Wholistic Fitness

a key ingredient to the success of my injury-liberating, wholeness-gathering Path of training over the decades of high-intensity living and competing has been  the yogic principle of ‘Ahimsa’ or ‘do no harm’ to your body, mind, or spirit while training.  many more body-oriented fitness systems bulldoze the American public with their version of the “The Next Big Thing,” for personal fitness, leaving behind them a wake of non-Awakened, injured warriors.  Realistically?  One must honor the spiritual, mental, chemical, hormonal, and neural energetics first and foremost if you’re still gonna be cranking your fitness into your final chapters of your Sacred Journey called life….below, i answer a young Seeker’s question about my integration (or lack thereof?) of Kettle Bells into Wholistic Fitness®.  Enjoy, and may your Practice benefit..

STUDENT QUESTION:
Hi Steve,
I just bought your book Total Body book. I’m not a couch potato, but clearly not a world class athlete either.
I particularly liked your approach to combining the various disciplines into one thought process.
One thing I didn’t see in the book yet was much reference to kettle bells. I have found them significantly different than weights and prefer them most of the time.
By chance have you started to integrate these more since the time the book came out in 2004?
Thanks,
Kristi

COACH RESPONDS:

Kristi! Namaste!
thank you for your kind words!
i was using Kettlebells in the 80’s – particularly for nordic pre-season conditioning – and though K’Bells do have their sporadic place in a wholistic approach, over the decades the K’Bells often spell trouble for the energy vents of the body and can cause neural-fatigue/dessication at pivotal articulations. Some WF considerations when it c(om)es to using K’Bells;

• not before growth plates have matured; don’t use K’Bells regularly in training before age 16 or so

• at least 1 year of wholistic, full body strength training before integrating small periods (4-6 weeks tops) of K’Bell training

• limit K’Bell training to small periods (4-6 weeks) and use them exclusive to other strength training OR wisely choreographed into a more traditional strength prescrip

• use plyometric-like awareness (focused on the creation of, yielding, and overcoming of velocities) when using K’Bells…like pranayama;  you are playing with (inner fire) when using K’Bells.

• make SURE you are on PERFECT AMINO (formerly, MAP Amino Acids) by BodyHealth when engaging ANY strength training program – especially K’Bell training;  they are notorious for ripping connective tissues so take CARE of your positive nitrogen balance through Perfect Amino!

Travel well, Kristi!

Namaste!