5 years ago I wrote an article “10 things I’ve learned in 10 years of being a kettlebell instructor” It’s now been 10 years that I’ve been a gym owner so I figured it was time that I write this piece. Before we begin, let me first say that my gym, Baltimore Kettlebell Club, is a private training studio. We are a StrongFirst accredited gym and we offer group classes and personal training only. This is not the kind…
I often talk about how much I’ve learned through strength training. Things like work ethic, goal setting and perseverance, but all of these lessons follow a similar theme. That theme is discipline and self control. However, it wasn’t until recently that I came to understand that these two things are different. Self discipline says “go” whereas self control says “no”. In other words, starting an exercise program and giving up sugar are two different psychological processes. It requires discipline…
As the world we know continues to change it’s hard to know what to think of it. With political unrest and tensions on the rise, it doesn’t seem like 2021 is going to be any easier than 2020. Once again I find myself losing sleep trying to make sense of it all. I try hard to be optimistic, but it doesn’t always work. I have 5 young children that I worry about. What kind of country will they inherit?…
This article is going to have two parts: The enforced shutdown of Baltimore Kettlebell Club due the COVID pandemic My families actual infection of the virus which came 8 months later The Shutdown On March 16th 2020 the Governor Larry Hogan issued a shutdown order for gyms across the state of Maryland. We immediately switched to a virtual platform; at first exploiting a loophole in the governor’s mandate by doing Live Streams of our regular classes and operating as…
We started Kids Fitness Classes in 2018 because we had just started homeschooling our oldest daughter. One of the reasons we chose the homeschool route was because we felt that we could do better educating her in (at least) two subjects that were very important to our family – fitness & business. So our kids program was geared primarily towards homeschoolers and as such, I wanted it to have an academic component as well. With that in mind I…
6 weeks ago I started doing overhead presses everyday in a program I called my #quarantineroutine The reasons for doing the same lift every day were twofold: 1) to inspire the members of BKC to continue training during the shutdown 2) just to see if I could. Conventional bro science tells us that we cannot train the same muscle groups every day. I’ve never really questioned that logic because it seems to make sense. Your muscles need time to…
Here’s my top 3 recommendations when it comes to DIY equipment, plus some training commentary on each… Sandbag Pull Up Bar Dumbbell / Barbell I keep coming back to strongman style of training in these articles because this is where it really shines! Everything you see today in strongman competitions started with homemade equipment! A bunch of dudes in garages and basements, making weird things to train with. To us, a sandbag is not an unusual training tool. In…
With gyms being closed for over a month now you’ve either continued your training at home or you’ve stopped entirely. In parts 1–3 of this series I laid out the why and how for your quarantine routine. In this article I will discuss how to overcome the problems of training at home. Before I opened BKC, I trained at home. In fact, I grew up with a home gym in my parents basement. I trained for my first strongman…
By now you’ve started to get bored. About 1 month in and most all of your household projects have been completed, you’ve Netflix’d and chilled, and you’ve established a quarantine routine. There’s still hours in the day where you’re wasting time scrolling FB or playing video games. You feel like you should be doing something more productive with your time. You know you could be doing something more fun. In part 1 & 2 of this series we discussed…
In part 1 of this series I laid out several reasons why it’s important to start your quarantine routine with no expectations. Why you should start this new routine immediately, regardless of the uncertainty of your day. With drastic changes in your schedule, that could change again in any minute, the fact that you did something was more important than what you did. In part 2 I will discuss why you should be training MORE now and how you…