The F-Scale

I once heard the F-Scale described as a way to see who would kick the person below them while sucking up to the person above them.

Recently i found this intriguing tool from the group that brought us critical theory marked up and available on line.

The goal of the scale was to predict a predilection to acquiescent to authoritarian behaviour. Research from 20-40 years ago suggested thing it really predicts is racism. but it's made a come back as a more valid predictor of authoritarian tendencies - at least in a revised form, the balanced F-scale.

The balanced F-scale attempts to work out the flaws in terms of types of measures in the original F-scale. While a variety of approaches to consider conservatism etc have resulted (listed here), the Balanced F-scale seems popular in the personality/psych literature. This refactored scale changes a hand full of questions from the original.

There's been debate about whether any version shows acquiescence vs cultural traditionalism. In any case, traits associated with its findings aren't nice and apparently are correlated even in decisions in jury trials. Some authors as recently as 2006 argue the validity of the scale has been supported.

In any case, why not give it a go - or better yet, ask your colleagues to give it a go - and see if you're nodding to yourself at their responses - or which ones you think you may just want to fudge.

There is No Kettlebell

Have you ever had an experience that ended up meaning a lot to you? perhaps even seemingly out of proportion with the thing itself? You know, like getting a particularly complicated peice on the piano right, or completely reciting a poem without mistakes, or getting a dance step right, or just saying the perfect thing at the perfect time, or getting a wee prize or note of recognition, and having it mean the world. Those kind of experiences where response does not *seem* proportionate to the thing inspiring the response.

That kind of thing happened to me recently after completing the RKC, the Russian Kettlebell Challenge instructor certification course. i'd been training for this for the better part of a year. So ok, you say, naturally, that kind of effort, one's going to feel pleased with its successful completion. Ah ha, i say, granted. But there seems to be something else going on - and i hadn't gotten my head round what it is. But i knew for sure, Something Happened.

In the following post i walk through some of what i think that Something may be - and that it has a whole lot less to do with the thing itself - the specifics of what the course was teaching (though that was grand) - than the principles that seemed to be embodied in the way the course was delivered.

Technorati Tags: kettlebell, Pavel Tsatsouline

A single kettlebell in rest state

The Basics: the course itself as part of the experience
My first question is why would a three day certification course in a fitness center's gym and field somewhere outside Copenhaggen have engendered what might be refered to as a Profound Effect?

I've come to the view in thinking through this experience that the material for the course is almost immaterial to getting at what i'm trying to get at, but for the sake of information and complete context, it might be worth reviewing what the RKC Cert is about. It's about refining one's own technique in basic kettlebell swings and learning how to teach, analyze and tweak the technique of others for these same moves.

Kettlebells, just to get that clear as well, are more or less round iron bells/balls with handles on them. The movements with these things are particular because they are *movements.* The handle is used to enable these things to be swung - with one or two hands - from between one's legs to over one's head. There are skills to learn to do this well - so as not to wrench shoulders or dislocate spines. It sounds intense, but the thing of it is, practiced right, these moves are excellent for what ails ya - i've writen more on that elsewhere.

The purpose of taking the course: because of all the good these things can do, and because they take up little space and so can be used anywhere one can swing a cat, i happen to have a couple at work, and i want to be able to show folks how great these are - and show them safely.

Now if one wishes to teach another how to do something, it's generally seen as a good idea (a) to make sure one knows how to carry out the process correctly oneself and (b) understands how to address at least the common problems that come up when showing other folks the same. Hence the desire to take the course.

Two Kettlebells from the first kettlebell division of the kb mitosis process

Why the RKC?
As with anything, there is more than one way to swing a cat or a kettlebell. So why *this* course? There are at least a few styles of kettlebelling, and many more weekend certs. Where i live alone there are at least three organizations - and these not including the one i went to nor one other large one in the states - that offer courses that say you are a certified instructor upon successful completion.

I wanted to do the RKC in particular because of its provenance / pedigree. Elsewhere i've charted how i found kettlebells, via trusted sources like Clarence Bass who has nothing but good things to say about the lead instructor of the RKC, Pavel Tsatsouline. Now, i have as many DVDs (and reviewed 'em) of as many other KB heros as a person probably can have, and if their authors showed up in town, i'd surely take a class with them, but for teaching, which includes not only the technique but the analysis of and solutions for problems with that technique, i keep coming back to the RKC. It seems over a period of years of developing the approach, the technique for getting at the basics and doing those key moves clearly, effectively and well in order to achieve strength and conditioning has been thought through extremely well. And *most* of the other Big Boys on the KB scene got their initial training from this very same source, this very same person. So, decision made on that one. RKC for me.

ASIDE: I should make clear that health and fitness is a passion; it is not my main gig. As i've been asked on more than one occaision, therefore. "so why are you doing this?" since the majority of RKC participants are people for whom their livelihood is training of one form or another. Me, i'm an academic; and on really good days, perhaps, a scholar. I schol, sir. When i''m interested in something, i love to learn about it, study it, and especially communicate what i find back to others (often by courses taught or via papers). My students know that of late my research has been looking at Quality of Life and how computer science may be able to do something to support enhancing it (short paper outlines some of this if you're interested). Understanding how we move, can move better; understanding how our bodies actually work to support our minds seems a signficant part to approaching questions of how computers may actually be able to help us make the space for rather than steal time from what is important about being brains in bodies. So, for me i hope to develop the research connection, but fundamentally as well, it feels increasingly like a responsibility as a teacher to be able to offer a more wholistic approach of brain/body to the learning/supervision of students. More on that some other time.

Technique Adjustment
Ok, that said, what about this profound certification experience?
So, yes, prepped for it since last summer. so yes, makes sense passing the thing would be important. That would be a Happy Thing to have worked towards a goal and have the validation of the certificate at the end to say You Did It. Fine.

Within the cert there's a strong focus on one's own technique development. It was both a surprise and a joy to find that my technique was improving throughout the progress of the weekend; things were clicking. In other words, it wasn't just going in, learning a new skill and being tested on early mastery; it was also getting something i'd been working on for some time and cared about was getting better - i was seeing more - that was also a joyful thing. It was also a scary thing to see how much there is to see about another person's technique and without that deep knowledge, we're sufficient to teach. wow. This is not unique to fitness: there are a range of expertises equally qualified to teach the same intro material, and some Newbies do better than experienced hands, but generally, i wonder if say professional drivers wake up in the middle of the night in fear thinking about how little the rest of us know and we're entrusted with these 2 ton beasts.

I'm digressing, and still ain't even at the good part.

kettlebell mitosis continues rapidly

Organization
The structure of the weekend is based around teams with assistant instructors on each team, and team leaders on each course, working with the key instructor. The notion of team is important: it's an easier unit to manage than a whole huge group to make sure that practice of drills is going well for each candidate. While the model is designed for efficacy, the effect is a certain development of team spirit; team identification. The teams however come into the main circle frequently enough for key instruction sessions that there is also a group feel. I was not aware of inter group rivalry. This may be because each of the team leads also lead parts of the course as a whole and were regularly supported by each other without reference to team. So good vibe on the ground.

So, so far, we have a feeling of happiness from passing a course after much practice. A good feeling on personal technique improving and new things to share. A good enviroment for work and support in the field. For instance, there was a terrific warm up/recharge in QiJong lead by the company founder John Du Cane on the last day of the course. That was awesome. And that certainly shows a thoughtfulness and caring about the design of the program that each morning we were treated to a slightly different style of warm up to help us increasingly worn candidates continue. But these program approaches do not quite get at that uber-compelling component.

Interaction
I think the ghestalt effect that takes the course beyond the excellent approach to training, practice and technique is the how the interaction within the teaching team is modelled. There is an obvious respect from the members of the team for each other. As said, they support each other when one of the other is leading part of the course. By support i mean literally support. They fetch and carry, anticipaing what the other may need; they are obviously impressed by each other's own skills; when you hear them talk with each other there is playfulness, and respect respect respect and admiration. This is not just the team leads' response for Pavel Tsatsouline, though that is plain; it's for each other. It's also plain that respect had been earned.

In my own case, i went from observing this phenomenon among the team thinking that's cool, to starting to feel it within my own team and self. My team lead, Will Williams is an awesomely powerful Big Ex-Marine Guy and someone i would likely be too afeared to approach in any other context. And yet in the course he was not the typical big guy stereotype marine bad ass at all (though heh, i bet he could be). He was just bloody *nice* - he was positive, encouraging, very good at spotting technique points and offering ways to address them. That all sounds great - and really we've all i hope had experiences where a good teacher makes the difference between getting it or getting bummed, but i had my own Ah Ha moment when he actually demonstrated a particular technique for me. It was SO gorgeous and graceful - it was completely unexpected. Admiration hit right there. Why? becuase this is not someone just doing a move; this is someone who had plainly worked on the technique and acheived grace with it: when a process moves from technique to art, to expression of something else beside the move, that's amazing to behold. It's like the difference between someone playing a piece of music with technical proficiency, and someone else with that same piece breathing LIFE into it - that's art, no? I hadn't expected a front squat with a kettlebell to reach artistic expression - mine sure hasn't - but Will's did. AND he's a NICE guy, who can teach. That's what you call Role Model. That's Inspiring. Someone who not only talks the talk - and a great lecturer he is - but clearly walks the walk. Respect. Have you ever had that experience where someone makes this kind of connection for you, and you just look at them differently, like something special has been revealed in that moment? It's an insight, to be sure, isn't it.

On reflection, therefore, it makes sense why these guys have these kinds of responses to each other that i was having about Will Williams: they've seen each other up close like i saw will. They've had this experience of the support, encrouagement and personal expertise, carried with respect that i saw. No wonder their eyes seem to shine a bit.

Compare and Contrast: RKC with Any Other Professional Gathering
And now we're getting closer to what i think was the particularly special bit for me at the course. I go to conferences all the time. At these conferences i see many many colleagues, all of us toiling away at pushing the boundaries of our wee part of the field a little further out. As with any community ya get to know each other; you may even work with subsets of these folks on committees so even more up close and personal. I can't think of a time where i've seen people's eyes light up overjoyed at seeing *each one* of their colleagues in such settings. Can you? When was the last time you saw that? Or when people really wanted to be in the room to hear what someone else had to say *even if* that person had been asked to give a similar talk previously, and they'd heard it before. You know, what is THAT?

It's the Code
The sytle of an organization is framed by its leadership. Such, it became increasingly clear, is plainly the case in the RKC space. One of the things i really liked about the prereqs for the RKC course was to be ready to abide by the posted code of conduct: in becoming certified, a candidate is agreeing to uphold this code of practice. It includes things like.....the very things modelled throughout the course by the leadership team. It's taken seriously: an entire teaching session was dedicated to this Code in what it means to be an RKC and Team Leads Jon Engum and Doug Nepodal gave powerful presentations around and about this code.

The RKC Code of Conduct (from the RKC cert page)

I am an RKC therefore I shall:

1. Represent my school with honor in my professional and personal life.
2. Treat my ‘victims’ with respect and tough love.
3. Carry my strength with modesty. Remember that my job is to teach, not to impress.
4. Never overstep the boundaries of my expertise and be humble enough to say, “I don’t know.”
5. Never stop improving my instructor skills and enhancing my own strength.
6. Conduct myself as a gentleman or a lady in public places, including the Internet. Exhibit restraint, the hallmark of a professional.

Should I violate the code my RKC certificate may be revoked.

The RKC program is not a just trainer certification program but a school of strength. A school proud of what it stands for: the gold standard of instruction, integrity, and quiet professionalism.

Prior to the course i thought the code was a good idea because of the tennor it seemed to help set in the discussion forums hosted by Dragon Door, where folks ask a lot of questions about technique or share recent personal bests. It is *far more* respectful in its exchanges than many similar such spaces on the net.

After watching the team leads interact throughout the certification, however, the code became something more to me, and it's also where i got a little worried. I began thinking "i'm an RKC: i have a responsibility to this group to carry myself a particular way because, as they said, this is a small community, and one RKC's conduct reflects back on the group, and the group will also react to that, because they value their reputation."

And that's what got me worried: i could feel myself thinking as i stood talking with the hotel desk staff discussing a list of problems with my room "i'm (about to be) an RKC: i have to deal with this person humbly and respectfully while addressing this problem as i am representing the School in this interaction while here for this cert."

WHAT??!! Good greif. When i heard part of myself talking like that i *knew* there was something funny going on that i needed to unpack, which motivated this post. I had to think, well, what if i wasn't "an RKC" , would i be interacting any differently? I hope not, but there was certainly an extra omph there because of that talk about The Code the day before.

So the profound question of how do i define myself started to press: i do not want to define myself as an RKC and be motivated to act from that, because what happens if something takes that away (nihilistic or what, eh?) - suppose something happens and i can't swing again, or recertify (yes, as with any pro certification there is a requirement for renewing one's skills every two years) or whatever. Does that mean i would feel like a lesser person? I try to ask myself this about any accomplishment - am i defined by it such that if they were lost i would think of myself as less than i am now?

I think what occured to me as i heard this inner voice bursting with pride about "being an RKC; i uphold the code!" is that fundamentally (yes, we're there at last) it's the code of the RKC and how i found it embodied in the leadership team, their interactions with each other and their interactions with us candiditates that inspired me.

Walking the Walk - Really
The final straw here (in a good way) was the last effort of the day: the grad walk. We had heard this was gruelling, and were encouraged by instructors to just "grit it out." The description felt horrible. The reality was that it was instructor lead. Team Lead Jon Engum *lead* this walk, did every step with the whole group, and every person on the team was out on the field encouraging and supporting their team across the field and across the line. That (a) a team lead did the actual event with us and (b) everyone supported everyone else again just walked the walk. Carry your stregnth humbly. Respect each other. I was completely blown away by this participation approach rather than, what is clearly not part of the code, you're on your own go crawl across the field on your own. model model model.

Thinking about Steven Covey's Principle Centered Leadership, or really any of his work, he speaks of leadership - of oneself or of others - as being based on principles. The principles of the RKC, fundamentally, are what resonate with me and what i think is important. I don't demonstrate these traits all of the time - perhaps not alot of the time - but they're where i want to be. For example, carrying strenght humbly. Now, what is my strength? Compared either to the extremely wirey and strong guys or the very powerful gals at the cert, i am but a wee white woman with a bad back. But there's other stuff where i'm strong that is important to carry humbly. Again, if i lost it, what would happen? is that how i define myself? Humility is important. Any of the things by which we define ourselves can be taken. Principles, ways of being in the world, these cannot.

Principles are fine, in principle. Embodying them is challenging. And yet, this is what was happening during the cert. Principles rarely expressed explicitly except for those discussions about the code and what it means to be an RKC, but demonstrated, constantly, repeatedly, on a variety of levels. These guys were not just turning it on for a show and turning it off at the end of the day and telling folks to bugger off while they powdered their noses.

Turtles all the way Down
Indeed, it's a credit to the leadership, that the modelling among the team leads themselves and with their team had such a profound effect on us (well me, for sure but it seemed to be an "us") - that the experience may be remembered more for this interaction than solely in the individual engagement with the Russian (as one team lead references him) himself. This is not to sell Pavel short: as Senior Instructor and Team Lead Mark Reifkind put it after one session pavel lead working with a candidate on tuning a performance issue "That was a master class in strategies of working through techniques" - and it was - but Pavel did not get in any Team Lead's way; indeed he was as supportive of them as they were of him and each other. again taking notes from Covey, Covey asks of Leaders, are you grooming your successor, or is there this sense that once the Leader is gone, that's the end of the organization. The way that this group demonstrated its interactions and expertise, it's cleat that the RKC *is* a school or organization or whatever one might wish to call it that is a ghestalt, or Covey's term, synergistic. While it obviously strongly flows from the vision of a leader, it is also nuturing leaders. In one of Covey's more recent books - the 8th habit - he talks of this practice as empowerment by finding your own voice AND helping others find theirs. There seemed to be a lot of that at play here. Clear vision, solid principles. It's compelling

Here's an example: In the evening on that last day in Copenhaggen, i was chatting with Team Lead Dr. Mark Cheng - he went to the Cert in the capacity of a Team Assistant even though he's a Team Leader, just to be there. He works with Pavel a lot - and he was saying how much he trusted Pavel, and where he leads, and i thought wo. that's pretty intense. But, i have to confess, i had my own nervana experience, as said, with Team Lead Will, where ya, if he was doing something and needed a hand, and i could be there, i would work to make that happen. And i don't even know this guy. And this is just swinging a kettlebell, right? right? so what's with that? The power of the 8th habit? Of finding your own voice and helping someone find theirs? That that also inspires trust?

That that happens in such a setting again is the testament to the model mirrored out from the top. (If he hasn't, Steven Covey ought to do an RKC cert).

It's the Model Embodied
So i think, i hypothesize, that it's those principles embodied in the Team and its interactions that created that warm bright eyed vibe observed among the instructor pose that gets at that gestalt effect where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It's those Code principles modeled or enacted that, it seems, implicitly inspires these folks themselve to keep up and refine their skills, not as something to show off (only), but as a responsibility to hold up their end of the experience among each other as a benefit of the School, the Team, the Organization, the overall strength of the RKC. The kettlebell is incidental to the Way. Did i just say that? yes i did. What Way? I dunno but that way, and i want more of it.

As i've said before, (and it seems with noticeably increased frequency) life is short. Being among a cadre of people who not only had this love for each other but were also open to their students is pretty cool. These was no clique feeling from the leadership team: anyone was welcome to sit down with a group of instructors over lunch, and they were made to feel just as much a part of a discussion as anyone else. When was the last time you went to a group event in your professional community where you felt that kind of unstratefied easy-going-ness?

You might say well perhaps this was a unique event of everything aligning under the stars; it's a fluke. Maybe, gut the responses from participants from other certs would seem to suggest otherwise.

This entry may sound, well, i was going to say flakey, but flakey to me generally means wishy washy. A pal of mine referred to psycho-emotional discourse as "urfy flurfy" - perhaps this is sounding all aglow and agog with urfi-flurfiness. But it's real urfy-flurfiness, dam it. it is trying to get at the sorts of things that cause us to be willing to trust, to follow, to be lead, rather than about, oh, i don't know, 6 new ways to do a swing. Not that 6 new ways to do a swing aren't important, but they're just a way of getting there. There is no spoon; there is no kettlebell. What there? plainly more unpacking to do, eh?

So the biggie here, is about what these folks (mainly men at this event - but that is changing) model while also happening to teach kettlebell technique. And it's a precious thing, to see this kind of respect. Life is short, and in a usual professional day that is so rarely enriched by anything approximating persistent, joyful interhuman interaction, getting three days of it in a row full on is rather a profound experience. i think, i hypothesize, that that sense may be something that moved all of us. Yes there was the bonding among the candidates of working concurently through a tough experience, but there was this Other Thing, this modeling of the such interaction. I want that. I want to be around something like that more, and more often.

So in the interim, this experience may suggest that my task, again drawing on Covey's notion of effecting one's own circle of influence, is to see what i can do to bring that experience into my own zone. Which is a new reason for taking the cert: i now have some new strategies, i think, to help do that, and in particular some new (role) models of how to do that, of how to help create a space where people are glad to see each other, motivate and inspire each other.

in the right environment, such as we see here, kettlebell asexual reproduction proceeds at a rapid rate. Mature kettlebells here seen taking on nutrients- all photos j.du Cane, May 2008

i'm sorry this is so long. I need to think about how to make the message shorter and pithier, but the take away seems to be, at least for me, that if you want to be inspired by a model of how a successful group full of anachronistic idividuals interacts effectively, the RKC is where it happens. The cert, while the instruction is great, the environment super, has more to offer than only this level of excellence. It's a model of principle enacted leadership.

mc, phd, cscs, rkc

This time it's Personal: Follow up Review of Precision Nutrition - Habits and Individualization

This entry is the second part of a review of Precision Nutrition v2 by John Berardi. I did the first review after having followed the approach for several months; its five months on from that initial review, so i can say with increasing confidence: Precision Nutrition works for the long haul - and it gets easier and simpler to practice as you go. And critically that means not just achieving the results you want; it means maintaining them. So this review is more about what makes PNv2 work for the long haul.

An overview of what Precision Nutrition is, and links to great associated resources, are in part 1 of the review, called "enter the super shake"

First off, Precision Nutrition is not a Diet, it's an approach to nutrition. What's the difference between a diet and nutrition? One works. for the long haul. That would be the latter one: focusing on nutrition rather than a diet.

Diets are traditionally reputed to be fast fixes for weight gain, but they also have pretty lousy longevity effects: as soon as people go "off" the diet, the weight comes back. It's understandable: for a limited period of time, we may be willing to live in a state of denial (and it usually seems like denial of something on a diet), but that's it, and as soon as the denied substance, or sloth or both come back into the equation, so does the loss of any gains. Diets are about diets, not about sustained practice.

So if diets suck at sustained results, what works?
According to John Berardi, it's all down to habits. Habits work.

Steven R. Covey of the famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People calls habits an internalized principle, bringing together knowledge, skill and attitide: what to do, how to do it and why to do it.

While not explicit (that i could find) in Berardi's writing, his version of habits seems to agree with Covey's. To achieve our goals related to health, fitness, body composition, Berardi argues, we have to adapt our habits, our way of thinking about food, our food practice. We have to learn first about what to do eating wise, then how to do it and why to do it. If we bring together this knowledge, skill set and attitudes around truly eating right, then we're not dieting - not doing a short term restrictive eating regimen for short term gains. Instead, we've developed a healthy and enduring food practice that works rain or shine, and, in particular, can be tuned to support a variety of goals - whether those goals are weight loss or muscle mass gain or maintenance.

In the last review i looked at the features of the Precision Nutrition program - all the stuff one gets from recipes to access to the best nutrition forum of experts in cyberspace. In this review, i'm going to focus mainly on how the individualuzation guide - that tuning of PN - helps to ensure that Precision Nutrition works over the long haul for one's own particular make up and goals.

Technorati Tags: diet, fitness, health, nutrition

First things first (to cadge another Covey title)
We all have things we want to achieve if we're thinking about diet: lose fat; gain muscle; have the muscle we do have show, etc. Some of us just want to improve our health. For all these things, as Berardi's PN site points out, nutrition, more so than working out or anything else has the most profound effect for shaping our selves.

If we're willing to give that postulate a go, Berardi lays out ten habits for nutrition to follow (download here), His heuristic for this approach is simple: make sure you can follow these habits for 90% compliance for at least 5 consecutive weeks. Then, see how it goes, and if and as needed adjust the variables within this following habits space. More of that in a moment, first a quick review of Berardi's PN Habits:

1. Eat every 2-3 hours.
2. Eat complete lean protein each time you eat
3. Eat vegetables every time you eat
4. Eat carbs only when you deserve to (eg this is bread, pasta starchy carbs after a work out)
5. Learn to love healthy fats (eg. fish oil capsules, and omega 3's like ground flax seed)
6. Ditch calorie containing drinks (including fruit juice)
7. Focus on whole foods
8. Have 10% foods
9. Develop food preparation strategies
10. Balance daily food choices with healthy variety

You'll notice there's no mention of calories here, but macronutrients (carbs, proteins and fats) are mentioned, at least on global terms, and that's important. The big deal here is about a concept called nutrient timing: ensuring that your body gets the nutrients it needs when it needs them, and can make best use of them. That's why rule 4 about eating (starchy) carbs only after say an intense workout is a biggie.

Calculating 90% adherence to the habits is easy & direct: did you eat every 2-3 hours? Yes. great. did each of those "feedings" include both protein and veg? No? How many didn't? 2 ok, not compliant on two? Were starchy carbs only had after working out? No? Ok, so that's clearly not a 90% compliant day.

Habits in Motion
To see the rationale for compliance being so important, let's plug that last habit test on starchy carbs into those three attributes of a habit in motion. There's method to what seem like food pyramid madness here: grains, potatoes, breads are fast carb burners and very high in amount of carb/volume of food. a whole lot of grams of carbs in one of these foods as opposed to same volume of spinach. So, the optimal time to take in that amount of fast burning mondo carb is after a work out when we've depleted what those carbs can turn into: muscle glycogen - sugar for energy in our muscles. If our muscles aren't depleted, there's no need for those glycogen inputs from the carbs, so that fuel that would have gone into our muscles goes, well, you know where: it goes to fat, the opposite of what most of us want (for more on what's going on with carbs and muscles, see this article "Frontline Fat Loss" by Dave Barr).

So that's one habit of bringing what to do (don't eat startchy carbs) with when to do it (except after workouts) with why to do it (which is when our muscles and bodies can make use of this kind of fuel). That's a good habit. If we choose not to follow it, the consequences are pretty direct: lessened fat loss; possible fat gain.

The rest of the habits have the same kind of logic behind them, but they are foreign to most of us initially. Eat every 2-3 hours? Have veggies AND protein at every "feeding"? c'mon! ah but there are ways.

So where does this get us? Well, over the period of getting to "90% compliance" we'll likely be losing weight or gaining mass (muscle) or whatever it is we want. Worst case scenario, if already pretty "fit" it may mean staying at a similar weight while improving other measures of body composition, like increasing lean mass (good) and reducing fat (also good).

Aside on Body Composition: Weight and Weigh Scales Suck
And this is one of the eye openers with PN: simple weight measures can be misleading. This means that the scales can be a lousy way to monitor progress: muscle weighs more than fat. So we can be losing body fat while gaining muscle - the scales may not seem to change and that can be as frustrating as it is a misrepresentation of what's going on in our bodies . So PN includes a measurement guide, recommends taking skin fold measures using calipers, girth measures (height, tape measurements) as well as weight measures. And for those thinking about shelling out for a digital scale that "measures" body fat, too, stick with the cheaper calipers. These scales are notoriously variable, and for the individualization program, consistent measurements over time are mission critical.

Individualization: Getting You to Where You Want to Go and Being Able to Stay There
The reason for requiring 90% compliance for 5 weeks is as simple as it is scientific: in following these habits for five weeks straight (a) there is a solid baseline of eating right, providing a clear starting point for any refinement(b) these good practices are now pretty much "habits" - wired into the system. This base line becomes important for individual tuning.

While some folks stand up and cheer right away with PN, seeing terrific and immediate results, some people on the Precision Nutrition Forum early on express frustration at having been true and compliant to the habits, yet not seeing the gains or losses they want (i've been in this space). Things seem to be at best static, or moving very slowly.

It's at this stage that individualization comes in.

The individualization guide in PNv2 looks at numerous ways for people to tune the habits/practices to support their goals. These include looking at body types (aka somatotypes) and the relation of these to macronutrients (breaking calories into protein, carbohydrates and fats). For instance the typical skinny guy who can eat anything and not gain weight, for reasons we won't go into here - for that see Berardi's Scrawny to Brawny - will likely need a higher ratio of carbohydrates than the person who just looks at a desert and feels they've gained weight. The individualization guide provides strategies for helping a person figure out where they likely are, and how to (a) balance their macronutrients appropriately and (b) get the right amount of calories (finally, there's that word: calories!).

Ironically, a typical reason for people not to lose weight, or indeed gain weight can be severe under-eating. Many women, for instance, may freak out at being told to eat 2000+ calories a day; we're used to a diet mentality of 1200 a day. For a 140 pound female, that's less than 10 calories per pound. Considering even a mainly sedentary woman at this weight burns around 2000 calories a day just from daily efforts and metabolism, to say nothing of any working out, that person is eating at starvation levels (usually considered to be at approx. 50% of caloric requirements a day). The body at starvation mode slows down the metabolism; slows down fuel burning, and will actually often take fuel from muscle tissue before taking it from fat in those conditions. The number of reports from people, especially those working out, saying as soon as they upped their calories they started to lose weight is a common response.

Now, the idea of precision nutrition is NOT to get hung up on calories, but sometimes looking at caloric amounts relative to portion sizes of macronutrients can help someone new to nutrition get used to what these ratios mean for them, so that eventually, the calorie counting can be chucked in favour of knowing what the right food ratios in feedings look like for them.

Other strategies in individualization include both carb and calorie cycling to keep the body well away from getting settled into one mode of metabolic stagnation - keeping it on its toes.

PN strategies also reflect an awareness of different practices. While it encourages 5+ hours a week of exercise as a goal minimum state of activity, where those hours include a mix of resistance, cardio and high intensity interval work (in keeping with research on exercise requirements research for health and healthy body weight), it provides strategies that suit people at different levels of practice and interest.

Testing Testing. Is this thing Working?
Almost more important than the strategies available for individualization is the methodology for assessing the effectiveness of any of these strategies. Again, the approach is simple as well as scientific: change ONE thing only; hold it constant for two weeks at least, and re-assess. Is it working? do it for another two weeks. If not, assess what's happening and tweak again - change one other thing, one variable at a time.

The rationale for this simple, scientific, proven approach is that if you change multiple things at once, how do you know if any of them are the things making a difference? This is also why the baseline of 90% compliance is important. If you know you're eating according to the habits, then you can with confidence change one thing at a time. For instance, you may increase portion size (increase calories) overall for two weeks, or you may increase amount of protein only and hold everything else steady. One variable change at a time, assuming no other noise like illness or sudden decrease or increase in workouts, etc, means that change in results can pretty much be guaranteed to be attributed to that effect. It may take a few tweaks to dial in what makes sense, and PN provides tools to help for instance figure out caloric and macronutrient requirements dependent on activities (lots of workouts, but otherwise not active for example) and goals (weight loss, muscle gain, maintenance).

This is exciting: this method means that figuring out what works for you is not either the deprivation of a diet or the frustration of thinking that you already "eat clean" so why aren't you lean, or muscular or whatever. Here's a concrete, yet elegant (read simple but beautiful, sorta like e=mc2) way to understand clearly what approach works for you, with the insight into both why and how it works.

Now, someone reading this potential need for tweaking may be put off, thinking "but i want something to work right away! All this tweaking at two weeks a pop after getting to 5 weeks of compliance - that's taking possibly months away from that weight goal."

Two possible replies to this argument. First, as Berardi in his videos that accompany PN puts it, if you want to lose weight fast, and that's your only concern, he can make it happen with lots of drugs and diet enforcement. But then what? The immediate fix is only effective for the duration of that diet. Second, once you're tweaked, you're tweaked. It may take a little bit of time for you to get what works for you, but once it's dialed in, it's dialed in: you know what works for you AND you have the knowledge on how to adapt this if your practice changes - like you start to work out more - or your goals change - you want to add muscle now, rather than lose weight. If you could spend a couple months cleaning up your diet and getting techniques that last AND improve your health AND not only achieve your goals but ensure your results last for months/years, then that ramp up phase is worth it, no? And hey, that ramp up phase is still progressing you towards your goal, too.

You're Not Alone
Despite how great the individualization guide it can be challenging to determine which strategy to pick first - which one is most likely to benefit your particular circumstances/goals/composition. That's where the PN forum comes in. A PN purchase gives you full access to the forum, its online resources and especially its experts like Carter Schoffer (Director of Sports Nutrition and Performance at precision nutrition) and Ryan D. Andrews (Dietitian/Exercise Physiologist/Director of Research as well as being a vegan), to name only two of the PN team members, are worth their weight in gold. There are also folks like Kris Aiken, Coach Mike and Krista Schaus who are pro trainers who are regulars on the forum and part of the team. This is to say nothing of all the people who keep Members Logs on the site and have likely either gone through what you're going through or are right there with you, empathisizing, replying and pointing folks to related resources to help get up on the Why of any of the habits.

Just to add a personal note, this has certainly been my experience: with following the habits with 90% compliance, my progress to my goals was steady but seemingly very sloooow. I lamented this on the forum and got some super pointers of techniques to try to tweak the approach; i went back to the tools on the site and the individualization guide; i came back with a suite of questions, and got a sustained set of answers from Carter Schoffer in particular that helped me dial in within a month the nutrition refinements i needed for my particular practice. I'm very pleased with the results; more than that, i'm very pleased with having been able to maintain and improve them.

Tweak Your Fitness Program, too: As another aside: the support available on the PN forum is not just about nutrition alone; there's a strong focus on tweaking one's workouts, too. Beyond the PN team, there are numerous coaches and fitness professionals who are regulars on the forum. Three in particular have offered me free and terrific feedback on my programs. This is a shout out of thanks for these community members: Roland Ficher (CDN), Alex Gold (UK) and Mike T. Nelson (USA), whom i've had the pleasure to interview for IAMGeekFit. From basic program to custom tuning, you're so covered with PN.

Taking It Home
One of the main tenants of PN is that this is a strategy for the long term. As such spending the time up front to figure out how to tune good nutrition practices for you for that long haul is a far healthier approach than short term "fast" but also short and potentially unhealthy fixes like diets can be.

Maybe you're looking at those PN habits and thinking "wow, no way i can get compliant on those habits; too daunting." That's ok, too. Cold Turkey isn't for everyone: one at a time is a better start than walking away. What do you have to lose by not trying? This is about a practice for a lifetime. So, to paraphrase a line from Babylon 5, how old will you be a year from now if you don't try to get real with good nutrition?

For those reading this who are excited about how this approach may work for you, that's excellent. It will. The basics are super sound; the habits work, and best of all, the individualization approaches ensures that those habits work for you no matter your health, nutrition and fitness goals.

All the best,
mc

Link to Precision Nutrition v2

Anthony Diluglio Art of Strength AOS Newport Kettlebell Workout DVD Review by mc: it's a mettle test

Previously, i've reviewed P90X and my experience with it: this is what i thought was a high intensity 12 week set of work outs attached to the mantra "bring it." My entire opinion of P90X has now been shredded based on my experience with Art of Strength's second kettlbell workout video, AOS: Newport [UK: LondonKettlebells.com for ordering | Northamerica, here direct to AOS]. P90X is a gentle romp compared to this.

This is a 55 minute post modern workout (it has three endings: that's pretty pomo). If you *think* you're strong and want to check in with yourself, this is an excellent workout for a very fast very efficient reality check. If you *think* you're interested in this kind of test, or would even like to use this as a regular workout, read on.

Technorati Tags: kettlebell

Brett Jones, in a great article on the Deadlift, refers to Steve Justa and one of his ultra simple deadlift plans. That plan is in Justa's fantastic book Rock, Iron, Steel: The Book of Strength [UK: Londonkettlebells.com it about £5 less than Amazon / North America, Amazon works]. In chapter one, "Lifting for Strength and Endurance" Justa writes about every once in awhile doing something very challenging that taxed both strength and endurance to see where you are with yourself. For Justa, that's included walking a few miles with a 200lb weighted vest. For me right now, it's Art of Strength's Newport DVD.

The 55 min multiple set kettlbell workout is designed as a "regular" workout. If you do not alrady have a regular kettlebell workout regimen - or are coming off some other high intensity workout routine like P90X and are wondering where to go next - there are enough ways to pace yourself through this DVD that it would be an awesome tool as such. I have a workout routine right now that i'm pretty happy with. Therefore, Newport has become a monthly Justa-fy myself, where i have to get the moxy up to push to keep up with Anthony Diluglio, the workout leader.

Again, i don't wish to give the impression that this is not a great regular workout on it's own: my review of it is how it fits in with an established routine in order to take stock of where i am, and where i want to be.

Solo Diluglio
Unlike other DVDs of this sort, there's no back up participants following along: it's just Mr. Diluglio in front of the Big Anchor down in Newport with his Punch Gym truck parked in the shot. Actually that's one of the subtle pluses of this vid: it's clear that a kettlebell is pretty much something you can use anywhere: if you have enough room to swing a small cat, you can swing a kettlebell - and push up on a kettlebell, and kick while holding a kettlebell, and sots press with a kettlebell - you get the idea. If you've seen Anthony Diluglio's Minute of Strength videos explaining various moves, this is the same guy: much less talking about a move here; much more doing those moves (does he even break a sweat? at least you can hear him breathing).

The Moves.
As for those moves, the DVD assumes that you've mastered kettlebell basics like the Swing, Turkish Get Up, Snatch, Clean and Press, and feel comfortable with the occasional kick, squat, cossack stretch and sots press (try alternating a kick with a bell in the rack followed by a sots press, changing sides for three minutes - after 40 mins of intense work).

If you are not yet up on these moves, you're recommended to get hip with the form via Enter the Kettlebell book/ebook/DVD (review here) [note, AOS makes a super workbook to go along with Enter the Kettlebell's beginner and intermediate workouts].

Big Balls? Definitely Not
The instruction makes clear that this workout is designed to be done with two particular kettlebells, gender specific: 8kg for women; 16kg for men (if you're super strong 12/20 are the other gender ok'd ranges).They're not kidding. I'm comfortable doing a lot of snatches with a 16, and doing cleans with a 20kg. The first time through this video with the 8kg, i had to change my weaker side in the sots press (round 6) for a ten pounder. The very first move of round 1 of holding up that 8kg while doing a cossack stretch - without resting my elbows on my thighs - was enough to make me wonder if i could get through the rest of the routine. Fortunately, things actually seemed more tractable after that - at least till that dam sots press. Conquering that particular move is a measurable accomplishment (at least to me).

The Sets

The sets or rounds themselves are alternating two moves within a three minute slot, and/or alternating sides. If you do all three endings, that's 10 sets of 20 moves, circuit style, plus an 11th set bonus 5 min. snatch test. It's this full body attack that ensures you feel fully flushed by the end of the endeavor.

The amazing thing is, just watching through the video, i thought oh ya, no probs, i can do all these moves; there's lots of full minute breaks. Should be *easy*. I actually said this to myself: "easy." Ha! it is to laugh. P90X is *easy* compared to this (and i'm in much better shape now than i was at the end of P90X). This is a *serious* workout.

That said, again, it would be wrong to give the impression that i've fallen on the ground gasping for breath after doing the Newport workout. On the contrary: it's exhilarating. This positive ending, is, i think, largely because of the pacing and the full minute recovery. These workouts are thought out. And of course, if that one minute recovery isn't enough on some days, well, press pause for a little longer. Likewise, if snatching at the same pace as Diluglio is more of a killer than your life currently requires, well go slower.

Big Special Effects for Training
Because the sets are SO intense, one of the best assets of the video presentation is the big red bar timer on the left of the screen present for each three minute set, with the bar marked at 30 sec. intervals. As time passes, the red in the bar drops down. This bar is not unique to the AoS video, but it is a great feature to have. This, along with Anthony's vocal reminders of X many seconds left in a particular move, makes it easy to know exactly where one is in the set - and how far away that next full minute recovery is. The video also has three soundtrack options (two different original music tracks and one with no background music track). AoS also promotes those musicians on its web site. Nice touch, guys.

While Diluglio doesn't recommend it or not, one can wear a heart rate monitor (just turn the watch face away from where the bell will land in a snatch): this is another way to monitor progress from one session to the next.

After the Party's Over
At the start of this review, i suggested that for me, the AOS Newport vid is a monthly challenge; a way to take stock of where my current strengths and weaknesses are - as well as a way just to say wow, i did that. There are a bunch of ways to keep tabs and think about tuning a regular workout relative to this monthly test. This is how i've done it:

1. keep track of how many sets are at the same pace as Diluglio
2. keep track of where any extra pauses are put in (or not)
3. able to keep going with the kettlebell you start with?
4. there are three possible endings/bonus rounds: how many were completed?
5. record numbers from the five minute snatch test
6. check/record heart rate at end of workout or at end of each set.

What i've found is that depending how i'm feeling in a different place, i can see if i want/need to take up my VO2 max training, or work on particular muscle groups. That sots press really let me know that my left shoulder could use some attention - just doing the sots press on it's own as part of my usual routine had not shown that up; that combination did. Likewise feeling winded at one point made me wonder about beefing up my swing/snatch work during the week.

Wrap UP
AOS's Newport DVD is a non-trivial workout: it certainly gets my heart going, tests my strength and, depending on how frequently i've done it, my mental fortitude. If you're looking for an intense regular cardio/endurance workout that can be done in a small space with little gear, AOS Newport is bang on; if you're thinking you'd like to Justa-fy yourself once in awhile as part of a monthly (or so) check in with an other regimine, AOS Newport will definitely take you there.

Enter the Super Shake: Preliminary Review of Precision Nutrition, Version 2 (PN V2) developed by John Berardi, Science Link

(This is Part 1 of so far a 2 part in-depth review of Precision Nutrition).

There are SO MANY diet plans out there. SO MANY ways to think about food, many of them seemingly contradictory: one diet pushes meat and fat; another lots of greens and no bread. Some say eat little during the day and over eat at night; others, eat all the time. But, as nutrition and human performance researcher Dr. John Berardi puts it, if you're looking in the mirror and you're not happy with what you see, the most frequent limiting factor is nutrition. You need to get it right. So if you're reading this entry, it may just be because (a) you understand that and (b) you're still looking for a nutrition solution that works.

One approach i've been exploring over the past several months is Berardi's Precision Nutrition system. It takes the focus off the diet, the what to eat, per se, and focuses instead on the head space around everything to do with eating. It takes an holistic view around the how why and when of eating and focuses on developing the right habits to support effective practice. The premise is simple, and in the style of "the seven habits of highly effective people" unless we develop the right habits to support success, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment.

John Berardi's Precision Nutrition system is based around 10 fundamental habits. Get the habits right, and the argument goes, you're set for life (you can download those habits, along with sample recipes, for free - part 2 of this review goes into further detail about those habits, too). To help get these habits in place, the PN system covers strategies for food prep, for grocery shopping, for setting up your kitchen, for planning menus, for ultra super fast nutritious meals for folks on the go, for measuring your progress (and it ain't just using a scale), and of course, for choosing the right foods.

This is not a miracle "lose 20 pounds in three days" program. This is real stuff, based on real science and especially real and effective strategies for continued, progressive, measurable success. It's the whole enchilada as it were. In the following, i'll take a look at the program, the stuff you get, including Super Shake recipes (more on this miraculous beverage anon), and how it works.
And works and works.

Technorati Tags: diet, health, john berardi, precision nutrition

The Precision Nutrition System consists of 10 main components.

An introductory & Success Guide
The Diet Guide
The Quick Start Guide
The Super Shake Guide
5 Minute Meals
The Individualization Guide
The Measurement Guide
Audio Series
No Nonsense Nutrition Video Series
Gourmet Nutrition Cook Book
The online PN resource.

Each of these components is described in detail on the PN main page (just scroll down to "what is it and what do i get") but there are a few things i'd like to emphasize that i think have particular value: the online resources and yes, the Super Shake - ok and a few other bits.

Online Resources
I've said it before: effective companies provide support for their product beyond the sale of The Thing. In other reviews i've noted that the workout bootcamp DVD series P90X has online forum support; Dragon Door, publisher of all Pavel Tsatsouline's kettlebell and strength books & dvds supports one of the most supports an active strength, condition, kettlebelling AND nutrition forums. This is SMART. PN also has a forum and online resources, but it takes a slightly different approach: anyone can join the forum a view discussions with free sign up, but only owners of its products get full access to its forums and related online resources.

One of the best resources on this forum are the human resources. There are at least half a dozen professionals covering a range of nutrition/human performance areas who are part of the PN team and who actually reply to forum posts. More than once. A lot of discussions with these experts go on on the forums. Having access to previous ones, and participating in current ones all by itself is worth the price of admission. How much would it cost to dial up a top nutrition/performance expert and ask a question about your specific nutrition plan? The answer probably covers the cost of the entire PN program. I admit it: it was wanting to get answers to my questions about diet, supplements and workouts that pushed me off the fence to order PN v2. I received my login the day i purchased the system online, so was able to ask that question (and oh about 30 more) as soon as i plunked down the cash.

And that's another amazing asset about the forum. Many of the participants are themselves health professionals with certifications like the well respected National Strength and Conditioning CSCS. So when forum participants chime in, they're coming from a knowledgeable place - and if these kinds of Pros are here, that says something about the product.

Almost as an aside to these human resources are copious online resources: audio, video, ebook, online software etc. For instance in the section on training there are e-books that cover workouts for people starting out; workouts specifically for women, workouts for people over 40, workouts for people without any equipment, workouts for people who like to go to the gym. These have been produced again by well regarded pros.

I say pro alot, but one of the strong attractors for me in the PN system is that it's backed up by research, and not just "here's a study by a supplement company that says their product is great" - there's a synthesis of research going on and based on a critical look at the studies, a careful giving of opinion. I *like* going to a site where an answer to a question about eating carbs post work out is backed up by "these three articles from PubMed" - it means i can go check out the argument myself if i want.

That's great to be able to get intrigued about macronutrients you say, but what about just bloody losing weight?

Enter the Super Shake

Probably the thing that sold PN to me the most was looking at an acquaintance's copy and coming across The Super Shake. Let me back up a little. One of the ten habits is to eat every 2-3 hours, and to make sure there's some veg and protein "with each feeding" - yes "feeding" as opposed to meal.

Let's set aside the rationale for eating at least 6 meals a day (though who could argue with eating eating eating?), assume for a moment that this is a Very Good Idea, and just think about the practicalities of eating a full on protein (like meat) and veg (like spinach) meal at work. uh huh. Berardi recognizes the challenge of eating a Real Meal especially at work. His response is the magnificent Super Shake.
As he puts it, these things are likely more nutritious than some of your regular meals.

The super shake means that an implicit 11the Habit is this: get a blender; love a blender. As an aside, i'd add if you don't have blender love now, take a look at the Will It Blend series on the Blendtec Total Blender and be amazed at how fun a blender can be). Anyway, how PN makes supershakes means that you really do get a meal replacement that is as nutritious or better than a typical meal. These shakes are fast, can be made with fresh or frozen ingredients, and, best of all can be flung together in advance to cart off to work. They can be made the night before or morning of, shelped up to the office and popped in the fridge. There you have it. Dam they're good.

I don't want to give away the ingredients list but they're super fine. In fact there's an ongoing thread on the PN forum to upload variations on the supershakes. One included chocolate and coffee beans. wha!!! that's sinfully good, and really good for you. How can this be?

Supershakes mean that when you're hungry between meals, you get to eat. Da. You get to eat something that's both nutritious, tasty and filling.

For those times when you just can't pack a shake (like getting onto an airplane, dam it) there are alternatives in the gourmet nutrition cookbook (vol 1 is included in PN; vol 2 is new and may be ordered separately), such as the Anytime protein bars - i think these should be renamed "eat these and never feel hungry again" You know that stuff in Lord of the Rings that the elves give the Fellowship so they don't get hungry - lamas bread (??) - well that's what these things are like. I slice 'em up into a third the size the recommend and man, they are tasty potent beasties.

Does it Blend?

You may be wondering alright alright, but does this approach work? Have you lost weight? or gained weight? or done whatever you wanted to do with your weight?

Well, yes, else i'd nay be writing about this with such enthusiasm. But i'm only a couple months in: Berardi's body transformation contests which he holds for PN members, last 16 weeks, not 12. There are about 5 weeks given to just get the hang of the habits for the first time. Berardi says that until you can follow the habits with at least 90% compliance for five weeks, you don't have the basis for really assessing whether or not the program is working for you. The great thing is, scientifically, it's easy to chart whether you have complied and to what percentage: there's a chart: either you complied, or you didn't or you "cheated." That makes life unambiguously clear.

Once you have that 5 week get in the habit space down, you can begin to think about individualizing the plan to super tweak the approach to you. The individualization guide again gives you a sure fire process to assess where you're at, think about what you need to do, and to make assessments of effect over 2 week intervals. See what i mean about this is no lose 20 pounds in three days thing? This is a for real life-based approach to your nutrition and your goals around weight.

(The follow up review i've done focuses on the Individualization part of the program. If you want to skip reading more about that for now, bottom line, it works for tuning PN to suit your goals perfectly).

The great thing is you do not have to freak out about counting calories or getting overly intrigued about food labels: stick to the habits and things kinda take care of themselves. But you just might find yourself getting to a point where you want to get a little more interested in macronutrient ratios in foods (% of carbs, fats and protein) - if you do, there's guidance there too in the individualization guide to support that.

Measuring Up

And as you're charting you progress, you may ask yourself, how do you chart your progress? The answer in PN is Beyond the Bathroom Scale - that the Scale is just one measure. There are a LOT of ways to assess your progress, and when one (like the scale) seems stuck, you may be actually making progress on others. Consider the all important waist and butt measures. Suppose you seem stuck at a particular poundage, but from your great new fitness plan (like oh i dunno, maybe swinging kettlebells) you're seeing your butt size go down. or your waist. or both. That's a Good Thing: you're building lean muscle (heavier than fat) and also getting rid of fat. Well done! The scale might not be going down but bet your pants are fitting better. An other measure that is detailed pretty intensely is skin fold measures. Yes, pinch an inch is one way where you and a partner can bond on taking each others skin fold measures. From seven sites on your body. Here's a quick test: can you pinch any skin from the back of your calf when you're standing up? I was surprised by the results on that one. In any case, the point is, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and if you want to have the MOST information to go on to determine your progress - where it's happening especially if the scale seems stuck (it happens) you've got it here.

The Other Good Stuff
I haven't talked about the guides on how to set up your kitchen, go shopping, set aside time for food prep of a sunday and get it done for the week, and all the recipes (beyond the Super Shake). That's because mainly i have a pretty good handle right now on shopping, meal prep (i love to chop), packing a lunch and throwing things into a pan: i follow the Super Food guide in PN: follow the habits, use the foods in the Super Food list, and thar ya go. And ain't it grand that the program accommodates people who like recipe books, and people who like ingredients lists!

Want to Try It Out?
If you like the sound of the plan, but aren't quite ready to pony up, aren't quite sure about the sound of potentially lifestyle changing habits, there are a few ways you can get a closer view of the program. There's the free sample from the Gourmet Nutrition recipe book There's also a 7 chapter, 45 page e-book called "Precision Nutrition Strategies for Success" that is like a condensed version of the PN system. With this you can get a really good feel for the whole program.

Berardi also has a free 8 day email based thinking about your nutrition crash course called "Body Transformation with Precision Nutrition". Give it a shot: it's free, the ideas come to you once a day for a little over a week, and that's it. At the very least, you get a preview of the 10 habits, and some ideas for checking out how to support an effective, habit-based, approach to personal nutrition. The first 3 days are just online questionnaires to help you get a sense of where you're at with nutrition understanding right now, focusing on understanding what leads to failure, or more importantly, success, no matter what approach plan or system you take to nutrition. (Aside: if you're a skinny person who actually wants to bulk up, Beradi also has a free 5 day crash course called Scrawny to Brawny that goes through stuff from supplements to exercises to get some beef on the bod in a muscular rather than flab kinda way).

So? Why a Preliminary Review?
I admit it: i'm someone who's into health and i like knowing why something works. I also sometimes like not to have to think about stuff and just "follow the plan." Precision Nutrition lets me be shallow and deep about nutrition as much as i want, and i've been doing that alot for 3 months. Most particularly, i like how there's also insight on how to balance my workouts with my nutrition: that the system is sensitive to that - and that the pros involved in PN are health professionals. For a geek like me, this kind of program is exciting: i can look under the hood. And there's so much available online, for constant updates, refining plans and so on. You can go as deep as you want. or not. It's working. Hence i want to come back to this months down the line when i'm tapping a little more deeply into the Beyond PN land.

For my family who for the most part couldn't care less about the nitty gritty and just want to lose weight and already pretty much "eat healthy" (vegetables of various colors show up on the plate, that sort of thing), PN also fits the bill. The habits make it easy, as said, to see if one is on task. The challenge to follow those habits "clean" for five weeks is the biggest challenge of the whole thing. (Initially, not having oatmeal for breakie unless i was working out first was the biggest challenge). And with things like super shakes, anything is possible. If only one could still take liquids on planes, even travel could be improved.

Now to go make some Lama bread bars. When i've been using the system for another three months, i'll come back with a follow up review, but for now two thumbs up!

Link to Precision Nutrition v2

Update March 21, 2008:

Follow up review posted, This Time It's Personal: Follow Up Review of John Berardi's Precision Nutrition version 2 - Habits and Individualization.

As you can likely tell from the title, i've found PN to work not only to achieve goals but to maintain them. The review focuses specifically on the methodology of Habits (as opposed to diet) and how the PN Individualization Guide works to tune those habits for individual perfection both for the immediate goal achievement and ongoing maintenance - to say nothing of adapting for new goals/challenges.

Enter the Kettlebell: a Review of *The* Kettlebell Training Initiation Program developed by Pavel Tsatsouline

Enter The Kettlebell from Dragon Door Publishing written by Pavel Tsatsouline is a DVD and book of the same name that offers a complete program on how to train with "the Russian Kettlebell" - an iron device that is often described as "a cannonball with a handle." With all the plethora of workout gear around, however, why add something more? Why would anyone choose a kettlebell?

The answer is at least two-fold: the flexibility of the kettlebell itself (compared to dumbbells or other gear) and second
it's not just the device: it's the philosophy espoused around the device that goes against the grain of just about every popular workout regimin. If you're familiar with the usual mantra of Aerobics plus Resistance Training where you ride a stationary bike, or pump a treadmill for 30 mins to an hour, and then work out different body parts with weights throughout the week, this may be the time to cue up Monty Python's "And now for something completely different..."

First to go with Enter the Kettlebell (ETK) is aerobics or "the dishonour of aerobics" as the author puts it; second to go is training body parts in isolation. Third to go is the notion of ever "training to failure" that weight pumping truism that says use a weight that, after 8-12 reps, you just can't do one more rep - you've go to failure. Well, with ETK, forget about failure: train for success.

If you're wondering where any exercise could possibly be left if you strip out body part workouts and aerobics, the answer in ETK is "lots." The philosophy is simple: focus on only a few moves that work the major muscle groups not in isolation but in combination, the way we use them naturally; perfect those few moves; use low reps, heavy weights, high sets; always finish each set, and each session, feeling fresh and ready to do more, not wasted. The goal is conditioning and strength, not muscle for the sake of muscle.

If you are interested in a great workout that is time efficient and effective, and oh so not boring, whether your goals are strength, conditioning, weight loss or all of the above, Enter the Kettlebell's reputation as the place to start and build a foundation is well-deserved and highly recommended. The next sections go over more about the program and experience with it.

Technorati Tags: fitness, kettlebell, Pavel Tsatsouline, workout, yoga

While there are a plethora of moves one can perform with this iron ball with handles -- swinging it with one hand or two; two bells at once or only one: pressing from the shoulders or bending to the side and pressing one bell up then standing up; sitting back and passing the bell from hand to hand; pressing while standing on one leg; walking lunges etc etc -- ETK teaches only four, and breaks these up into two phases: the Program Minimum and the Right of Passage (ROP).

The Program Minimum focuses on the Swing and the Turkish Get UP (images, left). That's it.

The ROP focuses on alternating the Swing and the Clean and Press with the Swing and the Snatch (images right). The guidelines for progressing in each phase are clear, sensible, and based on excellent exercise science. Most of all they include strong emphasis on rest, recovery and perfect form.

Practice with a kettlebell provides an intense, full body workout in less than half an hour. Each of the four moves works all the major muscle groups concurrently and provides a conditioning effect that blows aerobics out of the water. Because it is working so many muscle groups so effectively it is a highly efficient, time effective way to work out. The device itself is also very compact. It is possible to workout with the thing, really, anywhere. One can see why, as the story goes, russian special forces threw these in the back of their tanks to work out at rest stops whether in their barracks or out in the snow on the road.

This kind of practice can be applied to a range of exercises, and indeed Pavel Tsatsouline has written a number of other books which apply this philosophy to deadlifts and presses (Power to the People); to pistols and push ups (the Naked Warrior), and to weightlifting in general (Beyond Bodybuilding). But a tool that seems emphatically to embody these holistic values is the kettlebell. 20-30 mins with a kettlebell, using the ETK approach, is a complete workout that has proven to be effective for weight loss, strength building and overall conditioning. And, for someone with lower back issues like myself, it is perhaps the most excellent strength regimine there is.

While many books/dvds look at different aspects of kettlebell training, since its release in 2006, Enter the Kettlebell has become the defacto bible for starting up: it's the program everyone else assumes you already know or are working on, and with good reason. It is clear, concise and effective. It presents two programs: the start up, called the New Program Minimum, and the second phase of solid foundation work, called the Rite of Passage (ROP).

Enter the Kettlebell as an introduction and foundation course for kettlebell work is an exceptional book/dvd combination on several levels: first, it is very well written and an enjoyable read; second, it provides thorough discussions about both the history and the science behind its approach to working out; third, the book is very well illustrated and designed, the DVD is a well-presented, integrated accompaniment to the book.

Preamble: coming off intense aerobics and body part resistance and switching to ETK
Three and some months ago i had just finished a very intense 13 weeks program called P90X (reviewed here) that focussed on working out 6 days a week, alternating resistance training and aerobics. Its emphasis was a mix of resistance training 3 days a week and various forms of cardio and stretching the other three. Workouts lasted a minimum of an hour twenty a day. At some parts of the program, you're adding an extra cardio session, getting up to working out two hours a day, and truly taxing your partner's patience in (a) getting less quality time with you and (b) stinking up more of the house more often.

As i got to the end of this intense program, while i could feel and see that i was reaching goals for strength and weight loss, i was very perplexed about what next. There was little guidance on the company's site: this program is sort of their Ultra workout, after which there is no directed "what next."

After much research, i kept running into various work by Pavel Tsatsouline, including his earlier Russian Kettlebell Challenge book and DVD. I tried many of the moves from this book using my trusty PowerBlocks. I liked how these moves felt even with dumbbells (one of the ways Tsatsouline in fact recommends exploring kettlebell work in the Russian Kettlebell Challenge to see if it's for you). I liked the moves: they seemed to involve both skill to coordinate all the parts of a move and critical attention to detail while carrying out those moves.

Indeed, i started Enter the Kettlebell at one hotel gym, using their powerblocks, and then used the next hotels dumbbells as i waited for the kettlebell i'd ordered to arrive.

An immediate appeal coming off P90x was that i could still work hard, but without spending all that time in the gym. This turned out to be one of the biggest head shifts: less really is more, when that less is the Right less. In his series called Aggressive Strength Training with Kettlebells, Mike Mahler, another of the key voices in kettlebell training, makes the point about time out of the gym pretty strongly: there's more to life than the gym, and if you don't feel that way, you need to check your life.

So i've been following the ETK Rite of Passage now for the near four months it's been since P90X, and it's been very interesting. First and foremost, during P90X every day completing the prescribed workout felt like a huge accomplishment: sticking with the program required a tremendous mental effort, and each day completed was one more checked off and DONE from that daunting 90days. With ETK/ROP, three and a half months have flown by. I have a complete training log of working out 5 days every week, progress made etc etc. But i don't have that huge sense of the required "bring it" intensity and mental and physical drain that P90X demanded - along with an almost neurotic focus on achieving THE GOAL within that time. My god, that was intense.

These past several months with the kettlebell have made me wonder if all that's necessary to achieve the same ends? As said, i barely notice that it's been well, 100+ days since that last stint. And yet, the results are there and steadily improving. In other words, there's been no strength or conditioning loss; just solid improvements since then. And my body doesn't feel like it's being pushed to the edge; i'm sleeping better; i have more time to be with the people in my life, and especially for me, my lower back is feeling much stronger. While i still have chronic pain, the level of pain has dropped considerably, and, combined with yoga specially designed for my back, i have hope of that pain dropping even more.

I don't think i regret spending the time i did on P90X - it seemed to have been exactly what i thought i needed at the time: the structure, discipline, etc etc of that program to make the breakthrough back to health that i needed then. I don't think i would have believed that kettlebells alone would have worked; therefore i wouldn't have done it; therefore no changes, no making the breakthrough and no kettlebells now. But i'm very grateful to have found kettlebells now.

After three months of P90X if i had been told "do it again" i'd have balked. Beyond the intensity, i had reached a saturation point with the routine. After the same amount of time with kettlebells, i feel i've barely scratched the surface of what this kind of workout has to offer. I can't imagine getting bored with this, at all, ever. I can't think of another approach to working out or weights where i've felt that way. Hell these blobs of cast iron are dangerous - they even come with a warning label. That's kind of exciting, too.

An overview of the Enter the Kettlebell Approach:
Get comfortable with the bell learning the Swing, the core kettlebell move, and the Turkish Get Up, a move that teaches the body to coordinate working muscles together to keep from dropping a big weight on your head while moving from a prone to a standing position. When form is clean and the moves are solid, move from practice to the Rite of Passage with two new moves: the Clean and Press (swinging the bell up to the "rack" where it rests in the crook of one's arm and from here pressing it overhead. Rinse and repeat) and the Snatch "the Tsar of Kettlebell" moves. Like the C&P, the Snatch is a dynamic move informed by the big Lifts in Olympic style lifting. Here the bell is swung up to an overhead position.

Why ETK is such a cool book:
There are books that can simply describe how to carry out these kettlebell moves - for the most part this is the role of the ETK DVD. But what makes the ETK book special is that while it describes the moves, it also provides a rich rationalization for them based on science and historical practice.

Tsatsouline blends modern science, best coaching practice and historical references to old time strong men to describe the program he's developed for Western Kettlebelling. For instance, those who go to the gym for bodybuilding purposes, and thus work individual muscle groups, while staying away from the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, and snatches, may not be aware, that as in anything, there have been fashion trends in the body game. The historical 'strong men' who had a very different body composition than today's bodybuilders (check the pecs on X against say, Arnie in his Mr. Olympia days) had very different philosophies around training. Where the strong men focused on moves to build great strength and physique, by working muscles together rather than separately, today's body builders tend to work their muscles to do well at isolation moves, rather than for overall strength. No wonder guys on the platform can look a little well, freaky, rather than human. Likewise, special forces, whether fire fighters, rescue workers or soldiers have functional demands on their bodies that require strength and conditioning first (the resulting lovely physique second). This is the headspace from which Tsatsouline's kettlebell approach is honed.

The result of this history + performance science approach to describing each of the moves and why the program is put together the way is that it inspires both interest and confidence in following the program, and its philosophy. That philosophy includes variety - not variety in terms of doing different exercises each day of the week, but variety in level and intensity of the same exercises over the course of the week. This waving of intensity is backed up by science, but even without going into the details, the approach sounds like something that your mother would tell you: don't work so hard all the time; make sure to get enough rest (and dress warmly in the winter).

To back up the intensity philosophy, Tsatsouline emphasizes the use of time rather than number of reps as the arbiter of work. See how many reps you can get in in a pre-determined time frame and go from there. One day, do only 50% intensity for that time; another day 70; another day, full on. This means that if one does sets of a max of 5 reps, intensity can be varied by the length of rest periods between sets. Not that rest necessatily means dead stop. Most of the folks in the kettlebell community are proponents of active rest. That said, feeling fresh means finishing strong, means solid progress.

The advantage of a four move program like ETK is that it enables one, as the Matrix says to "free your mind" (there is no spoon). These moves are finesse moves: a lot is going on in each one; perfecting each one, is a daily challenge. The simple swing requires thinking about the planting of the feet, the position of the knees over ankles, the butt being back, the bend at the hips while keeping the back straight, the lats and abs firing, the pelvis tucking in and knees locking, the bell going to the weightless spot, and repeating - and then having the courage to stop when the form starts even slightly to deteriorate rather than squeezing out another rep. There is no cheat rep here. no bad form.

Indeed, there's so much going on in these seemingly simple moves that a trip to one's local registered Russian Kettlebell Certified (RKC) instructor to check your form once you get into this, is a Really Good Idea.

On another note, the text itself is well laid out and presented. The publishers have raised their game from previous books, and ensured that the physical presentation is in keeping with the content, the style of one informing the function of the other. The photos of the moves are not just photos stuck onto pages, but white backgrounded sequences that blend into the pages. The sections of the text are also clearly and logically supported by motifs on the pages: each section is closed by an impressive image of a kettlebell; each chapter is initiated by a black page with Russian-esque double headed eagle grasping kettlebells. Summative information from each chapter is presented on yellowed pages, with a file folder in the background. The publisher credits Derek Brigham with the design. It seems Bringham has done lots of other work for this publisher, but the work on this effort is a quantum leap beyond the earlier titles. If a Kettlebell book were a coffee table book, this one could work as such. Enjoyable read, great information and visually pleasing. What more could you want?

Why ETK is such a Cool DVD

Even when taking a few classes to get an expert eye on one's form, the DVD is invaluable for reviewing and refreshing the particular components of the moves - you see more after you've had an expert look at how you do your swings, C&Ps, snatches and TUG's. Get the DVD and you'll also get some bonus videos/guides on suggestions for what to do on the "alternate" days in the ROP.

Unlike most other workout DVD's, Enter the Kettlebell is not a "work along with" routine. The video simply illustrates all the moves in the Enter the Kettlebell text, as performed by the book's author, Pavel Tsatsouline. After each move, it reviews the critical points for carrying out the form accurately and effectively. Accuracy is critical in these moves: do them incorrectly and you're looking at injury, and not just from dropping the bell on your foot: a bad clean can mean a tweaked shoulder; improper form in the back can mean injuries in the lower back; poor lower body alignment in a swing can damage the knees. DragonDoor's own kettlebells come with warning labels for these very reasons. Because these issues are serious, there's a wonderful section called "It's your fault" about kettlebell safety. It really is. If you take your eye off the ball (figuratively) you only have yourself to blame.

The idea of this style of presentation that demonstrates moves, breaks them down, reiterates the points to perform the move, rather than having a follow along routine, is that you will be so focused on your own sets when you yourself are practicing either the Program Minimum or ROP that watching a TV screen at the same time would not exactly be a great idea. It's also not particularly necessary: the ROP program is simple: do x C&P's on day N; do swings at M% of max for Y mins on day N too.

ASIDE - If working out exactly how many "ladders" of presses and how long to do a swing session each day seems too mentally taxing (heh, you just want to focus on doing a workout) there is an Enter the Kettlebell workbook (scroll down the page to Books and EBooks) designed by another RKC trained instructor Anthony DiLuglio and available at the Art of Strength site. The nice thing about the workbook is that it gives you a tangible record of progress. One thing that just about all sports professionals agree is that keeping a log is a great tool for charting progress and firing motivation. The ETK workbook makes it easy to keep such a log for both the Program Minimum and the ROP.

I have only one qualm with the ETK DVD: too few reps of any given move for close close study. At times, in watching the snatch for instance, i've played it at super slow motion in order to dissect the way the arm moves to catch the bell so that it doesn't smash one's wrist. There are typically only three reps of any given move from front and side. A few more reps would help for this close look at any given move. Actually, slowing down the video, talking over the slo mo and adding some arrows or close ups to draw attention to particular points while watching really wouldn't go amiss. The closest ETK comes to this kind of move dissection is in the book's illustrations: they freeze frame these key points, which is just too hard to do from looking at a live action video.

Another Aside: if you've seen other DVDs by Pavel and Dragon Door publishing, the set of this video is a refreshing, more professional change. Just the addition of new colors away from the previous browns and tans is welcome. Gone is the set that looks like someone's rumpus room or garage (not that that doesn't have its own charm). The set is more open and colorful while looking/feeling serious enough for real work. ETK is easy to watch repeatedly.

It's more than a Book
Like many businesses these days, the folks behind ETK recognize that much business comes not just from the sale of the product, but from ongoing support. One of the features of these Pavel publications is the online forum at the publishers. In this case, the DragonDoor.com site hosts both a forum on which Tsatsouline is a regular participant, and the site has a host of related fitness articles by people interested in a range of training forms, from traditional big lifts, to grip strength to kettlebells and a range of interests in between (the number of folks with martial arts backgrounds is amazing, for example).

Beyond ETK?

There are so many other things one can do with a kettlebell and so many routine varieties it's hard to imagine ever running out of what one can do with the thing. There are a host of other videos as well - Art of Strength has several videos (Newport, Providence and Firepower) for working out actually emphasizing fast bodyweight moves combined with lighter kettlebells (8kg for women; 16 for men - max, they say and they're not kidding) where you do follow along with the video. Likewise, Mike Mahler's approach is to focus on double kettlebell routines (using two KB's at once) with big kettlebells. He has so far three videos in this space, each of which, like ETK shows moves rather than performing routines. Routines are described in accompanying e-Books. And as said with the community there are lots of people working in this space. Many certified RKC instructors have blogs with their training routines, logs and workout videos on their sites. There will be something there to intrigue and inspire. Check out the forum at DragonDoor.com for examples

One of the strong attractors to the ETK way however is that beyond ETK could easiily be more ETK. While there is a point at which Tsatsouline has a kung fu "if you can grab this stone from my hand" definition of when a Kettlebell neophyte would have a solid enough foundation to move into new territory. But what for? The philosophy of ETK suggests that perfection is its own reward, and perfecting a few solid moves can be as true and pure a pursuit as seeking out constant change. I'm about a month away from passing the grasshopper test in ETK, but i do not feel ready (or necessarily interested yet) in moving away from this methodology. There are three core workout days in the ROP and two "variety days." There's enough variety in the variety days to enable other things to be tried while still keeping the focus clear with the ETK ROP that there's no urgency to change. At one point recently in the forum the challenge was to work on one of the core moves, the Turkish Get Up, by doing it "bottom up" - that is, instead of letting the ball hang down while gripping the handle, grip the handle so that the bell is pointing up. Likely the weight of bell one usually does a TGU will not be the weight one uses to succeed here.

Future Shock and Finding KB's
Likely at some point in the not too distant future kettlebells will take off and go mainstream, and everyone will be swinging their way to health and strength. After all, it happened with yoga over the past decade where it exploded from people in sweats taking yoga classes to an industry with clothing lines and expensive accouterments. It seems hard to believe that the same will happen with kettlebells - after all, there have always been squat racks in gyms, but how often do you see them used for squats rather than bench presses? Kettlebells seem kind of like that.Colleagues of mine have asked me what these strange things are in my office, and more than not shy away, finding the thought of swinging a 16kg weight through the air an unattractive prospect. But a few do think it's neat. They try it, and get a bit of the bug. "How do you find out about these things?" asked one colleague who has also been coming back to workouts after a considerable time away, and is keen to optimize the effectiveness of the precious time he gives to any health regimine. Hence after one trial session with a kb at the office he decided to oder his own.

I wonder if the correlation between attraction or not to KB's is with folks who have some gym experience vs those who dont? Those who do seem immediately to get how quickly the kettlebell fires off all the responses one has only after doing much more traditional "work" in a gym, and immediately see the possibility of the less=more of kettlebells. For those without that background, perhaps simply the intensity of a few swings says "this is not where i want to go." Which suggests to me i may need lighter Kettlebells in my office for the less experienced to try.

Complementarity 1: ETK and Yoga
I've written before that yoga has been a lifesaver for my lower back. If anything, kettlebelling has been an incredible complement for yoga - and vice versa. There's a whole section in ETK about why KB's are excellent for the back. In these few short months i've only found that to be increasingly true. I've been doing Structural Yoga Therapy for my lower back, and the main prescriptions have been moves to help build up those lower back muscles, medius glutes and hamstrings - exactly what the KB Swing gets at. Yoga and KB's are super companions.

There is something very soothing as well about kettlebell work - the attention to form; the focus on strength and conditioning while listening to one's body rather than pushing, well, rather mindlessly, to failure. There's also something rather amazing about getting a complete workout from such a simple object. And like any tool where skill is involved, it keeps feeling like there's so much more to learn - no "am i done yet?" here. No boredom.

Complementarity 2: Quick Note on Diet and ETK
As Mike Mahler and other Kettlebell and fitness pros say, if weight loss, getting lean or adding muscle is your goal, diet is as important if not more so than your chosen workout. ETK recognizes diet but does not make any specific recommendations. Tsatsouline in the Q&A responds to a question about diet by saying he's not a nutritionist, but that he personally uses the Warrior Diet. A number of folks on the dragondoor forum seem to use this diet as well. I've written elsewhere that i'm personally not a fan of this staying hungry through the day; eating big at night approach. In particular, working out first thing in the morning without eating anything, as Clarence Bass points out, seems problematic. In the "eat frequently" camp, John Berardi's Precision Nutrition System doesn't even push eat *small* meals frequently. His approach is founded on 10 habits; paying attention to portion sizes without getting these habits straight, he suggests, is focusing on the minutia before the foundation is in place (a more in-depth review here). With what i'd call his masterpiece invention of the Super Shake as part of his approach (which includes 5 meal guides, dvd and audio stuff), his approach makes the same kind of scientifically grounded sense as Tsatsouline's approach to exercise. They complement each other.

In Sum

I've been doing the ETK ROP protocol now for near four months, and i can't believe that much time has passed - especially compared to how long it felt to get through P90X. In a way it feels way too soon to write about ETK, except that i wanted to reflect on "the next three months" since the _P90X experience. Likewise things like the ETK Workbook frame the ETK as a 12 week program, so perhaps apt time to consider. It's just that, as said, in other "12 week programs" one feels often like "thank god that's over" - with ETK, it's hard to believe 12 weeks have actually passed.

As with the ETK mantra, i feel fresher than when i started, keen and motivated. Working with KB's is so new it's an experiment in tuning these workouts with diet and even the shape of my body. Not in big ways but i notice my abs and lower back are different in particular. My upper body strength (measured in pull ups) is also at a different level than it's been before. But i don't measure this strength in terms of isolation exercises like bicep curls but in things i never imagined it being safe enough or me being strong enough to do: deadlifts, pull ups and snatches.

Recommendation

If you're interested in making more efficient use of your workout time, and want to focus on strength, conditioning and health, you'd be hard pressed to find a more simple, enjoyable way to do it than by grabbing a kettlebell and starting with ETK. Bottom line, while the clarity, simplicity and intelligence of the ETK approach and program makes this new-ish to the west fitness device a key tool for progress, it's the philosophy of training embodied in ETK and demonstrated through this elegantly designed tool that produces the real epiphany.

Highly highly recommended
(link to ETK site/page)

Yoga for Back care: when your lower back is taking you out of action

Apparently a huge percentage of the population suffers from some kind of lower back pain. Combinations of unnatural practices like sitting in chairs, not moving for hours on ends, and carrying laptop bags on one shoulder all contribute. Poor genes don't help either.

And if you're one of these folks who suffer from intermittent or chronic back pain, or have "slipped a disk," you may have found some relief in (frequent) visits to chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapy or acupuncture. Or maybe from drugs. Your mileage may vary.

I reached a point about 18 months ago when i woke up limping with a numb leg/foot, and in considerable pain that i'd had it with these approaches. I'd been in and out of chiro offices repeatedly for years. And i was still in pain. There HAD to be a better way. I'd seen from x-rays from a previous incident in 02 that what was being called reduced disk space actually seemed to be having my spine start to veer to the right. Oh god, i thought, this can't be optimal. This latest bout of numbness was diagnosed as a slipped disk. great. What does the future hold?

My approach to finding a better solution was to go for the extreme: check out the web for one of the most extreme conditions of what folks do whose spines are twisted. I checked out scoliosis sites, and any council they had on bringing a twisted up spine back to the norm, and reducing pain along the way.

What i found has been a life changing experience. The proposed solution: yoga. Its benefits have been huge, undeniable and ya, life-changing.

In the next section, i'll go over the resources i found that have helped, and continue to help me have a better back life (a better life back?). A warning in advance: the approach means taking your own back health into your own hands, and you being responsible for doing the work, rather than asking a therapist (repeatedly) to fix it for you.

On hearing Yoga, though some people immediately self select out and say "oh i'm not flexible; i can't do yoga." It's important to note that yoga does not equal stretching or gymnastic postures. Yoga, as i have learned from these sources, is about breathing and awareness of one's body, and using that awareness to focus on change. Thus if you can breath, you can do yoga. And if your back is killing you, it may just be worth a try breathing in some of these postures.

(Aug 07 update at end of article)

Technorati Tags: back pain, yoga

There's a great general back care site - the theme of which is scoliosis which is extreme, but many of the same things apply for herniated discs and lower back pain. The core theme of the site is that Yoga can help heal/restore one's back.

This site recommended the two main books that changed my appreciation of yoga, and my back health:

Back Care Basics: A Doctor's Gentle Yoga Program for Back and Neck Pain Relief (Paperback) (amazon link to book)
by Mary Pullig Schatz (M.D.) It's very good, very gentle. well described. It goes over in plain language the skeletal and muscular interconnections in the back, and the how and why of various poses for helping to do back work. It has good sections on assessing what kind of back and back problem you may have. It also shows real people doing real poses. These are not super yoga models or abnormally stretchy people. They're very much in the real, and nothing presented is extreme at all. Indeed each posture is usually a modified version of an Iyengar style yoga position (more on Iyengar later). This is a thin paperback volume stuffed with lots of useful information.

The scoliosis site also recommends a couple other books. The one i found particularly helpful is the Structural yoga Therapy Book (amazon link) by Mukunda Stiles. This book has pragmatic systems of assessing your current body state and council for working on particular problems for "structural" or rather profound body change/improvement. Its approach is also gentle. It uses many modified versions of poses - does not assume huge flexibility - and helps put together series of moves for problems.

The main value i have found from the book is more on the philosophy of yoga - how to think about it while doing it. This is the first text i encountered that really emphasizes the mental side of yoga, and how it is NOT stretching.

For myself, it was taking what i'd learned in these two books, and then plugging that back into a yoga book i'd had on the shelf from a book sale for ages. It is a fantastic big picture book of yoga asanas/poses that gives a lot of detail for beginners and intermediates about how to get into and out of the poses, what the benefits are, what to feel where, and what sequence of poses are good for what conditions:

Yoga: Path to Holistic Health (amazon link for book) B.K.S. Iyengar, Daphne Razazan. There's the traditional version of a pose given in the first part of the book and a more beginner version of a pose later in the text as well. The core poses are also shot from a variety of angles so you can really see what they're supposed to look like. So if you're ready to go a bit beyond the version of the poses shown in the above back books, then this full colour, multi-angle guide is a great way to go.

I should also note that years ago i'd taken about a dozen Iyenger Yoga classes, so i had been familiarized to yoga. At the time it bored me to tears. It didn't connect with my life or needs (as i perceived them to be) at all. What a difference pain can make. Now it does make sense, and my focus is different: the practice has meaning. But the main point here is that i'm not sure if my previous exposure to a very good teacher was a significant part of being able to parse these yoga tomes or not. I'm not convinced that's the case, but it may have an effect. Your mileage may vary. I actually like the Iyengar book more than the classes: i could go at my own pace with my study/work in yoga. That's been important.

Bottom line: yoga has been a hugely transformative practice in changing my experience of chronic back pain. Now, i have pain all the time. I've had a few days in the past year when i have been "pain free" and they usually make me cry cuz the experience is so rare and fleeting. But with yoga, the chronic pain has become almost always less and certainly entirely more (self) manageable. If something flares up, i have strategies for addressing the pain that feel far more effective than results from most chiro offices i've visited, and i just feel better for doing it regularly.

My usual practice is a big session once a week that's about an hour and thirty minutes; during the rest of the week its sunrise salutations and some particular postures for my particular stuff.

if you're looking for a solution to your back pain, give yoga, the back care basics approach, a month of regular p