misterbaumann

Perfect movement through age

2011-09-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hey there!
This is just an example that quality movement also comes with age and through experience.
Cheers,
Cb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIAIQIxwB_U

Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code

Bodyweight and Kettlebelltraining in Guatemala

2011-08-23T11:27:00.001-07:00

Hello there everyone!

I'm finally back home and my body is loving it! If you want to join me just come on over. The water is fresh from the mountain, the birds are not in cages, the monkey will come out of you. Promised!
Check out the programs I'm offering (beautifull experience included).
Cheers!
cb

Here are two recent videos:

Here are the programs:
http://db.tt/9zXqNET
http://db.tt/An9JEGx

Here's my publicity:
http://db.tt/mlyWe1T
http://db.tt/KPVtRIQ

Great Stanford lecture on the limbic system

2011-06-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

Check Robert Sapolsky out, cool inteligent dude from Stanford lecturing on the limbic system.

Old school knowledge

2011-06-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

I´m just loving this messsage.

The dialectic of our times - between paleo and cosmetology

2011-06-14T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hey there,
how is it that it has to be either all good or all bad when it comes to health? - I mean, when did it get to be so black and white?
It seems to me that we´re living in times where it´s near to impossible to avoid living a ›somewhat‹ unhealthy lifestyle, even if you try really hard no to. Big bummer. Is detoxing on a regular basis the solution? - Are social dropouts that live the dream of Henry David Thoureau showing us the way? Are we prepared to take that step? - I really don´t think that this is the answer.

Check out the picture and video below. They exemplify what I´m trying to say.
I guess the good news is that the whole movement of "new age" - with its esoteric ecological consciousness and its awarenes of our intimate relation to nature - has taken a transition from "spirituality" to "naturality". I hear the voices (in my head ;) loud and clear: "Back to the primitive, back to the primordial. Even within the urban context."
I´m trying my best. And I ain´t getting tired yet :)
Cheers

(Click on the pic to see it full size)

Happy to anounce…

2011-06-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I promise to post something more informative next time, but for the time being I´m very proud to anounce that I´m a new member of the IKFF :)

Wow, this weekend was so nice. I went down to Bad Vilbel (near Frankfurt Main) to Karol Szwands beautiful Gym he has built to take part in a Seminar with Steve Cotter and I now got my first Kettlebell certification :)

The seminar was very demanding! I swinged every single second of it. I´ve never trained for such extended periods of time. I´ve trained hard and heavy, but never this long. This weekend everyone was basically swinging every day the whole day! - The one thing I do not understand is how I managed NOT to rip my calluses! - They stayed pretty much safe the whole time. My snatching has really improved a lot, it´s the only exercise where I tend to rub against my callus.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my joy through this blog and give a big shoutout to everyone of my swinger mates that took part in the seminar as well. The group was nice and small and the group dynamic was very good!

Steve Cotter is a heavy metal swinging man with almost unlimited strength resources! Calm and patient, intense and relaxed. How does he do it? I don´t know, but it´s good to have seen him in action personally.

Cheers and untill next time!

Walking the plank with the push-up board

2011-03-23T07:22:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,
the sun is finally shining again! it´s warm and I´m bursting with energy :)
The push up board is a fantastic tool for training and active recovery. I very often just take it around with me.

I call this exercise "Walking the plank". It will get the back and abdominal muscles playing coordination with every other muscle structure in the body. Great way to train tension distribution throughout the body.

Start walking the small plank and progress to the full extension as you can.
Cheers!
cb

Snatching with Steve Cotter

2011-03-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

Steve Cotter just put up some great tips on how to get better at snatching. Some of the drills shown are not meant to be done in the living room like he does :)
I love snatching, but I´m still quite low on my reps: PR´s are 160 reps with the 16Kg KB, 110 with the 20Kg and 75 with 24Kg in 10 mins :P
I´ll practice these drills and tell you if I´ve gotten better at it :)
Cheers

Fats and oils

2011-02-26T00:08:00.001-08:00

Check this video out,
I love fat and I try to be very carefull every time I buy a source for fat. I get good oil, almond butter, tahin, olive oil, coconut oil, pumpkin seed oil and others like fatty cheese made out of raw milk. In fact, now that I think of it, oil is typically the product I will spend the most money for. I rarely buy meat, I mean, I love it, but I would go broke if I buy too much of it. I buy organic bacon and liver (good and cheaper) and you should never underestimate the power of organic farm eggs. I get a carton with 30 eggs (sometimes twice a week :)
Anyhow, check out this video. Get some good fat!
Don´t forget your veggies. start making sauerkraut, it´s so inexpensive and delicious!
Cheers,
cb

40-30-20-10 Challenge completed!

2011-02-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

Servus Leute, Hello Friends (englih version is a few lines below)
wie wär´s, wenn ich einmal auf deutsch Schreibe? :) super, ist ja nicht meine Muttersprache, aber wer würde es erkennen, wenn er weiß, dass ich Baumann heiße? :P
Also die Einheit ist, trotz der 16Kg leichten Kugel, brutal!!
Ich habe insgesamt 28 Minuten gebraucht. Die Kugel wurde kein einziges Mal auf dem Boden geslegt. Hier also meine Frage: Wie sieht´s aus? Ist hier jemand bereit für die mega Challenge!?!?!
Würde mich sehr freuen :)

I finished the challenge today (see previous blog). It´s brutal. Despite the fact I used the 16Kg Kettlebell. I started last week with 20Kg and had to face the reality of my big ego confronting my small muscles :(
but that doesn´t matter. I´m gonna get better at this!
My next challenge is to finish it with 20Kg. Eventually i´ll try it with 24Kg.

Cheers!

40-30-20-10 Kettlebell Challenge - Snatch, Squat, Clean and Jerk from misterbaumann on Vimeo.

40-30-20-10 Kettlebell Challenge! Are you up for it?

2011-02-14T06:06:00.001-08:00

Hello,
i´d love to try something out. And I would love to see if I can get some feedback from you as well!

Last saturday I saw a training partner do a Kettlebell challenge that looked hard and awesome. Let me tell you: It´s so freaking hard and it will make you sweat like nothing!

I asked: what did you do?
She answered: The 40-30-20-10 challenge.

It goes like this: You start doing 40 Snatches (20left+20right), then you do 40 squats with your kettlebell behind your head or in front (gobblet squat), then you do 40 cleans (20l+20r) and finish with 40 Jerks (20l+20r). Then you repeat the whole thing but with 30 snatches, squats, cleans and jerks, then 20, then 10. Oh yeah, did I mention you can´t put the Kettlebell on the ground :D

I played big shot and tried right away with the 20Kg Kettlebell. Big mistake! hahaha, by the end of the third round (20 reps) I had to stop and I was beging for mercy. This is a great workout! WOWA-WIWA!

I´ll try it out again this week with 16 Kg.

Are you up for the challenge?
Tell me about it! and if you finish, tell me how long it took you.

Cheers and hope to hear from you soon!
cb

Doug Hepburn! Old school power!

2011-02-08T11:11:00.001-08:00

I found this very powerful video with Doug Hepburn. Listen to the end. It woke up the ancestors in me.
Doug Hepburn could not only lift heavy metal, he was a master in calisthenics and claimed it was the practice of deep hand stand push ups that taught him how to press 380 pounds overhead. Wicked.
Cheers,
cb

Let´s make Humus!

2011-02-07T06:47:00.001-08:00

I had the day off and decided to cook what has become my favorite recipee: Humus.

Humus is very tasty and nutritious. I like to eat it alone or mixed with eggs, fish, meat and/or any type of vegetables. There´s also good protein in humus as well. Veggies out there take notice!

You will need:
- Chick peas
- Garlic (use as much as you like)
- Ginger
- 1 orange
- 3 lemons
- 6-10 tablespoons Olive oil (or more)
- 1-2 tablespoons of Tahin (sesame-seed paste)
- Salt

This is what you do:
Let the chick peas rest in water over night. Cook them the next day for one hour without salt. Squeeze the lemons and your orange inside, chop the ginger as well, put the oil, tahin, salt and garlic in the bowl. The order does not matter at all. Finally blend everything and that´s it! - I mean, it´s very easy.
Enjoy!
cb

Doug Richards on stretching

2011-02-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hello again,
I found this video in Thomas Kurz´blog. It´s a simple and very comprehensible aproach (and introduction) to the topic of stretching. I like the analysis of single joint and multiple joint stretching.
I like to stretch to keep my range of motion in optimal condition. I´m not an acrobat so I don´t need to exagerate on this.
Cheers,
cb

Dr. Joseph Mercola and Ori Hofmekler

2011-02-06T05:37:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,
I want to share this. A great interview with the bright mind of Ori Hofmekler.
Enjoy!

Long cycles, long rides!

2011-01-29T12:56:00.001-08:00

hello again,
Finally got my self to practice long cycles with the 24Kg Kettlebell. Until now I´v only trained with 16Kg and 20Kg. Both with 1 Kettlebell and 2 Kettlebells. So now I´m up to 24Kg. It´s a good weight. But I like to start conservative anyway. I´m doing routines of 3 and 4 minutes with only one change of hands. I wanna work up to 10 minutes in 7 to 10 weeks. I´ll try to let you know how it goes. The form needs shaving, but so do I.
Enjoy!
cb

And after the workout:

Indian Clubbells - short and effective variation

2010-12-31T17:01:00.001-08:00

Two in a row! - I guess having vacations is good for writing blogs :)
I have been practicing with my 8Kg (17,6 pounds) indian clubbell I bought a couple of months ago. The form of this clubbell is nice, but the paint is chiping off.

I have never really trained propperly with clubbells. All I do is practice different movements and put them together in a choreography which I repeat for every side. The choreography changes constantly. And I´ll either use clubbells as a segment in my workout or I´ll swing with them for the cool down. This routine is a medium intensity array of movements performed consecutively for two minutes with a 30 seconds rest in between. The intervals are repeated four times summing up to 10 minutes of clubbell swinging.

I´ve noticed that my form is still in the need of getting better. I mean, getting better basically never ends. But now that I got myself the Mass Clubbell Evolution of Shane Heins (review in previous blog) I´m planning on really hiting it hard this year with clubbells. I love the fact that the rotational muscles get more attention with clubbells in comparison to kettlebells. I also love the circularity of the movements and while I´m swinging I´m always tripping about warriors and how they used to train and stuff. Swinging swords, chopping up the enemy, lol.
Enjoy! and happy new year again!

Indian clubs - a true set of friends!

2010-12-31T07:52:00.001-08:00

Greetings again!
I finally managed to film myself doing my typical cool down with my set of 1 pund indian clubs. The routine is different everytime I do it, but the movements remains basically the same. I am practicing new figures, but I did not think of them while swinging this time. Maybe next time. A previous blog of mine lists several links for indian clubs exercises. Old school books. Check them out. It´s basically all the material I´ve gotten to see at the moment. I really wish to meet someone who´s had experience with clubs, but untill that day comes, I´ll keep swinging like this :)

Cheers, happy new year and dance untill you drop!!

Clubbell Mass Evolution - Swinging it all the way!

2010-12-23T01:11:00.001-08:00

Most clubbell swingers (amateurs and/or advanced) have encountered Shane Heins, CST Head Coach, either through the internet (like me) or in person (lucky you). We´ve seen him swinging with cameras attached to the end of the clubbells, we´ve heard him talk about how to build upon knots in our body like trees do, about evolution and fitness and we´ve heard some detailed explanations on how to swing the clubbell propperly. Shane has now come out with a complete programm to get you swinging all the way through physical evolution, layer for layer, in to your new uncovered strong, lean and healthy self. And rest assured that this is no struggle for survival. It is rather an evolution in mastering the game of propper movement.

Shanes´ Clubbell Mass Evolution guides you through a clubbell based progressive incrementation of kinetic complexity. Hence the evolution. It has been designed as a three month programm that shows you how to build a propper workout system. The system has a different array of exercises for every month. Each workout has been structured in three different steps. The first step is a warmup, then you go through the clubbell exercises and finish it off with a compensatory cool down. Simple and efficient.

Shane has chosen a set of joint mobility and compensatory exercises for the warm up and cool down that match the necessities of the clubbell exercises during the workout. This means that the warm up will help you activate not only the propper heart rate but also the propper muscles you´ll be using. The cool down will help you eliminate any residue tension accumulated in the body through compensatory poses. This means you´ll be growing propper muscle tissue while eliminating the possibility of muscular dysbalance. Something that is missing in almost every other system outside of CST.

Besides the very clear structure, the programm also shows you how to structure your week with two different types of workout sessions (A and B). The approach also incorporates the classic CST scheduling variation. You can choose between the 4x7 and the 7x4 alternative. The first one means you´ll be training for four days of waving intensity repeated for 7 times (28 days). The second one means you´ll go through waving intensity for seven days repeated for 4 times (28 days). And don´t worry! This does not mean you´ll be walking all the time with sore muscles! The CST approach of waving intensity helps you regenerate and prepare your body for what´s comming. This will get you lean and strong incrementally. You start with a no-intensity day, go through low- and moderat-intensity and finish it off with a high-intensity session.

Everyone seeking for a great offer and a helpful guide on how to learn propper clubbell swinging will find much joy and challenge in Shanes´ CME. The quality of the videos is fantastic and there´s much effort put in to this production. I have been looking for something like this for a long time. Due to the fact I live in Germany I have not yet decided to import any DVD´s. The CME programm is available as download so no need for long waiting and extra import taxes here!

Swinging it all the way!

Cheers,
cb

15 mins. non-stop Kettlebell workout

2010-12-12T12:29:00.001-08:00

Hello again,
so this is an example of what happens when I don´t want to stick to my routine and don´t want to miss out on my workout at the same time.

I swing the KB for 15 Mins. I´ve done 35 minutes, but I don´t see the benefit of doing this anymore. I mean, if you start losing the ability to maintain proper form, then this type of workout is suboptimal. And besides, why drain so much energy? -

Ok, so in order to do this I warm up propperly. That means just enough to feel mobile and fresh. I top this off by stretching the hamstings and the hip flexors. I drink about half a glass of water with just a touch of salt. I do not like to drink a whole glass. It is too much and I feel full afterwards. I´ve noticed that doing this takes care of the thirst I get while swinging consecutively for 15 mins. Also: Do this with a light weight. I use 16 Kg. I´ve tried it with 24 Kg but I´ve noticed that it is too much for me. 16 Kg lets me breathe well and keeps my heart rhythm at a controlable level.

After that just cool down with a nice stretch.

Cheers!

What are the abs and what´s their purpose?

2010-11-25T03:35:00.001-08:00

hey everyone,
I´ve been doing some reading on abs and I´ll try tu summarize what I´ve learned so far.

Previous to this I thought of the abs as a conjunction of the rectus abdominis and the obliques. But it does not end there. People have tried to include what is missing of the abs by referring to your abs with the term "core". But this is still a very vague concept for many. So lets make out the structure of the abs so we know what they are all about.

You can distinguish 4 main muscles of the abdominal structure.

These are the (1) external obliques. Their main funcion is to rotate and flex our trunk. Everyone has external and internal obliques on every side so that every time you turn your torso to the right, the external oblique on the left works in conjunction with the right internal oblique. The process is inverted when you turn to the left. Amazing!

Then you have the famous (2) rectus abdominus (your 6 or 8 pack). This one flexes your trunk and the reason why Pavel Tsatsouline wants people to get bullet-proof abs is because this muscle serves the purpose of protecting your internal organs. This is the reason why it is imperative for any martial artist to have a strong rectus abdominus. Hit a man with a soft gut and watch him getting sick, now hit a man with a strong gut and get ready because this guy is about to hit back.

Then you have the rarely heard about (3) transverse abdominus. This one gets mistaken for the obliques. So be carefull not to make this mistake. The transverse abdominus makes sure that the organs stay stable while moving. Picture them as two open hands put together to scoop up water. They not only protect the front, but also reinforce your back in order to stabilize your organs. Paul Chek describes this mechanism with the interdepency of the muscle with the thoracolumbar fascia.

Now, this is where the story ends for most people that talk about the abs. Usually only (1) and (2) are considered. You´re lucky if anyone mentions (3). So what the hell is (4)? - If you think of it functionally it all makes sense. Our number (4) is made out of two muscles: the (4.1)psoas and the (4.2)quadratus lumborum. It obviously makes sense because the psoas mainly helps you flex your hips! Try doing a leg raise with a flat back against the floor without contracting the psoas. You can´t! - Flexing the hips is a very difficult task for people that sit all day and this also leads to a whole lot of trouble in the back. The same thing can happen if it is too strong! Why? The psoas starts off the lumbar spine (your lower back) and ends at the inner hip (lesser trochanter), if it gets dispoportionately strong it pulls itself together over time creating a forward plevic tilt which creates all types of missalignments in your spine and shoulders due to compensation mechanisms triggered automatically by the body in order to help you maintain balance. It does this at a high price! An indication for this is a beer or pot-belly. But no need to panic, just to get moving. - Think of the psoas as the antagonist of the rectus abdominus. The psoas tilts the pelvis forward and the rectus abdominus tilts it backwards. A well balanced relation between them will induce proper posture. - Muscle (4.2) is the quadratus lumborum it sits right at the lower end of your back and should be considered a part of the abdomen. This one can be seen as the antagonist of the transverse abdominus.

Now, why do you need to know all of this? - the main reason is because most of us only emphasize the rectus abdomunus and the obliques, fortgetting all about the relationality of muscle interaction. The abs are essencial in triggering support mechanisms of the lower back. The reason why people grunt and scream or hold their breath while picking up heavy objects is that doing this alleviates up to 30 percent of the load on the lumbar spine. It creates intra-abdominal pressure. Alleviating the load carried by your lumbar spine is essential for maintaining good disk health. The stronger your abs are (in harmony with the other muscles) the more likely it is you won´t suffer back pain or inflict injury to your body. Your abs (or core) stabilize the relationship of upper and lower body helping you not to collapse (forwards, backwards, left and right) and damage your organs whenever lifting heavy objects.

Every time you workout your abs, start with your lower abs, move to the obliques and back and finish with the rectus abdominus. Look at supine pelvic tilts to prepare the region, reverse crunches with your back flat against the floor, do some cross crunches (elbow touching knee on the other side), supermans and classical crunches. Try kettlebell swings and try to empasize on a balance of muscle engagement so that the psoas doesn´t get overtrained. Stretch gently afterwards and witness the miracle of regeneration!

Cheers!

Ab ripping, the relativity of age and the really cheap ab roller!

2010-11-10T13:31:00.001-08:00

greetings once again,
I just saw the following videos by coincidence and man this hit really hard on my perspective of growing older. This man is 71 years old and I got such a big motivational rush after seeing him, that I just had to make my self an ab roller with stuff I have laying around in my house. It did not take long to build it, it works really well, looks very bad, but who cares! :)

Very often you can compensate the lack of equipment with a low tech high minded attitude. So check the videos out:

Cheers.

Push up board - a great and transportable fitness tool

2010-10-30T11:14:00.001-07:00

hello again,
today was a long day. I closed the 2nd of 4 cycles with a very nice bike tour to the lake (44 kms. in all), a small push up board routine in between and to top it all off I jumped in to the lake by 13 degrees temperature. the water was probably 5 to 8 degrees colder.

the push up board is great, I still need to get better at it, my form is still a long way from being really good. but what I´m doing does not look half as bad as I thought it would.

Check out this small push up board routine. this type of outdoor training was inspired by Dominik Feischl, you really need to check out this nature friendly and insanely strong guy.

Here´s the push up board routine:

Enjoy

Janda Sit up without Pavel Tsatsouline Pavelizer - burn your abs at home!

2010-10-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Check this out, so I´m reading Pavels bullet proof abs book and I´m really curious about this supposedly hardest sit up ever called the janda sit up. Problem is that it only describes how to do it with this ridiculous looking contraption called the Pavelizer or by having a friend assist you. - So, I have a major problem with this, I live in Germany, it´s hard enough to get these books here and I really don´t wanna go poor (which I already am :) and invest money on this horrible chunk of metal. Which by the way looks like this:

So I figured out that the mechanics of the exercise are really simple and basic. You can do this without the assistance from friends in your own room and most important: without the pavelizer!

Comrades, all you will be needing is:

1. Pull up bar

2. Deuser Band or something similar

3. A tube or hard stick of some sort.

My solution looks like this:

Check the video out. And notice the great benefit of having a rubber band to easily variate the intensity level of the sit up. Oh yeah, by the way, Pavel says that if you can do 5 of these you´re a man, even if you are a woman. I can only do one. What does that mean?

Enjoy!

DIY Clubbells and several exercises to get you started

2010-10-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

Check this out,
I live in Germany and I have no idea where to get indian clubbells. They are rare. Americans have the chance to order them via internet. But germans don´t. So I decided to make my own. They are not the prettiest, but they sure as hell get the job done. All you need is a stick (I cut up a broom stick), weight (I use two very cheep ankle weights) and ingenuity to put them together in such a manner so that they do not move or fall off (that could hurt).
This is what my 2Kg/4.4Lbs."indian" clubbell looks like:

This is how they typically look like:

UPDATE: I now own my very own REAL clubbell! 8Kg (17pounds).

I told you my clubbell was no beauty queen. But like I said it works and the weights stay where they should. I managed to get me a book by amazon.de on clubbells called "Indian clubs and dumb bells" written by J.H. Dougherty in 1911. It´s a really nice book with really cool drawings. The explanations are good and I love the old school style of it. I love to kick it old school, period. - But you don´t really need to buy the book, this one or any other. There´s a great website from the UK with old books I found, where you can get good info on clubbell exercises. Check it out, the book is called "The indian club exercise" and it was written by Sim D. Kehoe in 1866(!).
But if that is not enough for you and you wanna go deeper in the subject, check these websites out:

1. http://bigsteel.iwarp.com/Articles2/IndianClubs/Clubs.html
2. http://issuu.com/maenterprises/docs/treasuresinattic/7?mode=embed&documentId=081113223416-07e3093548404966b6934bf709dd3822&layout=white
3. http://ejmas.com/pt/ptart_ymca_0401.htm
4. http://www.semlyen.net/cosmosjugglers/lib/contents.htm
5. http://ejmas.com/pt/ptart_treat_0501.htm

And if you wanna see me swinging it, check out my video. I´m still working on the fluidity of the movements, but I think that I´ve made good progress so far. After I have learned how to do the basic movements I intend to progress to the figures for 2 clubbells. I´ll need to build me another clubbell or maybe I´ll start over again and build two new ones. I´ll let you know. Enjoy!

Joint Mobility 15 Minutes Follow Along

2010-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
so, this one is about joint mobility. I picked this type of exercise just recently this year around march. I´ve seen a lot of material on the topic and several videos with different movements. My favorites being the ones offered by Steve Maxwell on his website and on his encyclopedia of joint mobility. The last one is a gold mine when it comes to joint mobility. Scott Sonnon has a great repertoir of movements as well. His "Free to move book" is great, the intu-flow videos are fantastic and I love some of the movements in his joint mobility dvd within the Kettlebells foundation 3-DVD-series. - Oh, and John Sifferman and Katerina Pisetsky have got very nice videos on youtube as well.

I decided to show you my routine. It varies from day to day, I might do more repetitions of some movements the one day or I might incorporate some other movements the other day. It all depends on how I feel and I really just go with the flow. This routine was done with a limit of 15 secs. for every movement. I´ve found this to be very efective and like I said, if you wanna do more, just simply do it.

I know that a lot of people seek to find some type of exercise to take care of back and neck pain. I find that joint mobility can help you, but that you will have to work on your intensity a little bit more in order to properly rehabilitate the problem area. Joint mobility is more of a prehab than it is a rehab. Don´t get me wrong, it works, but in order to regain pain free mobility, you need to regain strength. (Check out an example) - I suffered of a C1-C2 neck subluxation this year. As you can see, my neck mobility is not perfect, but it is not bad. You should have seen it before! I use joint mobility to warm up the muscles in my neck, but after that I use a series of isometric exercises throughout the day in order to maintain stability in my neck. Muscles and joints need time to heal and flush the scar tissue stored through time. I found that these type of isometric neck exercises help a lot. A combination of joint mobility and these throughout the day will take care of most type of pains and stiffnesses. You´ll need to learn how to find the sweet spots, but once you do, you´ll know what to do. A great tip is to never ever go higher than a level 3 to 4 of pain out of 10. Never! Scott Sonnon uses the expression: Work your self to the tension, not through the tension. This is holly knowledge man. Shave the tension off, don´t fight it off, it´ll just get worse.

One thing must be said: You really need to be patient and persistant. Don´t give up. Some days are just horrible, I know, but no matter what, keep your muscles alive! - Heal your joints through movement. It´s the only way. Pills might help on some occasions, but they only mute the neurotransmitters, they do not solve the problem. I personally choose not to go to pills.

There´s an old chinese saying that goes something like this: Illness takes as long to heal as it took to come about. Neck and back problems are usually due to a history of bad posture, muscular imbalances and poor body mechanics. I read a fantastic book that helped me a lot to understand the basic and most important aspects of pain and how to repair them, slowly but surely. It´s called "Book of body maintenance and repair". Check it out.

Enjoy!

Kettlebell Excalibur Swing - Going to the He-Man level!

2010-10-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

Wassup my new unknown friends!

So, I´ve been swinging around with my KB and last week, while doing a freestyle swinging workout, I´m suddenly doing a swing I haven´t ever seen before! - Ok, I´ve seen something similar from Scott Sonnon called the Bull-Horn-Swing and the high pull is "somewhat" similar, but the range of motion by these isn´t as broad as with the excalibur swing. It targets the upper body very efficiently and teaches you how to stabilize and contract the mid/lower back. I call it the Excalibur swing and you´ll see why.

Enjoy,