IOL Strength and Conditioning

Last fall, after an off-the-cuff comment in the IronOnline forum, we started pulling together the pieces that made up the kettlebell-based workshop we held Sunday. Featuring Mark Reifkind, Dave Whitley and Tracy Reifkind, we held it at Greg Everett’s Catalyst Athletics, and filmed the day’s events for DVD.

One attendee wrote, “The entire day was a big advancement for my respect for the kettlebell.”

Another said, “I knew nothing about kettlebell training except I was sure I wouldn’t like it. But as a number of people for whom I have immense respect on IOL have adopted it as an integral part of their training, I figured it behooved me to check it out on the slimmest of chances that I could possibly be wrong about something. Well, “wrong” wasn’t the word. “WRONG” is the word. What I learned about was a very dynamic training methodology with a wide range of applications.”

Rif demonstrates the bootstrapper progression

…While Dave teaches Ben to bent-press

And Tracy leads the swing action

Tracy on building swings numbers:

And Logan conned Rif into spotting his one-arm handstand

It wouldn’t be right to get Dave all the way across the country and not enjoy some feats of strength. Here’s a quick look.

You guys think you can separate my grip on these handles? Guess not.

Logan psyches up.

And Dave finishes the job. Logan didn’t even flinch.
Now that’s a lot of trust.
And some nerve.

Our camerawoman goes for a ride.

Wondering how she got up there? He bent-pressed her!

Here Dave takes a sledge and a kettlebell from the ground up, touching his nose with the hammer along the way.

Logan Christopher of Legendary Strength was there and threw around a kettlebell a bit during the lunch break. It would take a little more practice for me to catch onto the single-hand-toss timing… no shots of the ‘bell in flight, but you should be able to imagine what’s missing.

We did have the occasional mic difficulties. Especially Dave — I can’t figure out why the mic wouldn’t stay on a guy moving things and people from the ground up, and back down. Huh! Funny, that.

And then we wrapped up a truly fabulous day.

I’ll start work on the video editing as soon as I get Gray’s new book off to the printer at the end of the month. The DVDs should be ready mid-summer, and of course I’ll keep you up-to-date on the progress.

Our next event is in Kansas City, the weekend of October 9th, featuring Glenn Pendlay, whose workshop we’ll also film for DVD. If you’re within driving distance or can somehow get yourself to Kansas that weekend, we’ll keep this thread up-to-date with the details.