Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 438: Build an Amazing Body with Kettlebells (Bonus Episode)

Episode Date: January 17, 2017

It is rare to see a bodybuilder who uses kettlebells in their muscle building routine, however, kettlebells in fact, provide some amazing muscle building benefits that traditional bodybuilding barbell and dumbbell exercises don't. In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss how to get the added edge in building and shaping your physique by using kettlebells. Get our newest program, Kettlebells 4 Aesthetics (KB4A), which provides full expert workout programming to sculpt and shape your body using kettlebells. Only $7 at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get your Kimera Koffee, Mind Pump's first official sponsor, at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Add to the incredible brain enhancing effect of Kimera Koffee with www.brain.fm/mindpump 10 Free sessions! Music for the brain for incredible focus, sleep and naps! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You think people are going to be more excited or you think we're going to ruffle some serious feathers? With this? Yep. If we do ruffle feathers, it'll be in the kettlebell community. Oh, of course. Yeah.

But, but the thing, here's the thing we want to say is, like, number one, we have the utmost respect for, especially the kettlebell sport that's coming out here in the States. It's fucking awesome. Kettlebell athletes are great people. It's an incredible, requires a ridiculous amount of athleticism to be able to compete in some of these competitions.

But I think when you have something like kettlebells or clubs or mace bells or barbells or whatever, people like, it's like a tribe, right? They turn into their tribe and their club, and anything outside of that is not protective over it. Yeah, anything outside of that is not good or bad or wrong or whatever. This should come with a warning, Doug. This program should come with a warning. May offend others. Everybody just, just, everyone.

We'll not fit into a camp. Why do we want to be put in a box? Why? Why? Because humans categorize things. We feel safe. I think it makes it easier. It's easier to love the same for there. Matt, why?

I think because we identify. Yeah. That's what it is. We identify with something, and when you identify with something, then everything else is not you. You know what I'm saying? And I think people just identify with it, and they become purist or whatever, but I'll tell you,

I'll tell you one of the things that I noticed, big time, being really introduced, because I've been introduced to kettlebells a long time ago. I think probably, I don't know, I was one of the first trainers maybe even to use them. I wasn't proficient by any means, but I did recognize their value.

And actually the first kettlebell set I bought was imported from Russia when I first bought them. And I bought them at a workshop. One of the first trainers to use them makes you sound like you're a hell of a old team. I was one of the first trainers to use these things that are like a hundred and fifty years old. That's actually extremely inaccurate,

because kettlebells have been around long in the market. Let's just scratch what I said there. What I meant to say was I was one of the first trainers that I knew where I went from. I knew what you meant, but I knew how that sounded I was like, what the time over? Who the fuck this guy think he is? A first trainer to use kettlebells.

I'm like a monkey. Like I'm a vampire and shit. I'm 2,000 years old. That's your kettlebells. Way back when we invented iron. Somebody summoned me back. Yeah, I use kettlebells when they were made out of elephant ivory before we even discovered iron. So here's the thing used kettlebells when they were made out of elephant ivory before even discovered iron.

So here's the thing with kettlebells that really surprised me, okay, because this is what I had known about kettlebells before I met Justin. I had known kettlebells were great for strength endurance. I can't think of an exercise that competes with a swing. A swing, yeah. That gives you the combination of strength and endurance that that will. Strength and endurance is a very important attribute to have if you're an athlete, okay?

And a kettlebell swing, it's a hip-hinging movement. It's very basic, so it's easy to learn. It's not nearly as hard to learn. And I don't mean it's easy to learn in the sense that it's easy. Yeah, just gonna say, let me stop you there again too, because that's a... Like if you compare it to like a... I see a lot of people do the kettlebell swing wrong.

Yes, but if you were to compare a kettlebell swing to other ballistic style resistance training movements like a clean, a hang clean and stuff like that. Those are really... How about we say it's the most foundational move probably. Yeah. As far as a skill move that you do with kettlebells. And if you do it for raps, I've seen people do it for raps, it's the most foundational move probably? Yeah, as far as a skill move that you do with ketobels. And if you do it for raps,

I've seen people do it for raps. It's great for strength endurance. I knew that it was great for functional strength. It could build performance in ways that barbells and dumbbells maybe aren't as proficient at, or at least you'd have to modify the dumbbells to be able to copy what ketobels do. But what I did not know,

and what I learned as, because Justin's our ketobels do. But what I did not know and what I learned as I, as, as because Justin's our ketobel guy was the aesthetic benefits of using ketobels and the variations that you could, the modifications you can make with ketobels to develop exercises that are not traditional ketobel exercises, but are also not traditional barbell and dumbbell exercises that really give you an incredible aesthetic benefit. And I really put this into practice when I went on my big road trip and we went up to visit

Ben, up in Washington. You know, you guys flew up there, right? I drove and it was like a week and a half or something where I was on the road. And all I took with me was a few pairs of kettlebells, and I did everything with them, and I came back and I was surprised at the aesthetic benefits. It's like I could see muscle developing with good balance and symmetry from some of these movements and some of these variations, and then of course we got together

and came up with some other ones, and I think that's the part that'll probably piss people off is that the kettlebell people off is that you can use kettlebells for aesthetic purposes. Yeah, you can purposely program it in that direction, which is really like what we're trying to highlight that if you have a tool and you know you identify it only with one thing, then you know you're missing the bigger picture as far as what you can do, programming-wise with a lot of these different tools that really, once you start to think of it and you see the benefit to how it loads on your body,

what kind of ranges of motion it provides, why wouldn't you want to express that, or dive into that deeper to see? Okay, now I could actually use this more for a hypertrophy style training and implement that into a program. And so it's just like, it's a tool. And when it's a tool, you could actually program it in multiple different fashion.

You can, and one of the first things that I did that really opened my eyes to that was doing just a standard kettlebell shoulder press. You can, and one of the first things that I did that really opened my eyes to that was doing just the standard ketobel shoulder press. So a ketobel shoulder press, if you're into working out with weights and you're not very proficient in ketobels, it's very easy to look at it and say, oh, I could do that with a dumbbell. It's a dumbbell shoulder press and a ketobel shoulder press, same muscle, same thing, so

untrue. That is so untrue. That is so untrue. They're actually quite different. And I would venture to say for aesthetic purposes, kettlebell shoulder presses, I believe, are superior. The way it feels on the body, the rotation I get with the shoulder and the full range of motion, as I started doing them, I was like,

well, man, I'm getting better shoulder development. I don't wanna go to the dumbbells and barbells. I was like so much stronger. Well, it's almost like, like, who doesn't want a functional aesthetic look, right? Like, even if you have like a bodybuilder type physique, why wouldn't you want to be able to move, you know, better and replicate what your body's capable

of doing while still looking at its best. So, you know, the kettlebells are great tool for that because, you know, I get thes are great tool for that because, you know, I get the spiral line movement that I'm not going to really be focused on with the dumbbell or it's not going to load in a way that's going to provide it to be that optimal, like the kettlebells. Well, let's talk about what most people do wrong when doing like a, we'll take the overhead press like Sal's talking about whether you're using a dumbbell or a barbell. Let's just use

those. And what I have noticed is almost every client, when they press, they press where their scapula is already because they're used to being an all-forward. And so they press up and they, most clients can't even get a full extension with their arms because their humorous is heading their scapula. So most people have trouble, you know,

shoulder pressing with a barbell or a dumbbell. They don't get directly above their head. And don't get above their head because they can't retract their scapula all the way back. Well, one of the things I love, not only the spiral movement and the full range of motion, like Justin's talking about, when you get into full extension with the kettlebells,

just the weight of the kettlebells being on the back of your wrist. Such a great point. Pulls the arms back, forcing you to engage the traps, wrongboids, and then it pulls that, naturally kind of pulls that scapula back. I mean, for me, I think it's, aesthetics is amazing. A mobility part of it is amazing.

I, since we got, you know, since we tied up with the kettlebell kings, I mean, kettlebells, I've always kind of used kettlebells intermittently, but they've become a staple tool now in my program. And I think that's what inspired us to create this. I didn't thought, you know, and what we wanted to do because we're not trying to jump into kettlebells and try and, you know, get into that market or what that.

We have great relationships. In fact, Mike Seleme is gonna be the first sponsored athlete. He is a serious badass when it comes to kettlebells. And we invited him down to go through some of the skills portions. I mean, Justin's been doing kettlebells forever. And he was like mind blown by the guys techniques. I just learned so much, you know, like, I mean,

I don't want to pump him up too much, but like, to be honest, like it was like going to get golf lessons from like a Tiger Woods or somebody that like is world class. It's somebody on a level that I haven't seen somebody is skilled in each part of the movement as I have watching him produce this coach it even. So not only can he produce that type of movement at a very high level, but you can also coach it. And you'll see that to the level of description that he provides in the skills portion of the program that we created there. This was really important for us that we sought after somebody who is a professional at this because, you know because we did the programming,

and we pieced the programming for towards aesthetics. So as far as that's concerned, your basic chest fly and curl and press and your basic movements. We did with a good kettlebell version of it. Yes. That feels different. It's gonna hit your body different.

And it's programmed. it's programmed just, you know, like in typical, you know, map style, we program things, that's where the, that's where all the money is, right? All the benefit is in the programming, but really with kettlebells, you get this different placement of the resistance, it's a different feel, it does give you a different stimulus.

I mean, when I'm doing a chest press, you know, with a kettlebell, especially when we're doing it on the floor, like the one we demonstrated in our KB4A program, the feel you get in your chest is very different. The resistance is pulling your arms out because of the way the kettlebell sits, and it's different than you would get with dumbbells and barbells. Is it superior? No. It is another effective tool, though. And if you've never used kettlebells in this way, and you go and barbells, is it superior? No, it is another effective tool though. And if you've never used kettlebells in this way and you go and try this out,

you're gonna see some changes. Well, and this is why we also agree too, like this wasn't gonna be like a major maps program that this would be a mod that we built into our programs. So if you or somebody who already owns our maps black, so whether you have one of the super bundles or RGB, these people will automatically get this uploaded into their system already.

So if you already own maps black, this is gonna be uploaded automatically for free. It's a mod. And then those that want to pick up just that, that are interested in utilizing the kettlebells for aesthetic purpose, you'll see how we laid the program out, how we also incorporated important skills moves and how we incorporated someone like Mike Sulemi inside there to help us out with the super technical skills portion of the program.

Now, can we talk about, it's pretty, very inexpensive. If you don't have maps aesthetic, you can enroll in just the KB4A program for, yeah, seven bucks. I mean, it's nothing. But we, the reason why we did that is we want to show people something completely new. And we knew that if people saw, oh, kettlebells for aesthetics, oh, it's, you know, a hundred bucks, whatever. I don't know about this, right? But we want people to see what you can do with kettlebells when you program them properly and utilize them for, for, for some of their, the things that they have that are We want people to see what you can do with kettlebells when you program them properly and utilize them for some of their,

the things that they have that are attributes to kettlebells, which is weight placement and grip and body placement and again, with a special focus on aesthetics. And again, there's certain movements that I just prefer kettlebells for. And overhead shoulder press is the first one that I would consider superior. Yeah, and one thing too,

like I was kind of having a conversation with Mike about, you know, kind of our strategy and why we're even kind of getting into the kettlebell world because I know how specifically, you know, people pay attention to like the skill of it and like really like fine tuninguning on a micro level, all these different things that are going on that are, I mean, it's a very complex move

when you really break down a kettlebell swing. And so that's pretty daunting for our audience specifically. And I know that what we do with our programs is, I mean, it's for the general audience to be exposed to high level concepts and to types of moves that we try to present it in a way that's in stages. And so I feel like this was the first time that we really have dug deeper. And we really wanted to show that there's more to it.

There's more to a kettlebell swing. There's more to a kettlebell press. There's more to a kettlebell press. There's more to loading your body prop, like you could go at like a really fine tune level that your skill set is like so high that people notice, why are you moving so well? Like why, you know, and he's showing you like, okay, now here's another level of the onion

that you know we're starting to kind of another level of the onion that, you know, we're starting to kind of work on bringing people like that into our ecosystem. And by the way, if you are a hardcore kettlebell, either competitor or you just, that's your favorite way to train, that's all you ever do is train with the traditional kettlebell exercises, you need to understand that you too will benefit from hypertrophy-based kettlebell exercises, you need to understand that you too will benefit from hypertrophy-based kettlebell training. Hypertrophy or focusing on muscle growth and tension and slow control movements has its place in almost any, if not all, athletic-based programs.

Obviously, if kettlebell sports is your passion, then your focus always is not going to be on aesthetics or hypertrophy. However, if you don't train that way ever, and you inject a cycle of aesthetic based hypertrophy based, tension based, kettlebell exercises in good programming, you can expect an increase or improvement in performance in your regular kettlebell movements. That slow grinding controlled strength serves as a foundation for any physical pursuit and that's what you're gonna get with using kettlebells first. It's this happy sort of crossover

and I was kind of explaining it as a bridge between both of these communities. So we have kind of your general gym audience and and then you have your very just kettlebell-driven individuals that know a lot about kettlebells. Well, you know, this is really the merger of both. So like, I want to get introduced to a high level of skill, and I also want to get introduced to more just specific strength training and how to incorporate that into my program. Yeah, and one thing that I really like about kettlebells, especially if you know how to

program them properly and you know, you incorporate all these different techniques, is all you need is a pair of kettlebells to do it. Yeah. Like if you work out at home and I mean, you could get great workouts with body weight also, but if you want to add equipment, it's relatively inexpensive. If you get a pair of kettlebells, maybe two pairs of kettlebells, and you're kinda good. You're solid, you could do a lot. A ton of extra.

A lot, if you, especially if you combine it with body weight stuff, my god, if you combine like maps anywhere with like kettlebell based programming, you're pretty much, I mean, that's about as inexpensive as you can get with minimal equipment that also takes advantage of heavy resistance. You know what I'm saying? You've kind of got the whole thing set up for you.

I didn't even think about pairing that. I was like, that's a good problem. I was saying that right now, we probably should have created that as a monster. You wonder that or something. Right, with white, because if you were looking for the least amount of tools, least amount of room, great workout, maps anywhere, obviously because it's mostly all body weight, maybe a stick and bands, and then a pair of kettlebells,

and you took some of the movements from kettlebell aesthetics. Damn, that would be pretty cool. That's pretty complete. Makes me kind of want to do that. Makes me want to run that for a little bit and just see how that would be. That would be a great, great, great combo. It's extremely, it's complete.

It's pretty complete at that point. Yeah, I like that idea. I, when I use the ones that we have now, the kettlebells we have now, I didn't know there was a difference, by the way, with kettlebells. I was like, oh, I'm gonna get the one. Because the ones that I had in my gym

are the ones that you see in most gyms, right? Where the smaller, the lighter kettlebells smaller, and the heavier ones are bigger, and they're a little bit different shape or whatever. Yeah, the all-solid iron cast and, you know, there's the steel ones and there's these ones that are loaded, but they're the competition style, which is... Dude, the best.

Yeah, it's the best. It's the best. You were so adamant about that. Yeah, I prefer it because, you know, it just provides that same type of predictable stimulus. So if I'm going up in load, I have the same surface to deal with. And so it creates the same sort of recruitment pattern, even though the load is different. Yeah, because when we originally started talking to Kettlebell Kings, I was like, you know, they're like, oh, well, you know,

we'll set you guys, send you guys some Kettlebells, you can try them out, whatever I'm like, it's a Kettlebell, like, what's the difference? And what Justin's talking about is how the kettlebells are all the same size, even though the weights are different. So the placement, the grip, everything is the same, and so your movements are the same, regardless if you move up and weight, which is good because if I'm going up and weight,

now the size of the kettlebell is changing. It's standardized. I'm having to change my form, it's like, you know what it reminds me of, it's like when I get a new client and they're deadlifting for the first time and I can't put the 45s on, so I have to put the quarters on. Well I have to put it on a rack because otherwise, yeah they're going lighter but now they're having to go sway deeper and doing like a deficit deadlift, which is fine if I'm trying

to do that, but if I want to standardize the weight that they're, you know, the height, they'd rather have the same size place. Yeah, exactly, you prefer your deadlifting, I know I do prefer. You rather have the same size place. Yeah, exactly. You prefer your deadlifting. I know I do. I prefer to have them all that same kind of height, you know, and make sure it's all in the same standard. So it's very, very good example for that.

Yeah, I would say if you've been working out for a long time, if you're aesthetic based, like most people will work out, or you want to build muscle, you want to look a certain way, injecting a cycle of kettlebell-based exercise programming, hypertrophy aesthetic-based programming. You will be, not only will you be surprised, I think you'll be blown away, especially when you go back to your old routine and notice that you're stronger and more stable in some of the other stable exercises.

Well, let's talk about a little bit because I'm thinking right now too, because I know this question, we're going because I know this question is, we're gonna get asked this question at one point, so we should address it now ahead of time is, where would we, if I was going through all of our programming, where would I put it in at what point? And I think sitting here listening to us talk about it, even though it comes with maps black and it's one of the mods for that, which maybe this is why it fits perfect there,

is I would go through red, I would go through green, and then I would actually probably do the KB4A before I start black, because you're right after you've been working on all the multi-planetier, mobile mobility type sessions. Plus, you're getting introduced to the kettlebell in green. Right. You get introduced a little bit to it there, and then you would progress to a all type of kettlebell routine for a little bit, and then roll out into aesthetics. Yeah, and even taking a step further just to be more general.

Yeah, I like that. Not to say it couldn't go anywhere else. Not to say that I'm kind of looking at how I would. You can make an argument for that for sure. Yeah, and the way I would even say it, even just to be more general would be in between any two maps programs. If you do one, I completed it.

Now I'm gonna move on to another variation of maps in between those two, I'm gonna do this kettlebell based much like anywhere, which is how we would feel that too. Yeah, exactly, That's exactly it. And that's the thing. I think that's the message that we're really trying to come across is that I think I would just want to climb in my note to make sure they go through green first,

because I think green is what is it? Yeah, if you're talking about the beginner or not. Yeah, because just think of your average client. Movement mechanics, yeah. You want to be able to get real connected to that. I totally agree with you. Right, just think about that. Just think about the average person that we get.

There's always exceptions to the rules. So I'm not with you. Right, just think about that, right? Just think about the average person that we get. There's always exceptions to the rules. So I'm not talking to everybody. I'm just talking to the majority of our clientele would really benefit with going through green first, then progressing to the catabuzz, because especially when you get to the skills portion, the catabuzz exercises, there's a lot of this, you know, you know, you know,

buy, buy, or unilateral type movements, there's lots of, you know, compound exercises where Justin's doing transverse work. I mean, there's a lot of stuff in there that is definitely going to kind of mere a lot of the requirements that you'll want for like kettlebell movements, right? My articulating that well, and that's what I'm trying to get at with, like why I would want. Especially the skills, especially the kettlebell skills based movements, like you're swinging, you're snatch,

you're in all these different based, you know, like specific kettlebell movements, you need better mobility and functional movement. To be able to perform those properly? Yeah, it's more. Which is why we had Mike come and teach that in the videos because you really want to learn how to perfect those types of movement. I mean, very rarely can I think of a time,

I've been in the industry not 20 years, I can't think of too many times a new piece of exercise equipment was introduced and then it became a staple. I can't think of too many other new pieces of equipment. Like nothing is ever come in and where you'd say barbells, dumbbells, and you know, this other thing that's kind of a staple. I think barbells, dumbbells, maybe cables, and kettlebells can be right up there. It has to be one of those staples. I can't think of another one.

Yeah, you could put that argument out there for sure. I mean, I think the more I dive into the mace bell on the Indian clubs though, too. Yeah, those could be up there too. And a prowler for pushing a sled. I mean, we could really, that's a rabbit hole for sure to try and organize as far as what we think is top of priority. I just think most people would benefit going through green first, working through

a lot of those movements, then progressing into the kettlebells for aesthetics. And I also want to touch on, we had to go back and we had to reshoot something. And this is something that we always have to think as like business owners and putting this stuff out in the virtual world, right? We're always trying to get better at this. We're always trying to not only appease the consumer, but also keep our integrity and

on top of that give solid, good information that's helpful. So this was a challenging thing for us with the skills portion because just literally doing a kettlebell swing can be extremely technical. And when you're learning a skill-based movement like a kettlebell swing, like a squat, like a deadlift, we always remind people, you know, you treat this as a skill and you don't want to just perform the movement and just say, oh, I did the movement.

Like, to this day, when I do these movements, I am still hypercritical of what I'm doing. I'm trying to improve it. Everything from the position of my feet, how my toes are gripping the floor, movements, I am still hypercritical of what I'm doing. I'm trying to improve it. Everything from the position of my feet, how my toes are gripping the floor, how my hand is grabbing the handle. Am I dipping too low when I hinge back? Is it fluid? Am I retrying? You know, all these little tiny micro adjustments. And so when we first shot this, of course we're going to cover all these because we wanted Mike to go in super depth and he does an incredible

job. But the video was so long, we're like, oh my God, you know what's gonna happen? Some people aren't even gonna fucking watch this. Yeah. And we're like, we gotta show them the full movement of him just going through it because we know, unfortunately, some people are gonna be like,

oh my God, it's been turned off right away. They're gonna be turned off. It's not. Yeah, because it's too much information. And so we had to kind of appease the consumer. And we kind of went back and forth. All this kind of battled this a little bit. Like, well, they need this.

They need to learn this. These are important. And it's like, okay, well, it is. But we also know that some people are going to feel confident that they can just go do it. Just show me it real quick and I want to go do it. So we had to create this video of Mike just doing the movement, plus the video of real detail. So I had to create this video of Mike just doing the movement plus the video of real

detail. So I challenge you to really try and perfect all of your skill based, I mean all movements, but really those big ones, those compound movements or these skill based ones with a kettlebell, because you're going to benefit a lot from continuing to perfect the skill, what'd you guys say? I would say KB4A is complete like any of our programs in terms of video demo, you know, blueprints, explanations, the differences, you get it for free if you have maps aesthetic and if you don't, you could buy KB4A kettlebells for aesthetics for $7.

That's a seven bucks and you have a fully programmed out you could buy KB4A kettlebells for aesthetics for $7. That's it, $7. And you have a fully programmed out workout with kettlebells for aesthetics. And you can find it at mindpumpmedia.com. shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps on a ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels,

and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a 430-day money back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a fine-star rating and review on iTunes

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