My dvd is selling quickly!

It's only been available one day and I am nearly out of copies!
Remember this first 100 includes a special intoductory price of $30, including shipping and you will receive a complimentary, accompnaying e-book.

When it goes to the distributor, the price goes up and the two products will be sold separately.

Get your order in NOW! Only a few of the 100 copies remain.
Do yourself a favor: Hit the payNow payPal button to the right and accomplish something smart today!

Drills covered in my dvd:
Z-Health Joint Mobility: A Toe to Head warm-up
Kettlebell swing
Kettlebell clean
Kettlebell Military Press
Kettlebell Contra-lateral Press
Bottoms-up clean
Kneeling In-line lunge press
Kettlebell Snatch
Lunge style Get-up
Overhead Squat style Get-up
Kettlebell Front Squat
Kickstand Lunge
Windmill progression
2-hands Anyhow
Plank-style Bear Crawl
Renegade Row
One-legged Deadlift
Two workouts combining the drills above
Z-Health Joint Mobility Cool-down *including visual drills

This dvd will not only help you gain strength and stamina by learning to technically do kettlebell drills correctly, it will teach you to rewire poor movement habits which teaches the body to naturally move efficiently. This means you do not have to train in pain one second longer!

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

THE dvd is in!

100 cold hard-cut copies of my premier dvd, "Strength by Sara: How to perfect Hardstyle Kettlebell concepts using Z-Health Principles" came via FedEx TODAY! Several are already accounted for.

If you are interested in the special introductory price of $30, with free shipping, plus free future e-book, reserve your copy NOW! The stack is quickly dwindling. Once it goes to the distributor, the price will go up and the e-book will go for sale separate from the dvd.

Hit the payPal button on the right and e-mail me your address if you want to train smarter and safer!

Drills covered in my dvd:
Z-Health Joint Mobility: A Toe to Head warm-up
Kettlebell swing
Kettlebell clean
Kettlebell Military Press
Kettlebell Contra-lateral Press
Bottoms-up clean
Kneeling In-line lunge press
Kettlebell Snatch
Lunge style Get-up
Overhead Squat style Get-up
Kettlebell Front Squat
Kickstand Lunge
Windmill progression
2-hands Anyhow
Plank-style Bear Crawl
Renegade Row
One-legged Deadlift
Two workouts combining the drills above
Z-Health Joint Mobility Cool-down *including visual drills

This dvd will not only help you gain strength and stamina by learning to technically do kettlebell drills correctly, it will teach you to rewire poor movement habits which teaches the body to naturally move efficiently. This means you do not have to train in pain one second longer!

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Another Lame Excuse

You have got to be kidding me! This "article" got my blood BOILING and hands shaking!!!! It is completely absurd and is only offering another avenue away from personal responsibility.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482788,00.html

Here's the scoop: thin people, strong people, smart people, obese people, cup-stacking people, they are all the way they are because they "get their reps in" everyday. Their brains, minds, and bodies get really good at what they regularly and repeatedly choose to do. That may be eating few calories for the thin person...deadlifting regularly and progressively for the strong person...reading for the smart person...over-eating for the obese person... stacking and unstacking cups for the cup-stackers.

If you recall the article I wrote about neuroplasticity, this all makes perfect sense. If you do something, anything, and your brain senses it as rewarding, you are more likely to repeat the action that delivers the "dopamine/" mental reward. It's all about the brain and its interpretation. This can NOT be over-emphasized!

This reward system in the brain is as different as each individual. It's why the Zone diet works for your friend but the Warrior diet works for you. Or why Weight Watcher worked for you last year, but not this year. Your brain is really good at getting good at whatever you challenge it with! In fact, the brain thrives on novelty and challenges, and is why the "Beach Body 7," or what the heck ever it's called, works for the allotted 6-8 weeks. Constantly changing drills (although you don't get good at anything) creates enough demand, that the brain makes the body adapt. I say again: It's all about the brain! The brain controls all and adapts necessarily to demand for...SURVIVAL.

If you want to perpetuate your defeatist attitude and dole responsibility to anyone BUT yourself, believe that you're out of shape, weak, too skinny, too fat, not good enough because of your genetics, your environment, a frickin "fat virus," whatever. You're only cementing the path in your brain and setting yourself up for continued failure.

Here's another scoop, no one in my family is particularly strong or in shape. They're pretty much like the rest of America. I've got smokers, alcoholics, druggies, hermits, mediocre, and coat-tail riders in my family too. But do I accept their paths and "biology" as my fate? Um, NO!!! I choose to be the best that I can be, in spite of or because of my heritage and genetics. I'm choosing every-cotton-pickin' day, to "turn off" or "turn on" biological markers. You may be surprised to know that my family has a history of diabetes, high blood pressure, alcoholism, and smoking. However, I don't accept that I will inevitably drink, smoke, get high blood pressure, or diabetes. I practice healthy and better quality of life habits everyday. They may not seem like habits to me because I have done them for so long, but as soon as I replace a healthy habit with a poor habit, I change the tide for my biolgical markers and my genetic expression changes- i.e. I lose strength, get "soft," etc. etc.

So guess what? The bottom line is still: You have no one to blame but yourself! You are a direct result of your habits. You want change? You have control.

This Week's Training

My dvd is en route from the production company. I will have 100 copies ready to sell later next week. Many are already accounted for. E-mail me to reserve your copy, it may be another few weeks before it gets to my distributor. So e-mail me asap to get your hands on it before anyone else!

Monday:
5x10-24kg swing
5x3-BW leg raise
GTG both drills through the day as well

Tuesday:
2x10-24kg swing
7 minutes of snatching:
20/10/9/8/7/7/6/5-12kg snatch R/L
+7R

Wednesday:
3x5- BW Pull-up
3x3-BW leg raise
2x10-24kg swing

Thursday:
1x10-20kg swing
1x10-24kg swing
3x10-32kg swing

3x5-BW PU
3x3-BW LR

Friday:
5x5/5-16kg snatch
5 minutes 12kg various style GUs
GTG PU & LR

Break a Habit or Make a Habit- You choose

How is it that some people seem to be addicted to working out and others struggle to get off the couch every day? Whether you're a food junkie or training junkie, you have created the cycle through repitition. The good news is, if you want to change, you can! And if you want to stay the same you can do that, too. Our brains control all and are incredibly fascinating.

So what makes the runner compelled to run every day or the lazy man well, lazy? The same mechanism controls both attributes- neuroplasticity. Through a reward-based system set-up in the brain, we "control" our habits: We can break bad habits and solidify good habits.

If we run every day and the brain interprets it as good and fun, we secret dopamine, the "feel good" hormone or "reward transmitter." Thereby telling the brain that what we're doing is good and to keep doing it so we can get this "high." But in the same regard, if we run and the brain interprets it as bad, boring, or even worse, painful, this too solidifies in the brain. A painful experience is more readily remembered than a pleasurable experience- for survival's sake of course. If an experience is painful, the brain more readily lays down the memory and can virtually retrieve it faster, making it "hardwire" faster out of safety and...survival! Our brain doesn't want our bodies doing something harmful because it threatens our existence.

How does all this brain pain and pleasure relate to training and how can we best take advantage of these innate phenomena? If you hate training but want to "get into shape," lose weight, or get stronger, you have to lay down a pleasurable training experience repetitively in your brain. We literally have a "use-it-or-lose-it" brain. (Which makes perfect sense for the conservation of energy; our ultimate survival instinct.) So if you repeatedly do something you like, you repeatedly get rewarded and the signal is reinforced. But remember, you have to do something rewarding a lot more than you have done something painful (figuratively or otherwise) in order for the good habit to take hold and hardwire in your brain and mind. If you don't practice pleasurable training, you will lose the desire and therefore lose the habit. This is both the beauty and the crux of a plastic brain bent on efficiency.

How can we optimize solidyfing a good habit: do it when we fall in love or become new parents! These two stages can and most often happen in adult life. Which means you can take advantage of their power even as you age! When we fall in love or become parents we undergo a "massive neuro-reorganization" and consequently release oxytocin. Oxytocin is bascially another feel good drug that has a more general system impact than dopamine alone. It not only makes us feel good, but it makes us mellow, which makes everything appear better. If you take up training or a new skill at these two periods, you can in fact solidify any habit you want! Success breeds success," and love follows this rule. When we're in love, we want to be happy- making it much harder to be miserable, in pain, and unhappy. So when you're happy and in love, you will be successful!

Conclusion: To be better at something, you have to practice it so the brain can "hardwire" it. Optimize success through love, happiness, and the pleasure of doing the act. :) On the flip side, don't try to get better at something by being afraid of it or creating negativity around it- or get hurt doing it!

Good Juju all around!

Yesterday Mike brought home the award for CGO (Company Grade Officer) of the year for 2008! Whoo hoo! So that bumps him up to the wing level...against pilots. Lemme tell you, being a ground troop in the AIR Force takes some gonads. My props continually go out to Security Forces! They are too often under appreciated, under-manned, and underestimated. Yet they never ask for a thing and vigilantly stand guard rain, shine, tidle wave- you name it.


More good news: My brother-in-law (Mike's brother) safely returned home on Monday from a deployment to Iraq. Yay Stevie! Plus his wife hasn't had the babies yet, so he'll be here for that. Yay Kellie, Bryn, & Blaine!


More-more good news: I received a copy of my dvd in the mail yesterday, for review. After a few minor changes it will be available on the market! Yay ME! ;)

Excuses, Excuses

It's two weeks into the New Year and already I'm hearing excuses of why not to train and stick to "getting into shape." This Saturday starts classes for Pope's Kettlebell Club (be at Woodland Park at 0900 or be square) and I hear "What if it's too cold? What if it's raining? What if I don't know a thing about kettlebells? Do I need my own bell?" All this AFTER I've said we train rain or shine (there are pavilions at the park), I bring the bells, and anyone can learn to swing a bell.

Seriously, if you're committed to making a difference in your life, all the hurdles just make the challenge that much more of an adventure. "Without a challenge there can be no victory" after all. And maybe your life's so stinkin easy and you've gotten so pathetically lazy that you really are just kidding yourself with those New Year's Resolutions. Either way, if you don't train because it's too cold, or you're too tired, or your spouse doesn't train, or your eyelash hurts, guess what? Those are all just EXCUSES.

If you want a promotion at work, you don't sit on your duff, leave early everyday, come in late, take long lunches, and do as little work as possible. No! You sacrifice family time and do what it takes to get the boss to notice your hard work. Training is easier to let slide because there is no immediate reward (sometimes) and there is no one there to give you a slap on the back and say "Waytta go, Joe." And in that sense, training can be MORE rewarding because you know you pulled that extra weight, you trained every day this week, and you ate clean all on your own accord. THAT'S impressive! You can hold your head up high and know you did your best for your whole self.

Watch how people carry themselves. People watching is fun, entertaining, and slightly disturbing at times. But it's also very educational. I guarantee the majority of people you see will be doing the "catch walk;" Where they're falling forward and then whip their legs out front at the last minute to catch themselves. This is because they've sat in a sad cubicle all day and didn't do a thing to make themselves physically and mentally better. Their hip flexors are tight, their low backs are tight, their hamstrings are tight, their midsections are loose, their butts are flat, and they may even have a little man-boob action. They're looking down at the ground (because they're afraid of falling as a result of the "catch walk"), their brows are furrowed, and their jaws are tense. But this is you, you say? booooo! That's no way to live!

The good news is, our bodies are so resilient and impressive we don't hardly know the extent of it! Pick up the book "The Brain that changes itself" for starters. Right away you read about a woman suffering from vertigo (because of antibiotic damage) that re-learns to balance and function in a stable world through a gum-like strip on her tongue, a man that recovers from stroke, and born-blind people learning to "see" again. How cool is that?!?!? These people have REAL things to be bummed out about. You, my friend, have a very able body and are sorely taking advantage of God's awesome work. (Whomever your God may be.) booooo on you again!!!

Now really, is it too cold? Are you too tired? Do you really not have the time? Excuses, excuses. It's two weeks into the New Year, resolutions should NOT be sliding already!!! Write down your goals, be specific, prop them somewhere you see often, and do the damn thing! All your parts move, so move them! Those creeks are just a little rust, that soreness is but dust. Hold your head up high, take the world on with your shoulders back and staring it straight in the face. Every day you do something for yourself becomes one more dollar in the bank. Keep after it, it will become a pattern and habit, and before you know it you're feelin like a million bucks!

Yesterday's WO, 1700:
5x20/20-12kg snatch
~8 minutes, 200 snatches, 30 sec rests between sets, hands are good today, and no soreness anywhere

BTW- don't forget: Saturday, 17 Jan, 0900, Woodland Park on Pope. Please RSVP to SaraCheatham@hotmail.com


One last thing, your random picture o' the day...I have an endless love/hate fascination with the skies and weather. This is heading into the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee on our cross-country move from Vegas to NC

Quick visit to ATL and Workshop Reflections

Last Friday I hopped down to Atlanta to support friend and fellow RKC, Brett Jones at (friend and fellow RKC) Delaine Ross' Condition Kettlebell Gym. We dined on authentic southern BBQ Friday night before Brett put the hurt on the workshop attendees Saturday for a whopping 5 hours! I had to scoot out a tad early to get back to NC and the hub before it was too late and dark for safe driving.

I was wrestling with going to Atlanta because it is a six hour drive each way plus it's time away from Mike :(. BUT I'm glad I did go after all. I'm better for it, of course. I got some tweaking cues on my bent pressing and as usual met some really cool folks. I'm still surprised by how diverse the KB crowd is and how neat it is that we all can come together around this phenomenal tool known as the kettlebell. Plus, I finally met Dave Whitley's Mandy- a very cool chick (even to spite her battling a sinus infection)!

The workshop also reminded me that I may be being a bit of a lazy ass these days! GTG IS the lazy-man's workout, and my pressing is going good and strong, BUT there's that damned VO2max thing that all the latest certified RKCs are clamoring to. Truth be told when it comes to training something A LOT, with a lighter bell, in a dense period of time, my internal rhythm gets pushed all out of whack. :/ Needless to say, going to the workshop forced me to take a look at what I'm doing versus what a random sampling of other RKCs are doing.

Here's my conclusion: I'm going to continue to refine my skills on what I'm already doing and love to do (pistols, presses, pull-ups, deadlifts, and bending), i.e get better at what I have been practicing. If you don't love doing it, why do it? If you force yourself to do something you hate, doing more of it doesn't make sense. Sure we need to push ourselves out of the comfort zone every now and then for progress. But begrudgingly going through the motions is defeatist at the least, injury inducing and the most (booooo to injury and negativity).

In addition to wanting (and needing) to get better at my pistol, pull-ups, presses, deadlifts, and bending, I also have this one-arm push-up devil constantly stirring around in the back of my mind. Sometimes it agrees with me, most of the time it doesn't. So being able to consistently perform a OAPU is also part of the plan. I popped one of no sweat at the Z-Health 9S Strength and Suppleness certification with little to no previous practice. But I've decided that I have performance anxiety. In the quietness of my own home gym the options are limitless. Put me up in front of a crowd to perform a strength skill and I go deer in the headlights. (Growl.)

Considering everything is a skill, I have to practice my strength training in front of (gasp) other people! The mere thought makes me gag and cringe simultaneously. That's probably why I really gravitated towards kettlebells: One bell, one me, a roughly 3x5x6 space, good to go. Being the center of attention when you're trying to pull off a max press is a tad more challenging than when it's just me and Mike. Having an audience is an element to the training game that I have yet to master.

That being said, I'm entering a Strongman Contest here on Pope. Barbell presses... farmer's carries...who knows? Tiring flipping and truck pulling may be involved. I'm putting my comfortable in-home leisurely kettlebell training to the test and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone- in public. :/ Go me.

I'm officially branded!

Gotta Share

I nabbed this from my friend and fellow RKC Dan Cenidoza's blog:
His 15 month-old hub lifting!
I love it.
*Check Out Dan at www.bemoretraining.com

Some Kick-ass KB stories from my clients

I submitted material for a future Dragon Door publication with the following included. These are actual clients of mine. I am as grateful to them and their service as they have proven to be of training with me. It is my pleasure to present their stories to you.

First "The Program:"
Based on the Kettlebell fundamentals of timed swings, get-ups, deadlifts, and carries; as well as joint mobility, push-ups, and pull-ups. Note: timed work is valued or repetitious work.

The program has been successfully implemented with the 99th Explosive Ordinance Disposal, 99th Security Forces Group, 99th Red Horse Squadron, 587th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, 99th Mission Support Squadron, 43rd Security Forces Squadron, and individuals from various Air Force Squadrons of Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, NV between 2005 and 2008. It has aided in pain and injury reduction, reaction improvement, and combat readiness enhancement.

Case Study 1: An Explosive Ordinance Disposal female presented on profile for shin splints. She was excluded from the running portion of the PFT, to spite otherwise being in top physical condition. After three months of supplementing kettlebell swings (as well as the other drills outlined in the above program) for running, she was able to run the one-and-a half mile portion of the PFT and finish with an excellent scoring (90% or above).

Case Study 2: Security Forces Squadron male with a training history of power lifting switched exclusively to kettlebell training. He has since sold most to all of his powerlifting equipment, lost 30 pounds (from 193 at 5’8” to 163), and took up venture racing (multi-event racing through difficult terrain). Prior to kettlebell training, running was painful and awkward.

Case Study 3: A Mission Support female presented with traditional weight training history, decreased coordination, common iliotibial (IT) band tension, and rotator cuff pain. After one month of the above kettlebell program, coordination improved significantly, IT band tension was eliminated, and ability to press 16kg kettlebell for reps was easy. As the first shirt for the Security Forces Squadron (SFS), she contributed to their second place standing in the base Tactical PT Challenge (she was also the only female member of the SFS team).

Case Study 4: An active duty Air Force male presented with Below Standard PFT scoring. His duty status was dependant on passing the PFT test. The Airman’s schedule and office conditions were not conducive to training in a gym or outdoors for large blocks of time. With a kettlebell and the above program, the Airman was able to pass the PFT test and retain his active duty status with the USAF.

Case Study 5: While at Officer’s Training School (OTS) a prior enlisted male was assigned to a lower flight as its commander. This OTS candidate kept long hours and did not have time for normal USAF PFT. He “maintained and even improved” his overall fitness by incorporating kettlebells and elements from the above program.

Two of these case studies have since received their own RKC certification.
One plans to work for his after a brief overseas deployment.
For a general sampling, it ain't bad ;)

The right place and the right time

I've been doing kettlebells for over six years now. I've had a lot of encouragement in the past few years to get my business really going with products and branding. But I feel everything happens at the right time and you can't rush what has been set in motion long before our knowledge or awareness.

Sure, I could have flippantly put out some articles and products when I was fresh to the game. But I think that is a disservice to myself, those partaking, and my colleagues. I certainly know more now than I did back then, and I'll know more tomorrow than I know today. But to exploit the material I learned from my mentors without truly appreciating or refining it for myself is not something I could ethically do.

Not to say that I haven't had my eyes on the bigger picture. When I do something, I do it the best, and work damn hard getting there. It goes way back to when I was a kid. I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. In first grade when you're asked to write about what you want to be when you grow up, for me, it was a doc. Sure, there have been some pleasant snafus along the way. But I've been looking into doctorate programs since I finished my Master's. And without those snafus, I wouldn't be at the top of the kettlebell game, the top of the Z game, or (headed to) the top of the Air Force game. I wouldn't be in any of those games at all.

An aside: A little known fact about the change in my life and career path- I was offered to stay on at my assistantship at the Area Health Education Center in Fayetteville, AR, (where I attended grad school). An assistantship that would have paid to put me through my follow-on doctorate as well as keep me on as a Health Educator for the hospital. BUT, I got hitched to a career military man and the course I had laid out for myself was altered.

Instead of staying on at the AHEC and University, I dropped it- and being close to my family- for the life of a military wife. I questioned it only a second when, just two months after we moved to Vegas, Mike was sent on one TDY after another. BUT, that is also when the Kettlebell convention came to Vegas- the right place and the right time.

The diversion in the plan set in my childhood lead me on fulfilling adventures no one else can tell: I got married to my high school sweetheart (that I love more every day & that alone continues to blow my mind), I lived the longest part of my life in Las freakin Vegas (the place people come to from all over the world- the place that has everything and the best of the best), I soared to the top of the kettlebell arena at the wave of one Mr. Tsatsouline's hand (he who I had unknowingly read articles from in Muscle Media), I skipped up the Z-health ladder, I learned the importance and gratitude of community service and giving back philanthropically through my being an Air Force wife, I've met tons and tons of genuinely good-hearted hard working influential folks, and live astounded daily knowing tomorrow is going to be better than today.

So the wheels for my business to blossom in 2009 were set in motion long before I even knew anything about a kettlebell. What is truly rewarding is that I didn't have to push to make it happen. Everything fell into place...and continues to. Not to say that I'm an oblivious piece of drift wood floating along waiting for someone to pluck me out of the water and make something of me. My sincerity and ambition, with the sought-after help and guidance of many others, has set me up for success. I am at the right place and it is the right time for a new and different kind of success.