Thursday, June 26, 2008

Summer Reading List for Kettlebellers

As the weather gets more blistering and folks have their summer vacations coming up, I've been getting more & more questions about what they should be reading to improve as athletes, as trainers, and/or as RKC kettlebell instructors.

Oddly enough, the reference tools are almost the same. If you want to be high level for ANY of those endeavors, you need to have a baseline knowledge of your "art", your modality, and your body.

To know the art & science of Russian Kettlebell training, there's only 1 reference that makes sense... ENTER THE KETTLEBELL!

To know your body, you need to be able to think in terms of the structures inside it. You might think that a simple coloring book is childish, but if you approach this well-constructed tool with the respect and knowledge that even med school students use this, then you might learn something other than how big your ego is.
Book Cover

To know and understand the systems manual for what's going on with your body as you move, there are two resources that are excellent.
Book Cover

and

Book Cover

Book reports will be due on the first day of class! Study hard! :-)

5 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

Nice list of books.....of course I would Beyond Bodybuilding and the Naked Warrior!

Rock on brother!

Boris said...

ETK - great stuff. Enjoy re-reading it often.

I really enjoyed the anatomy coloring book - I felt like a tremendous nerd at the coffee shop, but I took consolation in the fact that people were probably thinking "Look at that buff med student - he's like Doc McDreamy...!".... jk Haven't read the physiology one - it's on my list now though.

Athletic Body in Balance is an amazing book too!

Unknown said...

Brother Franz, the list I put out was more of a minimum. A more complete "must-read" list would definitely include PTTP, BB, & NW.

Boris-san, Doc McDreamy??? Please... everyone knows that you're a retired porn star. :-D

Franz Snideman said...

Mark, you are going to the August FMC in MN, right?

who are you rooming with?

Unknown said...

Brother Franz, I'll definitely be at the CK-FMS in August, and I'll be rooming with Courtney. Give Mark Toomey a holler ASAP if you need a roommate. I still haven't made hotel reservations, but I think Toomey might've just booked his.