Hard Work, Functional Strength and a Tan

I struggled with gaining muscle weight my whole life.

When I was about 16 I got into power lifting and bodybuilding to supplement my karate training. I got pretty strong, and although I did put on some muscle, I never got really big.

Then it happened. I was 17 and fighting in a hard-core karate tournament. I got really messed up. Actually, I suffered a head injury and my heart stopped. Needless to say, I lost that fight.

A few months later, after going from being in the best shape of my young life to the worst shape of my life I left the country. I went to Israel where I stayed for quite some time.

I wound up on a kibbutz (a farming collective) that made its money from agriculture and manufacturing. I luckily was put to work initially in the avocado fields.

I spent over eight hours a day digging ditches, removing boulders and planting many hundreds of 30 lb. avocado saplings. I was partnered with a 65 year-old pioneer, ex-resistance fighter and partisan that loved to work and exercise. Keeping up with him was next to impossible. I felt like such a wimp.

I would come home tired, sore and smelly every day. I would try to go to the weight room, that my "partner" was in charge of, but I didn't have much left in me. I would also eat a lot just to refuel.

Then, slowly, work got fun. I loved the challenge of digging the ditches, of lifting all those boulders and getting those trees in the ground.

Removing the boulders and planting the trees required similar movement patterns. There was a lot of lifting, rotating and lowering, over and over. We used our legs, arms, back and core. There was no such thing as “three sets of ten” with a “rest between our sets”.

After about a month I noticed something. I had big shoulders and I packed on about 15 pounds of muscle. I also got a great tan and actually looked healthy again.

All those years of struggle in the weight room were over shadowed by about a month working in the fields!

Today there is a big movement toward functional training. Many strength coaches are coming to the realization that moving the way we did 100 years ago when we really had to work for a living is now one of the best ways to train. Go to any working farm and you will see incredible training sessions going on every day. Most of my friends that did this type of hard manual labor became elite combat soldiers. They transitioned into that role more easily than their counterparts from the cities.

Lifting heavy sandbags, carrying and lifting kettlebells, using super heavy medicine balls, climbing ropes, lifting kegs, training with only bodyweight, and using heavy rubber bands may seem extreme for some but I assure you there is a place for all that training if you are serious about getting strong, performing better and feeling great.

So get rid of the little weights for toning and start getting serious. You don’t have to start training for the “World’s Strongest Man” contest but go out and train hard, train “raw”, train standing up, use different movement planes and explore “new” (old) training concepts. There is a better, stronger you waiting to emerge.

Respectfully,

Jeff Fields

www.real-strength-training.com
www.strongtothecore.com

The Kettlebell Swing

The basic kettlebell swing is one of the best overall conditioning exercises. This basic movement can be modified and made more intense. The potential variations to this movement make it a great exercise to help anyone reach his/her fitness goals.


Make sure to keep the chest up, shoulders back and drive through the hips. This is NOT an arm movement but rather a leg, hip and core dominated/generated movement.

Once the 2 handed swing is mastered try one hand at a time. You can also switch hands at the "top" of the swing. The swing can be done walking forward and sideways also. There are many more variations than that, so have fun but be safe.

Try 1-3 sets of 10-20 reps to build power endurance. You can train the swing almost every workout. use good common sense and don't overdo to much of a good thing. Try coupling the swing with a push-up, a chin-up, a band "snap down", or even a box jump. You can get a great workout by combining any (or all) of these movements with the swing.


Workout example:

Swing x 10-20 reps
Push-up x 11-20 reps
Chin-up x 3-10 reps

Repeat for 3-4 rounds. This will wake you up. It is quick and simple, but very effective.