idahokettlebells.com Blog

July 17, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: July 17, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: July 17, 2020

Book recommendation! Finally got my hands on this after having it on pre-order for a few months. I’ve learned a ton from both authors over the years and have followed this book’s progression for the past few years. Here’s more about it and where to get one: https://www.sacredcow.info
IMG_4802

After working with countless people with tennis elbow and hand issues from lots of desk time over the years, it is pretty common for these issues to just go away when you get things moving and working. Never needed to look up a study on it, but here’s one anyway. It’s not like we really set out to “cure” anything, it just seems to work.
Tennis Elbow and Mouse Arm

Diet and metabolic health are keys to immunity. This is one of the reasons I emphasized being even more strict with my diet and my dietary recommendations (don’t give into stress eating) when things started getting rough a few months back.

Looks like I was not a complete idiot about that advice. Some big brains seem to share that theory.
“…As of 30 May 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that among COVID-19 cases, the two most common underlying health conditions were cardiovascular disease (32%) and diabetes (30%)”

Coronavirus and Diabesity

Listen to this podcast interview! Seriously.
It might be a little tough to grasp for smoothbrains that get their health advice or knowledge from news sources or are addicted to being “Google experts” on a given topic. It will be hard to swallow for those that seem to revel in fear.
This will take more than a 30 second scan to process and think about. It might also be the best advice you’ll get about dealing with a contagious global virus. You can find the Wise Traditions Podcast on iTunes, as well.
Proactive During Pandemic

The average grip strength of young men has been dropping for the past few generations. When I shake hands with young men and young women these days I find that most young women are a lot more likely to give a firm handshake and have strong hands than guys. In this study, they found an interesting correlation between that and a country’s top athletes.
” For every 1kg increase in population GS, the medal tally increased by 36%”
Medals and Grip Strength

Video of The Week: Pretty cool information on rowing.

April 20, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: April 19, 2020

Training Hard in the Sun!

Training Hard in the Sun!


IKSC Weekly Links: April 19, 2020

Training is on strong at the gym!

Governor’s orders specified against indoor gyms reopening, so we are now an outdoor gym. There is plenty of room outside the back door. Kettlebell and bodyweight workouts are our specialty. No one will lack one ounce of training. The only downside is that I can’t take it on any additional people until May 1st to ensure good quality control.

Please take note that you are all under a great deal of stress. We are still under an “emergency” declaration, which means compromising your immune system by overdoing it, or risking injury is not acceptable. Training sessions will be brief and designed to minimize risk. Do not try to make up for poor eating by training harder. The extra 100-200 calories you might burn off is insignificant. Tighten up the diet and focus on sleep.

The thing I always say? Train like a predator, not prey? This is what I mean. You should feel stronger when you leave the gym than when you came in.

Here’s a very tried and true program I’ve used over and over again. When in doubt, push, pull, squat. Repeat. This post even has some ancient videos from the old gym…LOL!
IKSC Push, Pull, Squat Program

Video of the Week: For those of you that have been doing improvised workouts.

We cover all these bases in our normal programming.
5 Ways to Get Stronger

The more metabolically healthy you are, the better you’ll fight off nasty respiratory illness.
CV and Elephant in the Room

Speculation as to whether exercise will make you better able to fight off a viral infection: I have no idea if this is true or not, but I can say that whenever I feel like I’m coming down with something a good sweat seems to help. Who knows?
Exercise as Protection

March 14, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: March 13, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: March 13, 2020

I was one of the first certified Primal Health Coaches. It’s been a long time since that opportunity opened up in 2014. It is part of a bigger movement to make people healthier. I just found out that program is a member of this organization:
Holistic Health Education

Best article I’ve read yet on Coronavirus. Remember that having a positive mindset matters in everything. You WILL get better. This, too, shall pass.
What to expect.

Great things to keep in mind from Weston A. Price Foundation. Success leaves clues. Look to History, Anthropology, and Biology for what humans are truly designed to function best on.
Ancestral Diets

If there is a fountain of youth, it surely includes making yourself as strong as possible.
Fight Aging

I have no idea if this will minimize Coronavirus or not, but getting as much sunlight and fresh air as you can is always good advice. However, even though I supplement with 5,000iu per day of Vitamin D3 all year long, I’d make sure and maybe even take a little extra if you aren’t able to get your sun (I usually up my to 10,000iu during winter months). Low D3 levels are a common-denominator in so many ailments that it makes sense, regardless. I also read a little bit the other day that populations that the virus has spread are also known to be D-deficient. Sunlight and Coronavirus

Video of The Week: I’m often asked what I think of CrossFit. I view it as an exercise sport nowadays, not a training system. Mark Rippetoe (in the video) used to do barbell certifications for CrossFit, and like many that were involved in it 10-15 years ago, saw it changing for the worse. My first exposure to kettlebells was through CrossFit back in 2007.

February 29, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: February 28, 2020

IKSC Weekly Links: February 28, 2020

Here’s a great article on one of our staples, the Goblet Squat. Dan John’s stuff mirrors a lot of what we do here. Happy to say that a lot of that has to do with just finding these things out via trial and error and lots of reps. If you want to read more, look him up. He also has a podcast now that is worth listening to.
Dan John Goblet Squat

Your gut and brain are connected. Junk in= Junk out. We all know this, but still a good read.
Processed Food = Junk Brain

If you want to live a long time, get comfortable being uncomfortable. I plan to live long and hard and then drop dead.
Discomfort = Long Life

High blood sugar equals low testosterone. Not a surprise. Insulin and leptin are master control hormones. If they are messed up because of high sugars, then everything else will be downstream. That is one of the first things I teach in my nutrition courses.
Blood Sugar and Hormones

Video of the Week: An interesting video about rowing trends. “Boutique” rowing studios are starting to be a thing. Trends are not something I follow (because one of my theories is that the longer and more proven a training system has been around the better it is), but you just might see more dedicated rowing interval classes in the future.

January 13, 2020

IKSC Weekly Link Blast: January 13, 2020

IKSC Weekly Link Blast: January 13, 2020

New evening schedule!
Schedule

Focus on making your last rep just as strong as your first, and train to be successful, not end in failure. This has always been a strategy for building strength. Looks like it works for building muscle size, too. The goal is to stimulate new growth, not annihilate yourself.
Training to Failure

To burn more fat/fuel, build a bigger engine (muscle). You don’t necessarily need a bigger chassis to put a bigger engine in a car. Most of us won’t naturally get appreciably larger with increased muscle mass, but we’ll move a lot better with a bigger powerhouse and an efficient fuel system.
Fat Loss Training

I don’t make blanket recommendations on probiotics. There is a lot we don’t know about the gut biome, and much of it is completely individual, based on genetics, medications, stress, sleep, life experiences, diet, disease history, etc., etc…. We just don’t know what we don’t know. You have to experiment with what makes you look, feel and perform better. That won’t be an overnight project.
Probiotics

Video of The Week: Worth re-watching for some of you that may have seen this before. Perhaps even more relevant during these months of little sunlight. I’ve actually taken his advice recently and hit up a combination tanning and red light therapy bed for a few minutes about once a week. Placebo or not, I think it helps my mood and motivation.

December 27, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast: December 27, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast: December 27, 2019

Exercise and Brain Health: I suggest that it’s not just the complexity of the exercise, but the level of force exerted that affects how much brain matter you use during an exercise. Increased force production comes from greater motor-unit recruitment, faster motor-unit firing rates, and more motor-unit synchronicity. Meaning, the more force you produce, the more muscles and nerves your brain has to fire to operate the system.
Your Brain Needs Exercise

You can include crawling movements in with the exercise described, but note they are often programmed in Level I versions of many of our sessions. I wouldn’t waste your time with them if I thought they weren’t beneficial.
Bird Dogs

More on fat loss and lifting weights. Doing “cardio” for the sake of burning calories is pretty much useless.
Fat Loss

You are not a slave to your genetics in most cases. Your genes might load the gun, but you decide whether to pull the trigger.
Genetics and Health

You have to move in ways your body was designed to move if you want to train hard without injury. Everything we do at IKSC is designed to reinforce strong movements outside the gym in sport or daily life.
Damaging Training

Video of the Week:

December 13, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast December 12, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast December 12, 2019

It seems that the exercise and nutrition world looks like a battle of the studies at times. This is a good breakdown of how to look at studies for yourself, rather than just reading the headline.
Reading Scientific Studies

“Super Accumulation Training” is pretty much what we do during things like the December Getup Challenge, and many of the programs we use. Basically, what we do is build the workload up to the point it is not sustainable long-term and then back off for a while and then repeat.
Super Accumulation Training

This book is worth reading. Don’t be afraid of salt, especially if you are limiting carbs.
Salt Fix Book Review

Note the doc featured in the article. Prof. Stuart McGill. FYI: He’s a huge fan of loaded carries. When I read articles like these, I can’t help but think that the fitness system they are largely looking for resembles IKSC programming.
McGill on Crossfit

Video of the Week: Cutting through some of the “cardio” nonsense. Most of the workouts we do build mitochondrial density. It is an area that is just starting to have scientific support, but it has been used for a long time. I started taking advantage of this concept over 10 years ago because it just seemed to work.

The second video is also good. Enjoy!

December 7, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast: December 7, 2019

Leslie Gluch in fog
IKSC Weekly Link Blast December 7, 2019

Get strong and be able to move well. It’s the best thing you can do for your mind and body.
oliquingroup.com/Arthttp://main.piclesMultimedia/Articles/Article/2687/Why_Exercise_Is_Your_First_Line_of_Defense_Against.aspx

Things you can learn from an exclusively carnivorous diet, brought to you with a little common sense from Mark Sisson. I vary from 90% carnivore to 100%. I still eat starchy tubers about once a week, and something I notice is I want more fermented things like kimchee, or saurkraut now and then, but one thing is for sure, it won’t hurt you to try this. I experimented with this first back in about May of 2018, after learning more about who Shawn Baker was and some of the superhuman things he could do. I think one of the main reasons people report feeling so good eating this way is because they were waaaaayy low on protein to start with and if all you eat is meat, fish, and eggs, you’ll get enough protein.
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/8-things-we-can-learn-from-the-carnivore-movement/

Avoid being dogmatic in your nutrition. I eat a diet that is about as close as I can get to what humans evolved eating, but it’s not because I think it makes me part of some paleo, low-carb, or carnivore “club.”
https://www.jenniferaguilar.net/thebrainblog/2019/12/6/i-dont-belong-to-a-food-tribe-and-i-bet-you-dont-either

Dan John is one of the best strength coaches around. I always like it when his views align with things I’ve found to work well over the years.
https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-to-train-for-non-stop-fat-loss

Video of The Week:
(Something I’ll add. What you do with your feet and ankles affects everything. That’s where the kinetic chain starts.)

November 21, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast November 21, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast November 21, 2019

Eat like a predator, not prey. In this case, eat like the conqueror, not the conquered.
https://decentpropaganda.com/what-the-mongols-ate-for-success/

Lats are one of your most important core stabilization muscles. We don’t usually think of them that way, but they are.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-what-all-strong-athletes-have-in-common

Good write up on nutrition documentaries in general here.
https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/the-game-changers-exposed

Another good one from T-Nation. I remember when this article first came out, I’d just learned these crawls at a Steve Maxwell workshop and a few days later this showed up. Perfect timing.
https://www.t-nation.com/training/reflexive-strength-and-spider-man

Most of the stuff in Men’s Health is junk, but this article cites two extremely reputable people, Dan John and Prof. Stuart McGill. Not surprisingly, one of our staples, the loaded carry is the topic.
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19548559/best-loaded-carries

Here’s an old post about trying to out-train the dinner table. http://idahokettlebells.com/blog/?m=201101

Video of The Week:
Should tie into what we talked about in our last nutrition class.

November 7, 2019

IKSC Weekly Link Blast November 7th, 2019

IMG_3097

IKSC Weekly Link Blast November 7th, 2019

Thanks to those that showed up for class Monday night. I will be repeating the same class on Tuesday the 12th, at 7:15p.m. for anyone that missed it. I really want to help people keep on track and that is much harder when the days get shorter and social pressure drags people away. Everyone likes to work hard in the gym, but elements of sleep and stress are every bit as important as exercise. That is what this class deals with.

Special Class: Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

Take some time for yourself. It’s important.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/smarter-living/the-benefits-of-being-alone.html

Hard work gives you better posture and always has according to these Egyptian artifacts. Strangely enough, they’ve also found that the grain-based diet of some of the Egyptian royalty caused heart disease, the same way it does for modern humans.
https://gokhalemethod.com/blog/68202

Here’s a good breakdown about The Game Changers movie out. No, I haven’t seen it. I get questions about it now and then. I could address specifics, if anyone has questions.
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-game-changers-isnt-worth-my-time-and-sugar-addictions/

Please note, the exercises listed to build bone health are all full-body, compound movements with significant amounts of weight. I would also argue for exercises that emphasize dynamic joint stabilization (like burpees) are a good thing. I’d also suggest that loaded carries are probably the biggest bang for your buck of all.
http://main.poliquingroup.com/Tips/tabid/130/EntryId/2500/Maximize-Bone-Health-Benefits-With-Strength-Training-For-Lower-Fracture-Risk.aspx

Another good article dealing with sleep.
https://www.marksdailyapple.com/keto-insomnia/

Video of the Week:
I’ve shared this before, but it is more important this time of year.

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