Strength Is Like Music or Surgery: The Value of the SFG

A young man came up to me at the airport and asked:

“Aren’t you Dr. Ramana? I’m sure you have forgotten but you operated on me, as well as on my wife, and we are both alive!”

When it comes to smart-ass remarks, I am not so much the type to just let it go, un-volleyed. Thus, I responded:

“Yes. In spite of my best efforts to do good to the rest of humanity by eliminating the two of you.”

He laughed, and we got to talking. When he learned about Soul Of Strength, the Kolkata gym where I teach, he asked:

“How is this any different from any regular gym?”

I pondered, and came up with a short answer that would help him understand without my having to explain the “system of systems” concept, machines versus free weights, Pavel, StrongFirst, tension and relaxation, programming, etc., etc.  Here is the explanation I came up with.

Learning Music Like Some People Teach Kettlebells

Let’s say you have a set of musical instruments at a studio that you just joined because you love music. The instructor says:

“Start playing ‘Hotel California’ on the guitar for two minutes, ‘Let It Be’ on the keyboards for three, and ‘Careless Whisper’ on the sax for three more minutes, without taking more than thirty seconds rest between instruments. At the end of a total of thirty minutes, play some Beethoven on the piano for 45 minutes, over and over. You are done.”

And imagine that this is done, day after day, with different songs. Sometimes, they give you new instruments to play. When you claim you can’t play any of these, the instructor shouts:

“Just do it. Try harder. Come on, bro, gimme one more minute. Anyone can do it!”

You have a one-year contract at this studio.

Imagine another studio, say called SOS, where the instructor teaches you each instrument from the basics. You are not asked to play even Eminem’s “Curtains Up.” You are simply taught the basics of the basics. Over time, you go up to the next level, and then the next one after.

Imagine your progress after one year — will it be less or more when compared to the first studio where you actually get to play like a rock-star and post your pics on Facebook?

So that’s how I explained it to the man at the airport, and this guy’s face just lit up (no wonder they call it a “lightbulb” moment).

The SFG Is Like Going to Medical School

Ladies and gents, I represent the StrongFirst school of strength in India, and in the rest of the world as India’s first SFG instructor. We teach strength at the gym, according to the school’s teachings. The same way we teach young doctors the skill of surgery in the operating theater. For me, the gym floor is the same as the hospital floor, with the diagnostics and treatment at my disposal. I have to deliver every time. Failure is not an option.

If you would like to learn the skill of surgery, you have to go through ten years of medical school. You are taught anatomy, physiology, pathology, and other subjects before you even lay your hands on a patient. Before operating on a gallbladder packed with stones, you first learn how to palpate the belly so you can feel the organ and detect the problem. You see thousands of such cases before you become an expert, like Malcolm Gladwell says.

If you want to learn the skill of strength, the StrongFirst Girya (Kettlebell) Instructor Certification will have you set for life. However, just like becoming a surgeon is merely a starting process in a lifetime of learning from patients and others, an SFG will give you a solid start to learning more about the methods you can use to help people become stronger and mobile.

Register for the SFG Level I Certification

Register now. You won’t regret it. It’s your body, your strength and health, and your life. Ask me. I believe in this so much that I do this without commercial interest!

I know what the skeptics among you are thinking — “I can figure out how to swing a few bells from the web, and it’s free.” I will address you directly: Want to learn surgery on YouTube (it’s free, yippee!) and then operate on someone? No? Why do it to yourself with your training then? You can get hurt, you know.

As the T-shirt says, “StrongFirst knows kettlebells”.

StrongFirst is strength.

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B. Ramana

Dr. B. Ramana, variously known as Ram or Rambodoc, is a senior laparoscopic and bariatric surgeon. He is India’s first SFG instructor and teaches at India’s only Hardstyle strength gym, Soul Of Strength in Kolkata. He works with a wide range of students including bent, eighty-year-old people and young studettes who can get-up with bells ordinary men cannot even lift. He strongly believes in the power of strength training as a rehab tool.