I am back at Kinetic Edge tomorrow afternoon after investing 48 hours in Toronto at a mastermind group called Entourage Marketing put on by Craig Ballantyne. I was blown away by the content that I will be able to implement immediately.

For now, Diesel (”the D-man” as we like to call him) is starting to develop his own entourage…

Here he is a week ago…

and today December 2nd at 7 months old and 105lbs…wondering why he’s so popular

B-rad

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I’ve been busy since returning from Africa. No excuses though for you my loyal readers (and now viewers). I am committed to stepping up my blog posts. You are going to be seeing A LOT from me starting right now. Less typing / more talking and doing. VIDEO BLOGGING is here! I just bought a “Flip Cam” and it is the EASIEST thing I’ve ever seen for getting video up on the internet in short order. Also my lovely wife Jordan (J-dawg for those in the know already used my new toy right out of the package here:

She will be adding some of her favorite recipes for quick, easy, healthy meals. She is a killer cook and even though she cooks healthy I still need to watch MY portion control.

So for the kids at home this is a Video that requires SOUND so if you are at work…you have been warned! Break the rules anyway, I am WAY more interesting than anything going on at work anyway

P.S. I will be doing some vlogging (check out the cool word) on my Africa Trip as we get pictures back. They are coming soon!

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Married 7:15pm Saturday September 6, 2008.
In Flight by 11:42am on Sunday morning September 7.

Night 1 Big Island
Initial thoughts: Flying into Hawaii is beautiful! This is the first time I had been to any tropical island. Pictures in magazines don’t do justice the the crystal clear aqua water hitting the beaches. It was amazing!

By the time we got our rental car and found Jordan’s luggage it was about 7pm and DARK already. My pre-conceived thought process was we are going to be on islands where it is warm and sunny most of the day. My awakening was there is max only 13 hours of daylight at the peak of the seasons there. Crazy. Driving to the resort at dusk was still pretty cool. To think that the entire island was formed by lava is unreal. There was hardly any vegetation on the big island to the South of the airport. Everything was lava rock. Once we found the resort (NOTHING is marked in Hawaii…tourist central and signage is almost non-existent) we decided that we had nothing planned for the next day and are afraid of being bored. We booked a helicopter ride immediately. Then we ended up having dinner at a restaurant right next to the ocean which was very relaxing.

Monday Day 1 Big Island
Let the non-stop action begin!
Sunshine Helicoptor Tours on the Black Beauty. You meet some interesting people in life, especially on vacation. 10 minutes into flight and the lady in front was re-visiting breakfast again and again. Jordan then became a little nauseaus for the remainder of the 3 hour flight. What a great way to start the morning! We got to see the 4 rare main animals of the island: wild donkeys, wild pigs, cattle, and cats! Anyway…highlights were the lava tubes (which you obviously can’t walk out to due

to volcanic activity) out in the lava fields and also the HUGE waterfalls on the back side of the island.

After returning from the Heli Tour, we attempted to hang out at the pool which lasted about 30 minutes before we both got bored. So off to check out the rest of the resort.

Tuesday Day 2 Big Island AM
7am Captain Zodiac’s Adventure
We had barely checked in, when Jordan asked me “what do you want to do this afternoon?” I mean it’s already 7:45am, we just signed up for a 4 hour tour, and we already worried about what were doing at 12:30pm? I guess I opted in to this whole thing so here we go. She asked the guides about Deep Sea Fishing. They called the people across the parking lot and we booked a boat immediately (more about this later).

Chad and Leslie were our guides for this excellent adventure. You meet some cool people when you are doing these outfitter tours. Behind Jordan you can see Spinner Dolphins which were so dang fast jumping out of the water we couldn’t get a clean shot of them!

We also saw Pilot Whales on the way out to snorkel…they are about 1/10 of the size of Humpback Whales which start to migrate in November.

Here we are messing around snorkeling using the coolest digital camera by Olympus…it is awesome underwater!

Tuesday Day 2 Big Island PM
Bite Me Fishing Charter

Kevin and Chad were our lucky captain/fisherman for the 4 hour trip. The first 90 minutes might have been the most boring of the entire trip. Then we had a this little 4 pound wussy Tuna hit the line and ended up using it as live bait. Little did I know that I was about to experience one of the best adrenaline rushes of my life: 225lb Marlin!

Catching this marlin was one of the HARDEST things I have ever done…the forearm pump was unbelievable from the endurance that it takes to reel!

20 minutes later (after my wife calls me a Sissy)…here it is up close a personal.

Definitely one of THE major highlights of my life thus far!

Wednesday Day 3 Travel to Kauai
Outdoor Airports. Traveling island to island. Super Ferry.
Arrival on Kauai. Chickens and a lot of Roosters EVERYWHERE (more on this later).

Thursday Day 4 Kauai Am
Wailua River Kayak Tours. Had trouble finding this place cuz it had moved and we had an old brochure. Upon arrival we were greeted by Cole (Bob Marley’s son for sure). Cole told us there would be “organic” snacks offered at the waterfall. He did come through though with fresh papaya, mango and ginger!

Graham (from Kansas) as our Tour Guide…he told us ‘feel free to call me Graham Cracker’ I gained a new appreciation of “Rain Forest” where it drizzled A LOT even though the sun was shining. Am I a lucky guy or what?

This is the waterfall. I definitely have a fall back career in modeling

Jordan decided that we needed to workout at least one day while we were in Hawaii to we ‘raced’ back to the boat launch. About 2 miles of kayaking up stream will do a back reeeeaaaal good

Friday Day 5 Kauai AM
Kipu Ranch ATV Tours
Tom and Mark were our guides.

Jordan continually attempted to spin mud all over me but as you can see in the picture only succeeded into mudding herself.

This tour included areas where scenes from Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones were filmed. The rope swing was in the first Indiana Jones.

…of course I had to indulge!

Friday Day 5 Kauai PM
Zipline Tour with Nate (from the great state of Minnesota!) and his hyper-active assistant (whose name I can’t remember)

Check out our cool gear!

This me rising to a dare to trust fall backwards…

Of course the guides challenge the newlyweds to a contest (which we couldn’t pass up)…who could stay upside down the longest

This zipline tour was the closest real-life thing I have seen to the Swiss Family Robinson house out back in the woods!

The zip tour ended with a stop at this ’secret’ waterfalls where the rope got a little larger than the last one. Of course, once again I couldn’t resist descending from the largest/highest rock possible and attempting a cannonball proceeded to bruise my entire left ass cheek!

Saturday Day 6 Hanging at the hotel and back to MN
We had a late breakfast, each grabbed a book and sat back and relaxed before the flight home.

We had a blast!

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I am now officially hitched. I know a lot of you questioned if this day would ever come (I did myself . It was quite the event. Here are some pics of my bride and I taken in the photo booth at our wedding.

Over the next few days I will also document our honeymoon day by day with some cool pics of our quite eventful week.

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A huge props is in order for Clara James of www.minneapolis.about.com who braved my class last Monday with 16 other virgin Kettlebellers. Little did I know she would leverage her time into a classic piece of prose. Read on…

Kettlebell Classes and Instructors in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Twin Cities
By Clara James, About.com
Filed In: Health, Sports & Recreation

Kettlebell Class at Kinetic Edge Performance in Woodbury, Minnesota
Brad Nelson

Kettlebells? You’ll either be thinking that yes, a cup of tea would be nice, or recalling the pain in your thigh muscles caused from the first time you tried the latest workout that gyms across the Twin Cities are adding to their schedules, and in one case, devoting themselves to.

A kettlebell is a cast iron weight that resembles a cannonball with a handle. The smallest kettlebells weigh around 10 pounds, and the experienced can use kettlebells of 100 pounds or more. A kettlebell class involves fluid yet powerful momentum-based movements holding one or two kettlebells. The workout improves strength, flexibility, and balance together with cardio-vascular fitness, all in one session.

The CIA, octogenarians, horse riders, moms and professional wrestlers use kettlebells to help them beat the bad guys, improve balance and flexibility, and fit into skinny jeans.

Someone who believes passionately in the benefits of kettlebells is Brad Nelson, who opened his own self-described “torture chamber” of kettlebells in Woodbury, east of St. Paul. You’ll find Brad at Kinetic Edge Performance. He’s the one wearing a “Cast Iron Balls” shirt.

Brad discovered kettlebells in 2003 from an obscure advert run by a Russian kettlebell master in a fitness magazine. Kettlebells turned out to be salvation from his previous run-of-the-treadmill exercise routine, and intense but physically ruinous weight-lifting. He completed a grueling certification course and is a certified Russian Kettlebell Challenge Instructor.

Dripping with scorn for those as-seen-on-TV fitness machines and believing that anything that involves resting your behind in a padded chair while you lift weights is a pathetic excuse for exercise, Brad’s attitude is sure to antagonize many weight lifters. But there’s certainly something appealing and more rewarding about doing it all by yourself, rather than having a machine kindly lining it up and catching the weight if you let go.

Complete an introduction class at Kinetic Edge Performance, and then move on to hardcore workouts with names like Inferno and Incinerator that have more than a touch of boot camp to them. In the winter you’ll burn up such a sweat you’ll be able to defrost your own car post-workout just by sitting in it.

Kettlebell beginners will need to be prepared to endure two or three sessions to get comfortable with the weights, especially if you are used to pumping iron with a machine. But if testimonials from kettlebell fanatics are anything to go by, it’s worth the investment.

Kinetic Edge Performance
683 Bielenberg Drive Suite 203
Woodbury, MN 55125
Telephone 651-330-9319
More Kettlebell Classes in the Twin Cities

———-

The following is Clara’s blog about her own experience with kettlebells…EXACTLY what is accomplished in a REAL kettlebell class… ANTI-Kettlenetics.

Clara’s Minneapolis / St. Paul Blog
By Clara James, About.com Guide to Minneapolis / St. Paul
More Kettlebell! At Kinetic Edge Performance
Sunday July 6, 2008

There’s a lot of people across the metro who have a fever for kettlebell classes. The workout, which involves you, a cannonball with a handle, and a fearsome instructor, is gathering devotees at a startling pace.

A session with a kettlebell – an cast iron weight – is aerobics, strength, and flexibility training, all in one. People who exercise and train with kettlebells are as diverse as moms, the FBI, octogenarians, and professional wrestlers.
I tried out a sample class last week at Kinetic Edge Performance in Woodbury, and thanks to instructor Brad Nelson, I hurt the day after. That’s the good kind of hurt – the kind that your muscles feel like they did you proud. I’d go back for more.

Kinetic Edge Performance is devoted exclusively to training with kettlebells. Gyms across the Metro area are also adding kettlebell classes to their schedules.

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I’m back in blog mode. Caution: this may stir up anxiety.

It’s here. 4.5 years of the ‘underground-in-the-know’ trenches for me. It happened this past Monday. The grossly anticipated bastardization of kettlebells that has already spawned (at least in my world) the much dreaded red-headed-stepchild phenomenon. What am I talking about? Kettlenetics and Kbells with some supposed expert who doesn’t have the first clue about kettlebells and real kettlebell training actually makes you sweat. I have had 6 people ask me about Kettlenetics and Kbells in the last 72 hours. Apparently the infomercial started airing this past weekend on local cable. So it’s time to PAY ATTENTION!

A 5-pound weight moved through motions duplicating a bad Richard-Simmons aerobics class. I thought I’d seen it all. But it was bound to happen. As with all great things there has to be some moron who goes and creates this ‘FLUFFY’ version of a hard-core workout so everyone can feel all warm and fuzzy inside about their ‘fitness’ program which is really a figment of their imagination.

When I put a clock to what the general public calls working out, they would die in exactly 10 minutes…or 5. Absolutely pathetic. And Kettlenetics are contributing to reducing the fat population? NNNNNRRRRRTTTTT. Wrong answer.

What’s next? A support group for people who can’t shut their pie-hole, sitting around singing Kum-ba-ya ‘attracting’ their way to thinness? Nope. Nada. Don’t think so.

When you’re ready to get off your lazy ass, shut your pie hole and get in the best shape of your life, come to one of my classes. Looking the way you want takes W-O-R-K. Anyone who tells you any different is telling you a bold-faced lie so detrimental that I fear for your future fitness.

You come to my class, one of two things will happen:
1 You’ll never come back because you’re not disgusted enough with the way you look in the mirror to work hard on a regular basis…face it, you’re lazy and you don’t want it bad enough.

2 you’ll be a RAVING FAN of this type of ass-kicking and add it to your regular masochistic routine.

Kinetic Edge Performance
Delivering Beatdowns Without Apology.
Woodbury, MN

Back to leaving rants without apology.

Out.
Brad

P.S. My mistake, it’s a 4 pound weight. Are you kiddin’ me?

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Twin Cities Live hosts John and Rebecca taste a morsel of the kettlebell beatdown regularly delivered at Kinetic Edge Fitness in Woodbury Minnesota.

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These are the local results from Kinetic Edge:

Weight Inches 300 time decrease Snatch Reps increase
Burger, Lucy -6.5 – :47
Gunderson, Sue -2 -19 -2:35
Olson, Jill +2.4 -2.75 + :27
Simon, Mark -2:02 + 27
Kunz, Ryan -3:32
Stark, Troy -1 -9.75 -3:49
Little, Marilyn +4.2 -5.25 + :33
Hansen, Jordan +1.8 -2.75 -1:32 +0 reps
Fillbrandt, Steve + .4 -2.25 -6:11
Fitzloff-Meyer, Nedra -4.6 -8.25
Rondeau, JP + .8 -7.5 -3:37 +26 reps
Tulgren, Tom +3.8 -3.25
Mickschl, Ron -6.4 -10.75
Rehnberg, Steve -4.8 -5.00
Burger, Kathy -4.2 -4.75 -3:32 -10 reps
Smith, Dena -3.6 -6.75 -3:01 +20 reps
Hanson Michelle -2.2 -10.00 -4:30 +12 reps
Zitarelli, Nicole -3.4 -7.75 -2:31 +33 reps

Winners:
Body Re-composition
1st Place: Sue Gunderson (-19)
2nd Place: Ron Mickschl (-17.15)

Performance Competition
1st Place: Nicole Zitarelli (35:31)
2nd Place: JP Rondeau (29:37)

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Here’s the results:
Name BW DL Place P-Us Place Snatch Place Total Pts Overall
Women’s Divison
Fawn Friday 125.2 275 1 12 1 120 1 3 1
Maura Shuttleworth115.8 250 2 11 2 60 3 7 2
Dena Smith 131 215 4 4 4 105 2 10 3

Men’s Division
Aaron Friday 156.8 415 3 18 1 114 6 9 1
Alex Vanos 188 445 1 11 4 120 4 9 2
Sean Schneiderjan 219.5 425 2 3 7 139 1 10 3
Nick Jasken 183.4 325 7 17 2 124 3 11 4
Greg Merth 175.2 285 8 13 3 133 2 12 5
Mike Nelson 209.6 405 4 6 5 120 5 13 6
Albert Suckow 218.6 390 5 1 8 107 7 18 7
Matthew Finlay 214.8 330 6 4 6 83 8 19 8

Men’s Elite
Brad Nelson 193.6 475 1 12 1 87 1 3 1
Joe Pavel 204.8 405 2 11 2 74 2 6 2

Great turn out and great job by all who participated!!

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Back in December, my mom finally agreed to attend a beginner kettlebell class and also learn some Z drills specific to her. I learned a couple of powerful lessons watching her at the young age of 53 and the way she moves and many others at this age move. Here goes:

1 AGE is NOT a factor in movement contrary to what most people will try to give you as an excuse. When you maintain mobility, you should be able to move and do anything you want to age 100 and beyond.

2 Squat power is deficient at this age bracket, but also in every other age bracket. People seem to dislike squats. Why? Because they hurt. Not hurt as in ‘pain’ but as in discomfort and being ’sore’. This soreness will be short-lived as the body will adapt as in the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands). Squatting is important because it is a gross motor movement and one of the Primal Movements (Chek). Squatting also works some of the largest muscles in the body, thus providing more bang for the buck.

3 Lunging power. Also grossly deficient in the general public. Again, because it is ‘hard’ (or whatever excuse you would like to insert here). I see it every day: people have a very difficult time starting from a dead stop lunge (knee on the floor) to returning to a standing position WITHOUT using their hands as a brace on their knee. This can be from numerous things: No unilateral work on the legs…mobility issues…muscles not firing appropriately. Every time you think that lunges are important think of this scenario regardless of your age:

Johnny: “Grandma/pa will you play with my train set on the floor?”
Grandma/pa: “I might be able to get down there, but I won’t be able to get up.”

How important is it to you to play with your grandkids on their level?

So lunging is another Primal movement from Chek.

Squats and Lunges. Do ‘em. Different ways. Different levels. Bodyweight. Weighted. Jumping. Whatever. Do them. Do them often.

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