Please stay on track with the many abbreviations. Everything will be explained in time.
So what’s up?
On the personal side I had the amazing experience of becoming a father on April, 21st, 2009. My wife and I had our beautiful baby boy. His name is Magne, which is old Norse and means “strength”. In Nordic mythology Magne is the Son of Thor, the God of Thunder, and when he is three days old he is so strong that he can lift a dead giant away from his father, who is pinned underneath. Magne is one of the few gods, who survive Ragnerok, the nordic armageddon, and rebuilds the new world.
I have taken a good deal of time off from school and work to spend as much time with my family as possible, which has proved invaluable.
Circular Strength Training
This spring I attended and completed Scott Sonnons Circular Strength Training Certification, and it was a very rewarding experience. I’ve long admired Scott for his innovative ideas and insight into esoteric training practices from Russia, India, Persia etc. The concepts of bodyflow, being breathed, compensatory exercise and joint traction resounds very well in my training philosophy.
Russian Kettlebell Challenge
Again this year I had the honor and pleasure of serving as an assisting instructor at the Danish RKC certification. Many of my good friends attended this year including my brother Rudi, the great MMA coach Thomas La Cour, kickboxing coach extraordinair Thomas Clarup as well as many others.
I was assigned to Team Cheng lead by the brilliant Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader, and I learned many new aspects from Doc this year, including detailed knowledge of the new turkish get up approach described in Kalos Sthenos by Brett Jones, MRCK, Gray Cook and Dr. Cheng. A book and DVD I highly recommend by the way.
The new RKC performed admirably, and I look forward to the new RKC Masterclass we will put up in the future.
CK-FMS
Two weeks ago I had my first trip to the states in order to attend the Certified Kettlebell – Functional Movement Screen Course, sponsored by Dragondoor. Presenters included Gray Cook, inventor of the FMS, Brett Jones, MRKC, Jeff O’Connor, Sr. RKC and Dr. Mark Cheng, RKCTL.
This course is THE course to attend for the up and coming RKC. My head was spinning with profound insights, and as one Sr.RKC put it, taking the information in was like drinking from a fire hose. It came fast and furiously. So three days in our heads was swimming and we started getting frustrated with the complexity what was shown us. Luckily many things started dawning on day four, and in the weeks after new stuff still become clearer.
Not only did I learn a lot and got my training paradigm turned upside down, I also made some amazing friendships along the way;
- Dustin Rippetoe, RKC II, CK-FMS, www.wayofstrength.com
- George Spears, RKC II and very experienced yoga instructor
- James Neidlinger, CK-FMS and all around madman, www.5ringsfitness.com
- George Samuelson, RKC, www.thisfeelsgood.com
- Jon Engum, Sr.RKC, www.extremetraining.net
- Taikei Matsushita, RKC II
- Many others…
As often before I am amazed my the generosity, humility and knowledge within the RKC family.
Movement Naturelle and Bare Feet
One of the big issues at this years CK-FMS was the role of proper foot conditioning and thus proper footwear. Vibram Fivefingers is definitely the next big thing in kettlebell training. Curiously enough I have my self recently started looking into the Method Naturelle methodology and came upon Erwan Le Corre, who works from a similar perspective:
He calls his method Movement Naturelle. What I find interesting is that brilliant people far apart come up with very similar ideas. Pavel wrote his book “Naked Warrior” at the same time that Gray Cook wrote “Athletic Body in Balance” with many of the same philosophical arguments presented in different ways. Now Erwan presents Movement Naturelle, including barefoot running, climbing, crawling, lifting, fighting, climbing, walking, swimming, throwing etc, while Gray presents fundamental movement as the foundation for conditioning and advocates training like Tarzan, getting good across a wide variety of modal domains. These wholesome and very natural approaches to training the human animal I believe will revolutionize the way we consider movement in the future.
Born to Run
While on the subject of Natural Movement I have to recommend you read the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougal.
Before you buy your next pair of running shoes you need to read this 
End Notes
This was one of my longer posts. I hope you have enjoyed it.
