The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The No BS Kettlebell and Bodyweight Kickstart Program by Aleks Salkin

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

The No BS Kettlebell and Bodyweight Kickstart Program by Aleks Salkin https://amzn.to/3FMJdLd Alekssalkin.com Cut Through the Endless Sea of Training BS Get Strong, Resilient, and Fit With 1 Kettlebell and Your Own Fair Flesh When it comes to getting real-world strong, carving out a lean, athletic physique, and building a body that turns heads and drops jaws, nothing beats the 1-2 punch of kettlebells and your own bodyweight. Yet most budding kettlebell and bodyweight enthusiasts struggle, strain, and ultimately FAIL to make any real progress toward their goals – instead racking up aches, stiffness, and discomfort in place of new personal records, finding themselves in an endless cycle of being stuck at Square 1. To make matters worse, probably not 1 in 1,000 personal trainers (even many of the so-called “experts”) knows how to combine these tools into an effective, efficient program for busy people with big ambitions and little time. That’s why I wrote The No-BS Kettlebell & Bodyweight Kickstart Program. I took the best tips, tactics, techniques, and strategies that I’ve learned from over 10 years of teaching real people like you – NOT natural athletes – how to positively dominate the essential kettlebell and bodyweight moves in less time than they thought possible. If you’ve got a kettlebell, a suspension trainer, and a little bit of floor space, all you need now is this book and a little bit of grit and you can be well on your way to new and exciting levels of brute strength, raw power, and personal confidence. Show Notes About The Guest(s): Alex Salkin is an internationally recognized leader in the world of strength and fitness for busy professionals and entrepreneurs. He is the author of two bestselling books, "The No BS Kettlebell and Body Weight Kickstart" and "Tamers of the Lost Arc." Alex is known for his expertise in kettlebell training, calisthenics, and natural human movement. He has taught workshops in multiple countries and is dedicated to helping individuals improve their health and fitness. Summary: In this episode of The Chris Voss Show, host Chris Voss interviews Alex Salkin, an expert in strength and fitness for busy professionals and entrepreneurs. They discuss the benefits of kettlebell training and how it can improve overall health and fitness. Alex explains why kettlebells are his preferred tool for strength training and highlights the convenience and effectiveness of using kettlebells at home. He also emphasizes the importance of focusing on strength and movement quality over cardio workouts and shares insights on common roadblocks that individuals in their forties and beyond may face. Alex provides valuable tips for maintaining health and strength as we age and offers advice on incorporating kettlebell training into a fitness routine. Key Takeaways: Kettlebells offer convenience and effectiveness for strength training at home. Strength training helps combat muscle wasting and improves power and speed. Proper posture and mobility are essential for maintaining a youthful appearance and overall health. There are no exercises that should be avoided based on age, but starting with appropriate movements is crucial. Crawling and loaded carries are effective exercises for core activation and overall strength. The ability to get up and down off the ground without assistance is correlated with longevity. Grip strength is an important indicator of overall health and should be maintained. Kettlebell ballistic lifts provide an opportunity for explosive muscle activation and can be done safely with proper instruction. Quotes: "Fitness, strength, health is actually a lot simpler and more straightforward than most of us have been led to believe." - Alex Salkin "Strength training allows you to get a very good fitness session in without necessarily having to break a sweat." - Alex Salkin

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. We certainly appreciate you guys coming by, because what would we do without you?

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man, I learned some really cool shit today. And so I hope you do too. And I hope that you share it because sharing is caring. And if you don't share it, well, do you really care? For the sure sure your family friends relatives go to goodreads.com fortunes chris foss linkedin.com fortunes chris foss youtube.com fortunes chris foss and chris foss one on the tickety-tockety we're gonna learn how to improve your health how to improve your body your weight your mind everything's getting improved today

damn it or else uh we have alex salkin on the show today and he's gonna be talking to us about his uh he's got a couple different books but his latest book the no bs kettlebell and body weight kickstart program came out august 7 2022 and we're gonna be talking to him about how you can improve your life. If you improve your body, you improve your mind, people. And some of you, I've seen your bodies and I've seen your minds, and you need to improve your body first because your mind has gone to crap. I don't know. You know who you are. Alex is named or referred to, it's a thing people call him, the Hebrew Hammer. There you go.

He is an internationally recognized leader in the world of strength and fitness for busy professionals and entrepreneurs with kettlebells, calisthenics, and natural human movement being his primary tools of the trade. He grew up scrawny, unathletic weak and goofy he just described my whole life he was exposed to kettlebells in the teaching and mythology of luminaries like pavel testeline there you go tim anderson and others in his 20s he has since gone on to become a highly sought after coach presenter and thought leader in the at-home fitness space and has taught or co-instructed workshops in six different countries, the United States, Israel, Italy, Australia, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. And he has workshops in several other more countries currently in development for the coming year. He's the author of the two best-selling books, The No BS Kettlebell and Bodyweight Kickstart,

and Tamers of the Lost Ark, Insider Tips to Smashing Your Plateaus. I thought it was going to be pelvis there for a second. It could have been. That would have been funny. Kickstarting Your Progress and Forging Bold New Strength in the Kettlebell Ballistic Lifts, as well as the nine-minute kettlebell

and bodyweight challenge, a free guide devoted to helping busy professionals and entrepreneurs breathe new life into their fitness in just nine minutes a day without giving up their current training program to do so. Welcome to the show, Alex. How are you? I'm doing great, my man, but I'll do better. How are you doing? There you go. I'm doing great, but I'll do better. How are you doing? There you go.

I'm doing great, but I'll do better. That kind of spun me on. That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. I love that reply. Give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the Kennel Bell universe in the sky? Well, probably the easiest way, because my name is spelled funny.

Like you and I were talking about just before the show started. My parents decided kind of like a light version of a boy named sue you know like we're going to give this guy kind of a a tough life so my name is alex salkin but it's spelled funny a-l-e-k-s so i always tell people and it is alexsalkin.com but probably the easiest way would be to go to nineminutechallenge.com it's named after my nine minute kettlebell and bodyweight challenge and uh if you go there that will get you all roads lead to alexalkin.com nine minute challenge.com will take you right there you don't have to worry about spelling my funny spelled name and all that uh nine minute challenge.com and you're good to go there you go so give us a 30,000 overview of your book, the No BS Kettlebell and Bodyweight

Kickstart Program. Well, the whole purpose behind it was that from when I got started, from that long ago time when I was scrawny, goofy, unathletic, weak, still handsome, but nonetheless, I had a lot of other physical issues that I had to overcome. One of the things I noticed is that even when I found good sources of information, like let's say on kettlebells or on calisthenics or any other number of different things, there was really very little information on how to put it together into a program where all of the benefits of all of these different tools and methods could kind of be married together in swoley matrimony and allow you to get into the best shape of your life.

And through the years, I have attended and assisted and taught at numerous workshops. And I realized that this was a problem that a lot of people, even in the intermediate and advanced levels, often struggled with. And given that I'm a bit of a nerd at heart, I always like to tinker and twist and just see what is it that I can do to get to the heart of the matter when it comes to fitness related things. And the whole purpose of this book is to show you how to use the foundational movements in the kettlebell, body weight, and then just human movement world, mix them together and get you the best possible strength training program to get your journey kick-started and get you crushing weakness in no time.

There you go. So why do you like kettlebells over like, you know, I guess they would call them the machines or, you know, just barbells and stuff like that? Why is kettlebells your favorite thing? Well, in the interest of full disclosure, to some degree, it is just a personal preference. You know, a lot of times people will ask like, oh, but why are kettlebells better than barbells or better than machines? And

the real question has to be better for what? You know, if you already go to the gym and you use barbells and you like them, you use machines and they're getting you great results, you're lifting dumbbells and you're looking great in the mirror with or without a shirt. Well, then I think you should keep doing that. But the issue is that for a lot of people, going to a gym requires that they add another 40 to 60 minutes just in driving there, not to mention another 30 to 60 minutes to train. They've got to wait for the machines or the equipment that they want to use. They've got to breathe in other people's BO and bad breath. There are a lot of things that are not great about gyms.

I like gyms personally. Who hurt you at the gym, BO and bad breath? Well, this was from my days as a geek, you know what I mean? Or at least a more obvious geek. Now I'm still a geek, but it's not as obvious. Next time I go to the gym, I'm going to be like, oh, shit, I can smell the BO now. I wasn't really thinking about it at first, but now you got me focused on it. It's called that reticular activating system.

You weren't even thinking about it before. Now you're going to be like, oh, I'm sitting on this machine. I got to wipe somebody else's sweaty sweat off of it. Well, usually that's mine. Oh! Well, that's what they hope you'll do. They want you to wipe your own sweat off so that you don't usually that's mine. Oh, that's well, that's what they that's what they hope you'll do. They want you to wipe your own sweat off so that you don't go in there and then you just, you know, slide off the bench or whatever it may be. One of the benefits. Sorry,

go ahead. Or the yeah, exactly. Or the B.O. B.O. It's harder to get that out of there. The sweat, you just wipe it right off. B.O. That that sticks around. But the great thing about kettlebells, calisthenics and movement is that they don't require a trip to the gym. Just a small investment in a couple of pieces of equipment. Very often, even just one kettlebell and let's say a pull-up bar or maybe some gymnastics rings is all many people are going to need for a very, very long time. And the commute is like 30 seconds. You go from your living room to the basement or, you know, the living room to the garage, something like that. So it takes away one of the biggest barriers for people's success, which is the commute, the complete lack of convenience to get stronger, fitter,

and healthier. If you can do it at home and you can do it effectively, kettlebells, I think, are unmatched for that. And naturally that. Naturally, your body weight goes with you anywhere you go, so it's pretty hard to say no to that. It's super, super effective for strength and fitness purposes. Yeah. Then one of the problems I have, if I go to the gym during the busy hours, which is most of the time during the day, I like to go late at night or in the early morning, sometimes you have to fight to get the bench you want or machine you want. Um, isn't there something else to it? Cause I, I know there's, there's something, there's some sort of scientific mechanics to, you know, when you're on a machine or a barbell that controls your, your, your sway

or your, or your thing using free weights gives you a little bit more, I'm not sure. I'm just trying to set you up for a lead in there. Yeah, I know exactly what you're referring to. We might say that machines, now machines do have some really great advantages that you might say that other pieces of equipment don't. And one of them is like that fixed path that you're referring to this is really really great for building a ton of muscle for so for people who are like serious about absolutely optimizing and maximizing their ability to build muscle machines can be great because they add a lot of stability which is necessary in order to move the most amount of weight so if you were to try to i mean if you've ever tried this like with a bench press let's say you can probably press a lot more

on a machine than you can on a bar and then you can probably press a lot more on a machine than you can on a bar. And then you can probably press a lot more on a bar than you can with a pair of dumbbells. So the more unstable the environment becomes, the harder it is to move more weight. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the machine is therefore superior, but for certain goals, it's absolutely superior. But the fact is that most people aren't solely looking to max out the amount of muscle that they can build. They also want strength they can use in the real world. And the real world is not perfectly calibrated. It's not perfectly stable. So you need to know how to operate in an environment like that. So I think free weights in general have a big leg up in that department. And kettlebells in particular are just this big, unwieldy and awkward piece of equipment.

So it really allows you to recruit a lot more muscle in all of your different efforts. And it's a bit more ergonomic in many ways because, you know, holding a dumbbell in certain positions, but kettlebells in many ways are going to allow you to move your body around the weight as opposed to expecting or move the weight around your body, rather, as opposed to expecting your body to sort of manipulate itself in order to make itself right for the weight or for the machine. I know that if I, you know, you can do the bar, you know, like with bench pressing and stuff, but I know that if i do the free weights where i have one on each hand as opposed to a barbell and i lift that way you know you've you've got to you know it's you've got to fight and control wanting to go a million different ways on you and so it's a whole different it's a whole different ball game than just going up down up down um and where you have that control where

you know it's not going to get weird on you uh but yeah i can see that and the kettlebells are kind of like like you said they're a little bit unwieldy um because of their build and stuff why do you think that makes them uh maybe a preferred thing in the way they're made and built? I would say, number one, the added challenge of the instability is going to naturally teach you how to fire up much more muscle. Now, again, this is the sort of a thing that maybe you could make this argument to some degree or another by just adding more weight on a barbell or more weight on dumbbells. With a kettlebell, you can manage to use a relatively light weight and still get quite a bit of tension on the muscle, a lot of muscle recruitment, depending on what the exercise is. And it's also very easy to do things like complexes. And a complex would be, you just go

from one exercise to the next without setting the weight down. These are things that can be done with dumbbells and can be done with barbells. Generally, they're a little bit more awkward to do. So it gives a kettlebell a, let's say a boost in that department, which is great for extra conditioning, you know, muscle building, things of that nature. And again, I think the other really big part about it is that it makes it a lot easier in my experience and the experience of many of my clients and students, it makes it a lot easier for you to be able to take one or two weights and really, really maximize your training without the need for thousands of dollars in investments and exercise equipment.

That's like the big problem people have. They're like, I want to get in better shape, so I'm going to buy this massive machine. It looks like that machine in alien 2 you know where or aliens where yeah you're like strapped into this thing you know and you're not even killing aliens so again that's another knock against the calories where again i guess kettlebells didn't exactly make a uh an appearance in the movie but they could have yeah maybe she could have won the war against the aliens there wouldn't have been any need for crappy sequels, but here we are.

There are a bunch of crappy sequels. Wow, who hurt you on the alien sequels? I know. There you go. I don't know why who hurt you is a callback joke. It's Ernie Weaver. She did. That's the joke.

There you go. Well, you know, she's done that with about one of the aspects of why fitness is important for entrepreneurs, business owners, and people in high-stress professions or just about anybody. once they're finding themselves constantly burning the candle on both ends, there's this thought that, okay, if I exert any more energy, all I'm going to be doing is wearing myself out even faster. So it is not uncommon for them to kind of put fitness and health on the back burner, but ultimately they end up spending a lot more time, money, and effort trying to regain the health that they lost by spending their time constantly under stress with business and family related things. And part of it really does have to do with just basic health. You need to be able to take care of yourself. If you're the one who's got to be the commander

and chief and the key guy to turn to when things start to go south. You need to be clear headed. You need to have good energy. You need to be focused. Fitness by itself can help to teach you that. And I think that if you select certain methods in particular, namely strength training, these are some things that can go a long way into helping make you a lot stronger, a lot more focused. And to a certain degree, not completely, but to a certain degree can also help with stress relief wow and i'm looking at the cover of your book and one of the aspects you mentioned is uh uh with one kettlebell you can do a lot of different things you don't have to have old two barbell set and you know bar and stuff you can use it for your left hand your right hand

you can do you know different things that you show doing on the thing. I, you know, I went down to the store to buy some bar, uh, some, the weights for the barbell one time I was like, shock how much they charge for the things. I'm like, it's a piece of letter. I don't know what it is, but I was like, that's a lot of freaking money for just, you know, a thing like what the hell. Uh, and, but you know, I guess, you you know they figure you sell it once and there's not a return buyers for those things but uh i can see that now where you can use the kettlebell for so many different things

and i don't have to buy like a whole gym set i think back in the day i bought like a thousand dollar gym set and it was like one of those uh you know, the whole thing, just like you said, the Sigourney Weaver thing. And it made all the difference. This is something that professionals could do in their office or an entrepreneur could do in their office. Absolutely. And, you know, it's great that you bring this up too because not only can they do it in their office, but if the focus is more on strength training than let's say just purely conditioning or cardio, both things that are very good and I think that people should focus on at some point or another. Strength training allows you

to get a very, very good fitness session in without necessarily having to break a sweat. So if you need to be presentable throughout the day and you need to make sure that you're also doing something that has a nice carryover into real world activities that you wanna get better at, making sure that you're stronger

does not require like a nonstop fast paced approach. It requires focus that's really kind of distilled down to maybe a few seconds, maybe a minute, a good couple of minutes in between sets. So it's a lot easier to integrate that into, let's say, a day-to-day program or into something that you can do on your lunch hour

that's not going to require you to spend an hour and a half in a gym, 10 to 15 minutes very often will get you in, out, and strong in no time. There you go. Get you in, out, and strong in no time. So you alluded to this a little bit. Why is focusing on strength and movement quality over cardio and conditioning workouts, et cetera, et cetera, other than, you know, you don't want to have BO at the office when after working out? Well, first and foremost, I want to make sure that I clarify that, you know, cardiovascular health is very important, but a lot of times people can get that very simply by just making it a point to walk quite a bit more. You know, you don't have to turn into like

Forrest Gump running across America to get good cardiovascular health, but just a little bit of extra walking will very often, at least at the beginning, take care of quite a bit. But the main issue that people run into as they start to get older is a phenomenon called sarcopenia or muscle wasting.

And after the age of 40, it's something like 5% of our lean muscle mass starts to deteriorate year after year if we are not actively working on maintaining it or gaining more. And strength training is a very good and very reliable way to help fight against this. And this is a sort of a thing that, again, it's just a matter of age. It's not a matter of like a Russian roulette, like, oh, maybe you're going to get it. Maybe you're going to get it. We don't really know. This is a pretty common phenomenon. And so making sure that strength remains one of your focuses is going to help take a lot of the bite out of that sarcopenia and might even allow you to put on more muscle in your fifties and

sixties than you had in your thirties ands if you play your cards right there you go if you play your cards right buddy uh i'm at that point at 55 you know it's it's uh you you've got to keep advancing it i mean you just otherwise you just you just lose it in fact i'm gonna go to my testosterone check here soon um i think i think i've finally reached the point where we need to do that um but we'll see uh i don't know. Everything seems to be working fine. It's just I just, I've had some friends that have switched over to getting testosterone at 55, and they seem to be really starting to, you know, muscle up much better,

and they say they're feeling a whole lot better. So I'm going to give it a whirl. I'm going to go have my testosterone checked at the very least, and I think most men should at my age um uh what are some of the common let alone speed bumps and roadblocks that men and women in their 40s 50s beyond need to take into consideration well one is definitely sarcopenia as mentioned earlier uh another big one is that you know as our muscle starts to kind of uh deteriorate waste away and you know

obviously i'm using conventional terms like we might we might use some more exact terms if we want to be very specific but um we have a tendency to start to lose our ability to generate power and speed and explosiveness this is very important because otherwise the type two muscle fibers if again if you want to be scientific about it and now now if you think about it, okay, you're 40, 50 years old, what have you, let's say you step into the street, car flies around the corner, you didn't see it, you don't have enough explosive lower body power to jump out of the way back onto the sidewalk when you're trying to cross the street. It can be very, very catastrophic situation. So the ability to react very quickly and to be able to do so without having this sort

of lag time between what your brain wants to do and what your body's capable of, very, very important. The other thing is we have a tendency, some muscles will get shorter, others will get longer. These are the so-called tonic and phasic muscles. Now you don't need to remember these terms. These are not going to be on a test, but you think about what a stereotypical old man looks like, kind of hunched forward, lurching forward, that sort of a thing. Some of the muscles in the front of the body tend to get shorter and muscles in the back of the body tend to get longer. So proper strength training and stretching and a focus on maintaining that sort of youthful posture as well as youthful strength vigor can help you to look and feel a lot younger. Even though your chronological age is going up, your biological age is not going to feel like it's, you know,

continuing to go through the roof. And it has a tendency also to help with your overall mobility because you're not sort of falling into yourself. You are able to maintain what we'll call like the plumb line. You know, you're able to just maintain the natural posture that you're supposed to have. So these are some big things that people in the 40s and their 50s really need to think about in terms of their strength training. Yeah. In fact, we had somebody on the show earlier talking about posture and how you sit and stuff. And I'm one of those people that I tend to slouch and I've kind of realized that if i don't start correcting some of this stuff i'm gonna hunchback a notre dame and uh that doesn't sound very fun at all

from some people i've seen going through it yeah you want to be the hunchback of notre gains you know what i'm saying yeah wow i like the way you uh reframe that and put some perspective on it uh this is why you know i guess it should be the no hunchback of notary notary games because you don't want to be like that really strong guy who's like looks like a like an embryo you know what i mean you're like yeah exactly uh the uh i mean these are really important things that people need to think about um are there any exercises people should avoid after a certain age? That's a good question. Yeah, this is a very good question. The short answer is no, but it comes with a but. So,

there are no exercises that are going to be inherently bad for you. There was a screenshot I saw many, many years ago that I thought was very funny. It was like, past the age of 50, don't do these exercises. And they were like all the best ones. It was like pull-ups and push-ups and squats and deadlifts and stuff like that. But the key is that you need to start off with wherever you are currently. And so sometimes people will make the mistake and they'll say, even with kettlebell training, they'll say, oh, I want to start doing a lot of kettlebell swings. And you know, they can't properly move at the hips. Their posture needs work. They don't have a lot of control and so they're would they were taking what would otherwise be a very good and effective movement and they're they're maybe doing it in a way that might lead them more toward injury so really the key is it's in some way or

another you want to start with movements that are going to be more likely to help you to get stronger and fitter but without putting you at a lot of risk. So I think movements that involve the gait pattern or the walking pattern, for instance, are very good. So crawling on the ground, believe it or not, one of the best movements that you can do at any age. Really? Oh, yeah. People bristle at the thought of doing it outside.

I love doing it outside because I know no one's going to bother me. They're going to be like, something's wrong with this dude. He's crawling on the ground, and he seems to mean to do it. Pack up the car, Margaret. We got to go. There's somebody in the park. He's crawling around. I remember one time I was crawling in a park and I looked over and there was a road going past it.

And somebody was like videoing me. Somewhere on the internet, there is a video against my will of me crawling through a park. I mean, that's just Saturdays around here. That's like after Friday night. Exactly. You're just trying to get to the penthouse. Why am I in a park? Why am I crawling?

Where are my clothes? Exactly. Why are people filming me? Why are people filming me? And why is there a police car here? That's every Saturday. So there you go uh it's one of those things it do you feel that maybe kettlebells are better for your core or can be better for your core they i'll put it this way they do require a good degree

of core activation but i think they would yeah they definitely do and but i think you could say the same thing about dumbbells and barbells depending on whether or not you're using them core activation but i think they would yeah they definitely do and but i think you could say the same thing about dumbbells and barbells depending on whether or not you're using them properly so i would say more than anything um they are good for the core in the same way that lifting any kind of free weight can be now there is a difference with the kettlebell in that you have a far better range of movements that you can do with ballistic lifts which are movements that you see people stereotypically doing with kettlebells. You know, like the really,

the movements with a lot of momentum, like swings and snatches and things like that. Those require a certain amount of like core, uh, we'll say core activation that you're not as likely to get with dumbbells and barbells because it requires this like really quick sort of explosive activation. Like if, if someone were going to punch you in the gut and you had to brace your core, dumbbells and barbells because it requires this like really quick sort of explosive activation like if someone were going to punch you in the gut and you had to brace your core that's the kind of

explosive like just all of a sudden uh core activation you can expect from kettlebell ballistic movements which again they can be done with dumbbells and barbells but generally not as well and they tend to be a bit more advanced for most people who like those pieces of equipment whereas they're much more approachable with a kettlebell yeah i would imagine they they kind of can maybe help build your core more because i mean it's it's like it's kind of like a freeway only a really really freeway the way i see it because even you know i even use freeways just kind of you know for select movements but with a kettlebell you know it's kind of so you know, for select movements. But with a kettlebell, you know, it's kind of so, you have to be a little more agile to take care of that thing.

And I believe, I would imagine, it works more in different muscles because you're using different ranges of motion, maybe. Certainly can. And I think it also lends itself better to certain types of movements, you know, ballistic movements, like I mentioned earlier, swings, snatches, things like that,

but also even overhead movements like military press, which is just you stand and then you put the weight over your head. Obviously, you can do these with dumbbells and barbells. Some people may not find them as comfortable with these implements, whereas with a kettlebell, again, it's a bit more ergonomic for most people. So it allows you to take advantage of this really, really good movement that you might not otherwise have. And generally speaking, I think it's fair to say that you can do with a kettlebell just about anything that you can do with a barbell or dumbbell, usually as well and sometimes better. I wish I could say that I came up with that observation, but this is one that people have been making for decades at this point. And I think it still holds up very, very well.

There you go. And you call this the secret weapon of athletes, kettlebells, the secret weapon of athletes, wrestlers, soldiers, professional strongmen, and physical culturists the world over. So, geez, I've been ignoring you this whole time going, that just seems unwieldy. I'm not going to bother with that. I've been overlooking that.

That and crawling, as we have just discovered just discovered you know you mentioned the crawling thing um i've talked about this a couple times on the show recently i saw the uh blue zones on netflix have you seen that yet no but i know what you're referring to yeah and one of the things they found they went and basically isolated areas where there were clusters of centurions, people who lived to 100 and were still very active and living full lives. And they were really not sure how long some of these people were going to live. And one of the key elements they found was their ability to be strength training active. And so they're active all during their life, uh, or all during their day,

you know, they're, they're out gardening, they're, they're doing stuff. They burn calories like all day long. Cause they're not, they don't sit.

One of the things they found is, you know, like, you know, in Japanese people can do that. You know, they can sit down on the ground or they sleep on the ground on a light mat. They're constantly getting all the way up,

sitting all the way down, you know, not sitting in lazy boy rec constantly getting all the way up, sitting all the way down. I'm not sitting in lazy boy recliners all the time. They find those people that have that range of motion that you're talking about doing with a kettlebell tend to live longer and be more healthy. Definitely. And even without a kettlebell, this is a sort of a thing people could start putting into their own training now, just getting up and down off the floor, just under your own power. Very, very strong correlation between your ability to do that and the likelihood that you'll die of all causes over, I think, a five to 10 year period. Now, again, correlation and causation are not the same thing, but correlation means that they've noticed that that tends to be connected with people's likelihood of dying.

And specifically the ability to get up and down off the ground without the use of your hands. noticed that that tends to be connected with people's likelihood of dying. And so I, and specifically the ability to get up and down off the ground without the use of your hands. So you can get up and down, like you mentioned, you know, many people in far Eastern cultures have no problem with that. We just don't really get up and down off the ground all that often. So it's like, it's an ability that you can retain as you get older and you may need to regain it and spend a little time training it, but it has a huge carryover into your overall longevity. Yeah.

I was hearing that if you can do the thing where you cross your legs and you squat down and then sit down on the floor and then you can get back up the same way and various ways that you don't have to do anything for assistance can make the difference in uh it can actually be a measurement sometimes for the length of your life and the quality of your life yeah it's it's super interesting because there are a couple of pretty well-known measurements for longevity and that's one of them is ability to get up and down off the ground wow another one is uh leg endurance let's say or strength slash endurance and another one is leg endurance, let's say, or strength slash endurance.

And another one is grip strength. And this is one that, oh yeah, this is one that a lot of people overlook and they don't think a lot about, but grip strength has been dropping precipitously over the last couple of decades. And I think a lot of it is just because we don't really use our hands as much anymore. We don't build stuff as much. You know, we're not outside as much. We're not doing physical labor as much anymore we don't build stuff as much you know we're not outside as much we're not

doing physical labor as much and this is another great way that kettlebell training can really come into play because even stuff if like yeah you're constantly gripping onto this handle for every single kettlebell movement and even something as simple as just holding a kettlebell and walking with it this is gives you this is something we call like loaded carries and this is just a sort of a thing that gives you very similar we'll say like very similar benefits to crawling because it's a full body gait pattern based movement gait pattern just meaning your walking pattern only this is probably the sort of a thing you're not as going to be as embarrassed to do in a park uh and uh you know you'll you'll you'll feel okay about yourself if you do it in the gym too yeah you'll probably

end up less videos on tiktok about you and how you're losing your your your crap in the uh in the park uh now if i can just quit talking to myself while i'm in the park that'd be nice screaming out at uh voices in my head um your book tamers in the lost ark inside tips on smashing your plateaus kick-starting your progress and forging bold new strength in kettlebell ballistic lifts. Talk to us a little bit about what went into this book and what it was. Well, I mentioned one of the really cool standout features of the kettlebell is the ability to do ballistic lifts or movements that have a lot more momentum to them. Meaning you provide an initial thrust. Let's say you toss a kettlebell between your legs

while you hold onto it, stand up very quickly. And then that momentum just brings the kettlebell up a lot more quickly. Again, great way to start building up those explosive muscle fibers that tend to atrophy as we get older and a way to do it very safely. You know, other common ways that people would otherwise do that would be like with jumping,

but that's really, really hard on the joints to do it a lot especially if you're a bit older and you're just getting started so i uh even though i think you should retain your ability to jump maybe you know not the best thing to do a thousand of in a training session but you can do a thousand swings in a training session yeah and be no worse for the wear now i wouldn't recommend you start off like that but you can most definitely work up to it. It's not going to have that impact slam that you would have with jumping because you're swinging. So there's a motion there and there's not like a bang that's going to trash your joints. That's exactly right. Now, the main issue that I ran into with teaching people the ballistic lifts is that

we're always taught as instructors when you go through the kettlebell instructor certifications that you cannot think your way through a ballistic lift so you really can't cue people very well in a ballistic lift because it's like once once the the momentum has begun there's not really a lot you can do to change what's going to happen. So the problem is that a lot of times the approach that we are taught sort of breaks that very first rule. So they'll say, okay, you can't think your way through a ballistic lift, you got to be prepared for it. But then the arc, which is the second half of the ballistic movement, meaning the path that the kettlebell goes through to reach its final destination, depending on what the exercise is, it could be a swing, what's known as a clean, where the

kettlebell just comes up to the shoulder in one clean motion, what's called a high pull, where you just kind of pull it up pretty high, but not all the way. And then a snatch, which is where the kettlebell would come all the way overhead at the top position. There are two parts. There is the hinge, which is the initial momentum. That's how you provide that initial momentum. And then there's the arc, which is that pathway, the kettlebell travels through. And we spend a lot of time working on how to tame that hinge or the, the hip movement where your hips go back in order to provide that, that initial thrust. And then we do nothing to learn how to tame the arc other than just do a hail Mary, like, Oh, let's hope this works. Here's a cue that you're

not going to be able to process as it flies through the air and so what i did with the book is i put in some drills that teach you how to feel your way through the arc so that you can tame it more easily so that you're not you're not trying to think your way through the through the movement you're feeling your way through the movement so it's a lot easier to internalize boy this is a little science you've got down for this. I really feel like an idiot because I've been ignoring those kettlebells. Because I'm like, I don't know what to do with that. In many ways, it might be for the best because, as you can see,

if it's the sort of a thing that has to be done very explosively and you're not ready for it and you're just kind of trying to do it on your own, it could have the opposite effect. And so it's not the end of the world if you don't lift kettlebells, but it could certainly be the beginning of kind of an expensive doctor's bill if you're a little bit too gung-ho. So it's definitely better to wait until you've got some good instruction. Well, this is why it's good for people to get your book and work with you absolutely there you go nudge nudge wink wink nudge nudge yeah there you go uh and this is why we do the show so you can learn the more you know do do do uh final thoughts as we go out and uh pitch to people to on how they can onboard with you work with you get coaching from you. Certainly.

Final thoughts would be this. Number one, fitness, strength, health is actually a lot simpler and more straightforward than most of us have been led to believe. There are definitely a lot of different ways to get strong, fit, and healthy. There are a lot of different goals that you might want to approach. So having some clarity with what it is

that you want to achieve is very, very important. And my way is not the only way. I certainly think that it is the best for the audience that I tend to work with, which is busy professionals who have big ambition for their health and fitness and their strength, but little time. And they want to be able to be as effective and efficient as they possibly can. But there are a lot of different great ways. No matter what, you're going to want to try to find people who give you the real deal. You don't want people who are just going to try to sell you some magic supplement or hack or woo-woo BS. If what you hear sounds like good common sense, then you can use your intuition and you can probably tell that, okay, he or she is telling me the truth. It's probably worth it to follow him or her. And that is what I would leave people

with is don't allow yourself to be confused. Use your common sense. Find people who you can tell are also using theirs and who you can trust. And if that happens to be me, awesome. If it is not, as long as you're moving in the right direction, that's what's most important. There you go. Hey, he's written two books on it, people. What more do you want? Absolutely. There you go. So how can they onboard with you?

How do they reach out with you on your website, et cetera, Sarah? Yeah, absolutely. Now, one is if you want to go to Amazon and you want to pick up the No BS Kettlebell and Bodyweight Kickstart or Tamers of the Lost Ark. I got to point out, by the way, take a look at that very big kettlebell in the background. I don't know if you can see that. Yeah, coming at you. I saw that. I thought that was pretty cool.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. That is one way to do it. But what a lot of people really like to do is just get my nine-minute kettlebell and bodyweight challenge. It is designed around something that I talked about a second ago, which is the gait pattern. This is the movement pattern most people have never trained for strength. So stuff like crawling, loaded carries, and a few other select movements can do a lot to help you to get your entire body worked all at once. Probably not the sort of a thing you're going to do in your office because you're more likely to get sweaty. This is a little bit different approach. But even if you have a current

fitness regimen, it's a really, really good thing to add on. People will tell me that they'll either do it before the regular workouts, after the regular workouts. And I commonly hear that people will tell me that they've hit a PR or personal record in their kettlebell, military press, their squats, their pushups, whatever the case may be. They feel better tied together, have better energy. And that one is free. So if you go to Amazon, obviously you can buy the book and you're more than welcome to, but if you want to get the nine minute challenge, all you have to do is go to nine minute challenge.com and it's yours. No problem. Well, Alex, you've opened my eyes to a whole new world that I've been ignoring at the gym. And it sounds like I really should deal with it because I actually do kind of like the freeway

to experience. It works you harder. And I think with kettlebells, there's a whole different sort of things you can do. So thank you very much for coming to the show. We really appreciate it, man. Thank you for having me. It was a blast. There you go. And thanks for tuning in. Order up his book where refined books are sold. The No BS

Kettlebell and Bodyweight Kickstart System Program available on paperback or kindle wherever fine books are sold august 7 2022 uh thanks for tuning in go to goodreads.com for chest chris foss go to youtube.com for chest chris foss linkedin.com for chris foss and uh chris foss one on the tickety-tockety thanks for tuning in be good to each other stay safe and we'll see you guys next time