Condition Kettlebell Gym

Today I got a Facebook message from a friend of mine out in California who told me I should make a kettlebell dvd on an Indo board.  He then asked me how I incorporated unstable surface training into my classes here.  I started to go on a rant about how unstable surface training puts your body into startle which causes performance to suffer.  Then I was going to explain that there is no need to put an unstable surface under someone who has any trouble executing a single leg deadlift perfectly standing on a non-moving surface.  Most people have a hard enough time standing on one foot when the ground is NOT moving, so why encourage poor form and startle reflexes??  But then I stopped to think….  my friend is an avid surfer.  His practical strength applications consistently occur on an unstable surface.  And since the body ALWAYS does EXACTLY what you train it do, an unstable surface is a great place for him to train with bells.  That just shows that people have to use their heads.  There is a time and a place for most everything.  Just be smart about how you apply training tools.

           I got my R-phase certification a little over a year ago and Z Health principles have shaped my training philosophies and have had a substantial impact on how things are done at Condition.  We always start and end with pieces of the neural warm-up and apply Z principles to our strength training, but until yesterday I had never done an actual assessment for someone who just came in to have a Z mobility assessment.  I have helped people in classes and worked with them on drills to help with strength increases and regaining mobility but if someone just wanted a straight up mobility assessment, I would always pass them on to Katie “the Brain” Bigelow.  But now that Katie is no longer on the East Coast, I had to step up and take it myself.

Z project #1 came in and had limited shoulder mobility and could not tilt her head laterally without pain.  I started with ankle tilts and toe pulls but while we were doing them she said “This is fun!  I do stuff like this all the time.”  No surprise that those exercises didn’t give much improvement.  I then moved to hip circles in rehab position.  Shoulder range of motion increased about 3 inches.  Aha.  Then we went onto work on the neck mobility.  We started with pelvis tilts (a/p and lateral) and pelvis circles.  Her range of motion didnt increase but the range that she COULD move into was now pain free!

She was so happy!  It was great to be able to help someone move pain free and as a bonus regain a little Z confidence in myself.

Fox 5 Atlanta did a couple of live broadcasts here Wednesday morning on the post election morning show.  Stephen Belan, RKC did a great job of running the classes while they did the interviews.

Segment one:
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=7795584&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1

Segment Two:
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=7796142&version=1&locale=EN-US

A couple of weeks ago I purchased Kenneth Jay’s Advanced Strength Strategies DVD and was extremely impressed with the content.  It was a little pricey, so I was hesitant at first but this is not the follow along workout DVD that many of you may be used to.  In this DVD, the Dane of Pain goes in depth in explaining the research behind his Master’s of Kenesiology Thesis project - complete with graphs and charts and Q and A.  The information on the DVD was worth much more than the price.  For the last 3 weeks, all I have done as far as working out is the 15:15 protocol for times ranging from 20 to 40 minutes and I absolutely LOVE that workout.  I have lost 3 pounds and feel leaner - not trying to and not changing anything else.  But more than anything, I love the way that workout makes you feel.  It’s rigorous and you kind of zone out for awhile and really get into snatching.  I don’t know about you guys, but I have never been able to get into yoga.  Not that there is anything wrong with yoga but I get really bored really fast.  For me, the VO2Max puts me in a zen-type state that I imagine compares to the zen state others get from yoga.  It is by far my favorite workout.  I heart VO2Max.