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David Dellanave

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Why Doesn’t Matter

Why Doesn’t Matter

I have an uncle who frankly does not have the best social mannerisms. He’s brusque if not outright rude and sort of aggressively avoids all of the niceties and pleasantries of normal conversation. But, you know, other than that he’s great. At some point when I was growing up, he started saying “I don’t do ‘why’ questions.” Obviously this was a way of avoiding potentially challenging conversation, but in an outlandishly off-putting way, it was also a way of avoiding bullshit conversations.

More and more I am growing to appreciate how much why doesn’t matter.

People are obsessed with why, despite the fact that most answers to “why” are utter bullshit.

“You should do a warm-up before your workout.”

Why?

“Well because one reason is that you need to warm up the joint fluids so they lubricate the joint better.”

Really? That’s interesting because there’s very little evidence that exercise significantly elevates joint synovial fluid temperature. You know what does increase joint temperature? Acute inflammation and degenerative joint disorders like rheumatoid arthritis. That’s ungood.

Does that mean you shouldn’t warm up? No, because we know from the sum of our experience that it usually just feels better if we warm-up. It just means that the “why” is bullshit and is a waste of all of our time to both recite and listen to.

Give or take a couple decades ago genetics was the answer to every “why” question with regard to development, disease, growth, health. Genetic determinism was the de-facto paradigm for thinking about everything, as the state of the art of the time was that genetic code almost exclusively determined outcomes.

Ooops. Turns out that was total horseshit and now we are beginning to unravel epi-genetics, literally using the Latin/Greek prefix for “around” because we’re lazy and can’t get unstuck from the genetic paradigm, and understanding that genetics are more like a Mad Libs than a script, maybe determining possible outcomes that depend on environmental influences. Want a real mind fuck? There’s plenty of evidence that not only the environment of the organism matters, but the environment of the parents. (If you’re curious, google Irish potato famine epigenetics.)

In fitness everybody likes to get all boned up about why. why. why. Why is the sumo deadlift better than the conventional deadlift? Why is a low carb diet bad? Why is a low carb diet good? Why does pain occur without an obvious injury? All sorts of explanations at various levels of mechanism are proffered most of which are utterly specious.

In an academic sense I am all for intellectual curiosity and exploring mechanisms.

But when it comes to practical application we do ourselves a great disservice in focusing even a modicum of attention on the “why” that could be focused on the what and how.

We really don’t understand the mechanisms that cause muscles to get bigger and stronger.

We understand very, very well what actions we can take to make muscles get bigger and stronger.

Are you familiar with the black box model?

In engineering, a black box is a device whose inner workings are unknown, but whose inputs and outputs are observable.

So we have no idea what is going on inside this black box, but we do know that if we put heavy exercise into it, we get stronger muscles out of it.

Taking this model a step further we know that each black box is slightly different, and slight differences in input will result in different outputs. In other words maybe one black box responds really well to heavy singles, but another responds best to heavy triples. The only way you can know how a specific box responds is by testing it individually.

Me telling you some trivia, that may or may not even be correct, about one of the mechanisms inside the box doesn’t get you any closer to knowing if you should do singles or triples to get the best output.

Even further, if you can’t specifically act on the mechanism then it’s TOTALLY useless! But you can always act on more input->output information.

With practice this will fundamentally shift your thinking for the better.

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What’cha Workin On?

What’cha Workin On?

Every group has their own culture, and with their culture a language.

At The Movement Minneapolis you’ll hear people talking about how something “tested well”, referring to biofeedback, a phase that would make no sense to an outsider but encompasses the core of the culture and philosophy.

When I go skydiving there is a whole bunch of lingo that makes no sense to outsiders: talk of wuffos (non-skydivers), loads, manifesting, taking docks and so on. Some of it is procedural, but much of it bonds us together.

At my maker space (think of it like a gym for people who want to make things instead of make muscles – it’s a warehouse filled with woodworking tools, metalworking equipment, welders, 3D printers, and on and on) there is a particular phrase that I love, and you hear it all the time, multiple times per day around the various workspaces:

“What are you working on?”

You look up from your project to notice someone looking over your shoulder investigating what you’re doing. It reflects a shared interest and curiosity. Everyone is there because they want to be, working on something they’re interested in.

One person is working on machining a part for his airplane, another is building a massive elaborate desk and wall cabinet for his home, yet another is building a cafe racer out of an old motorcycle, and I’m making a little piece of metal art to practice TIG welding.

And everyone has the potential to learn something from someone else, or maybe spark curiosity in a new project or skill.

So what are you working on? (Movement-based, or otherwise)

I’d love to hear about it. And if there’s any way I can help let me know, I’d be happy to.

And if you aren’t working on anything, shouldn’t you start?

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How to Pass the RKC Snatch Test

Early on in my strength training days I came across kettlebells, the DragonDoor forum, and several RKCs which was formative in how I approach strength training. At the time the RKC was arguably the premier kettlebell training and certification organization and while I didn’t agree with all of their dogma (and still don’t, but much of it has softened and become less rigid) at that time it still very much influenced my thinking for the better.

As such the certification requirements and  of the 5 minute snatch test, the half-bodyweight press, pistol test, and so on are things that are so embedded in my strength codex that I couldn’t forget them if I tried.

But the one test seems to have been elevated to mythical proportions, the RKC snatch test. This is the one that prospective RKC attendees build up in their minds and work themselves into a frenzy over only to ultimately just barely pass it or bomb out because they got too worked up.

Guys and gals I am here to tell you that it is not that hard.

Let’s reframe this before we go any further. Whoever told you the RKC snatch test was extremely difficult wasn’t giving you their subjective analysis of their experience, they were continuing a tradition of hazing that made this simple rite of passage out to be bigger than it is. Sure, it’s challenging, but anyone with sound technique and moderate strength and work capacity is more than capable of not only passing the RKC snatch test but making it look easy.

So let’s talk about the practicalities of how to train for this test.

It goes without saying that you need sound technique. I’m going to assume that you have that, but if not then dial it in with drills and practice.

The test is 100 snatches in 5 minutes, with a 24kg for most men and 16kg for most women. See the official requirements for breaks for body weight and age group. In any case the same principles apply.

If you had all the time in the world, the test would be trivial so it’s the time limit that causes problems for people. At a normal but quick pace 5 minutes is enough time for about 140 snatches. Conversely it only takes about 3:45 to do 100 reps if you don’t rest.

So where does the time go?

Hand switches and resting eat up that time very quickly. A single hand switch costs you about 3 seconds where a snatch only takes about a second, maybe a second and a half, not to mention you have to do an swing which means you’re doing most of the work of a snatch without getting credit for it. Setting the bell down and resting costs you even more time and work to get going again.

Thus, we can conclude that we want to minimize the number of times we have to switch hands, as well as not set the bell down to rest at all.

So the first thing you want to work on is the ability to withstand that fatigue in the forearms. A popular rep scheme for people barely making 100 is 15+10+10+10+5 (per hand) but this involves 9 hand switches. Imagine if you could do 25 per hand before switching (without creating too much forearm fatigue) you’d be half-way done with the test before costing yourself any extra time.

The best way to do this is to work on long single-sets pushing as far as you can, past the point where you can easily get back to doing another set. Gradually moving that wall further and further out.

This approach tackles the end of the spectrum of fatigue that forces you to switch hands.

Coming from the opposite end is dealing with the need to put the bell down to rest because you simply can’t keep moving due to “lung” capacity. Look, I put lung in quotes because this is a woefully imprecise way to describe it, but you and I both know the feeling of not having enough breath to continue working.

To solve that problem, work solely on building up the capacity to keep moving for the full 5 minutes switching as often as necessary with a smaller bell. If you can’t snatch for 5 minutes even with a smaller bell, start with doing swings instead until you can do them at a rapid pace with no rest for the full time period. Then go back to snatching switching as often as necessary. Once you can snatch for the full 5 minutes, even if you have to switch hands every 5 reps, go up a bell size.

Integrate to Dominate

These are literally the only two things you need to work on to easily smoke the RKC snatch test. By the time you show up on testing day, you will be able to confidently finish your 100 reps and put the bell down in time to drink an espresso.

Now these are the principles. They are here for your taking. However, if you are in need of a specific plan then I must shamelessly plug a program I’ve created. You will find no better preparatory tool than the Dellanavich Kettlebell Regime. If a $20 bill is worth it to you to pass the RKC snatch test with ease then pick it up. Not only will you breeze through the test, but you’ll gain training principles that you can use for a lifetime.

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