On this page I show and describe some of my favorite exercises. I have many more exercises in my Training Guide, along with more detailed descriptions, tips, and some recommended sets and reps.

Before going into the exercises, you should know that walking is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Neglect walking at your peril. Try to walk whenever you can (park the car farther away, walk to get a paper in the morning, etc.).

Nearly equally important is joint mobility. I list a few joint mobility exercises below, but there are thousands of different joint mobility exercises. A good morning routine would be a walk followed by some joint mobility, or walk one day and do joint mobility the next. Staying active and moving is a key trait of taking care of yourself.

Also, if you struggle adopting healthy habits that you know you should do, you’re definitely not alone. The human race has struggled with this for thousands of years. In the last few decades, being self-disciplined has become even harder. In my eBook I write about exercises that you can do to change your habits. If you don’t have my eBook, you can read this script out loud everyday.

Here are some sample exercises:

Sample Joint Mobility

Joint mobility is your anti-aging medicine. It’s non-mainstream. It involves performing various movements (I’ve shown only a small segment of them) for a specific number of reps, typically the number of reps being the same as your age (e.g. if you’re 30 do 30 reps). Joint mobility restores your joint’s ability to move freely through it’s intended range of motion and is a great way to energize in the morning.

Joint mobility is great for a warm up. Performing joint mobility smooths surfaces of the joints and can improve your coordination.

Turn your head left and right

   

Look left then look right. Even though it seems simple, take it seriously and make the movement fluid. Think about what you’re doing.

Look up and down

   

Look down, then look up. When you look up, you can open your mouth to increase your range of motion. Go smoothly and remember the natural curve of your neck. It helps to imagine wrapping your neck around a ball as you look up.

Tilt your head left and right (ear to shoulder)

   

Without moving your shoulders, bring your ear as close to the should as possible then bring your ear as close as possible to the other shoulder.

Elbow Circles

Starting from the top, move your elbows—your lower arm moves down and back so you end up in a position similar to the middle photo. To get to the position in the photo on the right, rotate your hands forward.

From that position, continue to move your elbows in a circle so your hands move towards your face and then spread out. Once your hands spread out again, you’ll be in the same position as the photo on the left.

Roll your shoulders forwards and then backwards

   

Roll your shoulders forward as though you are shrugging them. Then roll them backward.

Hula hoop (minus the hula hoop)

   

Tilt your pelvis left, then back, then right, then forward (left and right pictured). When you get the hang of that, do it in a flowing manner, as you would if hula-hooping. Rolling your hips like this is great for back.

Ankle rotations

   

Roll your ankle to the right and then to the left. Try to balance on the other foot to simultaneously develop your balance skill.

Sample Exercises

Swing

The fundamental kettlebell movement. The swing is the number one exercise. Master this before moving on to anything else. Or just do the swing. The swing coordinates the entire backside of the body in movement, making your back stronger and more durable.

The swing helps you develop all the required attributes of kettlebell lifting. The swing can be performed with one or two arms. It is first learned with two, then one. If you are bigger, it may be easier to start with the one arm version.

One key to understanding the swing is to realize that the arms are cables. All the work is being done by the action of the hips.

To perform the swing, follow these instructions:

1. Find the proper stance. Working with one kettlebell, your feet should be about shoulder’s width apart. If you are using two kettlebells you will need to space your feet farther apart to avoid hitting your knees with a kettlebell.

   Tip: You can find the footwork position by jumping in the air. Where your feet land, sometimes a little wider, is your swing stance. Spread the stance out more if working with two kettlebells. Make sure you have an even stance. It is OK if your toes are pointed slightly outwards instead of straight forward.

2. Next with the kettlebell slightly ahead of your feet, pick it up off the ground. Keep your head up, reach for the kettlebell without looking at it—remember where it is. This keeps the back in proper alignment. As soon as you pick the kettlebell up, you’re going to go right into step 3.
3. Swing the kettlebell back and you will be in the position shown in the photo on the left (above). Keep your back straight and your head up. In this position your butt and hamstrings are loaded.

   Note: The lower legs are perpendicular with the ground. This is the safest position for the knees.

4. Now push your hips forward while straightening your legs. The motion is similar to a standing vertical jump, except your feet do not leave the ground. As you extend your hips, the kettlebell “swings” from between your legs to in front of your waist, or higher, if you desire.
5. Finish with your legs straight and the kettlebell weightless in front of you. Then the weight comes down due to gravity and you repeat the process for X number of reps.
6. In the end position, with the kettlebell in front of you, your butt and stomach are tight. Your knee caps are pulled up, flexing your quads. Your shoulders are back.

Advanced Level: As you become more advanced, you will learn to pull yourself down with your hip flexors. As you pull yourself down you will breathe deep into the stomach, protecting the back even more, allowing you to handle a heavier weight. The swing becomes a great stomach exercise at advanced levels.

Swing Variations: You can swing with only one arm. You can switch hands every rep. You can pull back on the handle and release it, let it spin one full revolution than catch it again. You can walk forward, backward and sideways while swinging. This will develop strong legs. Step when the kettlebell is weightless at the top of the swing, and make your step athletic and coordinated: i.e. no extra movement.

Swing Benefits: The swing targets the entire backside of the body and coordinates the back muscles to move in conjunction with the hips. It makes your back stronger. You don’t need to think “what muscles am I working out?” You’re working an entire movement, one that uses the majority of the muscles in the body. The swing develops your heart and lung strength as well. Multiple benefits for the price of one exercise.

Military Press

A staple exercise. The military press, executed properly, involves most of the muscles of the body.

There are a lot of reasons to do the military press. One is that it forces you to use that range of motion–it helps you open your chest because of the way the kettlebell weight is centered. Another is that it makes your shoulders strong and that helps you with carrying things.

Finally, it makes your arms look good. Done properly, it will give your tricep and bicep definition, not to mention your shoulder itself.
I used to have major problems with my rotator from throwing, but they stopped once I started pressing a kettlebell.

1. Clean the kettlebell.
2. Adjust your feet. I prefer a staggered stance where my right leg is in front of my left when pressing with my left arm and vice versa.

Tighten your legs, butt, and stomach. This forms the base of your press and adds safety and power.

1. Squeeze the kettlebell handle as if trying to crush it.
2. Press up and around your head, visualizing that you are pressing yourself away from the kettlebell. This keeps your shoulder in the socket.
3. Lock out overhead.
4. Reverse the process and pull the kettlebell down with your lat. Pulling down with the lat adds safety and power.

Remember to breathe out when you’re pressing it up, and breathe in when you are lowering it. To get more power, squeeze your opposite hand, grab the ground with your feet, and exhale as though breathing through a straw.
There are a lot of nuances to this movement that you will learn with time. Stick with it and perform it everyday—it’s a high bang for the buck exercise.

Military Press Variations: You can press one or two kettlbells overhead. If you’re using two kettlebells, you can press one up while simultaneously lowering the other one. You can also perform a bottom up clean and then press the kettlebell with the bottom of the kettlebell facing up. This is highly challenging and really focuses on your strength and coordination.

Military Press Benefits: This exercise is about increasing your strength. Stronger shoulders will help you with carrying things, with many manual labor jobs you have to do around the house, and they will help you attain a healthy broad shouldered look.

Pull Up

You want guns? A steady diet of pull ups and push ups is all you need. Both exercises have a ton of variations that not only work your entire body, but place special emphasis on your arms.

Additionally, the pull ups develop your lats. If you’re playing sports, or fighting people, or want to look like Bruce Lee, you’ll need to develop your lats. They help transfer power generated from the lower body into the arms.

Pull ups serve as weight control. The more weight you gain, the harder pull ups become.

   

To start the pull up, hang from the bar. Don’t let your arms pull out your sockets, keep your arms glued into the shoulder by corkscrewing them in—as if you were trying to bend a broomstick that you were holding in front of you.

Initiate the pull from the arms pits, then the biceps. Squeeze the bar hard to generate more force and more power. Do not assist with the pull up by kipping your legs. If you can’t do a pull up, you can have someone assist you, or you can place your feet on a chair and provide your own assistance.
Imagine driving your elbows into your side as you inch towards getting your chin above the bar.

Pause at the top and descend slowly. At the bottom, be sure to keep your arms in the shoulder socket by employing the corkscrew technique discussed earlier.

Pull up variations

You can have your palms facing you—that’s a chin up. It targets the biceps more and many people think it is easier.

Add weight. Ironmind makes a belt that helps you add weight to your pull ups. The pull up works a lot of muscles. Adding weight can really help you fill out your t-shirts if that is what you want.

Jumping pull ups. Don’t do these if you’re using the door frame pull up bar.But, these are a great way to develop explosive power if you have a solidly mounted pull up bar. Pull up quickly and jump off the bar, catching yourself in a different grip. That is, if your palms were facing away, you’d catch yourself in the chin up position, with your palms facing towards you.

Various hand positions. There are many different hand positions you can use to shake things up. Just don’t go too wide (it’s hard on the shoulders) and don’t pull up behind the next (unless you have really outstanding shoulder mobility, most people don’t—especially desk jockeys).

Planks

Planks are a great exercise that develops core stability and strengthens the stomach area.

Work from your knees instead of your feet if you don’t have the strength to support your bodyweight. You can also use your elbows instead of your hands. Work up to a minute in the push up position and 30 seconds in the side plank position.

As you hold for more time, you’ll become more sensitive to the muscles you are using.

You can pretend to try to bring your feet to your hands to intensify the contraction, you can experiment with getting your spine in correct alignment (have someone take a picture or take video) and you can flex your different muscles, teaching you better body control and coordination.

Keep your back straight and your stomach muscles tight. For more difficulty, imagine trying to fold your body and bring your feet to your hands, it’ll make you contract your muscles harder.