Here's what I ate yesterday:


Breakfast - Whey Protein, Brie Cheese(yep the nasty kind with the mold on it!), Almonds

Snack - 4 hard boiled eggs, handful of mixed nuts(raw)


Lunch - Tune with olive oil, apple, almonds


Snack - Protein Shake - whole raw milk, whey and casein protein


Dinner - Pan seared chicken cooked in olive oil, 3 hard boiled eggs, mixed veggies


Before Bed - Whole Milk Shake with whey and casein protein




So as you can see, my diet is moderately low carb, but moderately high fat and high protein.


There is much debate out there as to what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat.


Here are a few of my rules


1. A calorie is not just a calorie - many so called "experts" will argue that weight management is about calories in vs calories out. This is true. However weight management and body composition are not the same thing. True if you consume less calories than you expend, you will lose weight. But that weight will not necessarily be just body fat, as a matter of fact it rarely is. A calorie deficit, in the long run, will lead to both a loss of bodyfat as well as muscle mass. I don't know about you all, but I am more concerned with body composition ( the percentage make of bodyfat to lean muscle tissue in regards to my total weight), than I am with any number that actually is displayed on a scale. I would rather weight 185lba nd be 6% bodyfat, than weight 160lbs and be 22% bodyfat. Catch my drift?


So in the case of body composition, a calorie is certainly not just a calorie. In order to maximize lean muscle tissue and minimize your body fat percentage, you have to be a lot more cognizant of what you are eating and how it will benefit/harm your body.


2. Low carb is the way to go - regardless of what you may hear about atkins, he actually was quite ahead of his time. Sure, he also had a lot of things wrong as well, but the truth is, diets that are moderately low (>20%) carbohydrate actually yield many benefits. Recent studies have shown that low carb diets (in the long run) lead to lower levels of body fat(when compared to other diets such as low fat), healthier cholesterol levels, higher levels of testosterone(also due in part to the higher amounts of fat consumed), and more stable blood sugar levels(duh).


3. Make your carb sources unprocessed and as natural as possible - When you do eat carbs, eat fruit, veggies, and some grains. It's really as simple as that. No bread. No pasta. and ABSOLUTELY NOT REFINED SUGARS!


4. Eat lots of protein and good fats - goes without saying! Remember that all your body truly needs to be healthy in terms of food are essential amino acids, and essential fatty acids. So be sure to get plenty of both. There never has been, and never will be such a thing as an essential carb...


5. When you are hungry...EAT! - As long as you follow the above guidelines, you can eat pretty much whenever you want. I certainly do! I have experimented with intermittent fasting and followed the warrior diet as well. I did lose weight on both programs, but I also lost muscle and strength as well. Following a moderately low carb diet, while eating whenever I get hungry has given me the best results. My body fat remains single digits year round, yet I am able to keep up with gains in strength as well as lean muscle tissue.


Power to You!

Warm Up:
5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups



Circuit 1:
Double Clean and Press - 10 sets of 5 reps
Weighted Pull Ups - 10 sets of 5 reps


Circuit 2:
Kettlebell Floor Press - 5 sets of 5 reps
Bent Over Rows - 5 sets of 5 reps


Circuit 3:
Double Kettlebell Swings - 10 sets of 10 reps
Double Kettlebell Front Squats - 10 sets of 10 reps


Circuit 4:
Hanging Leg Raises - 5 sets of 5-10 reps
Russian Twists w/ Kettlebell - 5 sets of 20 Reps
Dynamic Plank - 5 sets of 30 seconds

As promised, long ago, an ebook will become available on this site in the near future(sometime next month).


Written by me of course, the Ebook is tentatively titled: "The Power of Complexes: Metabolic Conditioning for Superior Athleticism, Strength, and Conditioning".


This Ebook will be a must have for anybody who wants to:

• Exponentially accelerate their level of conditioning, and dramatically enhance their athletic abilities
• Hack off body fat at an unprecedented rate
• Learn how to manage fatigue and operate efficiently under various amounts of stress(an invaluable skill for any athlete)
• Rapidly Increase explosiveness, triggered acceleration, and raw strength
• Develop an indomitable spirit and an incredibly resilient mentality

This ebook will introduce a various amount of complexes using single kettlebells, double kettlebells, barbells, and even your own bodyweight! You will learn how to program these complexes into an already existing routine, or learn how to program an entirely new routine based around YOUR goals.


While the ebook will briefly review basic kettlebell technique, THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS Ebook! This is geared towards serious athletes, experienced kettlebell practitioners, and extreme fitness enthusiasts. Expect more details soon!

Objective: 1000 Swings


Course of Action:


Swings and Planks - 30 Swings, Immediately Followed by a 30 second plank. 5 Rounds. 30 x 5 = 150


Breathe Ladder - 30 Swings - 5 breathes, 30 swings - 4 breathes, 30 swings - 3 breathes...down to 1 breathe. 30 x 5 = 150


Total Swings Completed Thus Far: 300. 1000- 300 = 700 more to go!


Swing Chain - Line Up 5 bells of varying weights. Perform ten swings at each bell, rest 30 seconds once entirely through the chain. Go through the chain 5 times! 5 X 10 = 50 x 5 = 250


250 + 300 = 550 ... a little over halfway there!


Swing Chain - Same procedure as before, except now you will perform one arm swings. Switch hands every bell, and once you are through the chain, switch starting hands before your next set. 5 x 10 = 50 x 5 = 250


550 + 250 = 800


1000 - 800 = 200 swings left to go.


Swing Ladder with partner: Reps are as follows: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,14,15,16,18,20,25,30 = add them all up and you get 190 Swings.


800 + 190 = 990. Subract 990 from 1000...and well you get the picture, you have 10 swings left to do.


Perform the last ten swings with the heaviest bell you can use with good form.


Congratulations, you have completed the 1000 swing challenge, if you finished this under an hour you may consider yourself competent.


Be sure to stretch thoroughly.


Expect hamstring discomfort for the next day ... or ten...

Triggered Acceleration, or as I like to call it, acceleration on demand, is all about just how quickly you can turn on. How quickly can you react. For martial artists, triggered acceleration is everything. If you do not react quickly enough, then game over and lights out. I have learned this the hard way, but I must admit, is sometimes the best way to learn. A couple kicks and punches to the head is more than enough motivation to want to improve my reaction time and my triggered acceleration.


I remember when I first sparred my original master instructor(a 7th degree blackbelt at the time) as a white belt. I never had a chance, but my youthfulness and ambitiousness got the best of me. I wanted to see if this guy could really walk the walk. Well he more than walked to walk. Within 10 seconds I was out cold. And as I came around, lying on the ground, my head throbbing in pain and the walls spinning around me, all I could think about is where the hell did the train come from that just completely destroyed me. I apparently took a roundhouse kick to the head. I couldn't believe it. I never saw his foot even leave the ground. This guy somehow accelerated his kick so fast that it went completely unnoticed by me from the time it left the ground until it connected to my head.


I knew from that moment on I had to do two things.


1.Improve my triggered acceleration and technical abilities to be able to kick as fast and as powerful as my instructor
2.Improve my defensive reaction time in order to never be on the receiving end of that much force ever again


Through the years many sport specific drills helped improve both of my two objections, such as learning to focus my gaze on a certain spot on my opponent and use my peripheral vision to detect movement certainly helped improve my defensive tactics a lot. But what I was lacking was general physical preparedness. I needed to improve my all around strength and explosiveness, not just my sport specific abilities.


Enter the world of kettlebell training, plyometrics, and olympic lifting. The trifecta of explosiveness.


The immediate results of training with bells, oly lifts, and plyometrics blew my mind. My strikes were harder, faster, and more dangerous than ever before. My confidence began to soar. I could beat almost anybody I went up again right off the line, and react to movements and telegraphs quicker than ever before. 


Here are just a few examples of the types of exercises I have done in the past that have undoubtably helped with my explosiveness and triggered acceleration:


Kettlebells: Swings, Snatches, Cleans, High Pulls, Jerks, Viking Push Presses, Push Presses, and Racked Box Jumps(hold bells in the rack position, pretty much a weighted box jump, I stole these from steve cotter and they truly suck in the best way possible!)


Oly Lifts: Cleans, snatches and jerks.


Plyometrics: Any sort of jumping movement, like box jumps, mary katherines, depth jumps, etc.


As for triggered acceleration here is one of my all time favorite movements. This is known as the Amped Goblet Squat. What you want to do with this is be taken by surprise, so you will need a partner. All you do is assume a goblet squat position, and slowing start pulling yourself into the squat, and whenever your partner feels like it, they will give the command to come up. As soon as they say "up" you want to explode up as quickly as possible. This only works when it comes as a surprise, so you really do need a training partner for this. Whenever I do this in a class format, I go around the class and have each participant give the command at least once, keeps things interesting and also gets the class more involved.

Good afternoon creatures. I was given the oh-so incredible opportunity to post the workout of the day, how could I ever resist?! I am a college level female lacrosse player and have been training with Pat for some time now. Pat gives you some pretty sweet workouts that I usually am the test dummy on before he ever posts them up here, so I have a pretty good inkling as to how to write a pretty hefty workout.  Anywho, bare with me on my first attempt here at creating my workout of the day!


Because it's Sunday, one of my favorite days of the week, we'll do a work out similar to those done by NFL players. Can you dig it?


Most importantly, start off with some light locomotion and stretching to get those muscles warmed up.
Use cones (if you don't have cones use old towels or any other makeshift household item) to mark out 25 yards (about 25 big steps). And its time for sprints ladies and gentlemen, 5 (there and back = 1 = 50 yards) 50 yard sprints as your first exercise.


Next set up four cones each ten yards apart. First series you will sprint to the first cone, run backwards to the second cone, then karaoke to the third cone. Ten push ups then karaoke to the second cone, run backwards, and sprint to the end. Do this 3x.


Time to bring out your beloved kettlebell :) but leave out cones marking ten yards. Circuit time baby.
Circuit 1: 10 swings, 10 yard sprint down and back, 10 push ups, 10 squats - Repeat 3x


Circuit 2: 10 one arm swings (10 each side), 10 yd sprint down and back, 10 pushups, 10 squats, 10 burpees, and as many presses as you can do before failure on each arm - Repeat 3x


Circuit 3: 10 yd sprint down and back(20 yards total), 20 swings, 10 yd sprint down and back, 10 squats, 10 yd sprint down and back, 10 pushups. Repeat 2x


To finish, a nice cleansing mile run, not too fast but not too slow, approximately between a 7:30-8 minute mile.


Don't forget to STRETCH STRETCH STRETCH STRETCH at the end, that's always my favorite part of the work out. Feels so great after you just busted your ass for an hour.

Here is one of my favorite all around, balanced strength routines. This simple, yet highly effective workout includes pushes, pulls, knee dominant, and hip dominant movements. Keep the weight moderately intense. You can do this routine three times a week, and just cycle the intensity. Feel free to add in core work as well

Front Squats - 5 x 5
Romanian Deadlift - 5 x 5

Bench Press - 5 x 5
Barbell Rows - 5 x 5
Double Clean and Press - 5 x 5
Weighted Pull Ups - 5 x 5 

If you are a martial artist, this is a must read, but even if you are not, continue reading because you may find that much of what follows is applicable to almost any sport or athletic activity.


I have been a martial artist for the majority of my life. My background and heart lies with Tae Kwon Do, but a little over three years ago I also began training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, and MMA. Not only do I have a lot of self experience with martial arts, but I also have a lot of experience when it comes to training other martial artists. So how do we implement hardstyle kettlebell training into martial arts? The truth is, they are already more related than most athletes who use kettlebells ever realize. As an RKC, we tell me people that they should not think of the kettlebell as a piece of exercise equipment, but rather a tool that will teach you have to move and operate like a highly efficient and powerful athlete. The hardstyle system of kettlebell training is simply what top tier athletes and martial artists do naturally, reverse engineered! That is why when it comes to training athletes and martial artists, the kettlebell is the primary tool I use. Not the exclusive tool, but certainly the primary one.


So let's discuss some of these similariest. Recently, at the last RKC certification in Philly, Brian Petty(RKC) and I put on a demo on how the hardstyle system of kettlebell training relates to martial arts. Here are some pics from that demo.

So now let's discuss some similarities and how kettlebell training carries over to martial arts.

• Rooting: With the RKC system of training, one of the first techniques you learn is how to "root" yourself to the ground. This is one of the reasons most RKC's train either barefoot or in very flat soled shoes. The concept of rooting yourself to the ground is about generating stability and tension from the ground up. As a martial artist, stability is everything. Brian(pictured above) has been a professional bouncer and boxing coach for more years than I've been alive. During this time he has come to realize that the worst things that happen in a street fight, or a bar fight, are always when one of the combatants gets knocked down or falls over. He has witnessed three death's, and one was simply from a guy being shoved over and hitting his head on a very hard object on the way down.By learning to root yourself to the ground and generate tension from the ground up, you will become more stable and resilient. You will essentially become more difficult to move. One of our favorite drills to do is a heavy rack hold or over head press hold, while rooting ourselves to the ground and having a partner begin to push us from different angles, making sure we continue to stabilize our own bodies and the weight we are bearing by continuing to "grip the ground" with our feet and make the minor adjustments necessary to keep our balance.
• Bracing: The hardstyle system of kettlebell training is centered around feed forward tension and bracing. Just as we would brace to receive a pair of heavy kettlebells during a set of cleans, we would brace the same way before receiving a roundhouse kick to the ribs. We sharply exhale upon impact, and maximally tense our muscles to absorb the shock. So really, kettlebell training absolutely is the closet thing you can do when it comes to learning to take a hit, without actually taking a punch or a kick, or even a tackle(if you are a football player).
• Tension and Relaxation : As stated above, feed forward tension generates strength. But that is only one side of the coin. The other side is relaxation. Where tension is strength, relaxation is speed and flexibility. Without a combination of tension and relaxation, there is no power. Tension is slow, but relaxation is weak. You must learn to combine both tension and relaxation to be truly powerful. Enter, yet again, the kettlebell. Take the swing, the clean, the snatch, or even the press. All of these movements require both certain degrees of tension and relaxation. The swing for example is tense at the top of the backswing, and the top of the upswing, but all else throughout the swing our body is relaxed. If we tried to stay tight throughout the entirety of the swing, it would be slow and lacking power. How does this relate to martial arts? Any sort of strike is all about tension and relaxation. Trying throwing a punch with maximum tension throughout your whole body... you will quickly realize it is incredibly slow, inefficient, and definitely not powerful by any means. In order for any strike to be powerful, it needs to be have a blend of tension and relation...a blend of both speed and strength, which in turn is power. A good strike starts with an explosive movement(like the contraction of the glutes to initiate the swing) but then is relaxed in order for the strike to move quickly, but upon impact the body is tense again. Let's take a look at the roundhouse kick(in the style of tae kwon do), which is initiated by forcefully drivine the knee up and turning the hips over. The initial bit of tense powers the movement, but once initiated, the leg becomes whip loose in order for the kick to be incredibly fast and to deliver an immense amount of force. But once again, right before impact, there is a final moment of tension. Nothing else teaches you to utilize both tension and relaxation like the hardstyle system of kettlebell training

This is only just the beginning, stay tuned, part two will be posted tomorrow!


But until then, here is one of my favorite kettlebell exercises for jiu jitsu players, see if you can tell me why!

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Kettlebell complexes are one of the best conditioning tools available. I have yet to come across anything quite as effective as double kettlebell complexes when it comes to inducing systemic fatigue. If you recall, the goal of systemic fatigue is to keep the system working as a whole, but not to tax one muscle group too much as one time. This allows you to work beyong your normal work capacity, and is one of the best methods to use when it comes to body transformation, tacking on lean muscle, and conditioning yourself as an athlete. Enough blabbering, I'm sure you all want some examples!

So the following complexes I'm listing are double bell techniques, obviously you can do complexes with single bells as well.

Remember, the goal is to complete the complex in a little time as possible(with good form of course), without resting or putting the bells down!

Example 1 - The Blaster - 10 reps of Long Cycle Clean and Jerk, 10 Front Squats, 10 Bent Over Rows

Example 2 - Hell In a Cast Iron Shell - 10 reps of double clean and press, 10 reps of double snatch, 10 front squats

Example 3 - Playin With Bells - 10 double swings, 10 front squats, 10 push ups on the bells

Example 4 - The Ice Cream Maker - 10 double Cleans, 10 front squats, 10 push ups on bells

Example 5 - Have a Cigar - 10 double snatch, 10 jump shrugs, 10 floor presses

Example 6 - Get Outta My Yard - 10 Viking Push Press, 10 Bent Over Rows, 10 Front Squats

You get the idea, the possibilities are endless. Now each of these complexes are 3 different exercises, for about 10 reps. You can obviously play around with this too. Add more weight and less reps, add in another exercise, etc. If you watched my 300 workout, I believe all the complexes in that were 4 or more exercises with 15 plus reps with  2 x 16kg bells, you do not need a lot of weight for these, believe me! 2 x 16 kg bells for 15 reps each for four different exercises is more than enough to make you want to vomit...I mean that in the best way possible.

So you want to see some in action? Below are links to my youtube channel, demonstrating two of the above complexes. Enjoy!