Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Occam's Razor

"It is vain to do with more what can be done with less."- William of Occam

In other words: Whatever the endeavor, don't make it more complicated than it has to be.

Let's examine this in context of training.

The RKC Program Minimum:
Get-ups and swings.

Variety doe not mean complexity.

There are TONS of ways to put this together, aside from the "do each exercise 2 days per week" as outlined in the Enter the Kettlebell book.

For example:
16kg Get-ups
5x3/3
Swings :30 on, 1:00 off for 5 rounds.

40kg Get-ups
3x1/1
swings :30 on, :30 off for 10:00

If you don't think there is a HUGE amount of difference between those two workouts, you haven't tried them.

What if you don't have a kettlebell?

How about a bodyweight version of the Program Minimum?

Burpee (Squat thrust) and pullup.

I like these two exercises because they hit every angle.

Here is a starting point:
Pullup: 3x3
Burpee :30 on, 1:00 off for 6 rounds.

Try it. Simple and brutal.

3 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

David,

I like it brother! Simplicity applied truly is genious!

When are you next at the RKC?

Royce said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog, it means a lot.

Jim Ryan said...

The Little Dragon had some good things to say about simplicity.

“The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. Halfway cultivation runs to ornamentation.” from Bruce Lee.

True refinement seeks simplicity.
-- Bruce Lee

And I don't remember who said, "Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler." Was that Einstein? Some smart guy.