Kettlebell Workouts with Master Geoff Neupert

I get it. It doesn’t make sense. How can the Kettlebell Snatch make your Pull Ups STRONGER? ESPECIALLY if you’re NOT doing Pull Ups? It can be hard to swallow. Maybe even smells like a big ol’ heaping pile of cow pie. The two don’t seem to be even remotely related. I’ve never heard or read anyone try to explain it, so I thought it’d be “fun” to do that here in this email. Let’s use a pic first, ok? The primary muscle group that pulls your melon over the bar in a Chin Up (palms facing you) or a Pull Up (palms facing away from you) is your lats - your left and right latissimus dorsi. (That’s Latin for “V-taper.” … Just kidding.) The sloppy big green circle is its origin - from T7 to T12, the top of your pelvis (iliac crest), throughout your sacrum, the 9th-12th ribs, and even on part of the shoulder blades (scapula). And the sloppy little green circle on the right arm is its insertion - which is on the front of the upper arm (humerus) in the bicipital groove. When you’re doing Pull Ups, ...

You ever meet or know someone who knows EVERYONE? My friend John is like that. In fact, he used to own the gym where the movie “Pumping Iron” with Arnold Schwarzenegger was filmed. And he knows EVERYBODY in the bodybuilding world. Just the other, he was telling me a story of how he had a conversation with 1983 Mr. Olympia Samir Bannout about how Joe Weider talked funny - had a high-pitched nasally whine of voice. And then Joe walked up behind him, and asked them what they were talking about, and said in his high-pitched nasally whine of a voice, “I don’t talk like that!” John knows Arnold. He’s great friends with Bill Kazmaier (The Kaz) - 3x World Strongest Man. And he even trained with 5x Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates. In fact, John was even the Director of Wellness for ISSA - the International Sports Science Association, founded by Dr. Fred Hatfield (a.k.a. “Dr. Squat” - the first man to squat over 1000 pounds in an official powerlifting meet.) Anyway, John was telling me a couple of year...

Remember The Matrix? Arguably the greatest sci-fi movie ever made. Probably because it’s so close to the Truth in so many ways, it’s frightening. One of the most poignant lines? "The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." It’s very similar between “training” and “working out.” Here’s what I mean: I believe in “training” - the attainment of a goal - NOT “working out.” And that’s because I was trained as and am at heart a strength & conditioning coach. My background is to prepare athletes to WIN. The head and team coaches handle strategy, tactics, and position skills. I prepare the body for the rigors of competition, so the athlete can WIN. Athletes, myself included - TRAIN. We have “practice.” Not random workouts. Too many guys - most I’d say - are still “plugged in” to the “Workout Matrix.” “Gotta get a good workout!” “Man, that was a great workout!” “WOO - THAT was a TOUGH workout!” And as a result, they’re too focused on - ...

EMOM - Every Minute On The Minute. Or as I prefer - OTM - On The Minute. I first started using OTM workouts back in 2004. My Olympic lifting training partner and I would do 2 to 3 reps OTM with 40kg Snatches. More reps and our power would drop - the Snatches would become “grind-y.” The results? It did zero for my strength, but my conditioning did improve - which was the point. I was able to recover faster between sets and between training sessions. (But secretly, deep down inside, I was hoping it would boost my Oly numbers somehow.) And that’s how I like to use OTM work - High power, low reps. We’re talking about 90% up to 100% max effort. Full throttle, baby. If we’re talking work duration, no more than about 10 seconds. (That’s a 1:5 work-to-rest ratio - which avoids glycolysis, and still primarily uses your Phosphagen / Anaerobic Alactic energy system. From there, we’ll scale to 15 seconds. (That’s a 1:3 work-to-rest ratio. Right on the edge of glycolysis and the “burn.”) Then to 20...

That was a question left on one of my recent videos on “The Best Exercises For Building Muscle With Kettlebells.” And of course there always needs to be context to any particular question or comment. So the answer to “what’s better” really is, “it depends.“ What’s it depend on? The individual asking the question. How strong are you? How’s your work capacity? What other kettlebells do you have available to you ? In the context of building muscle, a 40 kg kettlebell can be used for the following: 1. Alactic power repeats using the Push Press or Snatch, or even Clean and Jerk. 2. Low rep sets of Single Kettlebell Presses. 3. Medium to high rep sets of Goblet Squats. 4. Medium to high rep sets of Single Kettlebell Front Squats. 5. Medium to high rep sets of Single Arm Rows. 6. Glycolytic power repeats with the Snatch, Push Press, Clean and Push Press, or Clean and Jerk. Now, with a pair of 20 kg kettlebells, you can do several different things to build muscle, depending on how strong you a...

As a competitive Olympic lifter and college strength & conditioning coach, I was frustrated when my athletes couldn’t perform barbell Cleans. Most of them had tight shoulders, tight lats, and tight wrists from too much benching and not enough restoration work. (This was back in the mid-to-late 90s when restoration work was practically unheard of.) So, barbell Cleans became barbell High Pulls. Or dumbbell Cleans. Plus, doing higher reps - anything more than 5 - with the Olympic lifts practically guarantees your technique goes down the toilet. And that’s a great set up for an injury. And no one wants one of those. Especially not an athlete training to prepare for competition. I remember seeing the “Kettle-Stack” advertised in the back of a Muscle & Fiction - uh, Fitness - left on my desk. I made a mental note to investigate further. When I transitioned from College Strength Coach to Personal Training Business Owner, I ran into the same issue: Teaching the Olympic lifts (O-lifts, ...

I routinely get comments when it comes to muscle-building on my YouTube videos about how you can never “look like a bodybuilder” by “only” using kettlebells. Or that most “kettlebell guys” look like they “only do cardio.” (Skinny, soft, weak - I dunno…?) What does that even mean - “look like a bodybuilder?” Tiny waist, Speedos, shaved body, baby oil and spray tan prancing around on stage like a beauty pageant? Look, the #TRUTH is, you could “look like a bodybuilder” using ANY tool - Kettlebells… Barbells… Dumbbells… Resistance Bands… Nautilus machines… Cables… Sandbags… Rocks… And that’s because muscle is built against resistance. And unfortunately, it’s also the #TRUTH is that most guys don’t have the first clue on how to design an intelligent program. Probably because they’ve been overly influenced by the “Muscle Tabloids” that feature ‘roided out bodybuilders who shill the supplements being sold inside said tabloids. Article: “How Big Greg Gained 25 Pounds of Solid Mass… In Just 6 W...

There are lots of reasons for using the Kettlebell Swing - any flavor. And even though the Swing is far from my favorite kettlebell exercise, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stop and extol its virtues every once in a while. There are stories of guys and gals rehabbing body parts: Lower backs, knees, etc. There are stories of folks stripping off body fat. There are stories of guys rebuilding their cardiorespiratory systems after “coronary events.” All these are fantastic. But for me, the BEST reason to use the Swing is this: It restores lost athleticism. Here’s why: [1] A properly executed Swing trains, strengthens, and even builds some muscle on the Posterior Chain - The muscle group primarily (not solely) responsible for walking, jogging, running, rucking, sprinting and lifting stuff from the ground (like throwing your opponent in a grappling sport). Here’s a pic - As you can see, it’s the muscles on the backside of your body, including your lower back, your hips (glutes), hamstring...