Aleks Salkin - Free kettlebell and bodyweight workouts
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  • Free Kettlebell Info
    • The 5 Point Kettlebell Checklist
    • The Most Asked Question
    • The Most Asked Question: Part 2
    • 6 Things Most Kettlebell Instructors Don't Know
    • 10 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Start A Kettlebell Workout
    • How Much Should I Pay for Kettelbell Workouts Training?
    • How to put 100 lbs over your head with 1 arm
    • How Do I Know if Kettlebells Are Right for Me?
    • The 7 Most Frequent Questions About Kettlebells
    • The 90-year plan
    • How to become a T-1000 (a review of Flexible Steel)
    • It's not about the bell: 3 Lessons From an RKC Workshop in Israel
    • How To Choose The Right Personal Trainer
    • How To Make Your Snatch Test Easier
    • 40 Days, (Almost) 40 Lessons
    • What is Fitness Minimalism?
    • Clean up your kettlebell clean in 2 steps
    • Why you MUST make your resistance training harder
    • Get Fitter WITHOUT Beating Your Body Up
    • Get Stronger WITHOUT Adding Weight
    • Original Strength For Brute Strength
    • How To Leap Forward After A Layoff
    • 6 Workout Tips For The Newbie Lifter
    • How to persuade your body to hand over new results
    • Best Exercises You're Not Doing: The Pullover
    • How To Break Plateaus In Your Training
    • 5 20-minute, fat-blasting workouts >
      • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Get Strong
      • The 3 Things Your Personal Trainer Forgot To Tell You
      • The 2 Lessons You MUST Learn To Improve Your Fitness
    • The Surest Path To Success
    • The 3 Cheapest Ways To Get Fitter And Healthier
    • How to avoid a shitty personal trainer
    • When should I jump to a new program?
    • Get noticeably stronger in 10 seconds
    • Should you abandon the basics?
    • 1 Simple Reason To Love Kettlebells
    • How to build "Old Man Strength"
    • Improve your recovery for faster gains
    • Secrets of Old School Strength
    • You HAVE to train your core
    • A Few Honest-To-God Strength Shortcuts
    • How To Succeed With A Personal Trainer
    • The Fast/Slow Program For Superior Gains
    • The Crawl and Carry Workout that Boosts Strength and Muscle
  • Free Calisthenics Info
    • How to get your first pullup at 50 years old
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight: Mining the 1-arm/1-leg pushup for a heavier press
    • The Anytime, Anywhere Bodyweight Strength Program
    • Primal Move: Answer The Call
    • Capture The Flag
    • Crawl your way to a 1-arm pushup
    • What's a Joint Like You Doin' In a Person Like This?
    • Improve your back flexibility with one move
    • 2 handstand "hacks" for faster progress
    • It's Hip To Grip
    • From Body Weight To Heavy Weight
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight Pt. 2: Calisthenics For Iron Domination
    • Unjack Your Back
    • Handstand pushups: for legendary upper body power
    • How To Prepare For Your First Handstand
    • How to Kick Ass At Bodyweight Workouts
    • Improve your cardio with 2 bodyweight drills
    • The 10-Second Ab Workout
    • Roll, Rock, and Crawl Your Fat Off
    • Bodyweight Detours For Greater Strength
    • Your Eyes, Your Legs, and Bodyweight Strength
    • Dead Bugs For Life! >
      • The #1 Bodyweight Exercise For Bigger Shoulders and Arms
      • The #1 Step Toward Greater Fitness
    • "Do I really NEED to stretch?"
    • You DON'T need a gym to get fit
    • Find The Right Trainer/Program: Pt. 1
    • Little Things Add Up
    • Fit In A Few Minutes (No Excuses Workouts)
    • Bigger Arms With Bodyweight: Rope Climbing
    • Get better at 1 arm pushups (without doing them)
    • Stop Looking For Fitness Hacks
    • Old School Health and Strength Done Right
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Be Obsessed With Bodyweight Training
    • A Cool Crawling Workout
    • How (and Why) To Train Around An Injury
    • Exercise Vs. Movement: Which is better?
    • How to Build Brute Strength With Bodyweight Only
    • Five 20-Minute, No Equipment Workouts
    • Why Bodyweight Training Is Important
    • The Fast/Slow Method For Steady Strength Gains
    • Crawl your way to better fitness
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU should be obsessed with calisthenics training
    • The "Suicide Solution" For Conditioning Gains
    • The No-Equipment Workout To Improve Your Cardio
    • Thank You KBBW
  • Store
  • What Others Are Saying
  • Free 1-Arm Pushup Report
  • Contact

Should you abandon the basics?

Well, maybe.
Picture
It's time to abandon your unrequited obsession with "the basics".

Before you tar and feather me, hear me out.

The basics are absolutely essential, and you HAVE to get good at them. In fact, probably one of the best quotes of all time on the importance of getting good at the basics comes from M. Sgt. Duane Stanton of the USAF Pararescue:

"The only thing that separates the elite from all the rest is the fact that the elite are better at the basics than everyone else."

Hard to argue with that.

But while you should always find room for the basics in some way in your training, at some point the best way to keep going forth and unrepentantly crushing weakness is going to come from stepping up to the plate and taking on some more advanced exercises.

Let's take the kettlebell, for instance. If all you ever do is swings, get ups, and goblet squats, you can still be good - great, even.

But once you've dialed in those basics and the above-and-beyond flexibility and mobility required to perform them, AND can comfortably do them all with a bell at or above, say, 1/3 to 1/2 of your bodyweight (depending on your age, gender, mileage, etc.) with great technique and to the point where you can practically do it all with your eyes closed (please don't try), why not put those basics to the test and test your mettle with some more advanced stuff?

In the kettlebell world, my vote would go to working up toward heavy repetition double kettlebell long cycle clean and jerks. Not only will they will leave you even more out of breath than that last sentence, they are the ultimate in kettlebell lifting - 1/2 push, 1/2 pull, 1/2 squat, and all muscle-building, strength-imbuing, weakness shattering (also, yes, I realize that one thing cannot be three halves of something, and no, I don't give a shit).
Same goes for the calisthenics world. Nose-bleed high-rep sets of dips, pullups, and bodyweight squats should eventually give way to pistols and pullups (preferably weighted) and extended ROM handstand pushups - or better yet, front lever and planche work.
​
By all means, honor the basics. But do them the greatest honor by putting the foundation they built to the test and building a magnificent temple of accomplishments upon them. When the time comes to clear all distractions and hone your skills in just the basics again - and that time will come - you will be better prepared not only to understand what you must do, but to appreciate it as well.

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  • Home
  • Meet Aleks
  • Workshops
  • Free Kettlebell Info
    • The 5 Point Kettlebell Checklist
    • The Most Asked Question
    • The Most Asked Question: Part 2
    • 6 Things Most Kettlebell Instructors Don't Know
    • 10 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Start A Kettlebell Workout
    • How Much Should I Pay for Kettelbell Workouts Training?
    • How to put 100 lbs over your head with 1 arm
    • How Do I Know if Kettlebells Are Right for Me?
    • The 7 Most Frequent Questions About Kettlebells
    • The 90-year plan
    • How to become a T-1000 (a review of Flexible Steel)
    • It's not about the bell: 3 Lessons From an RKC Workshop in Israel
    • How To Choose The Right Personal Trainer
    • How To Make Your Snatch Test Easier
    • 40 Days, (Almost) 40 Lessons
    • What is Fitness Minimalism?
    • Clean up your kettlebell clean in 2 steps
    • Why you MUST make your resistance training harder
    • Get Fitter WITHOUT Beating Your Body Up
    • Get Stronger WITHOUT Adding Weight
    • Original Strength For Brute Strength
    • How To Leap Forward After A Layoff
    • 6 Workout Tips For The Newbie Lifter
    • How to persuade your body to hand over new results
    • Best Exercises You're Not Doing: The Pullover
    • How To Break Plateaus In Your Training
    • 5 20-minute, fat-blasting workouts >
      • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Get Strong
      • The 3 Things Your Personal Trainer Forgot To Tell You
      • The 2 Lessons You MUST Learn To Improve Your Fitness
    • The Surest Path To Success
    • The 3 Cheapest Ways To Get Fitter And Healthier
    • How to avoid a shitty personal trainer
    • When should I jump to a new program?
    • Get noticeably stronger in 10 seconds
    • Should you abandon the basics?
    • 1 Simple Reason To Love Kettlebells
    • How to build "Old Man Strength"
    • Improve your recovery for faster gains
    • Secrets of Old School Strength
    • You HAVE to train your core
    • A Few Honest-To-God Strength Shortcuts
    • How To Succeed With A Personal Trainer
    • The Fast/Slow Program For Superior Gains
    • The Crawl and Carry Workout that Boosts Strength and Muscle
  • Free Calisthenics Info
    • How to get your first pullup at 50 years old
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight: Mining the 1-arm/1-leg pushup for a heavier press
    • The Anytime, Anywhere Bodyweight Strength Program
    • Primal Move: Answer The Call
    • Capture The Flag
    • Crawl your way to a 1-arm pushup
    • What's a Joint Like You Doin' In a Person Like This?
    • Improve your back flexibility with one move
    • 2 handstand "hacks" for faster progress
    • It's Hip To Grip
    • From Body Weight To Heavy Weight
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight Pt. 2: Calisthenics For Iron Domination
    • Unjack Your Back
    • Handstand pushups: for legendary upper body power
    • How To Prepare For Your First Handstand
    • How to Kick Ass At Bodyweight Workouts
    • Improve your cardio with 2 bodyweight drills
    • The 10-Second Ab Workout
    • Roll, Rock, and Crawl Your Fat Off
    • Bodyweight Detours For Greater Strength
    • Your Eyes, Your Legs, and Bodyweight Strength
    • Dead Bugs For Life! >
      • The #1 Bodyweight Exercise For Bigger Shoulders and Arms
      • The #1 Step Toward Greater Fitness
    • "Do I really NEED to stretch?"
    • You DON'T need a gym to get fit
    • Find The Right Trainer/Program: Pt. 1
    • Little Things Add Up
    • Fit In A Few Minutes (No Excuses Workouts)
    • Bigger Arms With Bodyweight: Rope Climbing
    • Get better at 1 arm pushups (without doing them)
    • Stop Looking For Fitness Hacks
    • Old School Health and Strength Done Right
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Be Obsessed With Bodyweight Training
    • A Cool Crawling Workout
    • How (and Why) To Train Around An Injury
    • Exercise Vs. Movement: Which is better?
    • How to Build Brute Strength With Bodyweight Only
    • Five 20-Minute, No Equipment Workouts
    • Why Bodyweight Training Is Important
    • The Fast/Slow Method For Steady Strength Gains
    • Crawl your way to better fitness
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU should be obsessed with calisthenics training
    • The "Suicide Solution" For Conditioning Gains
    • The No-Equipment Workout To Improve Your Cardio
    • Thank You KBBW
  • Store
  • What Others Are Saying
  • Free 1-Arm Pushup Report
  • Contact