Kettlebell Workouts with Master Geoff Neupert

A lot of people like the looks of the Kettlebell Snatch because it just looks powerful and cool. Plus, it has a reputation as a “fat burner” and “total body conditioner,” which lends to its mystique. (Both are true.) But honestly, I’m pretty sure many KB users probably shouldn’t do it and jump in too soon. At least not for a while. And certainly not when they first get started. Why’s that? Even though the Snatch is the Tsar (Emperor) of Kettlebell lifts, a great “conditioner,” and “fat loss promoter”... … It’s really the culmination of a series of SKILLS that you learn in the modern KB systems. Here’s what I mean. In order to Snatch correctly you need the following: [1]  Hip Hinge → Swings, Cleans [2]  Overhead [Shoulder] "Mo-Stability" & Lockout Strength → Turkish Get Up [3]  Taming the Arc → Cleans [4]  Moving the KB To Overhead → Presses So, the Snatch becomes a natural progression from all those skills. And that means generally, the body is prepared as a who...

When I was a young buck (how it pains me to write that - it seems like just yesterday), I worked out / trained in the college gym, which was more like a dungeon. That’s because it was in the basement, and it used to be the old indoor rifle range where the Rutgers Rifle Team practiced. (Ironically, I discovered during my senior year researching my thesis, that my Dad was on that team, and probably spent some time in the same room.) Our workouts, like the rifles my Dad practiced with, were simple, yet highly effective. They seemed to be passed down from bigger, stronger lifters, or through obscure magazines found in the classifieds of other magazines - Powerlifting, USA, for example. In other words, “input” and “influence” was limited. It seems we had a “trial by fire” approach to everything back then in the pre-internet era. If a philosophy worked, we kept it. If it didn’t, we chucked it. This process usually took between 3 and 6 weeks. Sometimes as long as 12. I don’t think this proce...

And do you need more leg work apart from your kettlebell workouts? 👉 Learn more about ‘Kettlebell STRONG!’ here. https://cart.chasingstrength.com/strong3 👉 Learn more about ‘THE GIANT’ here. https://salutis.kartra.com/page/oWP219 👉 Learn more about “KSK” here. https://cart.chasingstrength.com/ksk2 I got an email from Isaac I thought I’d share with you, in which he asks: "I've been working with KSK and Giant to great effect, but I can't help but think that I'm neglecting the legs: are there any recommendations that you would have for incorporating work for the lower half of the body?" I think this is a common question for many who are used to “direct” leg work coming from a CrossFit, Powerlifting, or Bodybuilding background into the Kettlebell Community. And it’s certainly one of the most common questions I get from customers of ‘THE GIANT.’ So, here’s what I told Isaac: “Your posterior chain - (lower back), glutes, hamstrings, calves, and bottoms of your feet a...

  Over on the StrongFirst forum, @mightstone2k “bat signaled” me for some ideas of how to take his 7RM Double Clean + Press up to a 10RM, using ‘THE GIANT 3.0,’ which is based off your 5RM. So, here’s what I suggested: You can either: 1. Do more volume, or... 2. Focus on squeezing every drop of technique out of your press - finding "strength leaks" and plugging them, or... 3. Pause in the rack for 5 seconds between the Clean and the Press to kill the "force wave" you get between the two (plus, this increases TUT in the rack itself, making the whole body stronger, while forcing you to press from a "dead start"), or... 4. Pause overhead at the top of the Press, for 2-3 seconds, actively pushing up on the bells, while keeping your shoulders packed, or... 5. Add in an isometric hold (approx. 3-6 seconds) at your sticking point on your last rep, of your last 3 to 6 sets, or... 6. Make your Clean as explosive as possible on every... single... rep... which as you...

I think as we get older, we tend toward complacency. We tend to lose the “fire in our belly” and let life happen to us. After all, we have jobs, a mortgage, car payments, a family… Life is busy, close to “full,” and honestly, many of us don’t have the energy we once did. And maybe we check off a few goals… Sadly, more and more, many men crave “comfort” and “convenience” over “adventure” and “challenge.” And no, finding the right button out of the 250 on the remote control does not count as a “challenge.” ;-] Now, maybe that’s you, maybe it’s not. Maybe you’re working out, firing close on all cylinders, but you know “something’s missing”... You can do “more”... Either way, why not challenge yourself to obtain a high level goal? (I’ve found the discipline carries over to every other area of life, if not just “tightening” up areas that might be somewhat slack.) Why not challenge yourself to the SFG/RKC Snatch Test? What’s that? It’s 100 snatches in 5 minutes, using a 24kg KB. (It’s the ki...

  Ever have that thought? Honestly, I have. Worse, there have been times when I’ve actually seen things go south. (Like that time I did a swing & push up challenge and lost muscle and gained body fat…) In fact, from what I can tell, this is actually a pretty common problem in the KB community. There are 5 reasons why: #1 - TOO MUCH Work I briefly mentioned this in a recent email to my subscribers. Some of us - maybe you - can make our bodies do the bidding of our minds. Our minds become a slave driver over our bodies, if you will. We end up pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and pushing ourselves, and our bodies can’t keep up. This is one of the reasons why when guys write in asking me “what’s a good number of reps to hit compared to others” for one of ‘THE GIANT’ or ‘EASY MUSCLE’ programs, I tell them not to compare themselves to others. Some guys can hit 100 reps in a session. Me? No. Way. In. H-E-double-hockey sticks. I’m not wired that way. Every time I attempt something li...

What’s the least you can do and still lose fat from your KB workouts? That’s a question I think many of us wonder. Especially if we’re trying to gain strength, or just finished a strength cycle and packed on a few more pounds / kilos than we thought we would. Now I’m not necessarily saying fast, but “noticeable”. [NOTE: If you want FAST, you can do that here.] Which exercise and rep scheme would be the “best” for you? My GENERAL rule of thumb is to “do the opposite” of what your body is currently used to. So, if you’ve been doing a lot of lower rep, heavy grinds (the slower strength lifts), switch up to higher rep ballistics (the Swing, Snatch, Clean, Push Press, Jerk). If you’ve been doing higher rep ballistics, switch over to lower rep grinds. And if you’ve been using A+A or AGT style workouts? Up the reps or cut the rest - or both, going “mildly” glycolytic. I’ll pop an email I got from Andrew, one of my customers, up here on the screen, telling me about the results he got from usin...

If you’re struggling to consistently work out, you’ll probably find this helpful, especially if you find yourself suffering from “Shiny Object Syndrome” and hopping from program to program, without anything to show for it except little to no measurable results and feeling like a failure. See, most people know that “Consistency Is King” when it comes to getting the results you’re looking for from your workouts… And yet they still end up looking back at the end of the week disappointed in themselves because they only logged 1 or 2 workouts, fighting off that “failure” feeling. Sure, most of us know that at the end of the day, it’s not how hard you worked out, but how often you trained over the course of a given period of time. For example, 3x week for 6 weeks trumps 2x week for the same time period. I think for most of us, that’s a no-brainer, right? So, what’s the “fix?” This is where “Periodization” comes in handy. Specifically, LPP - Long-term Periodized Planning comes in handy. It’s ...

A lot of folks using KBs get “stuck” on the same workout plan and fail to make the progress they want. One of the reasons is that they have a hard time finding the time. 60 minute workouts are few and far between with staying late at work… After school kids’ activities… Kids’ sports/games on the weekends… For many of us, there hardly seems to be any time for ourselves. One week, you get 3 workouts in… The next - two. The week after that - only one. Or maybe… One day, you “suddenly” wake up and it’s been 3 weeks… 3 months… even a full year or more since you’ve worked out routinely. I’ve found it super helpful to change my expectations about what a “good workout” is. At the bare bones basics, a “good workout”... 1️. Gets done. 2️. Is short enough to not take time away from my family. 3️. Has “enough” of the “right” things in it to keep me measuring progress - somewhere And did I mention this already? It - 4️. GETS DONE. For many of us, shorter - MUCH shorter, high frequency workouts are...

I f you’ve been hoisting or slinging ye olde Kettlebells and you’re not getting any stronger… Not losing any body fat… Not improving your conditioning levels… And feel like Sysiphus pushing the rock up that hill only to have it roll back down and do it all over again and again and again and again… Here are 5 reasons you might want to take a closer look at: #5 - Random Acts of Variety Some people just make up their workouts as they go. One day, Swings, the next Presses, the next, a whole hodge-podge of exercises. Your body isn’t sure of the adaptation you’re asking it to create. There’s no “continuity of the training process.” For example, if you want a stronger Press, you have to Press - A LOT. Not Swing. Not Squat. Not Snatches. (Ok, well, maybe Snatches - with the right programming.) But you get my point. Adaptations are specific. So, there needs to be some direction and organization in your programming. #4 - Recovery. Adaptation happens as a result of REST. Stimulation (your workout...

One of my subscribers asked me the basic differences between complexes and chains, and why you should choose one over the other, energy systems used, etc, and that I should make a video on that. So, here we go. Complex: A series of compound exercises performed sequentially with the same weight (kettlebell) and without rest. All the reps for one exercise are completed before moving on to the next exercise in the sequence. Here’s an example Swing x 5 Clean x 5 Press x 5 A Chain is a series of compound exercises performed sequentially with the same kettlebell in which each exercise is performed once before the sequence is started again. Each time the sequence is performed is considered one repetition. Here’s an example: (Swing + Clean + Press) x 5 Complexes create more "local muscle fatigue" because you're performing consecutive reps of each exercise. Chains spare "local muscle fatigue" and spread the fatigue evenly across the body as a whole. Typically, because o...