Monday, May 26, 2008

The Time Management Workout - Maximum Effectiveness in a Minimum of Time

I just had brunch with my wife's best friend and her husband. They were visiting from Oregon and got to talking about what else but KBs.

Brad asked me, "So how long does it take to go through a workout with KBs?"

"It really depends on your goals. You can do all sorts of stuff with KBs, but you can get a vicious workout done in 3 minutes," I replied.

"3 minutes?!?!?"

"3 minutes, man."

"How does that work? I mean, how do can you possibly get a workout in such a short amount of time?"

"Well, you're combining resistance training, cardio, and flexibility improvement all in one, so.... nevermind, come here. Anything I tell you is going to be worthless compared to experiencing it firsthand."

We go outside to the parking lot, and I whip a kettlebell out of the trunk, starting him on the swing with a 16kg (35lb) kettlebell, the men's starter weight. A judo black-belt, he picks up on the exercise in moments.

And after 10 reps, he's huffing & puffing. After 2 more sets, he's like, "Wow... OK.. I get what you were talking about."

Grinning wickedly, I tell him, "Set a timer for 3 minutes and see if you can keep that level of form and explosiveness for 3 minutes NONSTOP. You can switch hands any number of times, and go from 2 to 1 to 2 hands. All you have to do is just keep the bell moving. Unlike a lot of other exercises and JUST like you experienced in Judo competition, you CAN'T zone out, otherwise, you'll get whooped... in this case, hurt your back or strain something. But if you can keep blasting out swings for 3 minutes, and do that daily, you'll be in some of the wickedest shape of your life faster than you could ever expect."

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For those of you in the RKC community, most of you've heard Pavel's super-terse response to many of the FAQs thrown at him.

"Pavel, what exercise do I do for [fill in the blank]?"

"Swings."

When the Seniors and the rest of us tell you that the Hard Style Swing is the center of the RKC universe, we're not joking. Depending on how you vary it, it's part of the ultimate conditioning routine that you can possibly get yourself into. If time management is an issue for you, and you need to improve your endurance, your body shape, your fitness level, your body fat percentage, your athletic performance, there's basically a go-to answer sitting right in front of you... SWINGS!

Got your kettlebell already? Good. Then get my mentor's DVD, Enter the Kettlebell, to learn the finer points of the Swing!

Go find out how 3 minutes can change your life.

4 comments:

Boris said...

I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have a lot of Pavel's DVDs (I wish I did). EKT is one I do own though and it's great. Clear, concise instruction and filmed cleanly. Just a great DVD.

Rannoch Donald said...

Mark,

The simpler the better. I am 100% back to basics thanks to you. Never stronger, never better.

Miss you Bro,

Rannoch

Unknown said...

Boris-san, to really understand & implement ETK is no small task. The more I study it (either in text or DVD), the more I feel like I need to study it.

Rannoch, I miss you too. Looking forward to spending time again.

Anonymous said...

Good post.