The Art of Manliness - #123 StrongFirst and Kettlebells With Eric Frohardt

00:00:00.000 welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast so for the past 10 years or so kettlebells

00:00:21.000 have become a popular workout tool if you don't know what a kettlebell is basically a cannonball

00:00:26.880 with a handle on it and you swing it around and it gives you both not only a strength workout but a

00:00:31.780 cardio workout well the man who had a lot to do with the popularization of kettlebell training here

00:00:36.500 in the united states his name is pavel tesalini and pavel started a company not too long ago called

00:00:41.400 strong first which is dedicated to helping people become strong in all aspects of their life using

00:00:45.820 not only kettlebells but barbells and bodyweight training anyways today on the show i have the ceo

00:00:50.960 of strong first on with me his name is eric frohart he's a former u.s navy seal a decorated combat

00:00:57.420 veteran with multiple tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan and today on the show we're going to

00:01:01.620 talk kettlebell training becoming strong not just physically but mentally and why strength is a skill

00:01:08.800 so it's going to be a great podcast a lot of great takeaways so let's do this

00:01:13.160 eric frohart welcome to the show thank you brett appreciate it so you are the ceo of a company

00:01:26.920 called strong first so what is strong first and what's the story behind it for our listeners who

00:01:33.240 aren't familiar with it um well strong first is the school of strength and i'll get into that a little

00:01:40.300 bit more later uh but the story behind strong first is pretty interesting pavel satsulin our

00:01:47.180 founder and chairman started the some people call it the kettlebell revolution uh or movement back in

00:01:54.120 the early 2000s uh he brought the uh the kettlebell over to the u.s and did some articles in some

00:02:01.640 different magazines about it and it kind of caught on um he partnered with a publishing company

00:02:07.680 uh based in minneapolis and wrote a few books and launched uh launched the first kind of global

00:02:14.440 kettlebell instructor certification known as the rkc and uh at some point i believe it was

00:02:21.600 2011 2012 uh due to some differences in the vision he left that organization which he kind of co-founded

00:02:30.340 uh or founded or was organized in and uh as he left he formed strong first and i believe that was in

00:02:38.480 2012 and many of the people who he had chosen as um senior instructors or master instructors or even team

00:02:49.060 leader instructors within that organization uh kind of followed followed and joined strong first with

00:02:55.220 them so there's that well so tell us about more about pavel because he's an interesting guy uh he's

00:03:00.660 from russia what's his background it was something with the kgb or the russian military or yeah it's the uh

00:03:07.080 the spets not the spets not that's right yeah they're uh they're you know their version of the special

00:03:13.220 operations forces um he you know he's he's not very open about that part of his history so and pavel's a

00:03:22.520 very you know he's a very private guy understandable and i am too right um but i mean so i think it's

00:03:31.800 one of the things i find fascinating is this whole the the russian yeah mentality towards physical

00:03:37.920 fitness um because they yeah during the 70s you know the during the cold war uh they were doing some

00:03:44.800 crazy stuff experimentation on uh basically improving human performance that we sort of take for granted

00:03:52.460 nowadays um is that is that sort of the research and this russian approach uh pervade strong first

00:04:01.020 a bit or is it a you're taking you're building off of that and adding yeah the new research that's come

00:04:07.780 in it's it is it's a mixture of both brett um yeah there's you know underpinnings in in that system and

00:04:14.740 and pavel you know people forget he was a master of sports there and um it has to do with you know

00:04:22.600 a certain level within uh you know the state of their fitness i'm not sure how to best describe that

00:04:31.020 he uh he he's he does a very good job of of taking the complicated science and making it simple

00:04:40.780 um you know there's uh his recent book kettlebell simple and sinister it seems extremely simple and

00:04:48.200 it is uh it's very effective um but he basically distilled down a lot of science from that and uh

00:04:56.580 you know made it a little more digestible um on the higher end of the spectrum he's got a we have a

00:05:03.060 an event called plan strong and in that in that course it's like a it's a almost a two-day course

00:05:11.440 he goes through some very very uh detailed programming uh methodologies or programs uh for

00:05:19.260 making for people to use to get you know really strong on certain events so gotcha very very uh

00:05:25.680 very very intelligent guy yeah super knowledgeable um so tell us about your story and how did you get

00:05:32.280 involved with strong first absolutely uh well i was i was introduced uh to pavel's methods back in

00:05:39.920 2005 a close friend of mine a teammate of mine named john foz showed me his kettlebell and john and i

00:05:48.240 were seals together serving at the same seal team at the time and john was a very close friend of

00:05:54.720 pavel's in fact pavel trained john as a high schooler and later on once john kind of

00:06:02.220 had aspirations of becoming a navy seal he found he found pavel through uh you know through a magazine

00:06:09.240 article and pavel was teaching people some some kettlebell training methods in minneapolis um

00:06:16.060 so i met john and you know i saw him doing his kettlebell exercises and i i just you know was at least i was

00:06:24.020 i was very curious because i was kind of sick of you know the standard uh lift weights one day cardio the

00:06:30.220 next day kind of thing it just kind of just was burnt out um so i i spent some time using pavel's

00:06:37.460 principles of strength uh with primarily with kettlebells and some barbell stuff and some bodyweight

00:06:43.680 exercises but primarily kettlebells i just like the simplicity of it i did that for a few years

00:06:49.280 um actually the first time i did it just for a few months right before a deployment

00:06:53.520 and was completely shocked at how much better uh that tool and those those methods prepared me for

00:07:03.760 um combat tours or as i like to say various adventures and it just for for the first time i just felt like

00:07:12.680 the gear i was wearing felt light and i felt like i moved well and i felt really strong and i didn't get

00:07:19.520 bigger while doing it i had done a lot of strength training stuff in the past but didn't like bulking

00:07:25.260 up with it so fast forward from there i met pavel when he came to our team one time and trained us

00:07:32.540 and uh really enjoyed meeting him uh a few a year after that i got certified and later after that i got

00:07:41.660 certified through strong first when recertified through strong first when he uh when he moved

00:07:46.760 uh i really loved the the training i love the way i love the way it made me feel and perform and and i

00:07:53.760 am you know would never have taken this gig if i wasn't you know a big believer in it uh in 2014

00:08:00.600 pavel uh hit me up on email and he asked me to help look for a new ceo at the time i was working at the

00:08:10.520 uh the blue core shooting center which is a a firearms range retail and training facility that i co-founded

00:08:16.740 here in hit here in denver and during one of my daily walks which i've seen you write about many

00:08:23.800 many times um i was just kind of thinking about you know my future and my plans and stuff and i just

00:08:30.500 it just kind of hit me that i should apply for that gig so after uh after kind of a lengthy interview

00:08:37.520 process i was fortunate enough to be selected as the new ceo for strong first and so i stepped down

00:08:44.740 from the day to day at blue core and um now i'm the ceo of strong first and it's been uh it's been

00:08:51.960 really really fun you know challenging and rewarding um i did i did fail to mention that john fa is my

00:09:00.000 best friend or one of my best friends in the navy and the guy that pavel trained and he's been

00:09:06.520 mentioned in a few of pavel's books but john was actually he was killed in that helicopter crash

00:09:11.820 in 2011 so that's uh that's kind of how pavel and i met and how uh we've stayed in contact and

00:09:19.760 you know how i how uh you know how i took this gig right and for you've also helped us out on the art

00:09:27.680 of manliness consulting on some articles uh yeah so we we did the uh how to pull an all-nighter

00:09:33.860 yeah uh from a special force guy which you are uh which is it's funny whenever whenever it's like

00:09:41.100 finals time right like december it's like there's like this uptick of people checking that that post

00:09:47.320 out uh how to pull an all-nighter yeah and then the uh tactical way of dressing yeah which is a lot

00:09:53.920 of fun so if you guys haven't seen those go googles and search that on the site um so let's talk about

00:09:59.440 strong first like why the name strong first and like the philosophy behind that underlies what you

00:10:06.100 the exercises that you all teach yeah no i'll just kind of start you know start with our mission you

00:10:12.580 know we we want to make the world a stronger place we want to make people stronger um it's instead

00:10:19.820 of a war against obesity we have a war against weakness right i like that we are what we are is

00:10:28.120 we're a school of strength and we help people achieve high levels of strength in a safe efficient

00:10:35.440 and effective manner and this is important without interfering with their lives their jobs or their

00:10:43.400 duties and that was important to me uh when i was a seal that the training i did didn't didn't hurt me

00:10:51.880 or my my ability to perform my duty and it's important to you know firemen policemen law enforcement

00:10:58.800 whatever like military law enforcement first responders it's important that your training

00:11:04.080 you know makes you stronger yet not interferes with what you're trying to do um we we are we believe

00:11:12.600 that strength is a master quality in other words getting stronger helps all other physical endeavors

00:11:19.860 and we believe that strength has a greater purpose strength in the gym is really cool but strength for

00:11:26.680 real life applications is more important and that can be that can be as simple as or as as cool as

00:11:34.320 you know a navy seal getting stronger for a mission uh or more realistic but in my opinion just as cool as

00:11:41.220 you know having having uh you know someone who used to be deconditioned or weak who can now you know

00:11:47.580 do chores around the house and pick up pick up you know luggage in the airport just actually feel

00:11:53.240 strong and be strong so uh that's who we are we are we are strong first uh but but not strong only

00:12:01.560 um as mentioned earlier we believe you know strength is important it's a master quality and that having

00:12:08.240 high levels of strength will improve all other physical attributes attributes um whether it's

00:12:14.460 mobility flexibility agility or all those you know coordination work capacity there's a number of

00:12:21.020 them being strong will help you uh in all of those it'll also help you be you know from from being a

00:12:28.200 dancer to playing football um distance running to power lifting yoga to mma um if people get stronger

00:12:35.860 they just watch uh they can just watch themselves improve um we have a saying like we want people

00:12:42.760 to you know be what you want as i mentioned it could be a football player a dancer a runner a power

00:12:49.700 lifter fighter whatever be whatever you want but be strong first um and we don't we don't diminish

00:12:57.720 any of the other physical qualities right if you ever attend any of our events uh our certs or our

00:13:04.280 courses you'll notice we spend time working on mobility flexibility and discussing conditioning

00:13:11.060 but we we've chosen not to be all things to all people our niche is strength training and and being

00:13:19.360 strong is tightness so how do you make people stronger uh you mentioned the kettlebell and there

00:13:24.840 seems like there's an emphasis on the kettlebell uh what's so great about the little cannonball thing

00:13:29.620 with the handle on it it's i mean there's a lot of different things um we we have a principle

00:13:35.740 based system and our principles are time honored battle tested and and proven and these these

00:13:43.520 principles help people achieve high levels of strength and we focus on being safe efficient and

00:13:49.740 effective with all of our training in fact we don't call it training we call it practice um because

00:13:55.520 strength is a skill and that is an example of one of our principles strength is a skill i love that

00:14:01.340 i love that the idea that strength is a skill that is really cool oh it's really it's a really important

00:14:06.320 it's one of our most important principles and um it's just we use that and many other principles and we

00:14:13.640 have different tools obviously we're most known for the kettlebell but we have barbell and bodyweight

00:14:19.640 courses and certifications as well and uh certainly as i mentioned we're most known for the kettlebell

00:14:25.800 um but our our principles are the same in all the different certs and events there are some things that

00:14:32.960 are interesting about the kettlebell and the obvious emphasis is that the whole kettlebell revolution

00:14:39.940 was started by paul and uh as i mentioned he introduced it to western culture in the early 2000s

00:14:47.720 and since then um he's been building and refining our curriculum into what it is today

00:14:54.080 and simply put the the kettlebell is just very efficient and effective and it's also very safe

00:15:01.720 if the exercises are done um correctly you can you can reach high levels of strength and high levels of

00:15:10.260 conditioning with a very simple tool that takes takes very little space

00:15:16.320 can be used in the home and takes very little time so that's that is uh some of the reasons behind

00:15:24.200 the popularity of it and for us it's just it's kind of it's kind of a just a great all-around tool um

00:15:32.460 really for anybody so yeah but one of the things about the kettlebell it's not just a strength

00:15:36.800 tool it's also could be as a conditioning tool absolutely work capacity um i actually you know speaking of

00:15:44.020 how it's just it's can fit in your house right you don't really need much much space i have like a

00:15:48.560 kettlebell right by my kitchen just sitting there and whenever it's the whole greasing the groove

00:15:53.400 principle which i got from paul absolutely uh whenever i walk by it no matter what i'll stop

00:16:00.440 and do five kettlebell swings with yeah no that's great that's a great way to you know grease the groove

00:16:06.240 is just it's one of his many you know awesome programs uh it's worked well with you know with

00:16:12.240 kettlebell movements uh pull-ups is a really good one too yeah i got that going out i have yeah so

00:16:17.220 yeah explain what grease the groove is because it's a pretty cool it's it's so simple but it can it has

00:16:22.300 such profound implications if you actually put into practice yeah no it's really cool it's just it's

00:16:27.820 simple you know you're you're just kind of practicing a movement or grooving a pattern um

00:16:34.040 you know kind of randomly throughout the day uh and the idea is instead of doing let's say my

00:16:41.700 let's say i'm going to practice doing uh one arm or just pull-ups right and instead of doing my five

00:16:49.420 sets of five pull-ups one after another with a couple of minutes break in between if i do them

00:16:56.760 throughout the day it allows me to practice each set uh more well rested so if i'm going to

00:17:04.920 do heavy pull-ups it works really well and i can get strong i just kind of you know there's a lot of

00:17:12.220 things about it what i've always found is it just tricks you into doing uh a lot of volume as well as

00:17:18.220 doing uh none of the in none of the sets are you really tired yeah right because you're not doing

00:17:24.340 five sets of five or whatever right after another you're kind of just doing it as you pass by yeah

00:17:30.240 exactly so i have one of those doorframe pull-up bars right another place and anytime i walk under

00:17:35.140 it i crank out five pull-ups perfect and what yeah what i love about the grease the groove thing is that

00:17:39.680 whole idea that strength is a skill because a lot of people think that okay to get stronger you just

00:17:44.060 need to build up muscle mass but there's a nervous the nerve process in there your nerves have to learn

00:17:50.860 how to contract your muscles uh in a certain way in order to maximize on that muscle capacity

00:17:58.280 absolutely there's you know there's a and i'm not pavel is really good at this stuff you know

00:18:04.660 explaining it uh and and some of our senior instructors also very good at it uh all of our

00:18:10.980 you know our leadership from team leader to senior to master they would know all this stuff a little bit

00:18:16.300 better what i what i find is that um when you treat it like a practice you want to approach each

00:18:23.920 you know each practice session so that most of them you leave feeling better yeah because you're

00:18:30.460 maintaining good form throughout you're not there to get the burn and the neat thing about that is

00:18:35.420 it's a it's a good way to get strong without bulking up and you mentioned the you know the the mind to

00:18:42.080 muscle connection it's it's very very critical um just teaching your teaching your uh um teaching

00:18:49.940 yourself to get full recruitment out of a muscle or not full but more recruiting out of your muscle

00:18:55.800 versus just growing the size of that muscle right so it's yeah it's a very it's a very very powerful

00:19:02.840 powerful thing um and it's very it's it's part of you know a bunch of our different programs from

00:19:09.860 grease the groove simple and sinister easy strength things like that it's it's very very uh important

00:19:17.100 that you get that you know that mind to muscle connection yeah so if you're listening this is a

00:19:21.280 great thing like do this go out and get one of those doorframe pull-up bars that cost like 15 bucks 1.00

00:19:25.420 put in your doorframe anytime you walk through it crank out five pull-ups or if you can't even do a

00:19:30.500 pull just do one pull-up yep hang add on yeah or just hang right or you can do the same thing with

00:19:36.060 the kettlebell um so one of the things i've noticed about strong first and the content you put on the

00:19:44.780 website and as well as in the the content in the books is that you focus on the psychology of strength

00:19:51.180 as well um not just the the physical aspects so my question is uh what psychological barriers do you

00:19:59.440 think get in the way of people getting strong or stronger yeah um it's i mean i think there's a

00:20:09.660 a few different ones um you know we we we believe as many do that attitude is everything and um we spend

00:20:21.160 a lot about a lot of time talking about it and we try to distinguish ourselves you know as strong

00:20:27.080 first instructors we try to distinguish ourselves from the uh you know the hordes of trainers um

00:20:33.420 littering the landscape of the industry um we like to know pavlo says we're not trainers we're

00:20:39.680 instructors trainers trainers have dogs we have students and uh you know um he also says that we

00:20:47.980 don't have clients hairstylists have clients we have students right so it's it's definitely a mindset

00:20:54.020 thing um our our instructors they're brought together by you know the beliefs i mentioned

00:20:59.940 earlier one of which is strength has a greater purpose and strength is a skill and things like

00:21:05.320 that and they realize that the uh the barriers preventing preventing some people from uh achieving

00:21:13.080 their potential in strength training there's just a number of different ones and some people get

00:21:18.480 worried that they'll you know they'll get too big if they start strength training right so they're

00:21:25.140 more interested in you know being lean and not getting strong and they don't understand that

00:21:32.480 getting strong is a really awesome way to get lean and it's it's muscles that actually work versus

00:21:40.160 you know muscles that look and if it was easy to get to just get big by strength training

00:21:47.100 the uh the supplement industry wouldn't be as successful as it was right like there's so many

00:21:54.660 people that are are lifting and taking supplements and they still can't you know in their mind get big

00:22:00.380 enough so we kind of combat that that you know you won't really get too big if you strength train and

00:22:06.460 it's um you get incredibly strong without getting much bigger than you already are and most people

00:22:12.880 actually lose weight when they start even though they'll be gaining some muscle

00:22:16.600 um and as you start to get better and you start to pursue goals then you sometimes tell yourself

00:22:22.800 if you as you have a new goal or if you see other goals that people have achieved um you know there

00:22:28.540 there's the voice in your head saying i can't do that right um and we try to convince people that

00:22:35.480 you know we have we have a number of people who have achieved you know amazing physical feats

00:22:41.640 either as our you know beast tamers or uh tactical strength challenges or other you know other

00:22:48.480 little goals that we have and they're not all huge right so it's in many cases it's mind over matter

00:22:54.220 especially if you look at it as uh strength training as a practice and that consistency trumps intensity

00:23:02.120 you know in the long run yeah the big problem is some people find our protocols kind of boring and

00:23:11.700 and it's just like grease the groove is not that sexy no it's not every time you walk by the pull-up

00:23:18.320 bar do pull-ups um the problem is uh you know we don't chase fads what we do is timeless we stick to

00:23:26.360 what works whether it's the principle or the tool uh the tool being the kettlebell the barbell or the

00:23:31.960 body weight um we we understand that many people get the uh the exercise exercise addd and um they

00:23:41.660 want to do you know they want to do something new they want to quote feel the burn they can i've heard

00:23:46.800 people say oh i did swings twice last week and now now i'm an expert what's next and they don't so

00:23:52.780 they don't want to stick to it and master the basics and quite honestly i saw the same thing in

00:23:58.060 firearms training um you would have people who can finally hit a target five yards away

00:24:03.540 and they want to start moving and shooting with the lights off oh yeah um you know so they don't

00:24:09.520 they don't really care about the basics and when i was you know i was in the military when

00:24:13.800 when i was a young navy seal there was a place that we got some high-end firearms training

00:24:18.900 and the instructors there they said a bunch of different things and and many of them stuck with

00:24:23.560 me but none more than than this statement and that is the best do the basics better and i've used that

00:24:31.240 in so many parts of my life now and i i think it's so true in in physical training or firearms training

00:24:39.260 our world is full of people who are quote bored with the basics and mediocre if they would just spend

00:24:47.480 time on on the basics in firearms training you know the basic trigger squeeze uh at three yards and

00:24:53.920 things like that and in the kettlebell world you know our our kettlebell swing if you had people uh

00:25:00.000 spend time on those basics they'd be a lot better off they just get uh you know they just get bored

00:25:06.340 um as pavel says many times the uh the kettlebell swing takes like five minutes to learn

00:25:12.840 and a lifetime to master so um i think i think if people spent more time on basics and stuck you know

00:25:20.840 stuck to their goals instead of changing programs every you know every three weeks they'd be a lot

00:25:27.280 better off yeah i love that yeah the whole idea i guess what they call it in martial arts they call

00:25:32.760 that the white belt mentality right and uh i love there's all these like anecdotal stories from like

00:25:38.120 vince lombardi like on the first day of practice he would first thing he was doing he put hold up a

00:25:42.740 football and says gentlemen this is a football and he explained to him this is a football field

00:25:47.160 divided up into 100 yards and then um wooden the ucla basketball coach yeah he did something like

00:25:55.000 the first day of practice he would like show them how to tie their shoes so they wouldn't come untied

00:25:59.780 like that's awesome just the basics right and that and they were incredibly successful because they

00:26:05.440 focused on those basics absolutely yeah no i i've seen it you know martial arts is a great analogy

00:26:12.080 you have you have you have whether it's jujitsu or krav maga whatever you're taking some schools you

00:26:19.820 go to and you learn like six moves in an hour yeah and you feel like wow that was cool and then

00:26:25.160 you can't recall any of them yeah it matters but the good ones they spend time you know drilling

00:26:31.080 one thing and to the point of boredom but then you can you can draw on it when you need it

00:26:36.600 yeah i love that and one thing i've noticed too whenever um you start focusing on the basics is

00:26:42.460 that and you have that mentality of trying to get better at it is that you start it starts getting

00:26:47.440 like actually really interesting because you start noticing nuances um that you didn't notice as a

00:26:53.780 beginner but it takes a while to get to that place though absolutely uh i mean and that can be as

00:27:00.120 simple as you know i've been doing martial arts for a while and i'm starting to notice like just

00:27:05.360 just tweaking little things about hitting the heavy bag and you know where the power comes from and

00:27:11.180 when to tense up and when to relax and stuff like that and the kettlebell is especially our ballistic

00:27:17.420 moves like the kettlebell swing it's such a neat balance between tense relax tense relax and and the

00:27:25.480 you know the hip drive and things like that so it's uh and when to how long it floats versus you know

00:27:32.300 forcing it down uh there's just a lot of different things you can do with it so you guys offer uh

00:27:38.200 several courses uh with your with the school of strength and i you know we we do a lot of fitness

00:27:44.000 content on the site and one complaint i would call it some guys say we we talk about too like too much

00:27:50.460 like advanced stuff guys who are already fit right for the guy who's just like man that he needs to lose

00:27:56.040 30 40 pounds he hasn't exercised maybe ever in his life uh what's a good entry point exercise or course

00:28:04.320 for that that kind of guy yeah yeah um so for most people we always recommend they uh um

00:28:12.880 they they have a couple of options they can look for a uh a strong first uh certified instructor in

00:28:21.320 their area to show them some some basics with the kettlebell or barbell or body weight um it takes

00:28:28.460 um it it's it's important that if you're going to use kettlebells that you learn how to use them

00:28:37.100 safely um you see them in gyms all the time now and for the most part even the trainers at gyms are

00:28:43.800 doing the exercises wrong um but you know finding a finding an instructor getting a lesson or a group

00:28:50.260 class is is a great way to start another and i would recommend that before just buying kettlebells

00:28:56.600 and you know clicking youtube and say it go yeah another great option we have we we created user

00:29:04.320 courses uh and we have the user course for the kettlebell barbell and body weight the kettlebell is

00:29:09.740 the most popular user course and uh it's a very in-depth uh user course it's about eight hours um but you

00:29:18.620 spend a lot of time learning the basic moves and um it's a good way to learn those moves

00:29:25.240 in a in a course setting a non-intimidating environment and it's a single day um instead of

00:29:32.780 you know our certifications are three days long and they obviously cost a lot more money and not

00:29:37.860 everybody wants to be a kettlebell instructor so um we created this user course and it's a really good

00:29:43.700 option is this something they had to come out to denver for yeah no we have user courses all over

00:29:49.440 okay cool from uh you know in most states now we have user courses um but we have a user course in

00:29:56.400 denver if you ever want to come out i need to get out to denver actually my uh managing editor jeremy

00:30:01.200 lives in denver oh cool maybe i'll get him over there yeah send him send him uh send him my info i'd love

00:30:07.940 to love to send him to a user course and let him know what it goes have him uh let me know what he thinks

00:30:12.580 yeah fantastic um so what about the guy who's intermediate right or here's a question like i

00:30:18.300 know we have a lot of guys uh who are leos or in the military um do you guys have specific like

00:30:25.020 training programs for these type of guys yeah um we uh we we do a lot of training for law enforcement

00:30:31.940 and military um it's we don't really have much of that on the website yet we're you know we're going

00:30:40.460 to have our own kind of division that just focuses on that at some point we've we've already been

00:30:46.340 doing it without you know without really um having that yet um but we do there's some very very basic

00:30:54.180 stuff for them uh the kettlebell and body weight in particular are popular because they're just very

00:31:00.400 easy to have when you travel and um i i mean i'm a really firm believer in it i when i when i started

00:31:09.840 using the kettlebell my my kit my body armor whatever you want to call it it started to feel

00:31:15.920 a lot lighter i felt like i'd move around a lot better and um yeah it just really really worked

00:31:21.540 cool um so here's if you had to choose one single lift movement exercise right for someone to do

00:31:30.900 uh i know it's probably like picking children um but what would it be

00:31:34.800 um i mean for me that's an easy an easy question i would say hands down the kettlebell swing

00:31:42.740 um as i mentioned before you can you can learn it very quickly but you can spend a lifetime trying

00:31:49.000 to master it um it's a just a great movement or a great exercise for for strength and conditioning

00:31:56.380 um we've used it we've used it to help elite endurance athletes and elite power lifters um and

00:32:04.700 myself i used it you know to make myself a better soldier better operator uh it carries over to a lot of

00:32:11.680 different athletic endeavors in fact i once i once took my deadlift from 360 to 450 and this was at a body weight

00:32:21.300 of 180 so from two to two and a half times my body weight i took my deadlift up that much just by

00:32:28.480 doing three months of swings three days a week at varying intensities and and we call that the what

00:32:36.280 the heck effect because i didn't do deadlifts and i didn't do whatever that i was testing but i saw that

00:32:42.560 stuff go up or improve um nowadays i do almost no cardio i jump rope a couple times a week i do uh

00:32:51.280 a one mile walk each day of course and uh sometimes i i hike or ski on weekends and

00:32:58.220 typically i do kettlebell swings at least two to five uh days a week depending on what program i'm on

00:33:05.100 and um so no real no real uh you know cardio per se uh like most people consider cardio you know the

00:33:14.680 treadmill or the uh elliptical none of that boredom uh or as pavel says none of that dishonor

00:33:20.780 uh i and all i do is the hiking and you know the jump rope and the kettlebell and i just got a

00:33:28.140 physical and my heart rate was 47 beats a minute so it really does work as a form of uh of cardio and

00:33:37.300 the kettlebell swing is as as we say it's it's the center of the kettlebell universe if you have a

00:33:43.640 good swing you're going to be good at most of the other moves that's awesome man you've got me i'm

00:33:49.340 gonna go do kettlebell swings now yeah i'm drinking the cool i'm gonna go do it right now yeah well

00:33:55.160 that's a good thing it's i have one here in the office it just fits everywhere they do i mean what

00:34:00.580 so here's like what weight do you suggest for guys that's a good question i some uh most guys will

00:34:07.980 get the most use out of the 24 kilo uh i think that's about 53 pounds and some

00:34:14.580 is that a pood yeah i think so i have to look at the yeah one pood one pood two poods a lot of a lot

00:34:24.400 of people will get you know will will start at the 16 kilo that's not enough that's not enough for most

00:34:31.400 but uh it's a well there's some good there's some good you know some good uh moves you can do with that

00:34:38.140 i right now i'm doing the simple and sinister protocol and i'll you know i'll kind of go back

00:34:44.700 and forth between the uh the 24 and the 32 kilo so okay 32 kilos like 72 pounds or something awesome

00:34:53.880 cool simple and sinister that's the new book right yeah yep so yeah where can people find out more about

00:34:59.760 strong first and uh the programming you all offer yeah just check us out on strong uh you know

00:35:06.300 strong first dot com um it's all kind of laid out there with our courses and our certs and

00:35:11.240 links to the different books and uh you know it's just uh that's that's where we you know where we send

00:35:18.180 people and if they want if they want to find uh you know a strong first instructor in their area they

00:35:23.900 can they can find uh find those instructors through our through our page awesome well eric for

00:35:30.560 this has been an awesome conversation thank you so much for your time it's been a pleasure

00:35:33.540 thanks brad appreciate it have a good day our guest today was eric frohart he's the ceo of

00:35:39.640 strong first you can find out more information about strong first and their training programs at

00:35:44.080 strongfirst.com

00:35:46.220 well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice

00:35:53.920 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com and if you enjoy the show

00:35:58.300 you've gotten something out of it please please please give us a review on itunes or stitcher

00:36:02.200 that'll help get the word out and the best compliment you could give us is to recommend

00:36:06.500 the podcast to a friend we'd really appreciate it anyways until next time this is brett mckay

00:36:11.040 telling you to stay manly

00:36:12.740 you

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00:36:44.740 you

The Art of Manliness - July 16, 2015

#123 StrongFirst and Kettlebells With Eric Frohardt

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