The secrets of animal fitness

Ok, this will be a revealing post. Some people have asked me, “how do you maintain that skiny-weak -look trought the years, even when you seem to eat like a total pig??” Well, part of the answer is obviously kettlebell training, but in the video below, I’m revealing the real secret…
[...]

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Making sense of all the kettlebell mess, part 1

What is the big picture of kettlebell sport and fitness organisations in the world? I wil try to make some sense of  them but it’s not easy…
The big picture
I’m trying to sort out all the different kettlebell related international organisations. Just typing about them is a mess, so I decided to “draw”.

This pic above is [...]

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Thoughts about the kettlebell certs I’ve been to

Last weekend I was assisting in the IKFF CKT cert course in Oulu, Finland. I was attending the same course in Barcelona last year. This time, I had the change to follow from “the outside” how Steve and John taught. The emphasis of the IKFF cert is how to teach the basics to other people, [...]

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Kanahyppy kahvakuulalla – The Kettlebell Chicken Jump

Alla kuvattuna uusin ja hienoin kahvakuulaliike, suoraan toiminnallisen harjoittelun huipulta. Valitettavasti kuvan laatu ei päätä huimaa mutta tulevalla DVD:llä näette kyllä varmasti kaiken ja vieläpä monesta eri kulmasta. Tämä liike on nimeltään kanahyppy kahvakuulalla, ja se on siis nimenomaan kahvakuulaliike. Käsipainolla ei kannata yrittääkään.
Aika hämmästyttävää itseasiassa että yhdellä liikkeellä voi samaan aikaa harjoittaa tasapainoa, vartalonhallintaa, [...]

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The Basics, and Fun

Today after the IKFF workshop, I was talking to the others and thinking about the stuff we did and will teach. At first, when I started with kettlebells 4 years ago, I was dying to find out all the possible movements and excercises there were. I thouth, that a training session needed to have as [...]

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IKFF CKT in Oulu, Finland, day one

Today was an interesting and intense kettlebell experience in the Oulu course. I got to meet the gigantic and very nice Jonh Wild Buckey, and had a good learning experience when being as an assistant instructor in the course.
Afterwards, we saw some crazy swings and I got in a friendly but deadly serious Bear-MMA-Fight with [...]

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In Finland we have this thing called “the best kettlebells ever”.

In Finland we have this thing called “the best kettlebells ever”.

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Cross World – finished

It’s done. Almost a hundred lifters from many countries. Some insane lifters did many lifts on different days, which is very positive. Great job people!
All the raw data of the results are here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPs1SJ-FjryEhHUZOTweeGA
I’ll do some ordering of the results later this week.

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Functional training for Golf

Check if out, and be careful out there!

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The ultimately best magical way to train for GS

As far as I know, kettlebell sport aka GS aka Girevoy Sport is about long sets with kettlebells. That’s because the aim is to do as many reps as possible in the 10 minute time limit, without setting the bell or bells down. Every rep requires a fixation, which means the bell or bells must [...]

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Kettlebell organisations in the world, as of beginning of 2009

Kettlebells have been repopularized in the western world for 10 years now. There’s many stories how things came about and why, but the important thing is that now we have some level of exposure to the tool and how to train with it.
There’s many organisations who sell kettlebells and kettlebell related products and training services. [...]

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Statisticals and general ramblings

Here’s some data from WordPress, the page views per month since the beginning of this blog.
Months and Years

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Total

2006

209
1,227
1,023
1,412
1,112
1,086
2,166
2,865
2,683
13,783

2007
3,319
4,162
4,145
3,649
4,042
3,070
3,696
4,606
4,716
4,465
5,346
5,366
50,582

2008
6,030
6,672
6,785
8,922
6,657
8,068
5,337
5,623
5,761
7,090
7,175
6,658
80,778

2009
2,208

2,208

And here’s some other data:
Total views: 147,347
Busiest day: 535 — Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Total
Postst: 1,131
Comments: 1,654
Categories: 60
Tagit: 52
—
Ok, doesn’t say nothing about quality of course I guess the beginning of the year is a time for [...]

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Finland´s Girevoy Sport History – Karl Fazer Challenge

Finland´s Girevoy Sport History « Caestus: The Extreme Girevoy Sport Records Blog
“Karl Fazer wins weightlifting competition in 1888 with two new Russian records in Saint Petersburg, Russia (Finland was part of Russia). Karl Fazer Jerks with one hand 16,4 kg (1 pood) kettlebell and winning results was right hand 112 times and left hand 85 [...]

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Free world, with celebs too!

Thrierry writes down some very major good points in his post:

“The more I learn, teach and practice, the more I tend to disagree with kettlebell purists, and think that whatever way you use a kettlebell is a good enough way.  It still beats the hell out of sitting on the hip abductor machine or on [...]

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Positiivista palautetta … ja The Blacklist

Sain Steve Cotterilta tosi mieltä lämmittävän palautteen, laitoin sen tietty hei myös tuonne SKB -saitille.
“Marko Suomi to me represents what is great about kettlebell lifting and kettlebell sport, embodying the most important principles and habits that one looks for in a coach.
First he has a sincere love and passion for the sport, this passion is [...]

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My review of the CKT course in Barcelona 11/2008

A couple of weeks ago I attended Steve Cotter’s and IKFF’s CKT (Certified Kettlebell Teacher) course in Barcelona. I was honored to be there with a top finnish kettlebell lifter Kukka Laakso. It was two full days of kettlebell training, basic movements broken down and practiced with long timed sets. The couse was hosted by [...]

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Cross World 10/2008 results are coming in

I’m compiling all the Cross World results here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPs1SJ-FjryHehaZVIKKOBw
After the 21st of October, I will make a final sheet, but until that you can send in your results from Saturday or from your virtual tests.
So far, there’s results from Sweden, Finland, USA and Denmark. I’m expecting more results from Norway and Germany, and have some Finnish [...]

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BicepsPistol = Huge Guns!

Here’s something for you, the Biceps Pistol(tm)! I invented this drill in the early 2008, when I was limited for time and had to train both my biceps and legs and of course core at the same time. Well, what is a better way to do that, than to a one legged squat aka the [...]

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IUKL in scandinavia

IUKL is spreading trough the scandinavian countries in a pretty fast pace:
Finnish representative is the Finnish Kettlebell Association
Swedish representative is Alexander
Norway’s representative is Christian Velle
Denmark’s representative is Thierry Sanches
So, all the scandinavian countries are in!
You can get 1st level certificate from Latvia, Finland and Norway currently. A 2nd level IUKL coach can give the instruction [...]

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Learning all the secrets?

When I started training with kettlebells, the full body movements were a new world to me. I had never snatched anything, and it felt very good, so good I was mad that no one had taught me that before. My only reference point was the bodybuilding type activities. So, as I saw it, the kb [...]

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Ogre story part 10 – the final words

The day of lifting was intense. There were VERY talented athletes performing, someone under 70kg didi 135 jerks or so with 2×32kg. It was crazy to see that live. And I had thought originally that GS lifters were just weak and were cheating the bells up Damn, these young guys blew all the [...]

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Ogre story part 9

In the morning of the weighing we all gathered to the team USA’s hotel. Another new GS-person arrived, Peter from Canada. He was the one man team from there, so we had something in common
Also, this morning Catherines Imes and Steve Cotter arrived to the lobby. I was very nervous at first because [...]

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Ogre story part eight

The competition was two days ahead, the next day would be the weighing in Ogre. Ogre is a small village about 200km from Riga. I was told that the competition is organised by the IGSF. The team USA were repserenting NAKF, which was not a member but they had created good contacts last year in [...]

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Ogre story part 7

Back in Finland, 2006 had been a year of
progress in KB related issues.
In march, there was a first public workshop, which I also attended. It
was pretty much the same as Pavel’s Martial Power combined with Super
Joints and some kettlebell drills. But of course it was a lot better
to learn live than from a book or [...]

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Ogre story part six

I had two 32kg bells, one from Estonia and
one from Latvia. They are very rugged, but comp style. So, I used the
few weeks I had to train with those and asking lots of questions by
email and being very nervous.
Training went well, relatively speaking. The 32kgs were moving me more
than I was moving them but at [...]

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