1.
How did you develop an interest in kettlebells?
Truth be known,
for at least a few months there early on I was an anti-kettlebell
person; buying in to the bullshit that you can just use
a dumbbell. How wrong I was.
My ultimate interest in kettlebells
has always been the access they give to people to perform
movements that they never would have in a normal environment;
whether it is an athlete or some just looking to lose a
few pounds. It is all about having the accessibility to
the fastest journey from point A to point B and kettlebells
provide that.
2. Most programs are written specifically for strength or
specifically for fat loss. How do you program for both?
I think people used to think
that they could not do both; but there is a trend out there
that that is starting to insert heavier loading into fat
loss programs. I think most of us would agree a large degree
of fat loss is changing what goes into your mouth.
Troy Anderson
Strength and fat loss actually go
quite well together, although we have been conditioned to think
otherwise. When you think about it with pure strength work you
should use relatively low volume work and with a restricted fat
loss diet you don't want to expend too much energy.
Here's a personal example : I did
the better part of a train-up for a strongman contest while using
something called the velocity diet (fairly restrictive fat loss
protocol) and it did not effect performance at all.
3. Why use kettlebells for strength and fat loss when you can
use other tools?
Ultimately it is accessibility.
If you are a pretty decent coach and your client has the physical
ability with kettlebells the door is wide open.
It's really as simple as this -
the vast majority of people can't squat or deadlift worth a damn,
and we can get proficient at that stuff quickly with a kettlebell.
There is no psychological 'hang-up' of having to 'address a big
weight' and that is beyond value. Not only in long term movement
quality but in regard to fat loss too they use more of the 600
principle as my friend Dax Moy likes to call it; in short they
are using more of their 600 muscles and that is a good thing when
it comes to fat loss.
Not to mention we can progress them
to things like swings, snatches, get-ups and flowing complexes.
For athletes it is sad to say but
most of them are pretty strong but move like shit, it allows the
access again to refine some movement and coordination and then
put the foot on the pedal and go into advanced movements again
while having a very short learning curve, it's very powerful.
When were are honest about things
we need athletes in & out fast with high impact results, not
spending a ton of time teaching minutiae or refining technique.
Kettlebells are the perfect blend
of a tool that provides diversity, and accessibility to many different
populations; whether it is performance strength work, metabolic
work, or even mobility work with just a couple kettlebells. As
someone who needs their 'tools' to make money, that is invaluable.
4. Why double kettlebells?
Well as you may have figured I am
not much of a 'load nazi', that is the apparent thing that the
double kettlebell provides and for most people and athletes that
is enough.
With the kettlebells we are allowed
the opportunity to move relatively heavy weight fast, and this
very good for developing athleticism and even better for fat loss.
There is another component and this
something I call integrity; basically when someone is forced to
hold the kettlebell(s) in the rack position regardless of the
movement it just brutalizes the core in a good way, in other words
it keeps people from being lazy and at the same time slips in
a sneaky little bit of core work.
5. Can you describe a sample workout?
We have a variety of signature workouts
from Big Iron Burn (BIB), Chaos Method (CM), and Smoke Session
(SS). Things that make our program a bit different from purely
the exercise standpoint.
We have a 'pick your own ending'
style with the chaos method that switches things up everyday or
Big Iron Burn which is a primary movement plus a burn circuit
that supports the movement developed in the big iron portion.
Then we have the metabolic Smoke
Session. Ultimately the programming is set up to sustain progress
whether you are a kettlebell newbie or a fitness enthusiast so
you will be able to step in and get kickass results.
Since most people want to feel like
they worked out here's an example of a workout that I shot this
fall with a football theme.
6. Do you think people need coaching for kettlebells, or is it
something you can pick up on your own?
If I said yes it would be a little
hypocritical, as that is how l learned plus a little help from
my good buddy Josh Henkin.
That said, any time we can get direct
coaching it will expedite the learning curve and for some reason
kettlebells seem to be a little unnerving for a lot of people;
even athletes.
As a matter of fact just today I
had a highland games athlete in and she was horribly nervous about
kettlebells but we had her doing snatches with very good proficiency
in about 10-15 minutes; although they need some polish she was
doing a very good job with them.
I guess the point I am trying to
make is it is dependent on your base of movement ability, if you
are straight off the street with jacked up hips and shoulders,
overweight, and have never worked out sure a coach would be a
very wise decision; however if you are healthy athlete with pretty
good movement ability you can probably pull it off on your own.
If you fall somewhere in between
then your application of coaching should be relative to your movement
ability; or another way to put it - if you pick up a kettlebell
uninstructed and do nothing but lever your back and whack the
shit out of your wrist and forearm, a coach might be a good idea.
7. There are several types of kettlebells out there. Which would
you recommend?
Good question, my little herd of
kettlebells is pretty diverse so I believe I can give you an objective
opinion, and I am not tied to anyone company per se.
Probably the 2 most important things
to look for in a kettlebell are:
1.How the kettlebell sits on your
wrist/forearm in the rack and overhead position
2.The handle mold - there is nothing worse than a jacked up handle
that is rough and/or misshapen.
After we have that out of the way it is pretty much up to personal
preference.
•Do you like a painted kettlebell
or a rough coat?
•Do you like pounds or kilograms?
•Do you like a thick or a thin handle?
Personally the brand that I like
right now is Christian Fitness Factory - their kettlebell has
a slightly longer handle and fits most people's body in just the
right place.
8. How would you modify your workouts for different sports?
I think it might be best to look
at this from an athlete's stand point; as in what is important
to work on with them and what do they need to develop/improve.
Do I have a football player with
a jacked up shoulder, what is his/her movement ability and can
use something like a get-up to help this athlete get better?
Maybe/maybe not.
Do I have a highland games competitor
that needs get used to moving a relatively heavy weight with
pretty much one side of their body and do it with speed, is
the snatch a good tool for the job? Maybe/maybe not.
Do I have an ironman tri-athlete
that is 8 weeks from the event they have trained 12 months for
and they have a 'bad back' flare-up? Are heavy kettlebell front
squats the right tool? Maybe/ but probably not.
I guess what I am saying is that
the kettlebell provides the access to very effectively put the
power in the programming.
If you need optimal strength developed
- no trouble; need some rehab/movement integrity work - no trouble;
need endurance work or conditioning - no trouble. The kettlebell
give us the access to do this.
To make a very general point most
sports start from a pretty similar position - the classic staggered
athletic stance. Which basically means we usually need to develop
force from the ground, accelerate through the hips, and then likely
distribute that force in some way out through the upper body.
So the #1 priority is developing
'good hips' - the kettlebell gives us access to do this whether
it is swings or get-ups or something else.
9. What does your current training regimen look like?
One of my current physical goals
is to take my body to a level of leanness I haven't ever achieved
before so for that - from a programming standpoint - I am using
two different programs that will fit my goal lifestyle well.
The is first is called Horsepower
which is a cool program because of the simplicity, you do 3 sets
of 3, 6,9,12 reps for 4 different movement completing an entire
set of all movements and repeating. In my case this provides a
strength stimulus in several areas and this program is done with
double kettlebells.
The second program that I am using
is called Microburst and it is done with kettlebells and/or sandbags
this is 4 movements (I generally keep the movements pretty simple)
done for 8-12 reps per movement with 4 minutes to complete all
the reps for each movement, whatever is left is rest and this
is repeated for a total of 4 circuits. The really cool thing about
both these work sequences is that they can be completed in 30
minutes or less.
10. What kettlebell moves do you see people doing wrong, and
how might they correct them?
Probably the top
ones in no particular order are cleans, presses, swings, and
get-ups. The reason for faulty technique in most of these instances
is either that the speed and/or complexity of the movement is
just too much for the individual to handle at that point, or
some kind of orthopedic or neural issue, which may or may not
be fixable.
The best correction
tips I have are:
•Use the body
as a single unit.
•Use progressions to help reverse engineer your final result.
•Watch video if you don't get a coach; of others doing
it then video yourself see what you look like.
•Practice but really shoot for perfect practice each rep,
on a good day it might only be two good ones of ten, but it
will improve with time.
