How to Buy a Good Kettlebell

by Neil Anderson

Wondering what to look for in a good Kettlebell?  After putting thousands upon thousands of swings on ours, we've learned a thing or two about getting a good one.  Here are some of our suggestions.

1. Find a KB with handles just large enough to grip with both hands.  Too little - you'll get blisters on your pinkys.  Too large and it'll smack your thighs on the swing through.  

2. Get a grip that suits the size of your hand.  Some KBs have thick handles.  These work well if you have large hands.  If you have small hands you are trying to wrap around thick handles, your grip will give out before your body does.  This limits the benefits of the KB movements to strengthening your hands only.  Your body won't get as much.  Conversely, if you have large hands and you are trying to fit them around small handles, your nails will dig into your palms.  

3.  Try to find solid casted KBs.  Sometimes when you get tired, you'll drop your KB.  If it is made from several pieces it is more likely to break.  We've also heard of these things coming apart in the air while someone was swinging them.   

4.  Nix the Rubber and Vinyl coating.  It does not protect your floors from drops.  It also prevents the KB from swinging naturally in your hands due to the extra grip they provide.  Extra grip = extra blisters.  Back to the the Rubber and Vinyl: these coverings are the first things to wear out on a KB.  It makes them uglier and impossible for you to read the markings.

5.  Don't buy painted KBs.  We made that mistake (pictured below) in the name of conserving $.  Eventually the paint will chip leaving sharp edges.  Not such a pleasant experience on a 200 swing day!  

6.  Check that your KB has a smooth handle.  It needs to be absent knurling and the casting seams should be ground down.  Manufacturers who leave burrs and high or depressed seams show their ignorance for the needs of their customers.  Makes you wonder if they've ever even swung a KB before.

7.  Look for a bell with a wide, flat surface on the bottom.  It makes the KB more versatile.  You can be more confident doing pushups & etc. on them.  Also, you'll be comforted to know that when you put them down and walk away, they'll likely be there when you get back.

8.  It is best to find KBs with clear markings.  You'd think it'd be easy to identify KBs by looking at them.  You'd think, "only an idiot would pick up the wrong KB and start swinging."  You'd be wrong about this.  Sometimes in the heat of a WO you'll grab a bigger and/or smaller bell and just go to town.  Personally, this messes with my OCD to the point where I can't live with it.  Clear raised or depressed markings can literally save a workout (at least, in my case).  

We've had the best luck with our Apollo and Ader KBs.  Both are nearly bare metal with nothing more than hard epoxy covering them to prevent rust.   

Cap KB on the L (chipped paint, hard to read). Apollo on the R.

GPP Programming - by Nature

by Neil Anderson

One of the things that makes your GPP training so much different from other programs (other than we aren't afraid of doing biceps curls) is our understanding of Seasonal Training.  What we call "Seasonal Training" is actually a form of periodization.  Periodization is an organized approach of programming that progressively cycles various aspects of a given training program over a specific period of time.  

Your body doesn't have the ability to recover and make gains from the same types of training stimuli day in and day out, month after month, year after year.  This is NOT new. Those who don't periodize their training cycles will soon find that they do not get as much from their workouts as they used to.  They plateau.  Some even backtrack.  Worse, those who don't periodize their workouts could eventually wear out their bodies and may suffer injury.  Sometimes catastrophic injury.  

Just because some folks are switching up their workouts almost daily doesn't mean they aren't doing the SAME kinds of workouts.  The magic of getting results from exercise isn't to be had in being able to come up with some new or cool workout/movements.  Any idiot can do this.  The magic of results occurs when those new workouts/movements are used in ways that stimulate continuous change.  This requires advanced knowledge about how the human body functions.  

Periodization techniques vary among experts.  The types of techniques most used depend on the type of activities they are involved in.  For example, skiers usually train so that their body is in peak physical condition for the winter season.  Athletes with longer seasons (triathletes) will generally periodize their training to peak their body for a specific event or championship (Ironman, Kona).  

So how does GPP periodize?  Easy.  We follow nature. Nature has a very effective way of ensuring that you use your body differently at different times of the year.  It gives us seasons.  Each season requires us to be physical in different ways.  Your GPP trainers recognize this as nature's way of keeping us healthy and helping us to progress.  So we design your programming to mimic the natural and functional physical demands that your body is pre-programmed to follow.  Our unique interpretation of "Seasonal Training" truly sets us apart from the industry.  It is not something we have learned from other professionals, nor is it something we have shared - YET!  Hopefully someday we'll be able to share our approach with more folks.  

Our workouts aren't randomized.  They are programmed. Many of you notice the subtle changes in your training throughout different times of the year.  Many of you have even recognized that it has been good to get away from certain workouts and build upon other aspects of your training capacities.  It is impressive that you are so in tune with this.  We have always said that our "Vets" are better trainers than most of the pros we've worked with over the years.  

Getting back into workouts like "Meg-inator" will be somewhat painful, at first.  I don't know about you, but I was wrecked by "Spector" last week after having been away from it for several months.  The pain is just part and parcel to the advancement (as long as it is minimized).  However, it behooves us to use the scaling skills we have developed over the years and apply them seasonally.  Just because we were fine (it's a relative word) to do a specific workout 3 months ago, will not mean we are good to go now.  Once we adapt again, we will be stronger for having done so.  Which is the point.  It is how GPP continues to help you make gains over the long term.  Many of you who have been with us for years look better now and are stronger, with more endurance, than ever.  This is saying a LOT considering the amazing capacity and appearances of our GPPeeps!  This is mainly due to your OUTSTANDING will, discipline, courage and capacity for change.  It can also, in a smaller way, be attributed to your participation in "Seasonal GPP Programming" techniques.  

The Myth of "Universal Scalability"

Outside of the ACTUAL health and fitness world there exists a mysterious realm.  In this realm, (faux) health experts present (pseudo) scientific facts with impressive charts, graphs and computer programs.  In these impressive documents "secret" formulas are introduced which claim to possess the keys to improving your health and fitness in the quickest, easiest and most injury free manners possible.  To attain these keys all you need to do is learn these keys (buy them), plug your numbers into their formulas and - POOF! - the rest is just a matter of application.  Variables? What variables???

This kind of thing is just plain STUPID.

Attaining health and fitness is still an art.  It is replete with individual variables and factors which are dynamic.  These can change daily, even hourly.  While there is good science out there that we can use to improve our chances of becoming healthy and fit while preventing injuries, there is NO fool-proof standard for accurately predicting this.  NONE.  Well, maybe there is just ONE, but we'll come to that later.  When storming GPP workouts, always keep in mind there is no weight light enough to guarantee safety while assuring effectiveness of a workout.  There is no rep scheme considered more safe than others.  No recommendation for sets that will unilaterally guarantee safety while granting health and fitness.  In other words, there is no such thing as Universal Scalability. 

A universal scaling model is quite impossible.  It exists NOWHERE in the health and fitness world.  Where it is claimed to exist, it is vehemently disputed by most other (well qualified and experienced) experts, including myself.  There are too many variables in exercise to assign a guaranteed safe value of reps, sets, weight or rounds that would apply to ANYONE, let alone EVERYONE.  The very suggestion of a purely scientific method would eventually and inevitably lead many to become injured due to a false sense of security.

Several years ago, a dear friend of mine injured his shoulder during a workout.  At least he's pretty sure it was during a workout.  Sometimes you just can't know, right?  He went to the doctor to have it examined and was told he needed surgery to repair the damage.  His doctor (probably a guy with little or no exercise experience) asked what he was doing when he thought it was injured.  My friend (a triathlete), said he wondered if it happened while doing heavy overhead push presses.  Or it may have happened while swimming, or..., or...  The doctor zeroed right in on the heavy push presses. 

"A man of your weight and height shouldn't be going that heavy for that many reps.  That's how people get hurt."

What a stupid, irresponsible thing to say.  Unfortunately this upset my friend.  He shot me off an email asking how I could "allow" people to do exercises which were "inherently" dangerous.  I answered. 

"I'm sorry about that shoulder, brother.  I can imagine how disappointed you must be...It is unfortunate your doctor speculated that high rep, heavy weight exercises, done by a man of your age and stature, caused your injury.  In doing so, he may have added to your frustration by leading you to believe that your injury might have been foolish and/or avoidable."  

My friend was needlessly frustrated by his Dr.  Even his Dr. would have been aware that he could have sustained the EXACT same injury with VERY light weights and VERY low reps.  Or even with that same weight on the very first rep. He also knows that many, many factors come into play when a person sustains injury.  Sleep, stress, focus, energy level, nutrition, hydration, electrolyte balance, fatigue, balance, coordination, skill, experience, previous work load and many, MANY other factors could contribute to an injury. Due to this, your resistance to injury changes constantly (day to day, hour to hour, even minute to minute).  In fact, you could do a lift one day and be perfectly safe, then several days later perform the very same lift with the very same form and sustain a lifelong injury due to one or several factors from above.  

I'm not sure what his Dr. gained by telling him it was the push presses.  

All physical activities are potentially dangerous.  This is true of everything from ping pong to running to hockey to even yoga.  A lady I know blew her knee out and needed reconstructive surgery from a beginning Yoga class.  She was the instructor.  Your competitive nature combined with GPP, biking, running, swimming, and etc. are risky behaviors that have the potential to cause ACCIDENTAL injury.  There is only ONE way to assure you do not become ACCIDENTALLY injured while participating.  Told you I'd eventually get around to it.  Here it is ...

Do not participate. 

Of course there is a flip side to non-participation.  The flip side of this is by not participating you run what I believe are even greater risks.  Some of these include the risk of developing lifestyle diseases (diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, dementia, cancer, etc.).  Of course these are just the physical (and we really haven't touched on the diseases linked to inactivity).  

It is important to know that depression, low self-esteem and other mental illnesses are rampant among those who do not participate in "dangerous" physical exertion.  

Let's not even get started on the poor example we'd be setting for those who depend on our judgements (our future generations) for helping them make and learn valuable life choices.  Oh, you can make a case for the importance of "telling" and "explaining," but ANY leader worth their salt leads from the FRONT!  

If you ask me, ALL of the above are much more hazardous, painful and expensive in all ways possible when compared to any injury you might suffer while exercising.  Seems like a silly trade off, but no doubt some would (and do) take it.    

Do all you can to avoid injury.  When performing any exercise, try your hardest to learn and perform it correctly. Take into account all that has been said above and use it to determine the volume and intensity of each workout you perform.  On top of that, use methodical preparation, more than a little common sense and an eye toward situational awareness as your best allies for avoiding injuries.  

Do NOT buy into the dogma of Universal Scaleability.  There are NO programs, formulas, experts, charts or graphs which would guarantee your safety for any given workout.  Not at ANY weight, using ANY rep scheme.  Until we develop some sort of consistent clairvoyance - nobody could possibly make this guarantee.  Not a scientist.  Not your doctor.  And frankly, not even you.