T'was the night before Veterans' Day

And all through the apartment,
Not a creature was stirring,
Aside from a very restless Panda...

Why was the Panda restless? It might have to do with the radio and TV features he saw that left him bitterly sleepless. Read on, folks....

Earlier, as I was driving back from a morning of teaching from 7-12noon, I heard an AM radio interview with some veterans talking about the Iraq & Vietnam Wars. What I heard troubled me so deeply that it left an ache in my heart all day long. One veteran from the Vietnam War said that he was deeply disappointed in the Veterans Administration and the government, saying that he expected his government to treat him with honesty, fairness, and good faith. Those three things are the cornerstone of any relationship, let alone how a government should treat its own soldiers, and his words troubled me so deeply that I had to sit in my car for a while reflecting on them after I'd pulled into my driveway.

The next thing on the news at 9pm was a story about how some folks are celebrating their Veterans' Day by packaging a bunch of little care packages for the soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan. That story, while not exactly lifting my spirits, made me want to do something more to show the people of the US Armed Services that their innumerable sacrifices are not in vain.

Many of these armed forces personnel leave (and sometimes lose) their jobs, their friends, and most importantly their loved ones to serve our government's interests. Now while you may not be a fan of the current administration, you cannot fault these valiant people for doing their duty. Like it or not, they are the ones who, as so well put in one e-mail, put their lives on the line and suffer every day so you can enjoy your designer tea at Starbucks and whine about how bad things are.

I'm not over there with them, but I'll put it down in print on the internet as this. I'm honored to say that I've been one to try to do whatever I can for the people who do whatever they can to take care of our safety and our freedoms. Whether you're part of the police, the firefighters, or the active duty or retired military personnel, I want you to know that I and the people of Kettlebells Los Angeles appreciate you.

For the first 5 active duty personnel from Iraq and the first 5 active duty personnel from Afghanistan, e-mail me a clear picture of you in uniform with Dragon Door kettlebells from wherever in Iraq or Afghanistan that you're stationed. I'll send you an Enter the Kettlebell DVD, an Enter the Kettlebell book, and 1 martial arts or H2H DVD from my personal martial arts video collection. I will pay all shipping, all handling, everything. This offer ends on 11/17/07, since I want to try to get these packages out to you before Thanksgiving.

For the veterans who are back stateside, you train with KBLA as my guests for the remainder of 2007 completely free of charge. Just show me proof of honorable discharge, and you're welcome to train as part of my KBLA family.

I'm not a loaded guy. But I deeply appreciate the sacrifices you're making for us. I look forward to showing you that some of us are here at home are more than willing to give you the honesty, fairness, and good faith that you so truly deserve.

With respect and gratitude,
Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC II

Thanksgiving

I'm not the most patient guy on Earth, so let's just get the Thanksgiving thing with over NOW, and here's how we'll do it...

In SoCal, after all of the fires and insanity we've just gone through, ANY firefighter (whether actively serving or retired) or their immediate family members can train with me at KBLA's Sunday class free of charge for the month of November. Just show some ID, and we'll be glad to extend the offer to you!

What the hell... Let's take it a little further......

I will do a 2-hour kettlebell training workshop for any fire department in the SoCal area that would like one COMPLETELY free of charge this month. All you have to do is drop me a line at kettlebells.losangeles@yahoo.com

Firefighters put it on the line for us all the time. Now I'm going to give them & their families a chance to take a little back.

Respectfully & gratefully,
Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC II

The best is yet to come!

This morning, we had an OUTSTANDING Sunday beach class! And I say that for several reasons...

1. Mark Toomey, RKC II, took the time out from his LA vacation to come by and teach with me this morning. Toomey & I have ended up at almost every RKC event together, with maybe 1 exception. He's a great friend and a top-notch instructor, and the senior students really got a chance to experience his expertise this morning. Many of the more experienced students, like RKC candidate, Guro John Spezzano, even commented to me after class, saying that they picked up several valuable technical tweaks from him!

Toomey demonstrated the bearcrawl pushup, which left a few of the harder comrades in our group groaning at just the sight of it.

2. The newer students REALLY stepped up! Dr. Jeff McCombs, an RKC candidate, went from struggling on his snatch last week, to demonstrating it with confidence and teaching others how to achieve theirs as well. And our youngest member, Patrick Barnett, demonstrated some manly technique, cranking out his snatches in true Hard Style fashion with a rock solid shoulder and systemic linkage at the top of each repetition.

3. Grace & Adam Chiplinsky, also RKC candidates, returned from Australia, bringing their diligent work ethic and incredible focus to the group. There were several newcomers as well, along with the stalwarts, making for a large and very fun morning! While the circuit at the end of class was hard, many still had plenty of energy to complete a solid trifecta afterwards.

While "the evil Russian" didn't make an appearance as hoped, this morning's class was proof-positive that no matter what the time, time change, or fog, the KBLA group is rockin' Hard Style!

Week after week, I'm so amazed at the progress I see in the group. And I always leave more excited about this great group of people that I'm so lucky to have the chance to work with! The best is yet to come!

Congratulations are in order

For those of you who haven't met him yet, Anton Summers, RKC (a student of Pavel's and mine) passed his Hapkido black belt test last night. Anton began his study of Hapkido directly with the late Master Bong Soo Han and tested in front of Master Han's senior black belts.

Please join me in congratulating one of KBLA's finest RKCs as he joins the ranks of black belt martial artists!

The lasting effects of strength training

Almost 2 weeks without touching a kettlebell... That's gotta be a PR in terms of layoff spans for me since I first got my RKC. Thank God to be back from Thailand and back at home in LA.

Thailand was great in terms of Krabi-Krabong & Muay Boran training, but I missed my KBs and was a little concerned about how I'd be feeling after laying off for those 2 weeks. I was also concerned since I haven't touched a weight for a while, but my left side still troubles me. I needn't have worried.

This morning at the Inosanto Academy, I pressed the 53lb KB for reps on my left side. While it was only a set of 5, that's still a considerable improvement over what I was able to do before I left the US. Shocked that I was able to maintain and improve on my strength even without having access to weights or KBs. Now that I'm back at training, I can only look forward to my strength and mobility improving even more!

I'll keep you guys posted.

Best always,
Doc

Climbing back up - The Kettlebell Rehabilitation process

Thanks to all of you who've sent me e-mails over the past few weeks, wishing me a speedy recovery. No matter what someone accomplishes, the support of the people around him/her is an utterly priceless factor in their progress and success. Thank you again for that... from the bottom of my heart.

Yesterday was the first time since my "problem" that I was able to snatch a 53 lb KB again with my left side. While my left handed press was far from up to snuff, the snatch started reactivating atrophied muscles. The snatches weren't anywhere near as solid as those on my right side, but God-willing, they will be by the September RKC!

The majority of my left-sided workout is centered around the 35 lb-er. While I can certainly do 2-handed swings with the 70 and 2-KB swings with 53s, the 35 is the safest weight that I can control without doubt. Scary to think that not even a month ago, I was pressing a 70 lb KB, huh?

What's amazing to me, though, is the rapidity with which I'm regaining strength. The last time I had an atrophic muscular problem several years ago, I remember my left side looked like someone left it in a river with hungry piranhas. The atrophy was so pronounced and the scapular winging was really obvious. This time, I'm glad I have the rehabilitative technology available to me to manage this and rebound from it.

For those of you who are thinking about going to the RKC, sign up for the San Jose cert. I look forward to having the pleasure and honor of meeting you there, and to help (as Pavel would say) make better men out of you all, even the ladies. :-D

And if you want to find out more about rehabilitative kettlebell technologies and practices, check out the RKC II! It's come a LONNNNNNNG way since the first RKC II and it's truly worth its weight in gold.

Train hard, train smart, train KETTLEBELLS!

I'm down, but not out!!!

Viral brachialplexopathy... Who in the bloody hell ever heard of that?!?!?

Certainly not me. I've been involved with orthopedic medicine for a few years now, and that was a new one to me. I've heard of and treated people with virus-based diseases that attacked the nervous system - such as shingles & Guillain-Barre - but I definitely didn't recall learning about any disease where a virus attacks a specific branch of nerves, causing debility.... until it struck me.

A little more than 2 or 3 weeks ago, I started noticing some discomfort in my left arm. I figured it was just mild soreness from training, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Around the same time, I'd also had a mild stomach flu, so I assumed that the shoulder discomfort had to do with some flu-related body-aches as well.

The only problem was that the mild discomfort progressed into real pain, especially along the side of my neck and at the shoulder joint itself. The pain also came with pronounced weakness. Usually, most people can't differentiate weakness caused by pain inhibition and actual motor deficit. In my case, I've learned how to differentiate motor weakness from mere pain inhibition in my own body, and I could clearly tell that the arm/shoulder was getting seriously weak. I'd gone from working on pressing a 70 lb kettlebell to being unable to do a pushup.

I tried backtracking... What did I do that might have caused this? Did I strain it? Did I overtrain it? Did I take a bad breakfall in Shuai-Chiao? Did I hit something from a bad angle? Did I sleep on it funny? Did I get a venomous spider bite? Did I aggravate a pre-existing shoulder injury?
The answer to all of the above were a resounding NEGATIVE. So I started calling on my health care connections and made appointments to get treatment from 5 different doctors - 2 chiropractors, 1 osteopath, 1 acupuncturist, and 1 neurologist.

- All the standard orthopedics tests for rotator cuff tears or impingement were negative.
- The tests for nerve root compression were negative.
- And the only theory that sounded remotely credible (albeit weird) was that the root cause was viral.

I didn't get much explanation about that "viral" thing, and I assumed that to mean that the problem was lymphatic, so a good lymphatic drainage would lead to a major reversal in my symptoms... A little too presumptuous, however.

The posterior parts of my shoulder & arm were tightening up and really bothering me now. The teres muscles and the triceps were throbbing more often than not. It hurt to type, it hurt to treat patients, and it hurt to sleep! I was getting more miserable and increasingly desperate to find solid answers about what was going on. I knew this felt radically different from the rotator cuff injuries and tendinopathies I'd had over the years and from the shoulder joint injuries I'd also suffered.

Finally, a former student of mine, Dr. Tony C. Lin, who's a hot-shot orthopedics specialist in Hawaii, e-mailed me with a great explanation - viral brachioplexopathy. Immediately remembering that the other physicians mentioned a viral cause, although not giving me an explanation of the mechanism of injury, Dr. Lin's explanation made perfect sense.
The bottom line is this. The shoulder/arm/neck will hurt for a couple of weeks, and then the patient (me) will be left with lingering weakness and possible loss of range of motion for anywhere from 2 months to 2 years.

This same problem attacked one of my kettlebell students, and he told me that it hits him about once every 5 years. Now that the acute phase is over, where I was in nothing but pain, now I'm left quite weak on my left side.

But that's no problem. I'm not going to be left looking like the 1-armed bandit. Using a light kettlebell, I've begun rehabilitating my left side. While I can clean a 53-lb KB with certainty, I can't press more than 26 lbs right now with any measure of stability. No problem.

Slow, steady, consistent progress is the way to make things happen. It still hurts to type since my left arm starts tiring, twitching, and locking up, and last night was a difficult night of sleep. But I'm focused on making this get better.

I'll keep you posted. If all goes well, I'll be back to snatching the 53 lb KB for reps on my left side in time for the September RKC.... and a big thank you goes out to those of you who've dropped me e-mails and called to wish me a speedy recovery.

People often say, "Physician, heal thyself!!!" And with my trusty kettlebells nearby, I'll do my best not to let you down!