It’s been a whirl-wind lately…
After learning more about Josh Henkin’s DVRT system and Ultimate Sandbag during a recent photoshoot (Josh’s DVRT book will be published by Dragon Door in April) I was intrigued to say the very least. So this past weekend I braved the cold of NYC to attend the DVRT level 1 and 2 workshops right in the heart of Manhattan. What a great trip! I’ll be doing a full write up of both days shortly, but wanted to let you know what’s on the way.
In general, if you’re already (or aspiring to be) an HKC, RKC, or PCC instructor the principles of Josh’s DVRT (Dynamic Variable Resistance Training) system will be a very good and occasionally familiar fit for your training, and your instruction of others. 
During both the level 1 and level 2 workshops, he repeatedly emphasizes that the DVRT isn’t about the sandbag, but that the sandbag is the best expression of his system. In other words you might have used some of these principles already in your kettlebell or bodyweight training, however, adding this wobby, moving, and occasionally UNCOOPERTIVE (more on that later) sandbag to the equation can ramp up the intensity and the neurological adaptions even more. Needless to say, it was time well spent. The previous Friday I had time to hang out a little with Al Kavadlo too, and hear all about how the recent Australian PCC went (it went great!) Al’s not a coffee drinker, but he sure does know the best places in town to recommend (Everyman Espresso was fantastic!) and where to find some of the best omelets in the East Village.
Should also add, it was a VERY fun surprise to see that upon returning home, Josh Henkin’s interview with the Wall Street Journal about DVRT and Ultimate Sandbag was published! Above is a shot of the article in the printed WSJ, and here’s a link to the online version you can easily read. It’s great to see that this effective system is getting exposure in a publication like the WSJ! 🙂
In other news, I want to apologize a little, I got swamped with awesome cool stuff to review (not a bad problem to have…) and feel like I’ve possibly thrown off the balance of the site here recently. While I’ve tried to continue including workouts and blog posts etc. I think that there might have been too many product reviews recently, and while I have plenty more wonderful items to share with you, I will be trying to space them out more so that you can be confident that you can come here to get useable information for your own training, and for the training you may do as an instructor. Please feel free to leave me some comments on how you feel about product reviews and what you’d like to see more of on this site. I’m working on some new fun strategies that will hopefully benefit YOU more than anything else! 🙂
All of that being said, here’s a little fitness challenge we did at small group yesterday, and while it has a little bit of a “CrossFitty” (is that a word?) feel, do know that only good reps count, and risking injury to “win” is the ultimate way to lose. Unfortunately a few precious seconds may have been added to our time as a VERY aggressively annoying group of people doing yet ANOTHER “scavenger hunt” in our park area would not leave us alone. I nearly had to stop being polite, but one of the more astute members of their “group” was able to finally get their obviously self-appointed “leader” to finally leave us alone long before I felt the need to be overly… direct. “Pushyness” is not a solid, long term leadership quality… Anyway enough preaching.
After a nice Primal Move warm up and a visit with our old friend the Trifecta we decided to see how long we could hold a crow stand (or frog, depending on where we were in the progression). Following a quick sip of water, the stopwatch was set to see how long it would take us to complete 5 rounds of…..
- 100 jump rope turns
- 10 Sit outs with push up*
- 10 goblet squats with a moderate kettlebell**
- 20 crisp, precise and powerful 2 hand kettlebell swings with moderate kettlebell
- Kettlebell rows (feet in lunge position) 5/side moderate kettlebell
- 5 “Evil Wheel” ab wheel roll outs
Yes, that got some sweat going, and was fun too!
We finished up with some alternating timed sets of holding the hollow position and the “superman”/freefall. I call that combination the fish flop as inevitably when we approach the later rounds, people tend to roll over in the transitions and go flop if they’ve been applying themselves! Its also kind of fun to do that in a weird, “get rid of the tension between sets” kind of way.
If you’ve been on the Dragon Door website or get their emails you’ve no doubt noticed that there are some VERY exciting things happening. And I am very happy to report that I’ve been busy interviewing some of the upcoming leadership. These are some very exciting people who seem like they will bring a whole lot to our RKC and Dragon Door community. Can’t wait to share their stories with you, as I have found talking to them has already been incredibly inspiring.
In the mean time, here are some recent reads you may have missed:
*Love these, thanks to being introduced to them in Mike Krivka’s Code Name: Indestructible
**I used 18kg which would be on the heavier side of “moderate”
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