Kettlebells in the Age Of Quarrell (Nice nod there to the Cromags debut album, some of us are old enough to remember it on vinyl) is the fifth Mike Mahler DVD I have owned. To call Mike’s recent DVD’s “content rich” would be a massive understatement. So faced with 5 DVDs and over 12 hours of material I wondered if we might be reaching saturation point. To put this in context, I was Scotland’s first RKC under Pavel, certing alongside Jason Dolby and have gone on to work with the incomparable Steve Cotter and Ken Blackburn, hosting numerous IKFF CKT certifications here in Scotland. So I don’t “watch” kettlebells, I train with them. But I am also an old dog that loves learning new tricks…

Age of Quarrel launches straight in to killer material. Filmed in the familiar Aggressive Strength workshop environement it is no frills, no fluff, all content.

Disc1 - First up is our very own Steve Cotter. Cotter presents a selection of fantastic body weight and animal movements for conditioning. The great thing about Steve Cotter is he makes it all look so easy. So easy in fact, that anyone can do it. And then you try. He moves with what Thomas Myers calls “ease and imagination in response to his environment” There are few better benchmarks when it comes to fluid grace and strength. Steve rounds off this section with some simple but impressively effective Qi Gong drills. You cannot underestimate the simple power of regular, effective breath work. This stuff is a fantastic foundation.

Disc2 - Presents Ken Blackburn performing the kind of joint mobility and agility work that has folk saying “he moves kinda purdy for a big fella”. This is some of the most immediately accessible and fun material on the discs. After Ken comes Jason Dolby who focuses on perhaps the foundation of all kettlebell work, The Swing. Jason is an affable presenter and he makes this section clear and precise.

Disc3 - give us Mahler himself presenting on Hormone Optimization and then into Pressing, Rows and Swings. I want to say, Mike is generous to a fault. Mike’s early DVDs were a source of my training but more importantly, I remember emailing him and getting lengthy, well considered responses to my requests for help. As his website and news letter evolved I was always amazed at the sheer volume of quality information he was able to present. Not least of which his decision to share the most intimate details of his own journey back to health. Understand that and you understand where his passion come from. Mike’s sections are inspiring and entertaining. You may be aware…he’s not one of life’s apologists

Disc4 - Moves on to Kettlebell Clean and Jerks. This is fantastic material. I can’t stress how important this lift is. For anyone who has not taken the time to really learn and apply the Kettlebell Clean and Jerk this DVD alone is superb. It’s a complex lift broken down into is various parts and engineered back for maximum effect.

Disc5 - Has our friend Jason Dolby introducing Indian Clubs. Now I admit to bias here. About 15 months ago Jason introduced me to the Indian Clubs. He sent me a couple of pairs from California and I immediately fell in love with them. Having dislocated my left shoulder twice I’d worked my way back to reasonable movement. Indian Clubs added a whole other dimension to my training as they focus on the shoulder girdle, the supporting muscles that often get neglected during linear pressing movements. Jason’s section here is a great intro to the basics.

Disc 5 finishes out with Andrew Durniat discussing the Snatch in depth with some fantastic tips for enhancing grip and saving your hands. It is excellent and very relevent to those working timed sets. This section ends with Durniat performing the craziest shit you can think of with an Olympic bar. Seriously, if your favourite bit of action movies is the out takes and training footage, you will love this! Durniat is not human…seriously.

I have been lucky enough to have trained with three of the five presenters here. I can’t tell you how great it is to be able to review them in action again. At some point I am going to get this motley crew over to these shore. Personally I think Mike’s visit is long overdue.

There isn’t anyone who produces material with this depth and diversity on such a consistent basis. I am passionate about the fundamentals, the basic, the core material. So it is wonderful to have so many talented people shine their collective light on how they train and the aspects that can help you whilst introducing new effective material.

Herbert Von Karajan said once that when you hear Mahler’s Fifth, “you forget that time has passed”. Age of Quarrel is time and money well spent.

For the record, I have no financial interest in Mike’s products, this is just my take on this dvd. If you want to pick up a copy you can do so here…

http://www.mikemahler.com/kettlebelltraining.html