The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [75]
Kettlebells are not inexpensive.
If you can’t afford them, or to determine your ideal swing weight (what you can currently do for 20 good repetitions) before ordering kettlebells, there is a fantastically inexpensive option: the “T-handle.” Rumored to be one of the core tools of dominant Hungarian hammer throwers, this simple device is also known as the Hungarian Core Blaster (HCB).
I have 20 kettlebells of various sizes but still prize my T-handle, as it can be disassembled for travel and packed flat at a weight of less than five pounds. In addition to swings, it can be used for deadlifts, two-arm bent rows, curls, reverse curls, and more. For $10, five minutes of shopping, and less than five minutes of assembly, you have an entire gym. Here’s what it looks like:
Just head to any hardware store or Home Depot and head to the plumbing aisle:
• One ¾″ diameter × 12″ long pipe nipple for the vertical shaft. A “pipe nipple” is, somewhat paradoxically, a short pipe threaded on both ends with male pipe thread.7
• Two ¾″ diameter × 4″ long pipe nipples for the handles. Electrical or duct tape can later be used to cover the outside threads, but I just wear leather gloves when training with the T-handle.
• One ¾″ diameter pipe “T” fitting to connect the above items.
• One ¾″ floor flange to keep the plates from falling off as you swing.
An optional but suggested addition:
• One spring clamp (I use an Irwin Quick-Grip 1″) to keep plates from drifting up at the top of the swing. Do not swing the weights above sternum height.
Last but not least, replace the T-handle every six months. Tossing a bunch of plates on your cat or through a wall won’t win you IQ points when both are preventable for the cost of a T-shirt. Special thanks to Dave Draper for introducing me to this beautifully simple device.
What do Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and Elle Macpherson have in common? The number 0.7 and the letters WHR.
If you measured the waist and hip circumference of these three women, you’d find that their waists are 7/10 the size of their hips. This makes their waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) 0.7, and this ratio in females appears to be hardwired into the male brain as a sign of fertility and therefore attractiveness. The wider your waist is, the higher this ratio goes toward the apple-shaped 1.0, which correlates in scientific studies with decreased estrogen levels, increased disease risk, increased birth complications, and lower fertility rates.
Professor Devendra Singh at the University of Texas–Austin has studied the pear-shaped 0.7 body and found it popping up in 2,500-year-old stone Venus sculptures across Europe and Asia, in all Miss America winners from 1923 to 1987 (0.69 to 0.72), in Playboy centerfolds from 1955 to 1965 and 1976 to 1990 (0.68 to 0.71), and across different cultures—from Indonesians and Indian laborers to African Americans and Caucasians.
The good news? If you were born with wide hips, no worries.
Working toward a more slender waist has been shown to have a greater effect on attractiveness than reducing hip size. If your WHR is high, dropping it even a little bit will increase your power (health and hotness) to attract a male partner.
For men, your magic numbers are 0.8–0.9 for WHR and 0.6 for the waist-to-shoulder ratio (WSR). Broad shoulders can be built.
Perhaps the simplest tool for fine-tuning WHR in both sexes? No surprise: the kettlebell swing.
End of Chapter Notes
1. Even better, kettlebells are weighed in Russian “poods.”
2. This means you are doing 10 reps with a weight that would allow you to complete 13 but not 14 reps. Approximate is fine, but you shouldn’t have more than 3 or so reps left in the tank when you finish the set.
3. Men can use any hand position. Wide-grip is recommended for women who want to avoid tricep (back of the upper arm) growth. If you can’t do ten push-ups on the floor, they can be performed with the hands on a low bench, or—if still impossible—against