What Is The IKFF?

What is the IKFF?

The IKFF is an organization whose goals are two-fold: to promote Kettlebell training and complete mind/body fitness on a global scale, and to support our members in developing the all-encompassing skills needed to accelerate their own fitness and fitness-oriented businesses.  The vision in creating this is to offer passionate fitness enthusiasts a no-nonsense, ever-evolving resource they can trust is on the cutting edge of athletic training and conditioning!

Core Values

• Member-Centered
  We exist to support and help the growth of our members.
  
  
• Integrity
  We focus on excelling in what we are good at.
  
  
• Global-Minded
  The modern world is almost completely integrated. IKFF is at the bleeding edge of fitness and health solutions for a global audience; our reach extends across the world.
  
  
• Integrative
  We are comprehensive and give equal attention to mind-body-spirit and to fitness-health-wellness/well-being.
  
  
• Flexible
  We constantly aim to improve and remain able and willing to learn, grow and modify as needed to improve.
  
  
• Balance Mind-Body-Spirit

Join Our Team

As part of the IKFF team, you will be affiliated with the most sought-after kettlebell teacher in the world—Steve Cotter.
Think of it—there is a very good reason that the Naval Special Warfare Command (governing command of the Navy SEALs), United States Marine Corps, top-level MMA athletes, professional football teams and everyday people around the globe seek out Steve’s precision-engineered training methods.
Simply put, he is an incredible teacher who can actually do what he teaches and more importantly, teach you how to replicate these skills and to teach others—a rare thing in the fitness world these days.
Steve and his team will ensure you receive elite training in whatever area you are looking for—kettlebells, bodyweight training, movement training, joint mobility, flexibility and more!
Thus, to ensure the diverse needs of athletes, everyday folks and trainers the world over, Steve has multiple instructor certifications you can register for.

After attending an IKFF certification, you will leave having that rare confidence associated with knowing you have all the tools needed to achieve all of your goals—personal and/or business!  The IKFF is led by both Steve Cotter and Ken Blackburn.  I have the extreme privilege to be an official IKFF Assistant Instructor for them.  It is an amazing experience to be led, taught, and serve alongside both Ken and Steve in the IKFF.

Visit HERE for more info: CLICK HERE.

Danza-China (Acrobatic Ballet)

This is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen and an amazing feat of balance, stability, and strength. Who needs anything except their bodyweight???!!!

That's all without hurting the back, knees, hips, or shoulders. Improper resistance exercising and using too much weight causes these issues every day. Body weight training, such as Power Yoga is a great cure for that.

Experiencing Food v. Thinking Nutrients

A funny thing has been happening to American consumers over the last couple decades regarding what they eat.  Actually, its not really that funny, and it reminds me of old “The Boiled Frog” story, which goes something like this:

If you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger. But, if you put it in a pot filled with cool water, and then gradually turn up the heat until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late. 

Is This You?

Keeping in mind that this is a parable, and not factually correct (according to Fast Company), it still makes a great point; like the frog, our instincts seem geared toward detecting sudden changes, while we miss the build up of truly life-threatening situations.

Throughout history, humans have not needed to consult others to figure out what to eat.  We figured it out.  We learned what to look for, especially nature’s markers for “danger.”  And, we did it all without the benefits of industrialized food.  But, with industrial food’s so-called revolution, things started changing.  Like so many things related to food, I really like how Michael Pollan describes what has been happening:

“No idea [nutritionism] could be more sympathetic to manufacturers of processed foods, which surely explains why they have been so happy to jump on the nutritionism bandwagon.  Indeed, nutritionism supplies the ultimate justification for processing food by implying that with a judicious application of food science, fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing.” -In Defense of Food

The evidence supporting Mr. Pollan’s statement above is steadily rolling in, including Marion Nestle’s latest post on Food Politics: “Antioxidants as a marketing tool.”

“Antioxidant nutrients are so important as marketing tools that they constitute their own brand, say British experts on such questions.  Apparently, up to 60% of consumers who see an antioxidant claim on a product label will buy it for that reason.  Despite lack of evidence that additional antioxidants make people healthier (and may actually do some harm), these claims are so popular that food companies introduced nearly 300 new antioxidant-labeled products into U.S. supermarkets last year…“

Like the frog in the “Boiled Frog” parable, we can continue being slow-cooked by large food manufacturers. Or, we can wake up to the reality they have created, discount the onslaught of nutrient claims (and counter claims) associated with highly processed food, and begin experiencing the wholesome goodness of natural and organic foods.
Post Author: Rob Smart of "Everything Kitchen Table"

As Michael Pollan also says and he honestly sums up how to eat quite nicely:

Eat Food: meaning real food- NOT processed food.

Not Much: Ben Franklin says: "To lengthen your years lessen thy meals."

Mostly Plants: very self explanatory. The Western Diet is the opposite and is most definitely NOT working.

Soy Can and Will Negatively Affect Your Weight & Health

There are certain foods and herbs that we can eat on a daily basis that will help us maintain a lean and healthy body. Unfortunately there are also certain foods or ingredients in foods that have the opposite effect - making us fat and sick. Many may think they know what these bad foods are - high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, saturated fats, etc. But one ingredient that most aren’t aware of is: SOY.

Did you know that soy products can actually cause weight gain, PMS, bloating, stubborn fat, contribute to prostate enlargement, cancer and other disorders?

Many think that soy is the new dairy. It may be used as such, but what most people don’t realize is that it actually has a metabolic estrogenic effect in the body. If you’re male, you may want to think twice before consuming soy products, as soy can be feminizing. Do you want to be increasing the estrogen content in your body when excess estrogen is a known cause for gynecomastia (fatty breasts in men), prostate enlargement and cancer? Or, if you’re female, do you really want excess estrogens circulating throughout your body when estrogen dominance is a known cause for bad PMS, breast cancer and other female disorders? It’s important that we all understand the consequences of consuming soy based foods. I’ve spoken to numerous people who think they are eating “healthy” by replacing all dairy with soy. Some may initially lose weight, but at what cost? Furthermore, many can’t figure out why the stubborn fat and metabolic disorders increase or persist. The problem very likely lies in the soy. Whether it’s soy milk, soy ice cream, veggie burgers, tofu or other soy based products, all overwhelmingly contribute to an excess of estrogen in the body.

Why Soy Causes Estrogen Dominance Or Excess Estrogen
Briefly, soy actually contains phytoestrogens. Although natural, phytoestrogens have an estrogenic effect on the body. In a world already overwhelmed by estrogenic chemicals, the last thing needed is to mistakingly consume a food or ingredients that contribute to the problem. One of the most obvious signs of excess estrogen in the body is the formation of stubborn fat, particularly in the belly in men, and more commonly in the hips and thighs of women.
In addition, here’s what the Weston A. Price Foundation lists as some of the dangers of eating soy:

• High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
• Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
• Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
• Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12.
• Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D.
• Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
• Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
• Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
• Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

But soy is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many other particular estrogenic chemicals that we are ingesting on a regular basis that are causing us problems. I’ll write more on these later.
Meanwhile, if you enjoyed this article by Rick Osborn and you’d like to learn more about soy and the estrogen issue now, you can check out his book that he co-wrote with Ori Hofmekler(author of The Warrior Diet) - The Anti-Estrogenic Diet: How Estrogenic Foods and Chemicals Are Making You Fat and Sick, by North Atlantic Books - available at Amazon.com.

Does Red Meat Cause Cancer?

Does Red Meat Cause Cancer, Heart Disease and Eternal Damnation in Hell?

Earlier this week every major news organization published an article on a recent study that was published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine. A research team led by Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D., from the National Cancer Institute looked at more than 500,000 people aged 50 to 71 and came to the conclusion that red meat causes cancer, heart disease and if we avoid it, we will live longer.
Headlines read ‘Want to live longer? Cut back on red meat’ and ‘Premature death from red meat’ and other similar sensational titles.

You want to know the real deal with red meat?

The truth is this — If you want to avoid illness, disease and live a long robust life, you may not need to cut back on red meat. You may, however, need to cut back on TV and consider giving yourself a detox from mainstream news sources. You also need the ability to think for yourself and not believe everything you read.

Seriously, you do need to understand some FACTS about red meat which were not covered in ANY of the articles I saw.

You also need to understand a few simple TRUTHS that were completely ignored by this massive study that created more mass confusion than anything else.

I’m Glad I’m Not an Oscar Meyer Weiner

The red meat in the study included all types of beef and pork (I thought pork was ‘the other white meat’?), bacon, cold cuts, ham, sausage, hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, as well as meat in pizza, chili, lasagna and stew.

So I’m going to drop some serious nutritional knowledge bombs on this report and give you solutions so you can eat what we are designed to eat, support your local economy, promote a healthy planet and avoid disease.

Chemicals and Cancer

The first thing I noticed in almost every news report was that they ignored the fact that processed meats are made with chemicals, including sodium nitrate or nitrite, a preservative, flavor and color enhancer that’s also used in fertilizer. Nitrates, along with excess table salt and smoking, extend the shelf-life of these crap products so they last longer in 7-11’s, truck stops and other fine dining establishments that are frequented by many discerning Americans.

When these processed foods are heated, the protein breaks down and combines with nitrites to form compounds known as nitrosamines. There are many different types of nitrosamines, most of which are known carcinogens. Nitrosamines promote the growth of various cancers, including colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer.


Solution: The real issue here is the type of meat. Do not eat commercially processed meats. They are not fit for human consumption.

If you cant take the heat…

Cooking meat at high temperatures (especially when frying, broiling and barbecuing) produces heterocyclic amines as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the compounds found on charred food, both are known carcinogens.  The longer the meat is cooked and the higher the temperature, the more of these compounds are produced

Also, what few people realize are some other problems associated with commercially produced processed meats. The FDA has approved a potent mixture of six bacteria-killing viruses designed to be sprayed on these ready-to-eat meat and poultry products.

Although many people falsely believe this is a good idea – to prevent disease - they fail to realize the truth: processed meat manufacturers should NOT BE PRODUCING bacteria-laden meat that needs to be purified with viruses. How about addressing the problem at its source?

Solution: Cook foods as little as possible. This does not mean you should go out and become a raw food vegan. Eat grass fed meat and eat it as rare as possible. Support local, small family farms that are healthy, clean & safe and produce high quality food that is superior to commercially produced food.

The Real Deal on Red Meat

The main issue in this report is the FAILURE to distinguish between grass fed meat and grain fed, factory farmed, drugged up animals, living in unnatural conditions that make them sick so they have to be drugged up which makes them sicker and since they are eating grains, they get fat and develop an unhealthy fatty acid ratio (among many other serious problems) which make them unfit for human consumption and oh yeah, carcinogenic when eaten.

Cattle are designed to eat grass, not grains. When you feed grains to cattle, they get fat and sick. When humans eat sick animals, they get fat and sick. Pretty simple formula.
When cows eat grass and freely graze, they are healthy. This is called ‘nature’. It’s a perfect system and worked without a hitch until the turn of the century. Once we started using chemicals for farming and feeding grains to cows and confined them into dirty feed lots with little (or no) exposure to grass and sunshine and started drugging them up, we ran into some very serious health problems.

Grass Fed vs. Grain Fed

Grass fed meat has less total fat, less saturated fat, less cholesterol and fewer calories. It has 400% more vitamins A and E, vitamin C, omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).
Grass fed beef is the richest known source of CLA. With 300 - 400% more CLA than grain fed animals, CLA is a potent cancer fighter that also reduces body fat, increases metabolic rate, enhances muscle growth, lowers cholesterol and triglycerides, lowers insulin resistance, reduces food-induced allergic reactions as well as enhances the immune system.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the difference between these two types of cattle farming. One produces meat that is healthy and the other produces food that is deadly. One preserves the environment while the other destroys it.

Alpha & Omega

Grain fed beef has higher levels of omega-6 fat, which may promote heart disease, and less omega-3 fat, which is beneficial for heart health.

Grass fed beef has higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for normal growth, brain function, reduced body fat and have been proven to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, depression, arthritis, allergies, auto-immune disorders, obesity and diabetes.

Research has revealed that too much omega-6 in the diet creates imbalances result in inflammation, high blood pressure, irritation of the digestive tract, depressed immunity, sterility, cell proliferation, blood clots, cancer and weight gain.

If you’re eating a diet high in omega-6 fats, you could be vulnerable to prostate, colorectal and breast cancers.

For millions of years up until the end of World War II, omega-3 and omega-6 ratios in our diet were in favor of omega-3s (1:1 - 1:2). Now, that ratio is closer to 25:1.

Around the turn of the century, heart attacks were rare. Today, heart disease is the number one killer.

Simply look at all the grain fed animals we are eating along with the consumption of vegetable oils (high in omega 6) and the solution is simple. Do not eat commercially produced meat and avoid vegetable oils.

‘Life in all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed.”

Weston A Price

Is Your Brain on Drugs? 

Grain fed cattle are injected with growth hormones, antibiotics, vaccines and other drugs. Grass fed cattle got the straight edge - they are drug free.

Grass fed farming does not use fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and other dangerous chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 60% of herbicides, 90% of fungicides and 30% of insecticides to be carcinogenic.

Pesticides are neurotoxic, disrupt the endocrine system, carcinogenic and immune suppressive. Pesticide exposure may also affect male reproductive function and has been linked to miscarriages in women.

E. coli, mad cow or foot and mouth is much less of a concern with naturally raised grass fed cows. These are issues stemming from dirty, overcrowded confined feedlots.

Solution: Start your own farm or choose grass fed & organic food.

4 Day Rotation Diet

The first thing I thought of when I read the report is ‘Who eats like this everyday?’

Apparently, millions of Americans do. You would have to be nuts to eat this type of diet on a daily basis.

Nobody should eat the same thing everyday, especially not crappy processed meat.

Solution: Rotate your protein sources every four days. Choose grass fed and organic meats and don’t be a wiener - never eat commercially processed meat.

Also, not everyone should be eating red meat as often as other people should.

We are all unique and have different requirements for food. Some people (we call ‘Protein Types’) require more red meats and can’t tolerate carbs so well.

Others (called ‘Carb Types’) require leaner (white) meats and can tolerate carbs much better.

Then there are people like me, who fall in the middle and have a ‘Mixed Type’ of metabolism.

Solution: Eat according to your metabolic type.

The Data Was Collected How?

The study looked at people aged 50 to 71 and relied on self reporting.
Memory recall for Americans aged 50 – 71? Are you kidding me?

Now I know some people may be offended by this comment, but seriously, can we really trust Americans in that age bracket about what they are eating? From my professional experience, you can not trust food memory of people in ANY age bracket. Most Americans I have met, know nothing about nutrition, health and food is simply not priority for them…until they get sick or diseased and then they seem to make it a priority.

Asking people to recall what they ate is not reliable for most people – at any age. Most people
underestimate how much they eat and since almost every unhealthy person has a emotional issue tied to food, there is certain to be some unreliable reporting and false reporting. I know this for a FACT and do not need any scientific research to prove this to me or anyone else.

And how many Americans that age have sharp memories especially about something that is not a priority for them?

Solution: Eat grass fed meats as the saturated fat and omega 3 fatty acids supprt optimal brain function & focus.

Nature is Perfect - Industrialized Farming is Flawed

Commercial, industrialized animal farming and meat processors produce sick animals and inferior, disgusting products that make people sick and cause cancer.

Grass fed meat – when kept raw or as rare as possible, is very healthy.

It has sustained human culture for close to 3 million years. Nature is perfect. It is ignorance of this fact that causes problems on both an individual health and global scale.  As soon as people wake up to the fact that nature cannot be beat, no matter how hard you try, and as soon as we start showing respect for this planet, its people and its resources, instead of trying to exploit every possible thing that modern man can get his greedy hands on without any thought of the consequences…the sooner more people will be happier, healthier and relatively free from cancer and heart disease like our ancestors were.

The study has many flaws and just so you know – THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. Almost daily.

Start your detox and learn the truth about real food. You will be healthier and happier and can avoid the diet & lifestyle diseases that are plaguing Americans (and other cultures who play follow the leader).

http://www.eatwild.com

http://hawthornevalleyfarm.org

http://www.grasslandbeef.com

http://www.eatwellguide.org

Article Author: Antonio Valladares is a certified holistic nutritionist, correctve exercise kinesiologist and has been a certified personal trainer and licensed massage therapist for 15 years.

He has been featured in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Mountain Bike, Paper, Time Out, Woman's Day, NY1 and many others.  Antonio is certified by every important organization in the fitness industry including ACE, ACSM, NASM, IYCA, CHEK and others.

His latest book Healthy Urban Kitchen Cookbook is an organic, gluten free whole foods cookbook which provides healthy eating solutions for busy professionals.  His upcoming projects include Fat Loss Psychology and his internet TV show The Urban Nutrition Network.  More important than all of this are the results he gets with his clients.

Coconut Oil- Liquid or Solid?

Did you ever wonder if coconut oil being a solid one day and a liquid another was good or bad?  Of course you did.  I thought it was cool actually and prefer it solid.  That way I can control it better when scooping it out and tossing it in my post workout recovery smoothie or into the pan when I'm about to cook with it.

So if you're like me and wondered, here is Dr. Bruce Fife explaining coconut oil's process of going between being a liquid and solid does NOT affect the oil's health benefits whatsoever.

Synergy Kettlebell Training- Sledgehammer Effects

Today I performed a great 10 minute set with the 16 pounder and it felt great. I maintained between 32-35 reps per minute at a bodyweight of 68kg. The only thing to really get hard taxed was my forearms. I did find a good way to relax them in mid swing that seemed to do the trick.

My wife Lisa actually was behind the vid cam doing the exact same thing with the 8 pound sledge and said when it was all over that she could have gone for 20 min. So that's exactly what we'll do in a few days when it's sledge day again. :)

This is a great full body conditioning and core drill if you get into it.  My left (non-dominate) swing needs some work, but that will come.
Video Here if display will not work: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=60672316389

Bob Garon's 10 Min. Sledgehammer Set @ 16lbs from Bob Garon on Vimeo.

In case you want to know our full workout it was as follows:


Warmup: no rest between sets

2 Min. Swings, I used a 20kg and she used a 12kg
1 Min. Pushups
2 Min. Lunges (first min. was forward and second was reverse)


Workout:
10 Min. Sledgehammer Swings


Then:
45 Min. Yoga Practice

Give it a shot if you can.