Thursday, November 09, 2006

Mike Castrogiovanni, RKC Mutant


Tom Furman asked me to post some of Mike Castros best efforts aso I gave him a call today to catch up and quiz him about some of the stuff he did when he trained me, and trained with me, for the RKC two years ago.

Mike is like a son to me and I introduced him to weights when he was just 14 years old and budding wrestler.He trained at my Worlds Gym and was like a sponge soaking up everything everyone had to offer him. Years later I would show him the kettlebell and he took off like arocket with them accomplishing some amazing kb feats. Later he would be the connection between me and Pavel and the one who pushed me to do the RKC and then trained me for it. As well as convince me I could survive it. I was in very bad shape at the time , not being able to squat or deadlift or do any cardio for years. Bench pressing does not keep you fit.

Some of Mike Castros KB lifts:

1000 swings with the 97 lb kb

10 sets of 10 in the Turkish Getup to Windmill to Military press with the 72.

10 sets of 10 in the TGU with the Bulldog.

10 sets of 10 in the snatch with the Bulldog.
Snatched the 125 lb kettlebell

Windmill with the 125 lb kettlebell

Cleaned the 145 lb kettlebell

One arm swings with the 145 lb kettlebell

Pullup with the Bulldog


Three sets of 100 in the two hand swing followed by 3 sets of 80 each arm in the one arm swing with the Two Pood


10 sets of 10 in the Swing, squat, push press overhead with the Bulldog


10 sets of 10 in the clean and press with the Bulldog


210 Bosu Getups in 10 minutes



I know there is more. Mike said he would drop by the blog so if I am forgetting anything Mike let me know!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Impressive!
Yet what I found most impressive was the sense of humblenss and sincerity when I read his article in Hardstyle a few issues back.
Is he still training with the Monks?

Thanks,
Eric

Mark Reifkind said...

nope he's down in santa monica now doing all kinds of interesting training.

Ken Black said...

I met Mike at the Mahler/Cotter workshop. Very nice and humble guy. Thats some impressive work he has done!

Michael C. said...

Thanks for the kind words guys!

I think you pretty much coverd it Mark. There were a couple of cool training sessions with Cotter and Weck in Weck's back yard that involved the 145lb monster with the jumpstretch band that you gave me. In fact, Weck has Video footage of that day maybe we could get a clip of it from him to post on the blog.

Thanks again guys for the support and kind words.

Peace,
Michael

P.S.
Nice to chat with you today Mark, I wish you could have been at Gold's with me!

Geoff Neupert said...

Man, Mike has some SERIOUS strength-endurance. I'm glad I don't have to keep up with him--he'd leave me in the dust. I bet he's a MONSTER to grapple with.

Something to aspire to I guess.

What's he doing now?

Anonymous said...

Geoff, I have taken a break from kettlebells for a little bit, Althought I still use them sparingly. I have been studying Tai Chi, Yoga and Hacky Sack among other fun forms of physical culture. I recently signed up for a gym membership for the first time in four years and am excited to spend some time exploring possibilities. Are you a wrestler/grappler? Have a great day!

Peace Michael

Franz Snideman said...

Mike, you are a BEAST!
Rif, thanks for sharing these feats of strength, very motivating!

Mark Reifkind said...

you had to see some of this stuff to believe it. its not only the numbers but have freakin easy it was that was amazing.

and no one can H2H flip heavy bells like mikey.

205, 215, 217.5,205 x 1 x 6, 190 x 1 x 3, laterals, rear delts bw pushups

 Well this went great. not perfect but the basic premise worked and I'm happy. I was not optimistic at all about this at all given recen...