Health & Fitness

A POWerful Testimonial!

 

Dear Fellow TKD Players,

 

This is an open letter to Master Bell and all of my friends at Bell’s Taekwondo.

 

I have had the privilege of being allowed to lead your kettlebell fitness classes.  Master Bell has seen the value of kettlebell training as a strength-conditioning tool for TKD and has also seen the value of my own experience and ability to spread the good word about this unique form of training.

 

Master Bell, Gord Alchorn, and I are getting ready to participate in the Agatsu Kettlebell Instructor Certification course being held at our dojang in May.  This is an internationally-recognized certification being held for the first time in Eastern Canada.  This is a unique opportunity brought to Halifax by the persistent efforts of myself and Master Bell (and, ultimately, the generosity of Master Bell in providing an excellent venue for this world-class event).  This course will bring area kettlebell enthusiasts, boxers, sports trainers, martial artists, strength athletes, and law enforcement together to partake in in-depth instruction and training by Shawn (“The Bionic Man”) Mozen, RKC — Canada’s foremost kettlebell authority.

 

This is the next step in my personal journey of health and fitness.  So much for the military doctors who told me at 20 that I would not be walking at 35.  I am writing you this letter in my 45^th year and you all know that I am able to walk…

 

Well, it seems as if we all just sort of plunged into kettlebell training together at the dojang with very little explanation.  Here is the “back story”.

 

The kettlebell (girya) is a fitness tool used in Russia for the past 300 years as the strength-developing tool-of-choice of wrestlers, strongmen, and the European pioneers of what we now call “physical culture”.  Strongmen in Russia are traditionally called girevik or “men of the kettlebell”.  Kettlebells were big on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1800’s when touring circus strongmen and wrestlers were local and national heroes.  About 60 years ago, kettlebells were adopted by the Russian people as a sport (Girevoy).  As with any sport, there are competitions and ranking systems.  At the same time, the Russian military seized upon KBs as the ultimate fitness tool:  compact, efficient, and deadly effective.  Special Forces all over the world have officially adopted the kettlebell and most use kettlebells as an important part of their published fitness standards.

 

My journey with the kettlebell started a couple of years back when KBs weren’t locally available.  I got my fair share of blank looks when I spoke to people about them or tried to even find anybody who owned one or was willing to stock one in their store.  Now, with the blockbuster RKC training regimens of Pavel Tsatsouline in the US, Crossfit-mania, the NFL, the UFC, and bandwagon-jumping Hollywood pushing them, I can finally come out of my particular cast-iron “closet”.

 

No matter who you are, kettlebells are the best all-around workout you will ever get.  Period.  Because of kettlebells, I am stronger, better conditioned, more flexible, and generally in better shape than I have a right to be for an “old guy”.  And I continue to get better.  Kettlebells effectively combine the benefits of weight training and aerobic conditioning with the unique attributes of ballistic training which involves the optimal loading of the joints, promoting stronger ligaments, healthier cartilage and the development of powerful muscles.  (Think “Olympic lifting meets strength training meets aerobics”.)  You will get strong and lean without bulking up.  You will not get beach muscles and a large chest.  What you will get are lean and strong muscles in all the right places:  strong core including stable shoulders, back, and hips and stable knees and elbows.  You will develop a strong grip.  You will develop endurance.  You will develop power.  You will get to know how to use your body more effectively than ever before.  All of this will spill over into your life inside and outside the dojang.  Less fatigue.  Less back pain.  More confidence.  Better sports performance.  Less injury.  Better sparring…

 

Anyway, I could ramble on and on (and likely will if I catch your ear at the dojang).  As always, I want to thank Master Bell for his help and support and Gordie for trusting me enough to sign up for the certification.

 

And I want to thank all of you for helping me along in my own personal journey.  I will do my best to help you if you care to shoulder one of these wonderfully brutal and effective training tools.

 

To your health!

 

Jeff Buchanan-Dorrance

 

“Iron, cold iron is master of men, all”

—    Rudyard Kipling

 

“Kettlebells will save your life”

—    me (to Gordie)

 

______________________________________________________ 

Are you feeding your machine the right fuel?

What machine am I referring to? YOU!

You are the most important asset you will ever have.

The better you feel and think, the better you will behave and
perform.

Everyone that you have influence over, benefits when you are ON
your game.

So, what is the right fuel for you?

I’m not sure, but I would encourage you to find out. For me, it’s
five meals a day of good quality carbs and protein. It’s training daily and keeping myself in great shape, along with feeling progress in my Taekwondo  journey.

It’s finding something to laugh at and about everyday, several
times a day.

They say if you laugh from your gut, you won’t ache from your
belly.

What’s the right fuel for your mind? Is it audio learning, reading
or DVD’s?

Maybe a little bit of all of the above.

For me, it’s all of the above in a pretty aggressive intake.

My point is this, if you feed your machine the right stuff everyday
and you work it the way it should be worked, your machine,
YOU will perform at peak levels and your best is
yet to come.

What’s the right fuel for your heart?

Besides regular cardio exercise, mine needs to love and feel loved.

It also needs to feel passion and enthusiasm for what I do and the
people I influence.

These are some of the things that I feed my machine everyday to
maximize performance.

Everyone is different. What works for some people, may not be 100%
right for the next.

My encouragement is to look at yourself as a human experiment and
keep searching for the right combination and the right
fuel for your machine to operate at maximum capacity.

Happy Hunting! 

______________________________________________ 

Water vs. Coke

What would YOU like to drink?

WATER

75% of Canadians are chronically dehydrated. (This likely applies
to half the world population.)

In 37% of Canadians, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is
often mistaken for hunger.
Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as
3%.

One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost
100% of the dieters studied (in a University of Washington study).
Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8 to 10 glasses of water a day
could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of
sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory,
trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer
screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon
cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%,
and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

COKE

In many provinces the police carry two gallons of Coke in
the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in
two days.

To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and
let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric
acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a
rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of
Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to
the rusted bolt for several minutes.

To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan,
wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the
ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix
with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of
greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The
Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.

Coke will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It
will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also
leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising
increase in osteoporosis.

To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck
must use the “Hazardous Material” place cards reserved for highly
corrosive materials.

The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of
their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would YOU like a glass of water or Coke?

Choose water the real thirst quencher.

WATER!