds or so and think that was enough.  WRONG!  You have to be serious about this.  Make it a religion.  First you have to do it for a longer period.  3-5 minutes at a time sounds about right.  Plus you have to do it often after gradually working up to the longer stretch.  I like three or more times a day.  I try to space them out, maybe a morning stretch, and early evening stretch or before I train and then again after I train or before bed.  You have to hold the stretch for a long time.  I also got serious about stretching the hamstrings as well.  Very important.  For a while it didn't seem to work but after a couple weeks I was able to get back to running and GS training with no setbacks.  If you want to know why this works look at the picture at the top of the page.  You can see the connection to the achilles tendon and the calf.  This entire myo-fascial system is in continuity and tightness one place will lead to downstream events.  The bottleneck happens to be at the plantar fascia where it attaches to the heel.  That's where the tension is.  If you don't fix this it keeps happening.  You rest the foot at night it starts to heal, you put weight on it in the morning, it tears again.  The cycle of inflammation and repair never ends.  The solution is to "stretch your damn calves".  I probably should also have done a month or so of NSAIDs when this started but I don't like taking medication, go figure. 

So what finally convinced me to get serious about fixing this problem.  I ordered the a video from this website.  It was an instant download and was the best $15 I ever spent.  All you need to know is right there. In addition to that I went back to my nike frees.  A few folks have recommended the vibram five fingers shoes.  I can't bring myself to wear them for they are hideous to look upon.  I am not saying never but definitely not right now.  There has been a lot of talk about barefoot running and recently a book was released entitled Born to Run (not to be confused with the Springsteen song).  It is about a tribe of indians who run and run and run and don't have the type of foot problems we have.  I haven't read it but I plan to.  You can get it here.  There is much speculation that our currently favored running shoes and other shoes for that matter basically act as casts preventing the intrinsic muscles of the feet from doing much of anything.  This in theory can lead to problems and lets face it, foot problems are terribly common.  I have at least 10 friends who are battling PF at present.  I hopefully have put them on the right path though.  We could go on and on discussing shoes, theory, and the like.  Rather than overindulge in such cerebral masturbation keep it simple and "stretch your damn calves".

Like most people I like to mix up my training now and then.  Perhaps this is a form of fitness ADD, but I feel that a little bit of variety keeps things interesting.  This is important particularly for those of us who aren't professional athletes.  It can be tempting to fall of the exercise wagon and succumb to the lure of fast food in front of the television.  Eighty pounds later you'll be calling your insurance company to see if they cover gastric banding.  The challenge is to keep it fresh but still maintain some consistency.  I am not a huge fan of the schizoid programming that characterizes programs like Crossfit.  (I will put on flame proof garments at this time.)  I am in no way demeaning this fitness cult; anything that keeps people moving is probably better than nothing.  It is however my opinion that such a system takes variety to the extreme and when combined with maximum intensity as advocated by its acolytes, well it is just a recipe for disaster.  Moderation in all things has its advantages, whether we are discussing intensity, variety, or chocolate covered strawberries. 

Now that I've stirred things up lets talk about the new toy.  Remember a while back when I made one of these from a tire inner tube?  Well it leaked.  I was browsing the web about a month ago and I found these Bulgarian Bags on sale.  They were discontinued because a new model came out with a third central handle.  Being the cheapskate that I am I saved a few bucks and bought the cheaper one. Like I said I have owned it for about a month and let me tell you, it is an ass-kicker.  I have been setting aside one training day for variety and I have been working exclusively with the bag during those sessions.  I do a timed mega circuit which includes rotations, overhead swings, jumping squats, pushups, front raises, presses, lunges and a ton of other stuff.  It ends up being about 3 circuits which are nonstop for ten minutes each.  This thing crushes your grip and makes your whole body tired.  I love it but in the middle of the workout I tend to ask myself "why am I doing this again?".  There are a lot of ways to use this.  Fortunately the bag came with a DVD showing a lot of different exercises.

Overall I am impressed not only with the versatility but also the overall quality of the bag.  It is a nice piece of leather and it is sturdy.  It is  not going to fall apart and leave sand all over your gym floor.  There is no comparing this to a homemade version.  Not having to smell like rubber after you are done training is also a big plus.  You just can't seem to wash that smell off.  Ignore this advice and plan on going to bed early because it isn't going to happen.  Trust me pay the extra money.  It is worth it.

These bags are available in different sizes.  I went with the 35 lb bag and if anything maybe I should have went a size smaller.  I'll probably get the smaller one at some point.  The 35 lb bag is recommended for bigger guys around 200lbs so it tends to drag me around a little but that's fine.  I purchased mine from suples.com.

One thing is for sure.  Next family vacation I am taking this instead of a kettlebell.  My main reason it that it is nearly as versatile but will travel better.  I won't have to strap it down and plus it is lighter than a kettlebell.  I have been doing a lot of full squat jumps with this along with my regular kettlebell training and I have developed a lot of respect for this thing.  Overall I am quite pleased with my purchase.

By now you may be dissatisfied with me as I haven't been posting much of anything lately.  Lot of stuff going on but I am happy to say that things are straightened out and we are moving forward.  The good news is that a local opportunity has come up and RFP headquarters will be staying put.  The past 8 months or so have been challenging but that's life.  I don't have to look very far to find folks in far worse situations so I like to count my blessings.  That said, what's the deal with the title of this entry?  It's not original.  It is stolen from an article by Charles Staley.  If you don't know about Coach Staley he is a big proponent of escalating density training which happens to be a great training paradigm especially if you want to spice up your training and get out of a rut.  His site is worth checking out and you can click here to see it.
The article I am referring to is entitled "Why I don't want to power clean 315 pounds".  You can read it by pointing your cursor here.  I definitely recommend the article.  The point of cultivating dissatisfaction is that if you are not in some way unhappy with a situation you aren't likely to change it.  A personal example from my own training relates to grip work.  I was so disgusted with my lack of progress on grip work, and the fact that I fell short of last years goal of closing the CoC 2.5 (I could barely close the 2), that I made it a priority.  Before I was content to be there so I never did anything about it.  Fortunately at the end of the year it was report card time and it wasn't pretty.  I am happy to report that a month and a half later I can close the #2 for 6-8 reps and I am getting close to the 2.5.  At this rate I should close it this summer. 

My point is this: find an aspect of your training or your lifestyle that really makes you disgusted with yourself and make it a high priority target.  I think we tend to look on negative emotions as a bad thing.  Not true.  They are effective tools if you recognize them for what they are and know when to apply them.  Just something to think about.  Remember if you don't put in the effort or you get lazy in the gym you still have to live with yourself.   You wouldn't let someone else cheat you so make sure you aren't cheating yourself.    Again, food for thought.   I never got anywhere without pain and shame but that's just me.  There is that old saying that a good horse runs at the mere shadow of a whip.  As for me, I guess I needed to take some lashes.

Once more, I am really sorry that this place hasn't been more active but I think that is going to change.  Training is going well. I have gotten back to running since the plantar fasciitis is finally all gone.  The solution was so simple it is ridiculous.  So lots to talk about.  I am planning on going to the Arnold in March as the IKFF will be holding a meet. I don't have any major goals for that aside from getting to see everyone and provide whatever help I can to those guys.  Should be a lot of fun.  I plan on doing a set of long cycle too because it is still my favorite thing.  It feels good to get the cobwebs off this blog!

My new obsession with grip training has led me to the video I am about to review.  Many of you are familiar with the Ironmind Captains of Crush grippers.  If you aren't, man up and get some.  If you know anything about the world of grip training then you know about Joe Kinney.  He is one of an elite few (and the first) who have ever closed the #4 gripper, a gripper that no one was ever supposed to close.  This video explains exactly how he went about doing this. 

If you watch the entire video you will understand exactly what it takes to get this degree of hand strength.  Joe lets you in on all the secrets.  The secrets are good but the essential ingredient is the willingness to put in the hard work.  It is clear that this guy is intense.  The amount of work he put into this goal will blow your mind.  Think Captain Ahab.  On top of that Joe was clearly strong from the start.  Before he ever started intentionally training his grip he was very close to closing the Ironmind #3. Spend a minute with the #3 and you will understand how strong this guy was.  I am not sure what he did for a living but it is true that in some lines of work a few folks get stronger by accident than most people can when deliberately training.  And then of course some are just born freaky strong.  I'm not sure which category Joe Kinney falls into.  It doesn't matter.  There are three different videos on this DVD.  The first is a low quality video that Kinney made in 1998.  It is a great video as far as content and very informative.  It is shot in some sort of toolshed where he would train.  All of his equipment (except for the CoC grippers) is homemade so you know that got me excited.  Then there is the same video except with audio commentary from Kinney and John Wood.  Kinney has a dry sense of humor which I like.   The last video was shot last year with Wood interviewing Kinney.  Here Joe elaborates on his training and shows some additional equipment as well.  Overall this interview is very well done.  In my opinion this is a must have for any grip training enthusiast.  The footage of Joe bursting 6 beers in a row to the tune of Amazing Grace played on bagpipes is by itself worth the price of the DVD.  My wife walked in while I was watching this and her exact words were "what the f%^k are you watching now?  Ten minutes later she couldn't believe I was watching it again.  She is scared because she knows I'll be fabricating grip training tools for the next while.  Its always something.  Adult ADD can be difficult to live with. 

Bottom line: Just get the video.  Check out the trailer at the bottom of this entry.  You can order it from these guys.  Note also that functionalhandstrength.com also sells CoC grippers and they are quick to get them out.  I have been very pleased with this outfit.


  Another item you may want to check out is the Ironmind book called "Captains of Crush Grippers:  What they are and how to close them".  You can order it here.  There is a chapter by Joe Kinney which outlines his training philosophy.  Get ready to hear about making testosterone at home before breakfast and hard work.  The advice in this chapter is pure training gold. 

I ran across this while checking out the grip board forum.  I seems the monster bell virus is catching on with others.  This is of course very cool.  Adam Glass who is pretty well known on some of the grip forums and over on Dragon Door made a 50 kg bell from an 8kg shell.  It is interesting to see how he did this. In the video below. It is a different approach than I have used.  I like it though and I am a little surprised the bucket didn't melt.  The sand apparently did a great job of insulating the system.  His results were similar to mine using just lead.  He got it up to 50 kg.  Mine would end up at about 52kg.  Much of this difference probably has to do with the quality of the lead.  You can see all the crud at the top of the bell at the end.  It is better to use lead that has been fluxed a few times.  That's all I'm going to say.  We can't give away all our secrets.  I wish I had a torch like these guys. 

Well its officially 2010 so its time for some goals.  As I mentioned in the 2009 recap I was very disappointed in my failure to reach my grip strength goals.  As a result, I am making it a priority this year.  2010 is a year of hardcore hand strength training at RFP.   I have come up with four goals for the year that I think are doable.  First and foremost is closing the 2.5 Captains of Crush.  Hopefully by the end of the year I will be well on my way to closing the #3.  Second goal is a sub 7 min 2000m on the Concept II.  Third goal is to get 100 one arm jerks with 48kg with one hand switch.  The last goal is to get the heaviest bell I made overhead. The emphasis is going to be on grip however.

I also want to be more consistent with updating this blog and actually bringing some quality training info and product reviews.  In any case no matter what your goals are for the coming year, give them some consideration and make them happen.

Happy New Year!

I am pretty sure no one is happier than I am  to say good-bye to 2009.  Well maybe there are a few exceptions like Tiger Woods, Conrad Murray, Bernie Madoff, SC Governor Mark Sanford and the Oakland Raiders.  I am sure I missed a few.  The year will remain etched in my memory for two things.  First it was the year I made a bunch of really heavy kettlebells and second, I spent the remainder of my time sitting through endless contract negotiations.  Still though it was fun and in many ways challenging.  That said, I am optomistic that 2010 will be a better year.  Its always more fun when you don't know how the story ends.  I'm not sure where RFP headquarters will end up.  I love surprises.   This is a blog about training though so let's move on.

I had some goals for the year, lets see how I did.  First goal was 60 reps in long cycle with a pair of 32kg bells.  FAIL!  Best I did was 57.  Another was 100 reps long cycle with the 24s.  I hit that and it was a smoker.  Then there was 100 reps of 1 arm long cycle with 40kg.  i got that one too.  Next was the press, I wanted to nail the 48kg bell.  Best I did was 45kg.  I really tried too.  48 wasn't meant to be.  The first goal I did hit for the year was one I almost forgot about...  100 bodyweight pistols (50 per side).  I was really pleased with that.  Finally we come to the grip strength goals.  I wanted to close the COC 2.5 and I have to say I am not even close.  This was a massive fail.  I don't even want to talk about this one.  Tomorrow I will frame up some 2010 goals.  I can't wait.  I finished up with the last workout of the year.  I hit 200 on the SSST with 24kg just to see if I could do it without snatching for months.  Then I did 7650m in 30 min on the Concept II.  A few weeks ago I hit CMS numbers in long cycle with the 28kg bells just to see where I was. It was difficult.   I sure am a long way from where I was when I was hitting MS numbers.  As it stands now I really don't have a ton of interest, time or energy for any GS competitions at the moment.  I may do a rowing comp in January though.  I have to keep things interesting.

In other news all the bells I listed for sale are sold. I have no plans to make any more monsters and the only one I still have is the heaviest one. ( It may stay in my basement forever, even if I move!)   Thanks to everyone who replied.  I look forward to posting some New Years goals.  Happy New Year to all.  I am sorry I haven't posted in a while.