Declare Your Independence From Gravity’s Tyrannical Grasp with Calisthenics + Kettlebells
By: Aleks Salkin
Tags: Kettlebells, Fitness, Strength Training, Strength, Calisthenics

Declare Your Independence From Gravity’s Tyrannical Grasp with Calisthenics + Kettlebells

Independence Day: the day when the 1st Continental Congress officially told Britain to shove off and kick rocks.

It’s also just one day past the halfway point of the year.

Have you achieved the things you thought you would by this point in the year? Are you at least on the right track to end 2021 as your finest and most productive year ever?

If not, now’s probably the time to start taking things seriously — particularly where your training is concerned.

While you can put your nose to the grindstone and make some fast progress in a lot of things — business, for example — training is one of those things that can’t be rushed.

Yeah, you can take a faster route, but if strength is what’s on the menu, it is still going to take quite a bit of time to build, as strength is a quality that develops slowly relative to other qualities, like endurance.

Here are a few pointers for increasing your strength the SMART way through bodyweight training:

Build a strong foundation

Everybody wants to be able to do cool movements like one-arm pushups, pistol squats, muscle ups, and other Instagram-ready feats, but everyone you see doing this is probably (no, DEFINITELY) really, really good at the basics, which laid the foundation for them to do all those other cool things.



Skip this and it’s a one-way ticket to Struggle City for you, champ.

Skip this and all you’re doing is building a flimsy house of cards for a body

Focus first on full-body movements

As enticing as it may be to do all sorts of beach work — i.e. bicep curls, tricep extensions, etc. — save those for the END of your workouts and make the ‘main course’ movements that require you to use as many muscles as possible in concert with one another.

Loaded carries are a perfect example of a truly full-body movement

Learn how to MOVE

The missing link in just about everybody’s training nowadays is that they just don’t know how to move.



Sure, plenty of people can do pushups, squats, rows, pullups, and so on, but ask them to crawl across the ground, get up off the floor without using their hands and so on and watch as they struggle mightily and look about as awkward as a 16 year old boy trying to ask a girl to the homecoming dance.



In my mind, there is a major difference between ‘movement’ and ‘exercise’ — the latter being a highly distilled and narrowed-down version of the natural movements we are heir to.

Crawling is a great example of a movement that blurs the line between ‘movement’ and ‘exercise’

And don’t get me wrong, exercise is great. I do plenty of it, and you definitely need it.



But an exercise regimen that simply skips over the most natural movements of the human body — namely those that train and sharpen your gait (i.e. walking) pattern will ALWAYS leave something to be desired in the long run.

A good rule of thumb:

“Move the way you were made and you’ll move the way you’re able”

In other words: forge a rock-solid foundation and the sky’s the limit for the super cool Instagram-ready moves that you can show off to your friends and family.

And if you REALLY wanna take your lean, head-to-toe strength to the next level (and you’ve got at least a kettlebell or two and 9 minutes to spare) my 9 Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge will show you how to take another 4 foundational, take-no-prisoners drills and ratchet up your strength, boost your physical vitality, ramp up your resilience, and unlock your natural human movability — quickly, easily, and effectively.

Best of all, you don’t have to put your current workouts to the side; you just tack the 9 Minute Challenge on to the beginning or end of your training and BAM — you’ll be unlocking new and exciting levels of strength you never even knew you had in you in no time flat.

Check it out here => www.alekssalkin.com

Have fun and happy training!

Aleks Salkin

Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin is a level 2 StrongFirst certified kettlebell instructor (SFG II) and an Original Strength Instructor.

He grew up scrawny, unathletic, weak, and goofy until he was exposed to kettlebells and the teaching and methodology of Pavel in his early 20s, and took his training and movement skills to the next level upon discovering Original Strength in his mid-20s.

He is currently based out of Omaha, Nebraska where he spends his time teaching students online and in person, as well as spreading the word of strength, movement, and healthy living.

He is the author of the popular free ebook The 9-Minute Kettlebell and Bodyweight Challenge as well as numerous articles scattered around the farthest-flung reaches of the web.

Find him online at www.alekssalkin.com