Charm City Kettlebells Week In Review

Charm City Kettlebells had a great week. Some great private sessions with clients and I continue my own quest to develop my strength and conditioning. We also had a Charm City Kettlebell Meet Up yesterday at Towson High School. Please email me at sandysommer@charmcitykettlebells.com if you'd like to join us for the next one sometime in August. We had tons of fun and I had a chance to introduce the kettlebell to a few newbies and give some insight to some veterans.

As you probably are aware, kettlebells are my preferred mode of strength and conditioning. Recently I finished the Viking Warrior Conditioning Conditioning Cycle and am deeply immersed in a new raw strength cycle that Marty Gallagher put together for me. Marty is one of the most respected minds in the world of strength training and Pavel Tsatsouline has mentioned Marty as one of his mentors.

My current training is a blissful marriage of my take on Enter The Kettlebell, Power To The People and Marty Gallagher. The union lasts until October 2, 2009 and at that point I will take a week off and then attack the Viking Warrior Program again.

Here's what my training looked like for the week.

Monday I weighed in at 194 pounds on the dot. Since I commenced my current program 6 weeks ago I have added 10.8 pounds of body weight. I'm as lean as I was when this started on June 1, 2009. Around May 15, 2009 I weighed 181.1 and was 11 % body fat. I will test again in mid August but I think I am around the same body tissue ratio.

Each day this week I started my workout with Turksih Get Ups. I find this is really one of the best compound movements to do in order to get the juices flowing and the joints properly lubed up.

Monday Wednesday and Saturday I did ETK. Lots of ladders and low reps for the clean and press. I am looking to build raw power. I should mention that with the added weight I haven't gotten much bigger. Just a lot denser and that is my goal. Density and not size. In addition, I rolled the dice and did the presribed one hand swings. My hip power is growing and growing.

Tuesday I did narrow stance conventional deadlifting. Mark Chaillet and Marty Gallagher tweaked my form slightly a few weeks ago but I was pretty solid having learned a lot from Doc Cheng in June and it is paying dividends as my pulls are improving mightily. I also did staright bar front squats and pull ups along with pistols.

Thursday I started with heavy loaded cleans with the next bigger bell above my pressing and did heavy snatches too. Then back to dead lifting.

Friday all I did my Pull ups.

I'm seeing steady improvement in all my lifts. Even the Pull ups though I've added mass. Very excited about this and will keep you posted.

Please email me any questions and be sure to leave your thougths and comments as well.

Sandy Sommer, RKC

Dead Lifting in Pennsylvania

After the Delaware Kettlebell Workshop, I added dead lifting to my work routine. Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC TL spent so much time on this primal movement at our seminar and I felt that I benefited so much from that investment that I went back and scoured Power To The People for every tidbit I could about "Hard Style" training in general and dead lifting in particular.

I felt very strongly that I needed to add these pulls to my program so I decided to consult with Marty Gallagher, author of The Purposeful Primitive, and my strength coach. Please keep in mind that the last time I did dead lifts would have been about 1986. Quite awhile ago and even though I trust what I learned with Doc Cheng I wanted to have a power lifting guy look at it too.

I talked to Marty about it and he said why don't you come up so I can take a look? I was a bit concerned when he casually mentioned that Mark Chaillet may be around to take a peek as well. I knew Chaillet's reputation as a dead lifter extraordinaire but until I went back and looked at Purposeful Primitive I had forgotten just how amazing his performance. Mark is the only person to conventionally dead lift over 800 pounds post-age 40. Uh oh I thought. (Actually I said this out loud) This is gonna suck to pull in front of these two. Marty assured me that all Chaillet would be looking at was my form. As a technician, Marty said, "Mark won't notice what's on the bar. Good I said because there won't be much to see:)

So I warm up a bit with some joint work and am feeling pretty self conscious. The analogy would be Tiger Woods helping me with golf. That's the quality of this pair. Marty puts a plate on each side and says "OK let's see." Right away there are corrections. Minor ones so I feel pretty good. A lot of it was being nervous. I made some quick adjustments and then added more poundage. Feeling better and they are liking my dead lifts. A few more adjustment. Ultimately they send me on my way with a narrower stance, slower hips, a more upright back and that was about it. These three corrections made a world of difference and will help me make Marty's secret predication come true about my ultimate dead lift max.

Sandy Sommer, RKC, Towson MD

What is Hard Style Strength And How Does It Work?

According to the RKC Instructor Manual, "Hardstyle Strength is exemplified by power lifting and Okinawan karate. The common denominator is COMPRESSION."

We compress the muscles as force is produced through tensing.

We compress the breath as extraordinary intra-abdomincal pressure increases your strength. Think of a can.

We compress the ground to create amazing stability and take full advantage of the reactive force of the deck. Th goal is to take root.

And finally we compress our focus. Think of the difference between a laser and a light bulb. Try a static dead lift until you feel your feet burn.

Many folks have asked me to define "Hard Style" and the above is surely better than anything I can come up with.

So how does it work? Well for me it's worked like this. I am leaner, stronger, more mobile, more flexible and have great cardio conditioning. Remember, I'm 47 but am at least as fit as when I played NCAA football. And I feel a ton better.

I use three tools. An Olympic bar, a pull up bar and kettlebells. Pretty basic. I do squats, dead lifts, tactical pull ups, side press,clean and press, snatches, swings and Turkish Get ups. Each is a compound exercise.

I use maximal speed both up and down in the quick lifts like snatches, cleans and swings. We go all out for two reasons. First, your hips store tons of power on the way down on a swing and when you explode back up it is like letting a pulled rubber band go. Second, you get good training effect without a huge volume. Anyone who tells you that they are swinging a 32 KG kettlebell for 300 reps non stop is not employing Hard Style technique.

Doing grinds like the squat, dead lift presses etc I go slow and create as much muscular tension as I can. Tension is strength but it is slow. You must practice creating tension on the grinds even using lighter weights or even when doing bodyweight work. If you don't you won't have a chance when dealing with real weight.

If you use kettlebells for strength and conditioning you really want to make the lifts as difficult as you can. The goal is to make your chosen sport (life or otherwise) as easy as possible.

Hard Style in it's essense is about kinetic linking. Kinetic linkage required that you work multiple joints all at once and is the opposite of one joint exercise. Nothing we do treats the body as collected body parts. The body is a machine and that is how we work it.

Again to quote the RKC manual. "RKC teaches how to focus the scattered energies of the body into a directed all-out effort while minimizing the odds of injuries."


I'd love to have you share your thoughts here as well or ask any questions.

Sandy Sommer, RKC

Delaware Hard Style By Way Of LA

If you were one of the dedicated ones who made it to Middletown DE on June 21, 2009, then you came away with some amazing new tools for your toolbox. I always have a lot of trouble describing events in detail. Sorry about this inability but I will give it a shot anyway.

If you are an RKC and you attended, then you were surely blown away by all that Doctor Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader, shared with us. If you had never been exposed to "Hard Style" training then you may not fully appreciate yet what you learned. You will. Trust me. Here's a look at the thoughts of one such uninitiated.

Doc Cheng contacted me 3 or 4 months ago to see if I'd be interested in helping him put on his "Hard Style, High Density" workshop at his Alma mater, St. Andrews School. I saw it as a unique opportunity to help spread the work about the RKC on the East Coast, work with Doc Cheng and help out the school since we donated 50% of proceeds back to them. Pretty much a "win-win-win" situation. But it just gets better.

First off, St. Andrews School is first rate and reminded me so much of my beloved St. James. I graduated in 1980 and there are many similarities between the institutions. I was happy we could be of financial assistance and we look forward to this being an annual event. I would guess that many of the folks who attended this year will be back.

Secondly, Dr. Cheng is really tuned in to proper movements and patterning movement. I truly believe Pavel Tsatsouline himself would have learned something. I learned far more than I bargained for and was humbled a bit by the experience. The RKC system of strength is fairly easy to implement safely but mastery is another entire matter. Mastery may always prove elusive and that is now a wonderful feeling. I hated that thought at first but am fully at peace with it now. I will never, ever stop learning.

The focus of this workshop was the RKC Program Minimum. Dead lifts, Swings, Turkish Get Ups. We also did some work with cleans, Tactical Pull Ups and snatches. The focus was all on the foundation that the RKC is built on. Tension equalling strength. Breathing being a huge component of that. If all we had worked on was breathing and creating tension it would have been a worthwhile day.

Luckily we also worked a lot on mobility in general. Specifically the t-spine work we did was amazing and has already helped me with my Turkish get ups (which I thought were decent pre workshop) and also has allowed me to really improve my tactical pull ups. Put another way, fairly fatigued a came within an inch of a completed tactical pull up with the 24 KG Kettlebell hanging off my right foot.

How about thinking of your body as a can? Without the top and bottom to keep the contents in the container and under pressure it is useless. If you can't create the bottom of the can in your pelvis and the top from the lats down you will have difficulty. But if you can, then imagine the power capability.

Everyone who participated learned something. My 69 year old mom learned a ton that will help her move better than she does and she moves fairly well.My fellow RKCs and I learned a ton. I will be stronger, move better, teach better and feel better from what I learned and how far I have to grow. Do you know how hard light dead lifting can be? Ask Jen Morey!

Sandy Sommer, RKC

Who Needs Shiny Objects? We Have Kettlebells!

I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to the latest, greatest stuff. It's fun to try out something new and variety is said to be the spice of life. To be truly skilled though in anything that we need to be well schooled in the basics. To paraphrase from the RKC instructors manual "the difference between the elite and the merely able, is that the elite do the fundamentals to perfection."

Interesting. Yet I get emails all the time wondering about why my workouts don't seem to have much variety in them. All I am interested in is results. I'm not in the entertainment business for either me or my clients. My business is physical and mental renovation. So we focus on the Swing, Turkish Get Up, Clean, Military Press, Tactical Pull Ups, Pistol, Front Squat and the Snatch. I will throw in a few other things from time to time that are body weight or kettlebells but what you see is what you get.

I was talking to Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader, today and his focus on the RKC fundamentals is like a laser. And why wouldn't it be. If you want to move well and with power than kettlebells are likely your prescription. Speaking of a prescription, check out Dr. Cheng's Delaware Kettlebell Workshop. It will prove to be a great opportunity to learn from one of the best. To give you an idea, about half of the enrollment is RKC certified, yet a complete neophyte will be comfortable and learn enough that they will be more than competent.

It is quite simple...I didn't say easy, I said simple. I can help someone reverse engineer almost any goal or, if it isn't realistic or is too easy, then I can help them come up with something better. To complete a physical renovation goal you really need to be able to quantify where you are now and where you want to be.

Next time, I will share with you a lot of my thoughts on reverse engineering. Trust me it works.

Sandy Sommer, RKC

Viking Strength Day

Today was my second Viking Strength Day of the week. I did 9 sets of work. Each set consisted of Kettlebell Press for 12 reps with the 20 KG Kettlebell. Additionally, I did 4 one legged pistols and 4 pull ups. Total rep count was 108 presses, 36 pistols and 36 pull ups. Will finish out this week with the mVO2 :15/:15 tomorrow and a variety day on Saturday.

I felt great today and continue to make progress in the "Beast Challenge" Exercises. I am attacked Kenneth Jay's Viking Warrior Conditioning program and I am seeing real pogress.

Also, wanted to remind you that we have opened regisration the Delaware Kettlebell Workshop that Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader is conducting at St. Andrews School in Middletown Delaware.

Click here for details!

Sandy Sommer, RKC