One of my all-time favorite movies is Braveheart. In case you're unfamiliar with the story, it's about the Scottish hero, William Wallace, who fought for freedom from the English. While I won't vouch for the historical accuracy of the movie, it is a dramatic, entertaining tale of great physical prowess and the warrior way. In one of the final scenes, as our hero is tortured (including disembowelment and emasculation) in defiance he shouts out freedom!!

The theme in the movie that's always resonated with me is the hero's continued quest for freedom from tyranny and oppression. In my own life, I've always rubbed wrong with authority and the status quo. Consequently, I've shunned the typical life path by becoming a full-time RV-er, which allows me a great deal of liberty in that I can pick up and go where--and when--ever I wish. Like a nomadic Mongol, except I don't travel with a horde! A downside to this (or upside, depending on your point of view) is that I'm unable to carry a lot of stuff but the few items I do keep with me are top-quality and highly functional. My personal quest for freedom includes first-class workouts independent of gyms and health clubs. As most of you probably know by now, I love training outdoors in beautiful, natural settings; I find this utterly soul-soothing.

One of my favorite exercises is the pull-up. I consider the pull-up a foundational movement for several reasons:

1. Your trainer is a poor match.
Training is a personality-driven business. More important than credentials, or even knowledge, the trainer's personality must be a good match with yours. The trainer's job is to be upbeat, positive and always in a good mood. Mood management is a hallmark of the true professional. If the two of you fight like a married couple, it's a poor match.

2. You're getting injured.
Even with the best personal trainers, an occasional injury is unavoidable, but when you have constant, nagging, recurrent injuries, your trainer isn't paying attention to proper form and technique.

1. Be a good example
Work out, at home, in front of your child. Better yet, include your kid in your workout. Kids naturally desire to emulate and copy everything you do and there's no more positive way to model fitness than doing it--living it--yourself.

One way I used to include Zak, my son, into workouts was by making miniature equipment which replicated my own. For example, I made him a little 25# sandbag upon which we drew a smiley face, and he named it "Heavy". He loved that sandbag so much he used to sleep with it at night, like a stuffed animal. You should have seen this little pre-schooler working every fiber of his being attempting to lug that sandbag up the ladder and into his top bunk, much to my glee. If you lift kettlebells, buy or make your kid a mini-kettlebell. If you lift dumbbells, get tiny ones so your kid can follow along with your next workout. My friend, Joe Egan, includes his kids in his workouts all the time, and even when we made slosh pipes he automatically made a miniature version for his youngest son.

Round-back deadlifting, in the form of lifting heavy, odd-shaped objects, has been a staple of grappling training since time immemorial. Ancient athletes would test themselves as a rite of passage and every village had a large stone sitting at its border, the ability to lift same signaled a lad's entry into adulthood. Often, at festivals and other celebrations, large, smooth stones were brought in as contests, along with all manner of athletic games and sports.

The ability to lift unwieldy objects to the waist, chest, or shoulder directly correlates to combat training. In hand-to-hand combat, you'll find yourself in any number of unanticipated positions wherein you need to exert strength. You must also train your back to be able to lift out of a set groove, without injury. Ancient wrestlers trained with large, round stones in order to develop this type of lower back and hip power.

There are many effective ways to train. Almost every gym boasts dumbbells--by far the most popular tools--barbells and machines. Recently, kettlebells, clubbells, macebells, sandbags and stone lifting have enjoyed a resurgence.

But with the exception of gymnastic rings,

Let me start with my own history in the field of kettlebell training, so you can understand how the whole thing unfolded.
More than nine years ago, long before RKC certifications--and before anyone had ever heard of Pavel Tsatsouline or Valery Federenko--I was busy experimenting with a crude pair of homemade kettlebells at Maxercise in Philadelphia.

I was on the ground floor of Pavel's first certification in St. Paul MN where I introduced many of the movements and concepts now a part of the RKC curriculum. I was the first person to be asked to be a Senior instructor and of the cadre, I was the only full-time professional teacher and trainer. My personal training gym, Maxercise, was the first kettlebell gym in modern times, and the first one to specialize in kettlebell classes. I had a huge advantage over others in the field because I was able to guinea pig my own clients and experiment with them to test out my theories. I learned through trial and error (the best way) how to train large groups of health and fitness seekers with kettlebells. Another advantage: I was trained as a teacher of physical education and had years of coaching and teaching experience behind me.