It will be published either this Sunday or next in the health and fitness section Body and Soul.

The journalist is quite a kettlebell fan and asked me questions relative to why readers should want to use kettlebells and the types of results one would expect to find through kettlebell training. Good exposure for the growing KB community Down Under and well needed, because Australia is now the world’s “fattest” country!

Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariner’s just named my friend Don Wakamatsu their new manager. I am so happy for Don, as he is one of the brightest minds in baseball and he finally gets the chance he has long deserved.

I had the pleasure of working with Don a few weeks back while I was doing some work with the Texas Ranger’s S&C coach.

I will likely be doing some work with Don and the Mariners moving forward, as he is a big kettlebell fan.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

I am in the midst of a whirlwind seminar tour in Australia, sponsored by my good friends at http://www.kettlebells.com.au/

The tour started last Saturday, with a great course in Melbourne. We were joined by special guest Paul Tuck, the Tasmanian Girevik extraordinaire, and Australia’s fitness man. Paul shared some of his experience and wisdom with the course, and yes the message is Steve Cotter approved

Kettlebells are good for you!

Paul is a brilliant man as well as an inspiration for those who wish to be vital and energetic entering the Golden years. At 47 years of age, he can run circles around most men 1/2 his age.  Here are a few more of his sites for your viewing pleasure:

http://sites.google.com/site/ferrolithicpark/system/app/pages/sitemap/hierarchy

http://taskettlebellers.tripod.com/

After the Melbourne course, we went onward to Perth, where we had our biggest group, 35 hard-working Western Australians. Not bad for a Tuesday afternoon, especially considerting that WA is so remote. The next day it was on to Adelaide in South Australia and today we are on way to Canberra, the nation’s capital.

Friday and Saturday we have courses in beautiful Sydney, then Sunday in Queensland’s Brisbane. Monday I fly to New Zealand, where I will be giving CKT certification courses in Auckland. Then home for Thanksgiving!

I love Australia, it is a vast and beautiful country, and with 7 courses in 9 days, I am also getting a fair bit of exercise. Fun stuff!

Things have worked out for me that I do most of my teaching nationally and overseas and when I am home in San Diego I tend to just chill out and not do much except for in my home office. So, it is nice to be able to drive down the street to teach.

Last year Power Systems launched their Total Training Seminars for fitness professionals, and I have been asked to be a part of many of them. For the San Diego seminar the featured presenters were Todd Durkin and myself. www.totaltrainingseminars.com

Todd is probably most known for being the trainer to many of the world best professional football players, including Ladanian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, , Carson Palmer and Kellen Winslow Jr. I have heard about Todd from a number of colleagues, but until yesterday we had never met.

Now I know what all the talk is about. Todd is tops as a trainer, I can say that without hestitaion. First off he has the personality and command to warrant respect and get people to like him. It took about 5 seconds for us to hit it off and talk like we were old friends. I’ve presented and been around hundreds of teachers, coaches, and trainers over the past 20 years and Durkin has just got ‘it’.

Such a fun day. First Todd and I did an impromptu Q&A while waiting for the last minute registrants to sign in. We both put it out that no question was off limits, that we both offer a lot of practical experience, and that the group of 120 people should take advantage of the opportunity to pick our brains.

So one woman asked about the economy and how that has effected our businesses. What Todd said was in the spirit of my own thought and experiences, and he said it so well. Basically, telling the group that one must take control of his or her own thought and attitude. Don’t focus on the negativity, in times of great challenge there is great opporunity and to be passionate. He is absolutely right. I said to put aside the newspapers, turn off the tv, do not allow the negative mindset interfere with what you want to do, keep your eye on the prize.

So from the start, we clicked and the foundation was laid for a empowering day.

I started off with an intro to training and focused primarily on basic kettlebell lifts although the bigger picture is how we use our body and to utilize a comprehensive mind/body approach.

Next Todd led everyone through his Train the Joes like the Pros. This was awesome and just like how I like to teach, Todd spent only a few minutes on theory and then had everyone up on their feet and working! It was a great class, intense exercise and high energy and fun. We did massive variety with the bodyweight training, medicine balls, kettlebells, BOSU, reaction ball, partner training.

It was great fun; I took part and worked up a great sweat; there was some challenging work and Todd kept us moving for about 1.5 hours.

Like myself, Tood is a guy who teaches by leading. He demonstrated and did the work with us, kept the energy up and infused with meaning.

In addition to the great exercise materials, Tood integrated his Marine Corp training and had us marching to some fun cadence calls. It was clear that his presentation style is entirely his own and it is always great to watch an artist work.

At the end of the training, Durkin brought us all into the middle to seal the deal; we did some deep breathing and expression of gratitude and basically just connected as a group.

Everyone was happy and tired at the same time.

Todd and I will be doing some things together, I’m going to get up to his place and do some training when I get back from my next trip.

You can find some more information about this awesome fitness resource at:

www.fitnessquest10.com

www.ToddDurkin.com

We sat and talked for about an honor and I was please to have a freestyle talk about well-being and living life.

For your listening pleasure :

www.modavox.com/voiceamericacms/WebModules/HostModaview.aspx

If the show doesn’t load for you automatically, go to the archives and click on the November 5th entry.

In addition to working with Jose Vasquez from the Texas Rangers, I also spent time with Oakland A’s Bench Coach Don Wakamatsu and the Director of Minor League Player Development for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mike Brumley.

All 3 coaches are just great guys, really innovative and we had a blast talking, training and exchanging ideas. I learned quite a bit. Of particular interest to me was talking with Coach Wakamatsu about the mechanics of catching, as that is an area of expertise for him. Catchers need tremendous hip and thigh strength, mobility and flexibility, and that is an area I know quite a bit about, so it was fun to bounce some training ideas around.

My theories about the importance of work capacity for athletes were substantiated by all the coaches. While a lot of times strength coaches/trainers will focus on ‘power’ and strength development, an often overlooked aspect is the ability to sustain the power over the course of an entire season. Baseball has a very long season, at least 6 months, and more including spring training. So it is not just about being strong, it is about keeping strong through the long, laborious season.

So, after discussing the philosophy and logical approach, we agreed that the most valuable application for kettlebells in the context of professional baseball athletes is its value as a tool to develop sustained work capacity. They agreed that if an athlete needs to build bulk and limit strength, a barball is going to be more suitable in most cases. So, we foces on working for time, learning how to relax under diress and rythmical, anatomical breathing methods with the lifts.

We had a great time, the coaches appreciated the attention to detail and I have been able to make some friends who have a whole lot of experience at the highest levels of the game.

Not to mention, the Ballpark at Arlington is one of the most beautiful baseball stadiums in the country, simply gorgeous architecture.

Not a bad day, and now I get to go home!!!

Today I am in Dallas, where I was brought in to do a day of work with the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball Team.

Strength & Conditioning coach Jose’  Vasquez is one of the bright young minds in baseball today, and he is looking for ways to integrate kettlebells into the overall S&C program for his players. So, he contacted me to ask for some assistance developing some simple programs to combine KB with Barbells.

This is fun for me, I get to exchange ideas with a world-class coach, as well as teach some high-level athletes some subtleties of training technique. I am excited and this will be a fun day.

Will give some feedback after we spend the day with the training.

The inaugural CKT-FMD Level 2 course took place in Taunton, Massachusetts and the participants were introduced to a wide range of strength, conditioning, agility, deep breathing/qigong methods, flexibility, mobility, acrobatics and of course kettlebell lifting. We worked, we played, we experimented and we discussed.

Here are some very brief samplings of the course offerings. The basic idea of the FMD course is that with Kettlebell lifting as a level 1 foundation, you can further explore movement dynamics through complimentary arts. This is a golden age for fitness and IKFF is happy to be involved in the education process.

Special thanks to the incomparable gentle giant John Wild Buckley and the Orange Kettlebell Club, for providing the above footage. OKC has a great website, check it out: www.orangekettlebellclub.com

This is just a sample; you cannot read context from a video montage; all you can see is that we have a lot of fun and do a lot of movement; some of the footage contains play and in the freestyle components of the course everyone has an option of trying new things or not. So, for the viewer, follow along at your own risk

We are getting a lot of requests for Level 2 courses. The 2009 calendar is already almost fully booked. Contact Ken Blackburn if you wish to enroll in or host a Level 1 or Level 2 course in 2009: ken.blackburn@ikff.net

I am very excited to present this in-depth, step-by-step tutorial that breaks down and actually teaches you the skill of the Pistol.

Here is what a customer says about this DVD:

"Dear Steve,
I just wanted to pass along a "thank you" for producing your "MASTERING THE PISTOL" dvd.   I had just completed level one of the workouts for the past two weeks using the one minute rest protocol.  I plan to start level two on Monday. 

I have tried pistols in the past (using the Naked Warrior) as my guide, but never truly "go it".  After your explanations in the dvd and your progression towards mastering, I believe I will be able to achieve my goal finally without pain. 

You are a great inspiration and a wonderful teacher.  I appreciate all your hard work and thank you for it! "

Be peaceful,
Rick Vittum

Here is the link to purchase your copy: www.fullkontact.com/training-dvds-pistol.html

This was a particularly enjoying series of courses because I was able to bring Ken Blackburn along with me this time around, his first international course. I’m really greatful to have such a reliable right hand man, friend and professional to share the workload with. Now that we have been going strong with the Certified Kettlebell Trainer courses, I don’t know how I would be able to do this without Ken’s involvement.

The students love him, are in awe of his strenght and mobility and I know that if I am not at my 100% best, that I can rely upon Ken to step up and keep the level high, and visa versa.

Here is a recap of this latest segment of the IKFF world tour.

We started last weekend in London, where we conducted our course in the Docklands region near Canary Wharf. The venue was a great one, a circus training and acrobatic school. It was a diverse European audience, with participants not only from England, but also Vikings from Norway, Italians as well as a Kiwi and South African. The students worked super hard, as they always do, and we had a load of fun. Congratulations to all the newly-mined CKT coaches, who braved through some long sets, including a 22 minute set of cleans (one hand change).

After London course, Ken and I had an off day, so I treated him to a short trip to Amsterdam, which is unlike any city in the world. Things started off with adventure, as we booked on Easyjet, a discount airline. We thought 2 hours was plenty of time however the queue was exceptionally long, and by the time we eventually cleared security, we had less than 15 minutes to get to our gate. Well, I don’t run sprints very often, but I can still move quite quickly when spurred to. As soon as we got of the train to the terminal, Ken (inadvertantly) body checked a few passengers, which was the only daylight I needed! I cut back and zipped through the hole and I was off, sprining up the escalators, moving laterally through the herd of people. It was one heck of a heart pump; Ken was a little behind, and he was having trouble breathing when he came to the gate, because he was apparently laughing so hard watching me navigate through the crowd. Well we were awake at this point, and quite sweaty. Poor fellow passengers!

We got to AMS and checked into our hotel; had a nice buffet and then settled in. A few hours later we caught a train to center city. What a place! Just a tip—learn the difference between a cafe and a coffee house!! Of course we checked out the famous RLD and then we took a really cool canal cruise, which was quite relaxing. Then met up with a friend who lives there, who showed us around the city some more. It was a great time and a perfect way to break up the teaching.

The next morning we headed back to London, where that evening I gave a talk to a group of physios about strength & conditioning, kettlebells and potential rehab applications.

Interestingly, the day we got to AMS I received an email from an old friend and school brother from my first gong fu school. We hadn’t seen each other in probably 12-15 years. He is now in international banking/finance and living in London. He did a search on kettlebells and found me online and it so happened I was in London at that time. So we were able to meet up for dinner. Man it was so great to see him again. What a small world!

The next day I flew out to Helsinki, where I introduced a few KB master classes at the FISAF Global Summit; simultaneously, FISAF was hosting the European Championships for Aerobic Dance, so there were a lot of very fit woman around. Of course KB is a good match. There is a great potential for growth with FISAF as they have 35 member nations and growing. My friend Martti Nappari was very kind to arrange to provide KBs for the courses, which was great. After one of my classes, I was asked to do an interview with a Finnish magazine called Sport, which is a high-end woman’s health and fitness magazine. Before the interview, they wanted some photos and the photographer was quite aggressive and wasted no time getting straight to the point. The first thing she said is "can you take your clothes off", haha. Well I kept my pants on, but being the shy and modest person I am, I made sure to undo my top quite slowly!! The writer and photographer seemed to enjoy this quite and bit and who am I to be a party-pooper. They assured me that the readership would approve, so I made the sacrifice.

To make the Helsinki visit complete, I had the pleasure of meeting up for dinner with my kettlebell sport friends Marko Suomi and Kukka Laasko. That was awesome. I will say however, that I did not enjoy the taste of reindeer! Poor Rudolph, he must be an acquired taste!

From Helsinki, it was back to England for a course in the lovely spa town of Harrogate, about an hour North of Manchester. This was hosted by Stuart Agars of the National Centre for Combat Martial Arts, another ideal venue with plenty of open space and a nice matted floor to use for mobility work. A high energy group in no small part as a result of the presence of the incomparable Rannoch Donald and the Scottish contingent. Although this was the first time we had met in person, I felt like Rannoch and I are old friend and it was just great to have his energy and enthusiasm around all weekend.  Also attended by Julian Monk, the strength coach for the great Liverpool Football Club (soccer for Americans), the always cheerful Jason Dean and his lovely accomplice Paula Wells and my friend Alan Orr of Martial Art Illustrated fame. Look for a series of articles co-authored by Alan and I to be published in upcoming issues of MAI.

I told the Harrogate group that they simply must be tougher than the Londoners, so we all enjoyed a nice 24 minute set of cleans together. A few torn hands, but that was more so because of the rough handles than technique. A fun and productive weekend once again.

The success of this trip would not be possible were it not for my colleague and great friends Jonathan Lewis of Balance Physio, who worked extensively to assure that all venues and kettlebells and registrations were complete and Stuart Agars, who opened his training hall and home to Ken and I. I thank you so much for that gentleman.

That’s an overview. As always, I’ll remember a few highlight later, but I will say that this was once of the most fun and most productive trips to date for Team IKFF!!

Having lived through Typhoon Nuri here in Hong Kong, which reached a Level 9 out of a maximum rating of 10, I am happy to report that I am not washed out at sea like some of the unfortunate surfers who were reported missing yesterday.

Like every trip, I have had my share of adventures and learning experiences. This journey started out last Thursday and I arrived in Kuala Lumpur and was greeted by my great friend and colleague Vince Choo and his lovely wife Kate. As always, Vince was the consummate host, taking great care of me, and organizing a full training schedule for me during my 3 days in Malaysia. I was lucky to be able to see some of my friends and IKFF coaches from my previous trip there and I took part in Malaysia’s official sports—-eating and shopping.  Let me tell you, they really like their food and the food is delicscious.

KL is actually a great city. We don’t hear much about it in US, but it is extremely clean and modern, at least the area where Vince is based and where I stayed. In addition to seeing old friends and making new friends, I felt like a king, with the luxury of daily massages. The quality of massages is very high, and each massage was more enjoyable than the previous. On my last evening there I received a treatment of cupping, which is an aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it was wonderful.

For whatever reason, Malaysia is often cited by US Dept of State as a ‘terrorist’ state, but I think that is just politics because the Malaysian government is Muslim. All the people I interacted with are as friendly and peaceful as can be. The economy is pretty healthy and stable, certainly one of the most stable currencies in SE Asia. From my experiences, KL is one of the hidden gems of Asia, a great place to visit and highly recommended. In addition, one of Vince’s star pupils and IKFF certified trainer Chui Lee was featured extensively in the Malaysian Shape magazine. They did a very nice spread on kettlebell training and Chui was the featured model. There is a nice plug for myself and IKFF in there as well.

After KL, I went to Indonesia for 3 days. First to Bandung, which is a shopper’s paradise. Got lots of nice clothes there. Then went to Jakarta for a day. What a wild place that is. There is such a huge contrast between rich and poor. Driving through I saw some of the most abject poverty and what Americans would consider abysmal living conditions, literally shacks made of scrap materials. The traffic is intense—there are no rules of the road to speak of, pretty much every person for themselves, and massive congestion. It was like being in a high speed car chase when it wasn’t moving at a snail’s pace. Being in Indonesia made me feel like a super wealthy person, walking around with millions of bucks in my pockets. Although the bucks were Rupiahs, which go for over 9,200 to 1 USD. So a few hundred USD will get you a few million rupiahs. Nevertheless, the money goes a very long way and one can live like a king there. The food was ok and the Javanese massage was so-so, not nearly as good as what I experienced in Malaysia.

I got severely ill my last day in Indonesia and thought for a while that I was possibly going to die. I was in the bathroom at the airport and started sweating profusely, feeling faint and weak. I felt helpless. I think it must have been from brushing my teeth with tap water, something I should have known better, but had overlooked. Or perhaps it was ice cubes in my glass of tea. I was so bad that when I finally arrived in Hong Kong the airport officials took me aside as soon as I got to the terminal and took my temperature. I must have looked like a ghost, very pale and my temperature read very high. They did not let me through customs and I first had to be examined by the Dr. at the airport. Who tested me for Avian flu virus. Fortunately I passed the exam and was eventually released. The queue was very long and 1.5 hours later I got through customs. After searching for my checked bag for another 45 min it turned out that my bag never left Singapore, which is where my connection went through. So I was without luggage for a few days.

This was one of the most challenging days I’ve ever had and the next day I struggled to teach a full 8 hour course, but I did it. Today was much better during another 8 hour course and I rewarded myself with a Thai massage that was most excellent. I have 2 more days of teaching then shopping for family and friends on Temple Street Alley, then I get to go home on Tuesday.

This has been a wild experience, full of ups and downs, yin and yang, but I always love coming to Asia. There is such richness here, great food, wonderful people and unforgettable memories!

My travel and teaching schedule has been insane. I love every minute of it. In just the last month alone, I’ve had courses in Louisville, Las Angeles, Michigan and just this weekend New York City! So there has been no rest for the weary!

I am very happy and proud to now have some very high caliber teachers in NYC representing the IKFF methods and teaching philosophies. Every group is impressive, and this group was no exception.

Ken and I had the privilege to work with a great group of folks, and work we did. In the midst of many, may reps we also had a lot of fun, good food and shared laughter. Fortunately, I have been doing pretty well with my training, having realized that with my travel schedule, the only way I can guarantee to get in enough volume to improve or at least maintain my own fitness, is to train intensely with the student in the courses. I and we had plenty of reps this weekend, doing numerous sets, including an 18:00 set of Cleans, 12:00 set of Jerks, 6:00 set of OH Squats and so on. These are all done as one set, no putting the bell down for the entire time. Sounds imposing and it sure isn’t easy, but when you have a good education and logical progression and the willingness to exert effort, the seemingly impossible becomes quite possible. I am really proud that all of the students were able to tough it out through the grueling sets. They are stronger, more fit and with feeling of great accomplishment as a result, as am I.

Every person in attendance is special, and it was a real treat to meet some incredible new friends/students such as Howie Brewer, who has a cool blog here:
howztraining.blogspot.com/2008/08/ikff-certified.html

It was great to see some old faces as well, such as Dan and all the other exceptional students.

I want to give special thanks not only to the extremely hard-working newly certified IKFF teachers, but also to your gracious hosts, Terri Parker and Dean Dufford of Red Barn Fitness in CT and DD Fitness in NYC. Without their perfect venue and help, this first NYC course would not have happened. We are grateful.

Thanks also to my dear friends Jonathan Lewis, who came all the way from London to take part and help out, and Big John Wild Buckley, who was extremely helpful in assisting the students while Ken and I administered the pleasure. So many of the students commented on how helpful and kind he was, as well as preternaturally strong.

Every single person in attendance has our respect and support, and Ken and I know that the IKFF exists to serve them, and not the other way around. There is really no better ‘job’ in the world then to be able to interact with progressive, entrepreneurial-minded individuals who wish to help the world by helping themselves via strength and vital living.

Now the ’storm’ begins, with the next global portion of the IKFF schedule. On Wednesday I leave for Asia—Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong, where I will be teaching some private training, workshops and certification courses.

I am making some long overdue upgrades to the Full KOntact and IKFF websites to add more content and various video clips aimed to get as much valuable training information available as possible.

Thanks for bearing with me through this busy time. I will give some reports from my various stops in Asia and do my best to get some photos up as well.

Just another illustration of the allure of kettlebells, they are just plain fun to work with and their uses are only limited by imagination:

What good is all the exercise if it doesn’t contribute to a more enjoyable life?

Context is everything, but we have a segment in the Level one instructor courses for feats of strength and ways of developing a ‘marketing’ plan based on developing a repetoire of skill sets. Not an entire focus, just an aspect which is fun and can be inspiring and motivational.

So, after a period of experimentation with a sundry of ’stupid human trips’ I gave an example of another.

Now, it is fun, and challenging if you don’t know how to do it

It also has a practical application. At one time, mobility in a very low base was a military application. When wars were fought on horseback, some Chinese arts developed as a way to defend against spears and swords swung down from horseback. The horses were covered in armor except for the legs. So a sword and shield method developed to defend the slices and spears and to cut the legs off of the horses. This low stance crouching stability and speed and range of motion all served a very specific purposes.

In this day and age its utility is relative to dynamic balance and making it less likely to fall if your feet are taken out from under you suddenly.

This exercise may not be for everyone, and I don’t consider it even an exercise, it is simply a fun physical activity challenge. Try it if you are up to it and let me know how it goes for you.

One of his clients is a gymnast and needs to be able to lift girls and be able to roll on the ground while isolating the rotator cuff. They developed this drill below as a way to simulate those needs:

Jared has some amazing physical talents to go with his exellent kettlebell skills. You can schedule a training session with him in Northern and Central Florida by contacting him at:  jared@xisuigong.com

Andrew Durniat, who you have seen me write about several times has a new blog in which he will be sharing his training programs and philosophy. Andrew is quite simply and without exaggeration one of the top well-rounded strength athletes in the world, and is as intelligent as he is strong:

optraining.blogspot.com/

Marty Farrell is the first male US born Master of Sports in Kettlebell Lifting and probably the most impressive lifter I have seen considering how accomplished he is at such a light bodyweight. He is certainly the coefficient leader on the American kettlebell lifting scene today (strongest lifter pound-for-pound). His practical experience alone makes his opinions and insight worth looking at and listening to:

www.kettlebelllifter.blogspot.com

 And of course there is the blog of the incomparable Cate Imes, the country’s best American born KB lifter, male or female and thus far the only American to be competitive at the world level. Cate is also very generous with sharing her experience and has the rare gift of being able to communicate her athletic ability in an easy-to-understand manner:

kettlebellmasochist.blogspot.com/

Few people have the time to read through all the blogs on the web from self-proclaimed fatloss and KB experts, so I prefer to get to the point by reading the thoughts of the real experts such as these 3 above.

I am enjoying my last evening in beautiful Vienna, or Wien as it is written in Austria. Vienna is one of the riches cities in Europe, in terms of history and culture. It so happens that this trip coincides with the 2008 Euro Cup, the European Futbol Championships. It has been fun catching games and watching the masses of tourists going around the city cheering on their national teams. There are 30,000 Poles alone and they are a joyful group, although maybe not as much since Austria came back to tie the game in the last minutes.  There are thousands of fans from Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, Italy, Turkey and all throughout Europe. It’s a fun place to be.

This trip has been especially rewarding since my wife and 3 kids are along for this one. Since my work involves so much out of town travel, I make a point to bring my family on at least 1-2 ‘big’ trips per year. This one started out with 4 days in Hamburg, Germany.

I had never been to Hamburg previously and we all agreed that we could definitely see ourselves living there for part of the year. Hamburg is an incredibly clean and picturesque city, very wealthy with massive parks and a great deal of greenery all around. Certainly a place to be for those who have a lot of money, as there are more millionaires per capita than any other German city.

After lounging in the hotel for the first day and a half, we went to the IGSF Kettlebell World Championships for Men’s Long Cycle and Women’s snatch. My family got to meet some of my kettlebell friends, and that was great. They were real troopers to sit through the 8+ hours of competition. While my travel schedule has been too hectic to maintain a training plan suitable for a world level competition, it was still great being there and being able to cheer on my friends. It was also noteworthy to witness my friend and IKFF advisor Andrew Durniat break the world record for Double Overhand Axle Deadlift. Andrew’s new WR is 462lbs, and was verified by the official Ironmind represenative in Germany, Dr. Hermann Korte.

This record was set AFTER he did a 10 minutes Long Cycle set. Andrew has done considerably more in training when fresh! He is quite simply one of the strongest and most well rounded strength athletes in the world and quite likely THE strongest pound-for-pound, especially in the realm of grip strength. He is doing things by accident that have never been done before, and making it all look easy.

I had a chance today to meet up with one customer who has purchased DVDs from me and another young man who will be attending this weekend’s CKT course in Haltern, Germany. Then I conducted a private training for a woman who will be setting up some of my certification courses here in Vienna in the future.

The German and Austrian people are incredibly nice and hospitable, we really like it here and have been made to feel right at home.

Tomorrow we head back to Germany and Saturday and Sunday mark the first-ever Certified Kettlebell Trainer course in Germany. It will be a fun and challenging weekend.

There is good chance I will be back in Germany in early 2009 for a course in Berlin, and I am looking forward to experiencing the Eastern part of Germany.

They didn’t have the best training facilities and being in New York City there were plenty of stairs, so Virgil figured out how to maximize the tools he had at his disposal to increase strength & conditioning for his athletes.

On June 21 in Brooklyn, Virgil will be conducting a 6 hour clinic where he shares his experience. You can find out about the course and register online here:

www.stairexercisesforathletes.com/clinic.html

JP Franceur runs the very successful JP Fitness in downtown LR and one of the most popular fitness forums on the web: www.jpfitness.com

For 6 years running, JP has hosted his Summit and has forum members come into LR from all over US and other parts of the world for a weekend of training, lectures, networking and plenty of fun. This year, one member flew in all the way from Bulgaria.

I was asked to be this year’s Featured Presenter, which is an honor as last year some of the most well known presenters in the fitness industry were on hand, such as Alwyn Cosgrove, Chad Waterbury, Dos Remedios and a handful of others.

This year JP wanted to make it a bit smaller and more intimate, so there were only 3 presenters.

The opening presenter was Lou Schuler, who has co-authored several best-selling fitness books, including New Rules of Lifting and the New Rules of Lifting for Women. Lou is quite knowledgable about history and his talk was on Fitness in a historical context, talking about the various stages throughout American history of social awareness of and attention to fitness, especially as relates to the Presidency. Teddy Roosevelt is probably the most robust US President and was an active sporstmen and outdoorsman, which I was aware of. However I had not known about some of the other Presidents that were into fitness, such as President Carter, who was an active runner.

Lou has a great presentation style, very funny and informative. You can check out his work at www.malepatternfitness.com

The next presenter was Alan Aragon, a sports nutritionist from Los Angelese. Alan is a regular contributor to Men’s Health magazine, although I had not met him before nor was I familiar with his work. I really like Alan’s approach to nutrition. He is big on science and research and does his homework, however, he also has a balanced view on things, not a "Food Nazi". He advocates moderation and balance instead of a one-style-fits-all philosophy, and he makes a typically boring topic light and fun. I think Alan will become more in demand as a nutritional counselor because of his sane outlook on food and eating. As it turns out, he can also sing quite well, as we found out last night at the restaurant which had karoake. He and a young man attending the summit did a stirring rendition or "Total Eclispse of the Heart". Man, was that funny—very bromatic, lol! Check out Alan at www.alanaragon.com

After Alan’s presentation I did a 5 hour lecture and training centered around my philosophy to fitness, health and wellness, including bodyweight training, kettlebells and qigong.

I can’t recommend JP Fitness and JP Fitness Summit enough, just a great group of people, a lot of fun and the best host one could ever hopeful. There is no better feeling than to be able to make one’s advocation their vocation, and I am very blessed to have so much fun while working.

Nice to see also that the professional style kettlebells are making their way around the globe.

That is what is most interesting to me about yoga practice. It allows me to be a complete beginner in my mind, not having any need to have to know anything or to have to perform for anybody. I am able to really learn a lot right now, and it is really helping me become a better teacher and to know my own alignment better. This translates very well into kettlebell lifting for me.

There are many examples yet in recent classes I have become aware and am focusing on the idea of having perfect technique. To use the term perfect often gets people riled up, and it seems more so than the average amount within the kettlebell world, where there can be such passionate online discussions about the relative uses and merits of kettlebells that they have come to be known in cult legend circles as the dreaded achyballs, which are able to transform otherwise rational people into rapid obsession. I was on the ground floor of this modern kettlebell movement

The point of this blog–is that there is such a thing as "perfect technique". I asked that question over a year ago and so have others with blogs and forums and it seemed to get a lot of folks angry or incredulous.  Some will say that there is no such thing as a perfect technique, it depends upon one’s goals and furthermore it is elitist to even consider such a question. The idea being that it doesn’t really matter so much how you use it, rather just that you use it. After all, it is JUST a ball with a handle!

Yet in a yoga class-I will use Bikram as an example that I am familiar with—there very much is such a thing as doing the postures perfectly. It has to be exactly so, from the very beginning. I am seeing that now and processing this within my own practice. To be fully in the moment, to not wane, or digress, or try to change anything or make my own rules. Simply listen to every single instruction, step-by-step, staying with the cadence and trusting in the correctness of the methods, trusting that it has been proven.

In my own practice, I am beginning to feel exactly when I am doing something correct and when I am doing it incorrect, meaning there is a postural rule that I am not following, which throws the entire chain off, no matter how much effort is applied. When it is correct, it does not hurt, it isn’t "difficult" and you go beyond preconceived limits. In short you are practicing something perfectly and with perfect practice is wisdom and ability. It isn’t rocket science, but it is most certainly science of one form or another. Some may call it ‘mind-body-spirit’. I don’t need to call it anything in particular, it is just is and it does what it is supposed to do.

Bringing this discovery to kettlebells, I can understand more how kettlebell techniques also can be perfected, within one’s own body. Probably the clearest example of this in action is the great champion Valery Fedorenko, who even though a number of years removed from his competitive prime, can do the techniques just so. He can gauge it according to how he feels at the minute, either faster or slower, longer or shorter, heavier or lighter. He knows ahead of time what he can do and so does it every time.

This is one very strong parallel between yoga and a high level kettlebell lifter, that is the seeming dichotomy of being completely relaxed, while completely under duress. Although it only is duress when it is done less than perfectly and when it is done perfectly (here defined as perfect alignment) it is no more stressful than brushing one’s teeth. When you can go into it and ‘find it’ then you can experience the full benefits.

I’ve always been able to learn very well by complementary differences. In this case these complimentary differences are kettlebells and yoga. You will not become truly skillful at one by doing the other–they are different. However by doing one you will improve in the other. I think there are especially benefits for adults who are interested in improving their lifting abilities with kettlebells or other resistance. A gifted athlete who begins training at a young age, like Fedorenko with kettlebells, will always be able to find the positions from day one. However, those who live long enough to develop bad habits in movement and posture before they learn to lift are inevitably spending most of their time struggling within their own bodies to find the correct alignment. This prevents the ability to practice with perfect technique. When you can get into position, every session is productive because you can start with comfort instead of tension.

As a physical education teacher, it is my duty to go deeper into the subject matter I teach and to expand it when necessary and then share salient points that I find help to improve upon the quality of practice.

Definitely brought myself to the edge today with my pacing.

I’ve been trying to get in at least 1 day per week with a heavy KB. This is a way I can keep a mental edge througout all the travel. I don’t like to be tired or feel weak at seminars, so I have found that it is best when I can have some semi-regular heavy work. Even if I am tired, if I have been going well with a heavier KB, I can always cruise with a moderate sized bell. In some ways I am a performer so I have developed some tricks to the trade and that is one of them for me—-keep a relationship with the heavy weights so that I can perform well when I need to.

I did some heavy work first:

1 arm Jerk: 56kg x 19 L in 2;00, rest 3:00 x 19 R in 2:00

BB Jump Squats: 285lb x 40 x 3

Qigong: 32:00

Bikram yoga: 90:00

I was reminded of some things today.

First of all, when I am jerking the 56kg, I realized that I had developed some bad habits and move away from things that I knew but was not applying well for the past few years, in some ways. I had drifted into focusing on muscles and strength.

Today I remember to focus on my intent. My intention was to jerk every rep, one by one, I had a number in mind (18) and decided to do 1 more rep. If I had been focusing on strength or muscles, I would probaby have stopped short of that. In this way the yoga has been of help because of the regimented and pinpoint nature of the pace of the classes. The concentrtion is where the power comes from, the muscles are carriers, not commnders.

In addition to the emphasis on intense focus, yoga helps to get my body nto a good rack with all the extra shoulder and hip and low back work. The combination of relaxing while being very intensely focused are complimentary attributes between kettlebell lifting and yoga.

Also, I realized something in the jump squats. I had been treating that as knee and ankle  directed primarily. Today I used a more narrow stance and I really tapped into exploding with the glutes, and this gave me more spring. Again going back to listening more to my body and trusting what it knows.

I wanted to see also how well the qigong would enable me to recover from a short, yet intense training and then right into yoga.

In the yoga I went very intense on the first 2 postures, and was able to find the correct position on the second posture, which involves opening up the lateral portions of the body. That is a great feeling and it is said that lateral mobility is the first aspect to diminish as we age, so serves as a good gauge for overall flexibility. I was successful in maintaining relaxation in some of the previously more challenging postures. Like with kettlebell lifting, things get easier when you do the techniques perfectly. It seems very hard when there is something even a little bit out of place. That shows that both systems offer in-depth study beyond the obvious physical conditioniong benefits.

As in life, there is give and take in the yoga as well. Because I went so hard on the early postures and more so because my legs didn’t realize how shot they were from the jerks and jump squats until we began the one leg series. My feet in particular were extremely fatigued and it was a struggle to stay in the postures in the one leg. I am too stubborn to ever fall out of any posture or stop short of time, but this class was the most challenging I have ever had, it seemed extremely hot and I spent over half the class working to slow my heart rate. Was nice to finish it none the less and the final hamstring stretches/compressions were very deep so the start and finish were strong.

At least for now, that schedule of heavy lifting and then Bikram shortly thereafter is not one I will do regularly. It will be much better to keep them separated.

A few hours after the class I did some LC work, although my back was pretty much gone and didn’t want to go for any long durations:

2×24kg @ 1:00- 8 reps; 2:00-18 reps; 3:00-33 reps

1 arm LC: 40kg @ 2:00 - 20 reps

That question is one that leads us to draw our focus away from what we are doing and towards something "out there".

I took a Bikram Yoga class tonight and for the first time, I did not peek at the clock at all. It is a 90 minute class and it gets hot in there, at the studio I go to they keep it in the 105-107 F range.

When I have taken some of these classes in the past, I would find myself checking the clock a few times throughout, to get a sense of how much time was left. But tonight, I just stayed in my postures and had no concern for how much time had elapsed, or how much remained.

This is what it means to be in the moment, to be fully present, and the quality of practice is much better when in the moment. This is the case for yoga, kettlebells, reading, conversing, working, whatever is being experienced. This is mindfulness, and tonight’s class was a good reminder of that for me.

If you are not familiar with Jon, here is a brief list of some of his accomplishments and talents:

–Former Strength & Conditioning Coach to the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team

-Served as trainer to such luminaries at Anthony Robbins, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson and others

-Creator of the amazing Monkey Bar Gymnasium in Madison, WI: www.monkeybargym.com

-Increased his vertical jump from 28" to 40" inches in 3 month time with his revolutionary jump training program

In short, Jon is without a doubt one of the most talented and practical-minded physical education trainers in the country.

In his CNT course, you will learn methods for bringing the body out of pain and into a more healthful and natural state of movement.

If you have the opportunity and are ready to learn some truly valuable training and exercise knowledge, check out this course.

For more information visit: www.monkeybargym.com/services/training-certification/

I recently have begun investigating nutritional approaches because I have so much work before me that I know I have to be at my best in order to excel at the important tasks before me. Furthermore, as an advocate of holistic mind-body fitness and wellness, I believe that I have a responsibility to my students and clients to provide good information about topics that are relevant to their needs and interests, and of course healthy nutrition is a key component to a healthy existence.

Before I will recommmend something, I will always try it myself, so that I can comment from a position of practical experience.

Last month I was speaking to a friend of mine who is a Doctor of Chiropractic and also a very good kettlebell sport competitor. He is in his 50s, yet has the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager. So, his views on nutrition are pretty convincing. Since having this talk, I decided to give his approach a try to see how it fits with me and how it makes me feel and perform.

I have just completed my 15th day of a 21 day cleansing/detoxification program. It is a pretty comprehensive and strict program and it hasn’t been easy, although I am adapting to it.

The first step was to get a blood test, which was then analyzed to gauge my nutrient profile and see where I may be deficient. The Dr. found that overall I am very healthy, yet there were some imbalances–the adrenals a bit overworked, blood sugar a bit higher than ideal, not assimilating enough protein and low in vitamin D and zinc. The blood test gives hard data and eliminates the guesswork. We don’t have to rely upon intuition or feeling, instead we rely upon what the blood chemistry tells us clearly and adapt the nutrition to address those needs.

So, I have drastically modified the way I eat. Some of this has been very challenging, although it gets a bit easier each day. Eating is habitual like everything else we do.

This eating plan calls for the elimination of all caffeinated products (no coffee or teas) and all animal products (no meats, no dairy). I can do without coffee or tea but I have always eaten a lot of meat, especially red meat, so that aspect has been the most challenging for me. Also, it is based on eating mostly raw foods, very little fruit and foods that are low on the glycemic index, meaning low sugar foods.

Basically I have been eating lots of salads, olive oil, raw almonds and cashews, some berries and apples and grapefruits, occasional legumes and some beans and as many raw veggies as I can find. Avocados have pretty much been the richest food I have been eating during this time. In additon, I take 3 servings per day or a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral formula that cleanses the GI tract via mobiization and also several high-quality enzymes, fish oils, liquid vitamin D, some cultures (healthy bacteria) and some other cleansing herbs.

For the first 8 days or so I didn’t feel great, I think because my body was purging toxins and also because it was such a drastic change. But now over 2/3 of the way through the first stage, I am feeling better each day. Here are some of the changes I have noticed.

-My bodyweight is down and I am very lean–165lbs. I  usually have to dehydrate to get this light and it has been years since I walked around this light. My bodyfat is probably 6% or less, based on visual inspection.

-In spite of the decreased BW, my strength is good and my endurance is even better.

As a test, last night I ran a 3.5 miles route in my neighborhood and it took my 25 min and 50 sec. That is a pretty good clip as normally if I were to run that it would take me about 27-28 min on a good day and an easy pace would be 30 min.

Today, a few hours after a 90 minute Bikram yoga class, I did a fairly heavy training session and felt great with quick recovery:

1 arm Jerks: 56kg (125lb) kettlebell x 17 reps each arm

BB Jump Squat: 275lb x 40 reps x 3 sets

1 arm Swings: 64kg x 36 each arm; 56kg x 42 each arm; 45 kg x 46 each arm

That was followed by the same 3.5 mile run, which took me 29 minutes

The best part is that I feel great and am not exhausted by this.

Thus far, I give this eating plan high marks. I am going to finish the 21 day GI detox, and then begin the liver detox component. I will gradually integrate some animal foods again, but in moderation and I will likely not eat much in the way of starch or high-sugar foods, as I really like the way I am feeling and don’t want to lose the edge I am developing.

Once I’ve gone through the entire program I will assess it and see if it is something that I will recommend to others. It may be a little too extreme for some and I am going to investigate some other nutritional programs to see how they compare.

For sure there is a strong correlation between nutrition and our energy and ability to perform.

For those of you that are in the NYC, CT and W. Mass areas, I will be conducting a Certified Kettlebell Trainer course in Hartford, CT on October 11-12. You can learn more about this and other courses here: www.ikff.com

It was a great group of men and women and they were all really into it. Some had never done kettlebells before and a number of them have recently gotten into Crossfit style workouts and needed the fine-tuning on their techniques.

We had a lot of fun and the officers see the value in kettlebells as an inexpensive alternative for their fitness needs.  A few of the male officers were using the 8kg for the whole day. I normally would tell these guys that 8kg is the weight my 9 year old daughter uses, but I figured I didn’t want to embarrass them in front of their colleagues just in case I ever get pulled over by one of them one day

It was also great spending some time with my good friend Tim Larkin who was so generous to host me. If you are not familiar with Tim’s work, he is one of the best in the business of teaching practical self-defense: www.targetfocustraining.com

Special thanks to Mike and Matt Springer for generously arranging for us to use a bunch of their kettlebells and also to my friend Moses Dungca for assisting me and also for providing some professional kettlebells so that the officers could learn the technical precision of the lifts with the correct training equipment. In additon to being an excellent kettlebell coach, Moses is a fantastic gymnastics  coach and because of his work with us today, he now has a good chance of getting a grant to start a gymnastics training program for girls in the LV area. So I am glad to have been able to return his generosity by putting him in touch with some folks that are in a position to help him with his goals. No matter how many courses I teach, the best part is always the people and the ability to benefit myself and others through the work we do. That is a most gratifying feeling!

To top off a great day of training the Deputy Chief arranged for an airport police to meet me at the airport and escort me through security so that I didn’t have to wait in line. As the saying goes, sometimes it is all about who you know!

This came as a complete shock to me as I had spent the weekend with John in Chicago, where he attended the first-ever American Certified Kettlebell Trainer certification course: www.ikff.com

John was going strong the entire weekend and if you have ever met the man, you would think that he is almost impervious to damage, as he is a giant man and as solid as they come.

However, he was driving along and got in a nasty accident upon his return home to California and his truck flipped end over end three times!

That sounds pretty frightening, however Big John was able to leave the hospital with only a badly cut up rear side of his body, but no internal damage.

How is this possible? Well, John swears that his ability to survive the accident is directly attributable to his consistent kettlebell training which has made him super tough and resilient.

John told me that at the moment his truck began to flip, he was able to remain very cool and calm as if he was doing a timed set under the weight of the kettlebells.

This is a great example of the real-world practical benefits that the relaxed style of kettlebell training can do for a person. It teaches that calm-under-fire, that ability to move into the eye of the storm, that skilled martial artists and top athletes are able to find. What is referred to in sports as “the zone”.

I and all of John’s extended kettlebell family are relieved to know that he is doing well and recovering and he serves as a great inspiration to us all in how to maintain one’s cool when the going gets tough.

If you know John, I am sure he would be very happy to hear a kind word from you and receive some positive energy toward his speedy recovery. Please take a minute to send him a short note of encouragement and godspeed toward a complete recovery.

If you wish to send John a note please do so: johnwild@gmail.com

I have been asked to help the LVMPD design a fitness program using kettlebell training.

There has to be an affordable and time-efficient way to get and keep police fit and job-ready at all times. Some of the conventional thinking about how LEO get in shape centers around running, and the reality is that for many, running is very hard on the body and may beat them up more than get them fit. From what I have researched, the police force in Vegas is seriously undermanned and there is a strong need for more efficient means for achieving functional fitness.

Those familiar with kettlebell training know that you can accomplish a lot of work in a little bit of time and in a small space with minimal expenses. So, it is a great step in that direction, to be considered as a viable means for conditioning police in one of America’s most vibrant and economically important cities.

I’m thrilled about this invitation because it is important business and to be entrusted with such responsibility is a humbling professional honor. This is an opportunity to show a different model and to prove it to be a successful model. How many other state, federal and municipal agencies can benefit from a streamlined and cost-efficient fitness program? I would suggest that most can and should benefit.  For years I’ve seen great potential for kettlebell training as a common person’s tool, and it is rewarding and exhilarating to see this potential being played out in daily affairs both big and small

Dominik did some research about the Austrian kettlebell-history, asked his grandfather who said that they did kettlebell-training mostly in groups during their training in the gymnastic-club. Kettlebells were called roundweights ("rundgewichte“ in German) and they did this weekly.  Dominik’s grandfather trained alone himself, mostly to condition himself for his grueling work as a farmer. Apparently there were many farmers back in those days that did training in addition to working. In America, the famous strongman Bob Peoples was one example of a strength-training farmer.

The exercises consisted primarily of swinging, snatching and jerking the weights and they also did some juggling.

The photos below took place in East Germany, where there were many kettlebell-juggling-clubs, that eventually disappeared in the 1950’s.

I’m excited to be going back to Germany again to teach and to Austria for the first time. The first-ever IKFF Certified Kettlebell Trainer course will be taking place in Haltern, Germany on June 14-15th.

You can find more information and register for this course here: www.ikff.com/event-schedule

Here are the details:

First Kettlebell Seminar in Zuerich, Switzerland
Saturday, April 19th 2008
11.00 am until 5.00 pm

Presented by A-head and The Fightworld Gym

It is our outmost pleasure to officially conduct the first ever  Kettlebell Seminar on Swiss soil!! This fascinating piece of equipment has taken the United States by storm, as well as England, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. The obvious benefits cannot longer be denied.
We would like to introduce this training device and the methodolgy behind it to the  fitness enthusiastic and everybody who is interested! This introductionary seminar will be only the first step into this direction.

Your instructor :

Oscar Otuyelu, M Sc, Federal Polytechnical School of Switzerland (ETHZ)
Oscar Otuyelu is an experienced Kettlebell instructor, having had the opportunity to study under renowned instructors like Steve Cotter and Valery Federenko. He received the instructor diploma from Valery Federenko’s American Kettlebell Club and from the RKC from Pavel Tsatsouline.

What will you learn at this Introductionary Seminar?

∑ History of the Kettlebell
∑ Why you should include Kettlebells in your training regime
∑ "I have no time for training“ is a often heard complaint, and we have the answer : Kettlebell training
∑ Proper execution of the Swing, the Clean, the Jerk and the Snatch
∑ Joint Mobility exercices,
∑ Methodology of Training
∑ Saftey and Kettlebell Training
∑ How to apply this knowledge to Fat loss, superior strength endurance and fantastic well being!!
∑ And much more!!

For more information please contact :
Oscar Otuyelu
Email : mail@a-head.ch
Phone : 0041- 79 669 87 65

Any European kettlebell and fitness enthusiasts will be well rewarded by attending this course.

Since I am so excited for my friend and since it is  great and fun game and since I am very happy that you read this blog and visit my website, I am going to pay forward the generosity of my friend.

So, I am going to give away 3 copies of the the Nintendo WII version of Ninja Reflex. If you would like one of these copy, you will have to send me an email with your name and address and contact info, and stating briefly why you want the game. Also, you will be asked to provide a written review of the game. I am genuinely curious about how this game with be enjoyed. Obviously, these will go quickly. I will look at the submissions and make a decision in a few days and select the emails that are the most creative.

If you are interested in winning a copy of this Wii game, send me an email at:  steve@fullkontact.com

Here is a sneak peak of the new game and you will also get to see a nice interview with my friend, the great strength coach Steve Maxwell, who through the magic of networking and community, is now overseeing David’s fitness program:

www.ninjareflex.com

Yesterday, I took a few hours and walked around at the huge IHRSA Conference and Trade Show. I got to make some good contacts and interact with some former colleagues from the Sporting Club in La Jolla. I also got to sit down and chat with my friend Valerie Waters, who is a well-respected trainer to the stars in LA, with such celebrity clients as Jessica Biehl, who is known for her extremely fit posterior chain. Valerie does a great job and is now beginning to market her new product called the Val-slide. It is nice to see friends excited about new ideas and products, and talking with Valerie at the trade show reminded me of the early years when I was touring the fitness trade shows with my friend David Weck when he first invented and was exhibiting BOSU. Look at it now, BOSU is in almost every gym. I hope Valerie finds similar success with her endeavor.

I haven’t had much time to wind down from the long trip in Asia before coming to Vegas, however some of my experiences will stay with me forever.

I love Hong Kong which is one of the world’s great cities and will be going back there to teach with regularity. Kuala Lumpur is also a very nice place with warm and friendly people. I did not know what to expect of my brief visit to China, but the people there touched me with their generosity, hospitality and curiosity. I was in a small town about 3 hours outside of Qingdao, and apparently I was the first foreigner my guests had ever seen or been in contact with. This is likely the case with most of the townspeople as everywhere I went people would stop and stare and whisper and sometimes point, but not in a mean way, they were simply curious. I may as well have been green or purple.

What struck me was how willing my hosts were to share with me. They didn’t appear to have much wealth, however they gave freely the best of what they had, (over)feeding me and even refusing to let me pay for anything when I went shopping for my family. I learned to eat and drink slowly because as soon as I finished a plate or a drink of warm Qingdao beer, someone was right there to fill up my plate and glass.

It was challenging at times, because I am pretty well trained in the Chinese etiquette customs because of my extensive exposure to traditional Chinese martial arts. I understand the importance of respect, humility and gratitude. One way this is observed is through the eating habits. Some of the food they fed me were considered delicacies by them, yet were quite odd and even repulsive to me. But, of course to show respect to my hosts and to protect their ‘face’ I would eat whatever was given to me with a smile and thank them afterward. This was difficult when it came to the chicken feet and donkey that they served, but I bit down and told myself it was for my education, then swished beer to get the strange tastes out of my mouth!

The best thing about the trip is that I now have friends to visit in China and I want to go back to visit them and bring my family. They were very happy to hear that I have 3 children, as China has a policy of limiting families to only 1 child, otherwise a very hefty fine must be paid. So, it will be fun to bring my son to China to play with the young son of my friends.

No matter where I go or what I do, it is always the people that I remember and cherish the most.

Special thanks go to Vince Choo, CKT  of www.kdtathletics.com , who had been trying to get me to Kuala Lumpur for quite a while and he was able to coordinate an excellent and precisely executed initial course. When I set out to teach my methods around the world, I knew that I coud not do any of it alone. It is always through coordination and cooperation in which individuals and groups alike can achieve their highest success. I am especially proud of Vince, who I am honored to call my friend, student and colleague.

Here is Malaysia’s first ever group of Certified Kettlebell Trainers!

Front Row, L-R:  Clifford Chee, Chui Lee, me, Thong Weng Hong, Kate Tan

Back Row: L-R: Jonathan Wong, Paul Chin,  Albert Lim, David U ka Hong , Ty Dewees (from Bangkok), Vince Choo

I have full confidence that each and every trainer in this photo is well qualified to teach safe and effectively kettlebell exercise.

I am very proud of each and every one of these students! They were all extremely well-prepared and Vince deserves a lot of credit for teaching them so well to prepare them for the course.

I was completely and pleasantly surprised at how friendly and nice KL is. Parts of the city are very modern with great options for cuisine and shopping. Also the best Thai massage I have ever found. Left me feeling like a billion bucks after the first hard day of training.  I think Malaysia will be a regular place to visit and teach for me.

Here is a pic of me having some fun in front of the Petronas Towers, until recently the tallest buildings in the world:

 To top off a great trip to Hong Kong, China and Malaysia, I was able to visit my Kung Fu and Qigong Master, who lives part of the year in Malaysia. I was able to join him for tea and meet one of his Malaysian students, as well as see his home and be touched by his wisdom once again. Truly the perfect ending to an outstanding Asian trip.

I am so happy to be home again and enjoying my time with my family. The kids really like the clothes and toys I bought in China!

On Monday, which was my last day teaching there, I had the pleasure of leading two courses in Muay Thai Heavyweight World Champion Alain "The Panther"  Ngalani’s Impakt gym. You can find information and footage about Alain on youtube and elsewhere on the net.

The afternoon class was Animal Based Conditioning, in which I taught the participants various traditional martial arts calisthenics that are particularly well suited for fighters in developing integrated, full-body strength.

For the final 30 minutes of the grueling 3 hour class, I taught the students qigong for recovery and to impress upon them the importance of caring for their energy and health and not just the physical conditioning components.

When I completed that section, it occured to me how ironic it was for me, a ’round-eye’ to be teaching an ancient Chinese system of health to students in Hong Kong! It goes to show how much the world has changed and how in many respects East and West have exchanged and even reversed roles.

It is always fulfilling to teach anyone and everyone, but to teach martial arts and qigong in a Chinese state is particularly rewarding.

I am in mainland China now and am blown away by the generosity of my hosts, which I will discuss more in detail in the next blog. Yet another reminder to not take too seriously the media’s portrayal of a country or its people as the real experience may be very different than the preconceived ideas that we are fed via media reports.

I have not done any advertising yet and no specific promotions, because I want to make sure to be able to give my full attention to the students that are taking part in the initial courses. Word of mouth goes very quickly however, and shortly after I scheduled courses in Hong Kong, I received emails from a group in Malaysia and have now also scheduled a course next weekend in Kuala Lumpur. It’s amazing to me that I have been able to develop an international student base in just one year’s time. The power of the internet and youtube, combined with the power of giving my heart and soul to every course that I teach.

In addition to Hong Kong and Malaysia, I have a few days scheduled in mainland China, where I will have a business meeting in Qingdao. I have never been to mainland China, so it will be a unique experience for me. Qingdao is famous for its beer. Apparently, it was a German military base starting in late 19th Century, and the Germans taught the Chinese there how to brew.

I have also been invited to attend some of the Olympic events in Beijing later this year, so I am going to try to clear my schedule for a few weeks this summer and bring my family to experience the intensity of the world’s greatest sporting event.

Off to sleep now, its been a tough 3 days of training.

Duane was recently promoted to Head Strength and Conditioning coach for the San Francisco 49ers www.sf49ers.com/pressbox/news_detail.php

There are only 32 such jobs in the world, so he has an insight into training that even some of the greatest coaches in the world do not have. That is, he in a NFL locker room and sees things day in and day out about training athletes that cannot be replicated from any number of fitness bootcamps or seminars or workshops or certifications.  These athletes have particular needs that have to be addressed from a program design and implementation perspective and there is tremendous interest in the success of these athletes.

That goes way beyond what most trainers or coaches will relate to. So, of course I am always excited to sit and talk with a coach of Duane’s caliber. To me, he has that winning quality you want in a coach because he is constantly picking the brains of people who he thinks can benefit his players in some way. That is a lesson for all of us. Consistently, the high level performers have an extreme curiosity and openness to learning. Way more questions than comments.

How cool is that? Sitting and talking with a professional gives a very clear perspective about what is practical and meaningful amidst the myriad of ’stuff’. There is so much happening now in the fitness business, yet it is important for all fitness educators and leaders to recognize and remember that it is service first and foremost that we provide.

It is personally very gratifying when a professional with Duane’s pedigree expresses his views about the fitness and training ‘industry’, because in the world he operates in every rep, every set and every aspect of every workout is taken extremely seriously, and that entails the off time as well. Jobs are won and lost over the onfield performance of the players. So for a strength coach, the right program is the program that puts Ws on the scoreboard and keeps the players on the field and off the DL. It is this high-pressure performance atmosphere that gives perspective to the entire ‘industry’ revolving around reps and sets and various movements.

In addition to meeting with me and exchanging ideas, Duane is doing some work with Todd Durkin who is known for his personal training work with some of the elite athletes such as Ladanian Tomlinson, Carson Palmer, Drew Brees and others. Also, Carlisle is going to check out some of David Weck’s training ideas and methods while he is in town. David has a brilliant mind and is most known for his BOSU invention, however he is also one of the most innovative trainers and educators in and has a wealth of experience with movement dynamics: www.bosufitness.com/

I predict Andrew will become one of the world’s great strength athletes with his uncanny versatility. He is already making a mark internationally in Kettlebell Sport, and has a world class grip to go along with his work capacity.

I’ve met some strong people with some very specialized skill development, however, very few can do so many things so well.

Enjoy this demonstration from the recent  Powerfest Strongman Competition, courtesy of the Diesel Crew: