Build
Strength is not a bench-press number. It is whether you can push, pull, squat, hinge, carry and brace when the day asks you to. A handful of patterns, trained for the rest of your life.
Build. Move.
Adapt. Repeat.
Getting older does not mean giving up hard things. It means preparing for them more intelligently, with less of your week spent doing it.
Who is coaching you.
Irvin Charleston has spent more than twenty years training, competing and coaching. He came up through martial arts, then found Girevoy Sport — kettlebell lifting for maximum repetitions against a clock — and took it to three world championships.
He works with adults over 40 who are not trying to become athletes and have no interest in living in a gym. They want to carry the luggage, get off the floor without planning it, and still be able to join in.
Stay strong. Stay simple. Follow the Way.
Four ideas, in order.
The method is deliberately small. Most training advice fails because it asks for a life you do not have.
Move
Strength that cannot leave the room is decoration. Coordination, balance, changing direction, getting down and getting back up.
Adapt
Muscle adapts. Connective tissue adapts. Your tolerance for physical stress adapts. Appropriate stress plus recovery plus repetition, not reckless punishment.
Repeat
The answer to starting over every January is not more motivation. It is a way of training you do not quit. Consistency is part of the method, not an afterthought.
The competitive record.
Listed because it is checkable, and because a coach asking you to be measured should have been measured himself.
Kettlebell — Girevoy Sport
- 2018 IUKL World Championship, Latvia — Biathlon silver, Long Cycle silver
- 2018 USA Nationals — Biathlon gold, 28kg
- 2018 World Association of Kettlebell Sports Clubs — Triathlon gold, 28kg
- 2017 IUKL World Championship, Seoul — Long Cycle silver, Biathlon amateur double bronze
- 2017 Ottawa Canada Open — Biathlon gold and Long Cycle gold, 24kg
- 2017 WAKSC — Snatch gold, Jerk gold, Long Cycle bronze, 24kg
- 2016 IUKL World Championship, Kazakhstan — Long Cycle and Biathlon double bronze, 24kg
Martial arts
- 15 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze medals across sanctioned Taekwondo tournaments
- Three-time Mays Landing Taekwondo champion
- Two-time Big East Taekwondo champion
- 2009 Battle of the Orient weapons champion
Endurance
- IRONMAN 70.3 Hawai‘i, 2015
- South Beach Triathlon, Olympic distance, 2016
- Tri Rock Philadelphia, Olympic distance, 2014
Start by finding out where you actually are.
The audit is the same assessment used before any coaching begins. Seven days, one short test each morning.