This week’s question comes in from our friend Stephen James:

“Sir, I have a question. If I got the abs then I stop training and much more food, isn't going back again into love handle?”

====================================================================

There’s a certain air of confidence surrounding the grammatical anarchist that’s oftentimes sexy, isn’t there? A sort of, hey, look at me, I hang out in my slippers all day, eat chicken salad off crackers, and drink milk straight out the carton kind of attitude. And let me tell you this right now: nothing revs my libido more than a woman who appears to be above the use of relative pronouns.

But I must admit, I’ve had just the damnedest time interpreting this bunkum. It’s like trying to make sense of spilt alphabet soup.  I can only imagine he’s trying to ask one of two things:

1. I worked hard and got the abs. Now I don’t want to work hard to keep the abs. Can I stop working hard (stop working out, stop eating right) and keep the abs?
   
   
2. My stomach has taken on the revolting form of lean and riveting musculature. How do I restore it at once to its most previous and exquisite shape: the love handle?

Now I have nothing describable as sound scientific evidence to support this theory, but I’m inclined to say I’m very close to nine-tenths certain that if you stop working out and start dispatching a copious amount of calories, you will, in fact, undeniably, and most certainly, get fat.

This has been my most common observation, and anything else would look quite inconsistent. Thank the question you for submitting.

I like this complex. It's simple. That is, if I may presume to call a "complex" simple.

You like kettlebell jerky?

Well who the hell don’t(!)?

Something downright primal about it—just look at ya thrustin’ weight overhead you indefatigable savage, you. Very good stuff, I say, very good!

*Now they say not to write with qualififiers (very, rather, little), calling them the barnacles of prose. But, I think that’s very bad advice, doing us very little good. And anyone who says you shouldn't write this way or that perhaps suffers from a rather small triceratops brain(?). Tiny as a peanut, probly' lesser. 

Dan John, Master SFG Instructor, author of Easy Strength, Never Let Go, and Intervention is sitting down with me next Thursday at 4pm (eastern) to answer YOUR questions over a free, live webinar.

CLICK HERE to register now and submit your questions to Dan.

All questions will be answered in the order in which they are received, so don't dawdle or delay.

This is an unprecedented opportunity here folks to learn from one of the industry's best. Don't miss out.

PS - Did you know that Dan John will be running his full Intervention workshop at Strength Fest 2013? 


CLICK HERE to get your tickets now and save $200 bucks.

The secret to abs is that there is no secret to be found anywhere at all. Great abs, which I liken to the big, blocky variety (for the fellas, naturally—let us go with delicately trimmed for the ladies) are the results of (1) a low enough body fat percentage and (2) an amply muscled midsection. In other words, great abs are chiefly a function of the following inputs (1) caloric restraint, (2) metabolic efforts, (3) heavy ab work.

And here again rolls in the same old chestnut. But I welcome it warmly, as I do all truths, no matter how cold.

Because here’s the thing, really. If you want to rise above average then you must be willing to do the things the common stock are not, able enough to do them, and unapologetically industrious in your doing of them. Anything else invariably results in a reversion to the mean. And only the losers have a central tendency. 

Entering the gym, I chugged behind some brute like a loose caboose. After a few clicks I detached and glided over to the kettlebell rack to work what sits a few scoops below.  

There I performed the fundamental pre-workout ritual of any narcissistic human being: to look hard into the mirror until utterly exhausted of the subject matter—this activity, you should know, averages 7 minutes. Afterwards, and only afterwards, do I find myself in a state favorable for bodily exercise.

[The following is part three on what is turning out to be a five part series on blogging as a profession. CLICK HERE to read part 1. CLICK HERE to read part 2.]

Blogging frequently emits an alluring but somewhat artificial scent: A scent that naturally baits two brands of people.

The first brand is chiefly folks of the common store bought variety, plain as a bowl of corn flakes. Their gross desire for an easy opt-out of the human comedy is surpassed only by their colossal lack of true ambition. Quite simply, they hate to work, and so are lured into blogging by the fishy smells of the charlatans, the quacks, and the counterfeits.

If what I have just detailed describes you, even distantly, then I must encourage you to pass on. I am not capable of helping you. 

Look, I’m not discouraging you or anything like that. There are many bloggers who rake a king’s ransom in the business of swindling. And if I have something to say to these jackals, it’s not to scorn them for sucking in the intellectually underprivileged—that, I leave to God. Rather, it’s to ridicule them for any and all lack of ingenuity in how they go about their business. Insofar as I can tell, the cheats, tricksters, and charlatans have been using the same old, horribly overworked devices since the dawn of this republic. All I’m saying, really, is that it’d be nice to see a quack with some freshness about him.

But here I go off at a tangent. Let us get back to where we were.

The second brand is that of the artist. This person is marked intrinsically by fire in perpetuum. This is what keeps his blood boiling over, his legs on the trot—and his spirit pushing forward—stopping never at dead ends or dog shit. He understands that security is a false and limiting crutch, and seeks nothing of the sort. His appetite is whetted only for accomplishment.

The artist does not know it all—but has the proclivity to learn it all, to suck it in ad infinitum. And his chief purpose is to contribute to a whole greater than himself—if you’re a rationalist you may call it the cosmos—spiritualists would perhaps say it’s celestial—and hippies would probably call it life-force, or something like that. Truthfully it doesn’t matter what you call it, because the net effect is the same: The artist creates.

Are his actions largely money driven? The answer to various degrees is often yes. Sometimes this is in part, other times it is in whole. Either way, the artist is scarcely propelled by anything rooted in altruism. In form, this may appear to be the case, but in substance human essence remains predominantly self-interested. This means little, though, because the true artist—whatever his motives otherwise—invariably aims to create something that is good. And so he thoroughly intends to improve the earthly balance sheet—to strike the asset account with a hard debit.

What I have defined is the artist. But what I have redefined is the entrepreneur: The person who generates value. This is to say the person who helps persons.

If what I have just detailed describes you, then I can help. I can help you to get the word out about the value you create, and I can help you to make a fair return on it. 

Blogging would be the perfect job, save for the fact it’s still a job. It’s a full time gig. So it will beat you up, and, at times, kick you square in the nuts. These are lessons one must learn by hard experience, I suppose, but if you take this as true now it will save you a lot of pain later.

Now if there is one more lesson to be learned before we begin, let it be this: There is no good purpose to be served in promoting crap. Doing so—as any practiced marketer will tell you—only hastens the rate at which people find out you suck. To wit: You ought to be the absolute best at what you do before you start saying you’re any good.

Just something to keep in mind, that’s all.

Now rather than tell you what you should do, I’d like to show you what I do. That is, what I’ve done well, or what’s worked well for me. You may take whatever you’d like—and if you’d like to work closer with me on all this stuff, then I encourage you to investigate our Killing It With Ketllebells Certification, where Som and I will help you to develop and implement your own marketing and business plan (online, offline, or both), and teach you how to run large group kettlebell bootcamps. 

For ease, I will fill out a “one-page business plan”, answering the three following questions:

1.      What Do I Sell (and How Much Do I Charge)?

2.      Who Do I Sell It To?

3.      How Do I Get The Word Out?

I’ll answer the first question now, and save the other two for a later post.

This blog is a major marketing vehicle for both my online and offline businesses, if I may presume the two can be separated out.  

I’ll start with what we do offline.

My Killing It With Kettlebells bootcamp business is run out of The Dragon Gym in Exton, PA. I have largely opted out of personal training as a service offering. Instead, I run six large group classes a week: Mondays and Wednesdays at 12pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm, and Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:30am.

Pricing for our bootcamps ranges from $149-199/month depending on the level of membership.

We also host multiple workshops and seminars throughout the year. [ I suppose now would be as good a time as any to shamelessly plug Strength Fest. ]

Pricing for workshops and seminars ranges anywhere from $99-999 depending on the event.

Lastly, we offer our Killing It With Kettlebells Instructor Level Certification and Fitness Business Development Program. This is where Som and I teach you how to teach large group kettlebell bootcamps. We also show you the ins and outs of our kettlebell business, and help you to create and implement your own business and marketing plan. We limit the group to 12 candidates. This is not a beginner kettlebell course. This is a course for those who are interested in learning to coach large group kettlebell classes, and for those who are already in, or are seriously considering opening their own fitness business. In short, we help you to do what you love and make good money doing it.

This is our most expensive offering, but I’ve heard it’s really worth it. If you think you might be a good candidate for this certification, email me at PatFlynn@ChroniclesOfStrength.com with the subject line of “KIWK” and I will send you a series of questions for you to answer so that we may figure that out. We can even get on the phone and chat about it, if you’d like. No obligation. Promise.

Pricing for our Killing It with Kettlebells Certification ranges from $997-1997 depending on when you register.

There are a few other things I do offline, but those are my major profit centers. So let us move now to what I do online.

Our online business is a mix of bigger ticket items, lower end entry points, and continuity programs. We’ll start with the latter.

The Chronicles of Strength Inner Circle and the Chronicles of Strength Print newsletter is my current continuity program—that is, this is a program where membership is billed monthly.

The Chronicles of Strength Inner Circle includes a full print newsletter mailed out to members every month. This is quite frankly my best work. I put more time into that newsletter than I do anything else, and I love doing it.

Additionally, members of the Inner Circle get private email coaching access to me, coaching call-in days with me, monthly training webinars, monthly recipes, monthly workouts, programming, you name it. The Inner Circle members are my best and most loyal customers, so I do everything I can to help them succeed—to provide them with value far above and beyond what they pay to be a member each month. As an entrepreneur or business owner, your aim should always be to exceed all expectations. Unless of course your aim to run a mediocre business.

Pricing for my Inner Circle members ranges from $19-39/month depending on the level of membership and whether or not they live inside North America (postage is a killer).

*If you are not yet an Inner Circle member, I’d love it if you tried it out for a month. You can cancel anytime, so there’s no risk when you sign up.*

On the lower end of the pricing spectrum there mostly sits a selection of eBooks and ePrograms. The Birth of a Hero Vol 2 stands tall at the top of the charts, sells like ice in Hell.

These range from $27-99 depending on the product.

The bigger ticket items include private coaching with either Som or me (we offer both business and fitness coaching), training webinars, and specialized programs.

The pricing for these ranges from $299-699.

If you are interested in private coaching and would like to know more about what we can help you with, email me at PatFlynn@chroniclesofstrength.com with the subject line of “coaching”.

Effectively, that is the sum of it all.  Effectively enough, anyways. 

PS - If you have any questions about any of this, please post them in the comment section. I'm here to help. 

The Century, so entitled by its lofty rep composition, is a proficiency exam courtesy of the elusive Paul Wade, author of Convict Conditioning.

Assuming I made no misinterpretations, the task is as follows:

Men:

40 x squat
30 x push up
20 x hanging knee raise
10 x pull up

Women:

40 x squat
30 x knee push up
20 x hanging knee raise
10 x australian pull up

I think I passed. Som did pretty good too, but I think he may have missed a rep on the squats. That's OK, though, because he's ninja. 

Thanks to my buddy Christa for riffing this one out to Pantera and making it look pretty. 

Rock out as many rounds as you can in 15 min.

So as many of you know I have a primal fitness book coming out through Wiley. I know I've been a bit scanty on the details, but that will change soon. Promise.

Anyways, I wanted to get your feedback on something. Got a minute?

If I could answer any one fitness question for you in this book, what would it be?

Please post your feedback in the comment section. I don't care how relevant you think it is, I just want to hear from you.

There may be some prizes for the most thoughtful answers...