EP 621: A Lifetime of Strength with Jeff Sokol

One of the questions I have is there...

there is a, I think a meaningful contingent of the people who are serious about some form of training, um, that still have, and, and, you know, on the one hand you can understand this perspective, um, but there's this sort of eye roll about the kettlebells.

Oh, that's, you know, that's cute.

It's, you know, like kind of like your story of what that, you know, that initial DVD and small KB you ordered.

It's like, oh yeah, like that's, it's kind of like a circus act idea, right? And look, I'm not here to slag CrossFit in any way, shape or form.

But, you know, you do hear that like, oh yeah, that kind of quasi CrossFit stuff, right? Without an understanding of, The history behind kettlebell training and what it can really do.

Does it have limits? Sure.

If you're training for a powerlifting comp, maybe it's a component of your supplemental training at some point.

But yeah, you need the bar.

But for the average person or even somebody who's serious about training that is looking for, I think, an unbeatably... dynamic and adaptive implement um that can get started whether it's a home gym scenario or not but like you just don't need very much or very many to get one hell of a foundation built you know but where where i'm going with that and sorry i want i want to shut up and let you you go oh no um like what do you think people either don't know, you know, to the point of you researching with, you know, your Marine buddy and Pavel strong first, well, what eventually became strong first, like there is, and you said it a few minutes back, you know, there's this North Americanized version that has this you know, P90X, you know, Suzanne Summers, wherever we could throw a bunch of things on the wall and it would apply sort of this like performative element to it.

And there it's just, there's hard style.

Yeah.

So unpack that for us because it's, I've been to a few seminars myself.

I had the good fortune of sitting in a room and it was a PlanStrong seminar.

Actually, I guess that was in Portland, wasn't it? Yeah, it was.

And had the good fortune of sitting there and listening to Pavel teach.

And I remember halfway through the...

Sorry, a bit of a tangent here, but halfway through, I think it was the second day, I'm like, I didn't think I was coming here to do calculus.

Like, I wanted to...

I wanted to learn how to get stronger.

Anyways, like it is, it's not what a lot of people think it is, is what I'm trying to spit out.

So I'll shut up and I want to hear your version of what they might be missing, what they're misunderstanding.

Right.

I think most of the people that are in the camp that you can't get strong using kettlebells are the, And it's fine, but they're the type of people that they look at fitness as an inch wide, but not mile deep.

They don't want to really dig into the weeds as if you've been around Pavel and the strong first people.