Satoru Sayama Highlight Reel MV

kettlebell "pood" ??

Traditionally kettlebells are made of cast iron and came in three weights, based on the Russian standard of measure called a “pood” (16 kgs.) There was a 1 pood (16 kilos), 1 ½ pood (24 kilos) and 2 pood (32 kilos) KB. For the metrically challenged those weights are approximately 35 lbs., 54 lbs, and 75 lbs. Now they come in weights from about 10 pounds to 150 pounds.

Myanmar(Burma) lethwei kid, KO fight

Kids Gets KTFO'd in Muay Thai Fight

WORKOUT PROGRAM


Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
WEEK A
AM posterior pull core push posterior METCON/BENCH
PM O-LIFT O-LIFT O-LIFT GYM BOX KALI

WEEK B
AM posterior pullnpush core hold posterior METCON/BENCH
PM O-LIFT O-LIFT O-LIFT GYM BOX KALI


PULL KIP, STRICT, ROW, SUM DEADLIFT
PUSH DIP, PUSH UP, BURPEE, HANDSTAND
CORE JACKNIFE, HANGING LEG RAISE, DIP LEG RAISE
PUSH N PULL MUSCLE-UP, BURPEE PULL UP
HOLD LEVERS

kettlebell swing

CYCLE 1 RUSSIAN SWING
 WKI     5*15
 WKII:  4*19
 WKIII   3*25
 WKIV  2*38
 WKV  1*75
 WKVI   20mins*AMRAP



 CYCLE 2 COMPETITION SWING
 WKI     5*15
 WKII:  4*19
 WKIII   3*25
 WKIV  2*38
 WKV  1*75
 WKVI   20mins*AMRAP

7 Kettlebell Swing Benefits

7 Kettlebell Swing Benefits

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Fitness training has changed in the last few years. Now you are just as likely to see people training on the latest fitness machines in the gym as you are fitness enthusiasts in the park swinging a funny round weight with a handle. Perhaps you saw a segment on the news talking about this thing called kettle bell training and aren't really sure what to make of it. Well kettlebells seem to be everywhere and are going from strength to strength.
So what is a kettlebell? A kettle bell sort of looks like an black steel bowling ball with a thick handle and come in various sizes usually ranging from 8kg to 48kg.
Used previously by old time strong men and popularised by Russian athletes, the kettlebell is now used by top sports teams, martial artists, athletes, Hollywood celebrities and everyday trainers throughout the world, due to the outstanding results people are getting.
The foundation kettlebell exercise is the kettlebell swing. The swing can be done with 1 or 2 hands. It involves hiking the kettlebell between your legs before using your hips and posterior chain to propel the kettlebell forward and up in a circular swing movement before it drops under control back between your legs. The following great benefits can be gained by training with kettlebell swings.
1). Kettlebells are highly efficient and allow you to do fitness and weight training in one workout at the same time.
2). Swings develop the important posterior chain muscles of the body such as the hamstrings, glutes, core and back. These muscles are often overlooked with traditional weight training but they are crucial for a large number of sports as these muscles are heavily involved in sprinting, jumping and tackling movements.
3). A kettlebell swing is a perfect choice of exercise for tabata training. This very short but intense style of training is ideal for kettlebell swings as they hit a lot of muscle at one time and get the heart rate soaring. Although Tabata training only involves work periods of 20 seconds with 10seconds of rest it is very brutal but very effective.
4). Swings work the abs and strengthen the core muscles as they provide a stable platform for other muscles to pull from. Traditional crunches are useless and do nothing for you, hit your abs with functional abdominal training that actually has benefit in the real world.
5). A key benefit of kettlebell swings is that they train all parts of the back from the lower back all the way to traps. They train all the muscles together giving you a great functional workout
6). High rep swings also develop back endurance which Professor Stuart McGill a leading spine/back expert considers has a very positive effect on the reduction of back injuries.
7). Swings are a fantastic conditioner and body fat burner. More and more studies are concluding that greater body fat burning occurs when training is performed at higher intensity levels rather than long slow endurance type training.
The above are only some of the benefits a program of kettlebell swings can provide. Although it sounds too good to be true there is a downside of kettlebell swings ... they are hard work. However, if you build into your program gradually, a program based around kettlebell swing movements will provide fantastic workouts to get you fit, lean and healthy in a surprisingly short amount of time.
For more information then check out this resource about kettlebells

How to Swing a Kettlebell Correctly!

The kettlebell swing is the foundation movement for a large proportion of kettlebell exercises.
The swing utilises a hip thrust that is fundamental to other kettlebell exercises such as the kettlebell clean and the kettlebell one arm snatch.
The swing maximizes muscular endurance in the back and waist, is a great lower body strength builder and is a highly effective conditioning exercise.
1) The starting position of the Two Arm Kettlebell Swing is with the kettlebell on the ground in front of you, knees bent, your weight centered towards your heels and your back flat
2) Start the movement by hiking the kettlebell behind you and then drive your hips forward to propel the kettlebell through its arc. The movement is similar to performing a standing broad jump, but of course you stay in the same spot
3) Your arms are just hooks and the power comes from the movement of the hips and the muscles of the posterior chain ie, hamstrings, glutes, lower back.
4) Swing the kettlebell to about chest height. At the top of the movement breathe out whilst contracting your quads, glutes and your abs (by tilting your pelvis up).
5) Breathe in and hold your breath as you let the kettlebell free fall back between your legs so that it passes through your legs as high as possible (to keep the arc tight and to stop unnecessary pulling on your back). Aim for your groin and then get your groin out of the way by taking you hips back
6) Although different trainees will have varying amount of knee bend the important thing is that the hips go back and thrust forward and that the quads do not take over the exercise. You should feel the movement in your hamstrings. If your quads are instead fatiguing then you are not taking the hips back at the bottom of the movement.
Kettlebell swings are a fantastic exercise for fitness and conditioning and to develop strength and power in the posterior chain. If you require any further information I suggest you check out this kettlebell hub.

Thoughts and Opinions on Violence and Defending your Life Part I







http://www.adamtglass.com/2011/03/15/thoughts-and-opinions-on-violence-and-defending-your-life-part-i/

Thoughts and Opinions on Violence and Defending your Life Part I
by adam on March 15, 2011


Normally I like to jack ass around on my page but I am going to be a bit more serious for this topic.

The most dangerous predator in the history of the world is close by and possibly hunting you right now.

Never before has our planet seen such a cunning beast, one which is capable of incredible violence and wrath.

I am not taking about T Rexes, Great White Sharks, or Tigers.

I am talking about you. Me. Your next door neighbor Nancy. That nice old fellow who delivers you mail. The young girl who serves you coffee in the morning.

There is no animal on this planet even half as dangerous as a human being. There never has been an animal which will injure and kill for so many reasons & motivations.

Equipped with superior intelligence, problem solving skills, logical thought processing, a wide emotional spectrum, greed, fear and an increasingly greater number of mental illnesses. Prone to abuse of various mind altering substances this over-stressed predator can shift from docile and calm to raging in seconds: suddenly and unpredictably. We see rampant violence and horror in all areas, world wide, where this beast lives. This is the make up of man.

If we look at almost all other predatory animals, we see they will kill to feed. They will often fight to defend territory, and most of this is posturing. If attacked they will fight back, but there is an order to who is attacking whom.

Human beings on the other hand will injure, maim, destroy and kill for a wide range of reasons: a muddy mixture of wants, needs, fantasies, ideologies, biases and illnesses. And more often than not these influences are unknown/unconscious processes to the ones who act out. Not only will this creature hunt you down, it may do so for infractions and infringements which occurred years back, or that had an impact that was unknown to you.

I could write up a huge paper on why violence occurs, or we can agree to settle on this single point: Violence occurs. The motivation is not very important for the purpose of this article.

My back ground with violence.

As far back as I can remember I have had a mild obsession with it. Certain characteristics are fascinating to me. Why is it that given all of our talents and higher order functions, we seem to be primarily driven by a motivation to take, and take, and take from others?

I have a little brother, his name is Bryon. He and I used to fight all of the god damn time. I am certain we gave each other our first black eyes, busted lips, blood shot eyes, and countless bruises and bumps. One day while wrestling around he had me in a head lock and put me face first through the front door glass screen. I think a year or two later I hurt his ankle real bad with a heel hook. He was the first person I ever choked out, I was the first person he knocked the wind out of. I imagine I developed 90% of the submission techniques I know on him. I would like to think I built in him pain tolerance and a mindset to never fear anyone. No one ever fucked with either of us growing up.

There was no reason to fear anyone else, there was nothing they could do in my mind that I had not dealt with before. (obviously as a little guy I was not considering the introduction of weapons)

I miss my little brother.

I was never bullied in school, and I never bullied anyone else. I saw things from time to time but I very rarely had any inclination to get involved. Some black eyes and bloodied lips here and there, but that to me more of a natural rite of passage between young males. It’s usually posturing, not typically true asocial violence.

From the time was little I was encouraged to wrestle by my uncle. He was a gold medalist in the junior Olympics and traveled all over the world as a teenager wrestling in both free style and greco-roman. He no shit had a shot at making the US team, but at age 18 he was stricken with some severe health problems which in many ways wrecked his life.

I miss my uncle Joe. He lives in Michigan and I have not had much of a chance to see him either over the last decade.

My father and uncles could easily have been described growing up as “pain in the asses” and “trouble makers” which are also the exact words my grandfather still uses to describe them. They used to fight a lot growing up.

I am not certain of many details relating to that, but I do remember the lesson which was passed on to me.

It was not ok to pick a fight, but worse than picking a fight was getting your ass kicked. It was not ok fuck with someone else, but it was unacceptable to allow anyone to fuck with me. My family taught me a lot, and that was one which I have passed on to many during my travels.

Don’t be a bully, and don’t ever be a victim.

You know what a victim is? Someone who choose not to fight back.

Every time I have said that, I get someone who gets pretty fucking upset. Good. Being attacked does not necessarily make you the victim, doing nothing guarantees you will be.

We will talk about that idea very soon.

People do not want violence in their life (for good reason) and they do not want to be victims. I am fairly certain no one wakes up and wants to be the victim in theory, but their actions and belief systems maybe the lynchpin which enables it.

So where do many people turn when they want to rid themselves of the fears of violence?

Traditional Martial Arts. Karate, TKD, Kung Fu, and all the various minor stems of these branches.

My career path in the Military put me in the way of preparing others. For violence. To commit it, and to withstand it. I was selected because I was willing to do it. I was selected because of my skills as an instructor. I was given more and more room to continue because I was good at what I did.

With that said I have some issues with TMA and I am going to share with you some of them now.

What bothers me about traditional martial arts is the idea of it taking 3-5 years to be able to defend oneself.

That is a bad belief system. If someone is currently seeking combative/self defense skills it is because they are afraid at some level. What is the game plan here if you think you need to be in the dojo several times a week for over 150 weeks before you can defend yourself?

It is not hard to hurt another human being, criminals are not preparing for 5 years to jump you in the parking lot. Traditional martial arts in this country have fallen so far from their intended purpose that it is laughable they still carry the “martial” in the title. Art is appropriate because science is rarely found in the dojo.

Chi, mystical energies, bowing to the winds, looking for favor from gods, channeling dead relatives; If your current violence practice involves these things you are likely losing a lot of time doing stupid shit.

In the Military I had a lot of work with apprehension techniques, PPCT, restraint techniques, blades, clubs, guns, defensive tactics, and combatives. I have had the opportunity to work with all other branches of service and several ally nations. I really like the idea of no fucking style, just learn what works and stop doing it when it stops working.

Modern combative practices have been shaped much over the last few decades since its rebirth in America from WWII. Men such as Tony Blauer, innovator of the SPEAR system. Tim Larkin, founder of Target Focus Training group, have turned the focus of warfare and violence back to warfare and violence. Not silly pajama parties and discussions of the 15 ways to deflect a reverse punch thrown with the left hand from a bow stance.

I would also like to thanks my primary instructors D. Fischer and D. Olernick for a lot of lumps and bruises.

As a combatives instructor, I can tell teach you how to harm someone badly in a very short period of time. Just a few hours. Let’s examine this later on.

At this point in my life I have used all of the shit I have been taught. I have a perspective on violence which I didn’t necessarily ask for but definitely aligned my ass in a vector to receive.

Some opinions.

Traditional martial arts in America have become bull shit if the topic is defending your life.

Take up traditional martial arts if you want to put on pajamas, bow, and practice a slow set of strange movements to fight 100 men in the corn field. Take traditional martial arts if you like to pretend that you are Bruce Lee or Samurai Jack. Send your kids to them to get some entertainment and positive interaction with other kids. TMA and little kids: send them to a stranger to learn discipline and respect if you are incapable of teaching them that yourself. Fail. Go yourself if the place has a decent fitness program. Do not let the silly serious talk slow you down, it is as serious as the cardio kick boxing at your local globo gym.

Do not confuse any of that horseshit with what real violence looks like.
Do not confuse any of the so called “self defense” courses being taught by Rex Kwan Do instructors as a serious option when lives are on the line.

Why would I say that?

#1 What does the greatest majority of traditional martial arts teach you do? Punch A, punch B, punch C, punch D, punch E, punch F. Practice again and again. Now learn a specific defense for each movement. Now learn 10 variations to that. More and more tools thrown at you each step of the way. Very cool for collection of movements. Neat and flashy to show off to your friends. Just please don’t try the Horse Stance Rotational Block Kata Sequence A when you have been stabbed twice from the guy asking for a lighter at 2 am…it is not important how you attack, it is important you inflict injury.

Also look up Hick’s Law, it will help you understand why the bigger tool box is a mistake.

#2 Traditional martial artists love them some katas. What the fuck was that supposed to be again? Ever watch someone do a kata? Even high level black belts are confused on exactly what they are supposed to be doing. They know exactly what the movement is supposed to look like, but they rarely know what it translates to when used against a human being. Cute for the dojo, very low utility for real violence. It is not important to look stylish or cool in a violent situation, it is important to injure your attacker.

#3 Fixation on trivial details. teaching 30 hand positions, investing hours and hours of precision inspection of stances, requiring students to learn Asian languages and history, instructor worship, bowing, saluting, praying to the winds…wasteful!

What are all these hand positions people think they will use? I am certain it is an old joke sent to the USA from China to get more Americans hands broken and bruised. Snake hand, dragon hand, tiger hand, blah blah blah.

It is not important how you position your hand. It is important to injury your attacker.

#4 For the most part, TMA in America are completely ass backwards concerning weapons: I want to compare some people who got it all fucked up with some who got it dead on. I have a friend who is currently a 3rd degree black belt in California in a very popular style of hard hitting Japanese karate. Even after 10 years of study, the only weapon he ever trained to use was a Bo. For those of you not familiar, a Bo is the weapon Donatello the ninja turtle used. A fucking long piece of wood. I fuck with him all the time about this. “hey bro you going out this week? You taking your broom stick with you”

A further problem associated to this silly shit: teaching people to use silly out dated weapons to fight other people who are also using silly weapons. There are many ways someone can try to hurt you, but swords, nunchuks, and sai’s are not the likely weapons of choice.


Literally nothing about this makes sense to me

Bo staff skills get trumped by hand guns, knives, and urban life
Now I will also point out my buddy James Neidlinger, who teaches people Pekiti Tirsia. That is a knife fighting system from the Vasayan region of PI. The first 30 minutes James works with you will include how to hold a knife, where the knife needs to go to hurt someone, and where it goes to kill someone. That is a man who has his priorities straight. James will tell you how to injure your attacker.

The only reason to learn how to use a weapon is to learn how to better injure a human being.

#5 Situational awareness skills, street awareness skills, conflict defusing skills, verbal skills- Not taught in VAST majority of TMA schools. Not even mentioned. Ok so here is your acid test on how useful a given “Self Defense” class will be to you. If it opens up with an instructor saying “See here is how to get out of a rear choke hold” you have fucked up and selected the wrong place.

What should you be taught? Awareness, awareness, awareness! Verbal skills, social interaction skill sets, for lack of a precise word you need to learn “street smarts” which is severely lacking. If more people were taught this a high % of violence in America would likely be reduced. That is the starting point. Physical skills for violence only accounts for a third or less of the skill set. And of course the only physical skill set it which is important is you injure your attacker.

#6 TMA focusing on being more of “X” then your opponent.

There is only one X factor to a violent situation. Who will go further faster? That is who survives.

Not the stronger person. There is always someone stronger. On a side note, how does a strategy of being stronger play out for women? What women is going to be stronger than her male rapist attacker? Stupid.

Not faster movement. This is a huge flaw. The fastest strike does not “win” the battle, the one that does most damage does. The person who hurts the other person worse.

Not who can go longer. Violent incidents start and finish very fast. If your plan is to out last your attacker by absorbing more blows or having greater cardio vascular fitness you are off track.

Not who is more “skilled” which is the core flaw of TMA. If you think you need to spend years in the dojo to protect yourself you are wrong. You know America loves to see a TMA get knocked out. Happens all the time. It happens because violence and injury do not regard your belt. Your position in your school. How many years of practice you have had. None of that matters. Plenty of incidents every year of highly trained black belts being severely injured. Often from a sucker punch ambush. Why? The answer is found in the previous 6 bullet points.

All that matters is who hurts who first, how badly they do it, and how willing they are to keep doing it.

A question I have for all of my TMA friends. Who do you think will be the one who is most likely to try and attack you and hurt you? I will give you three options.

Crackhead Tom, who needs a fix and has his trusty switch blade. He is waiting in the parking garage behind that Explorer your parked next to. Tommy never went to a dojo but he is pretty certain he can take your wallet after he sticks the knife in your abdominals 10-15 times.
Drunk Billie Bob, who feels like its time to validate his manhood by kicking your ass. He plans on starting with a Miller bottle to the back of your skull as soon as you are distracted by his buddies insistence you like to smoke cock at the rest area.
The evil master Shredder who is trained in the ninja arts. He will likely have a mutant animal to pit against you who is trained in the 7 finger bang method of Shu Ti Woo.
Just curious….

To quote Tony Blauer

“There are more untrained people who have been attacked and defended their life than there are black belts who have been attacked”

That STATE not the SKILLS, that is what will likely decide your fate. In the future I will talking about this a whole lot.

So if you are in a traditional martial art, enjoy it for the “art” enjoy it for the community, and enjoy it for fantasy and fun. But please stop peddling that shit off as a viable solution to criminal asocial violence.

Mixed Martial Arts: awesome sport. Not for defending your life.

The mixed martial art game and Jujitsu are the fastest growing sport in America. I think that is awesome. What fantastic sports they are. Development of spirit, strength, mobility, endurance, leans someone up, and has a very strong social component.

I can’t say enough good things about this sport.

It is a sport, and only a sport.

If you understand the nature of violence, and how easy it is to harm someone, you will quickly understand the two places you don’t want to be is on the ground, or wrapped up with one someone.

There are some very impressive techniques which would absolutely get you fucked up with a violent individual in an icy parking lot.

Don’t believe me, fine. Here is the experiment. Find someone who you think can kick your ass with their grappling. Tell them to grab you up. Your only job is to see how many times you can stick your fingers on their eye brow ridge or grab the inside of their leg next to their testicles. Every time you can touch their eye brow is a time you could have gotten a finger in to their orbital socket. Every time you touch their leg is a ripped sack or torn off dick. You will quickly find the limitations of someone trying to hold you down on the floor.

Second experiment, grappler vs edged weapon. Take a magic marker, put it in your pocket. Have your ass whupping grappler put the ju-ju on you. Your only task is to get to the marker, and touch them with it. Their job is to shut you down. Much learning will take place.

So nothing is wrong with the sport, but don’t confuse your tools.

MMA is an awesome sport, but should not be a first choice for defending your life.

So what is the alternative offering? I will talk about that next time. As typical, I will provide actionable information which you can use.

For my readers here, spare us the dignity of the TMA talk. Relating to criminal violence it is the wrong first call.

What to do right now? Check out Frankie’s article on Violence



P.S. did you get your copy of my new Ebook? It’s right on the side of the page. You will love it.

Strength and Power - The Weapons of Mass Destruction - Mark Buckley

Strength and Power - The Weapons of Mass Destruction

Mark Buckley

"If we are able to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponent will be in dire straits’" - Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

To condition a fighter for war, the methods used must reflect the relentless and violent nature of the sport.

Traditional weight training –although effective at making the fighter look the part does little to improve athletic performance.

The over-reliance on machine training and body building type protocols only serves to DETRAIN the fighter –with isolated training techniques building isolated biomotor abilities.

‘The body knows nothing of muscles –only movements’ –Karl Bobath

Training needs to address the Biomotor Co-dependence of the sport with methods based on movement patterns not muscles.

Top: Isolated training techniques building isolated Biomotor abilities, not skills or functional movements.
Bottom: Integration exercises generally develop multiple Biomotor abilities and when properly prescribed will develop relevant motor patterns.
Reference: Paul Chek ‘Movement that Matters’

Paul Chek, a leading authority in strength and conditioning, developed the ‘PRIMAL PATTERN™’ system to train athletes within the parameters of motor learning and performance –a system based on years of clinical observation correlated with motor learning research.
It is surmised that most sports can be broken down into any single Primal Pattern™ or a combination of these Primal Patterns™:

Squat
Lunge
Push
Pull
Bend
Twist
For example:


Picture courtesy of Paul Chek Seminars

Throwing a ball –which is a similar biomechanical sequence to throwing a punch; is a chunking of the following Primal Patterns™

Lunge (A)
Twist (B)
Push (C)

Picture courtesy of Paul Chek Seminars

If a fighter is deficient in any one of these three key movement patterns or lacks the skill to integrate them into the Generalised Motor Program of throwing a punch – their ability to express this movement with strength and power will be drastically reduced!

To learn more about this ‘Primal Pattern™ system I strongly encourage the reader to review the book ‘Movement that Matters’ by Paul Chek.

Training with CRITICAL MASS™ allows the fighter to train in accordance to both their Biomotor and Primal Pattern™ profiles.

As I stated at the beginning of this article – To condition a fighter for war the methods used must reflect the relentless and violent nature of the sport. CRITICAL MASS™ training is a punishing way to achieve this and its application is for one reason only –to develop strength and power to a level of unstoppable force!

The CRITICAL MASS™ exercises demonstrated in this article are very advanced. If you have a strength training history of less than 2 years or a background of isolated training techniques – you need to progress very slowly.

When performing each exercise use the tempo (speed of movement) that is best suited for your training level:

Beginners: Slow – Moderate tempo.
Advanced: Fast – Explosive tempo.

These exercises are brutal and will challenge both your physical and mental fortitude – but stick with it and remember:

"Winners never quit and Quitters never win" - Ali

snatch & the grey man