Interview with Jordan Vezina

Jordan Vezina

If you are new to training with kettlebells I would recommend taking a look at the movies by Jordan Vezina. For me, he has the didactic skills of a Mark Rippetoe and he is at least as funny as Pavel Tsatsouline. I improved my Get-Up and my Pull-Up just by watching about 5 minutes of his youtube-channel.

Check out his website to get in contact and to buy the movies.

Marc: How is veganism going?

Jordan: Hold on while I put down my turkey sandwich. Well… that lasted about 4 months.
I have now begun eating meat again. I went back to meat because as my work schedule
gets busier and busier, the Veganism was getting harder to maintain. At the end of
the day, it wasn’t worth the extra stress. Some have taken this to mean I am
refuting the health benefits of Veganism. I am not. I think it’s perfectly healthy,
and as I have said previously I think if one is trying to lose weight, this is a
great way to do it, so long as you take the time and effort to do it properly. I
learned some solid lessons from my foray into Veganism, and my overall nutrition has
benefited from it.

Marc: What is your dog doing right now?

Jordan: My dog is sleeping. That’s what he does. I took him on a run down the
trail beside our house and he’s wiped out.

Marc: You decided to live outside the city in an “isolated area”. How long did it take to find the right place to live?

Jordan: We looked at a number of places and settled on the house we now live in,
in the Santa Cruz Mountains here in California. We don’t have many
neighbors, and live in the midst of the redwood forest. Being more isolated
like this has brought into focus how poisonous what we have come to refer to
as ‘civilization’ is to the human spirit. Assaulted on all fronts by dirty
air, noise pollution, crime, etc. I don’t think that’s a healthy way to
live. Being in a more comfortable rhythm with nature makes more sense for
us. I’m not turning into some hacky sack playing hippie or something, these
are lessons I’ve learned through trial and error.

Marc: How did you feel after watching “Last Lecture”?

Jordan: I felt that the ‘Last Lecture’ was outstanding. Randy Pausch was a great
example of someone who was looking death in the eye but kept forging on. You
cannot live your life in fear of what may or may not happen. I would rather
live boldly and perhaps expire early via misadventure than to allow fear to
limit me.

Marc: What was working as a bodyguard like?

Jordan: I’m restricted in regard to what I can say about my work as a bodyguard due
to a confidentially contract. I can say that it was very interesting and
most of the time very boring. The company that hired me recruited directly
from the Anti-Terror Unit I was with while I was in the Marines. I met a
number of interesting people, was pepper sprayed in the eyes for a third
time, attacked by dogs, shot with simulated ammunition, and found myself in
a cable repairman uniform at two in the morning breaking in to the house of
a high profile celebrity. That didn’t leave you hanging at all, did it?

Marc: What does the tattoo on your right arm say?

Jordan: The tattoo on my right arm says “Don’t drink and then get tattooed in
Naples, Italy.”

Marc: What’s your current Pull Up PR?

Jordan: I haven’t really PR’d in pull ups in a while. I performed a pull up with
a 24 kg kettlebell on my foot at RKC II in February. Previously I’ve done a
pull up with a 28 kg. kettlebell, and while in the Marines I hit 28 pull ups
at one point. Right now I would like to get up to a 32 kg. pull up.

Marc: Will you bend the red nail this year?

Jordan: Hell yes.

Marc: Why did you become an RKC and how did you get involved in kettlebell training?

Jordan: In 2006 I went to a kettlebell workshop in San Francisco. I thought I was
in pretty good shape, and I was promptly decimated by a handful of swings
and get ups. I started using kettlebells with a few of my clients, and
noticed they were moving much faster than the others, so I switched over to
kettlebells and have never looked back. At that time I recognized that I needed
to become a better instructor and set my sites on the RKC. I see some folks
declare that kettlebells aren’t that complicated, and the RKC is a waste of
time. I weep for their clients. I didn’t sweat the cost because I would
rather pay for quality once than bumble around doing it half assed over and
over again. I found the RKC Certification to be tremendously helpful. The
Instructor to Student ratio is outstanding, usually something like 1 to 3 or
4. I figure that’s better than one guy trying to teach 30 people.

Marc: What is an RKC Team Leader and how did you become one?

Jordan: The RKC Team Leader serves as a lead instructor at the RKC Certifications. The RKCTL along with his or her assistants is tasked with the instruction and development of RKC candidates. Team Leaders are selected by Pavel Tsatsouline based upon their level of awesomeness. I’ll get back to you on how I slipped through the cracks.

Marc: why is it important that someone can do a “toe touch”?

Jordan: Toe touching is generally used to test hamstring flexibility, but other things
can come into play as well such as balance and thoracic mobility. In regard to
training, it can be problematic to perform squats or swings if you have poor
flexibility as you often will make up that lack of mobility from another less than
desirable place, such as your low back.

Marc: Please complete the sentence: “The time has come to…”

Jordan: The time has come to… shoot volume two of ‘The Corrections’. I’ve finished the
rough outline and am looking to shoot in late August with an October release. At the
same time I am working on a new DVD with Master RKC Mark Reifkind on training the
press. This one will have a ton of info culled from Mark’s many years of training as
well as a follow along workout with myself. It is not to be missed.

Marc: How do you maintain your website?

Jordan: I maintain my website by the skin of my teeth. I was formerly a web designer
(Flash/ Dreamweaver) and I now use a site called Squarespace to maintain my sites as
I just don’t have the time to do coding like I used to.

Marc: Do you have plans for future movies?

Jordan: There are at least two more volumes in the corrections series as well as some
other projects on the horizon.

Marc: Please name three songs that could always appear on your playlist.

Jordan: Three songs? 32-30 blues by Robert Johnson, Grits ain’t groceries by Little
Milton, and Regular People by Pantera.

Marc: Please name one vegan recipe everyone should try?

Jordan: Anything from ‘Vegan cupcakes take over the world’. If you think Vegan food
can’t taste good eat one of those and get back to me.

Marc: How do you combine kettlebells and bending

Jordan: My work with swings and get ups really laid the foundation for the bending work
I would later get into. That’s why I was able to get as far as I did with sub par
technique. My grip, wrists, and core were already powerful just from swinging and
getting up bells. Now I still use the concepts I outlined in my DVD with Max Shank
RKC ‘(All Over) Strong’ in regard to training heavy double swings and repetition get
ups.

Marc: How many times did you bang your forearm when learning the kettlebell snatch?

Jordan: Honestly, after that first day at the workshop, I don’t think I ever did. I’ve always been a pretty good physical mimic and can generally copy to a fair degree of accuracy anything I see done a few times. Not perfectly, but well enough to get the gist.

Marc: Please complete the sentence: On my desk right now… / on my mp3-player
right now.. / on my bookshelf right now…

Jordan: On my desk right now is- My computer. Stay focused. On my mp3 player right now is- An audiobook of ‘The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.’ On my bookshelf right now is- Olympic Weightlifting by Greg Everett and The China Study.

Marc: what makes you happy?

Jordan: My fiancee and my stepson make me happy. Everything else is a distant second.