Dan John

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About Dan John

Dan John has spent his life with one foot in the world of lifting and throwing, and the other foot in academia. An All-American discus thrower, Dan has also competed at the highest levels of Olympic lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon, an event in which he holds the American record.

Dan spends his work life blending weekly workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is also a religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. As a Fulbright Scholar, he toured the Middle East exploring the foundations of religious education systems. Moreover, he continues as a Senior Lecturer at St. Mary's University in Twickenham, England.

His books on weightlifting include Before We Go, Can You Go?, Intervention, Never Let Go, Fat Loss Happens on Monday with Josh Hillis, Mass Made Simple, Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge, 40 Years with a Whistle and Easy Strength, written with Pavel Tsatsouline, as well as the short piece, From Dad to Grad.

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Author Updates

Books By Dan John

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Attempts: Essays on Fitness, Health, Longevity and Easy Strength Aug 5, 2020

by Dan John

( 24 )

$8.99

In this collection of essays, Dan John expands on some of his famous one-liners:

How many rabbits are you chasing?
Enough is enough; more is just more.
Fit for what? must be part of your language.
The greatest secret I know in every field of life is always obvious.
Think through the wonders and pleasures of achieving your goal.
Last throw, best throw!
No fuzzy maxes in the weight room.
Correct your weaknesses, but compete with your strengths.
Most of success is just showing up.
Peaking is often simply staying on the path.

...and many more...

You’ve heard them before, but have you internalized them?

Let Dan help you dig a little deeper into how life’s truths show up in the weightroom and on the field of play.

What you learn in this selection will get you thinking more broadly into how it all fits together—fitness, health, longevity and Easy Strength.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Easy Strength: How to Get a Lot Stronger Than Your Competition-And Dominate in Your Sport Nov 1, 2011

by Dan John

( 152 )

$8.49

How To Look Like Tarzan, Play Like Tarzan-And Win Like TarzanHeadline:What It Takes to Stack the Strength-Deck in Your Favor If football were played in the weight room or on the track, I could guarantee that each year, the team that won the championship would NOT be the team that won on the field of play. And that is absolutely true in every sport and every game. It's a rare track meet that you don't hear someone rhapsodize about training numbers and then see him or her lose badly. In football, we have a phrase for this: 'Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane.' Pavel and my goal in writing this book is to clarify the role and impact of strength training in fitness, sports, and life. We are committed to clarity, even though at times, it's impossible to navigate the sea of conflicting information regarding the lifting sports. Pavel's experience and research provides grounding and a confidence to Do this! as we often joke.What can you expect from reading this book?. You will learn some history. You will discover that almost everything discussed in the fitness industry has been done before-and often better.. You will reexamine the role of strength training as it applies to sport. Doing so may serve as the greatest timesaver in history!. You will find that, like a medical doctor, a strength coach must be committed above all to Do no harm-a pledge that's often disregarded.. You will be exposed to the concept of systematic education and the need to build an athlete (or anyone!) using some kind of intelligent approach.. You will be exposed to another educational system-along with a way to harness its powers-that will give you clarity into all the various fitness, health, and nutritional information being tossed at you daily.. You will discover the tools for teaching an entire team to improve in a sport-and why these great tools may be of no value to you in your training!. You will be exposed to what the best in sports do in the weight

Other Formats: Paperback

The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge: A Fundamental Guide To Training For Strength And Power Sep 19, 2017

by Dan John , Mark Fisher , Mary Carol Fitzgerald

( 85 )

$9.99

The HKC—A Magical Method for Mastering Your Body
Want the world’s most effective program for becoming leaner, faster, more powerful, more explosive and stronger—in less time? And want that program to keep you performing at your strongest and best for years to come? Then, The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge is for you.
The magic of the HKC program is that you only need three main exercises to deliver these results. Using Dragon Door’s gold-standard HKC kettlebell certification program as his basis, Dan John lays out a field-tested set of protocols for athletic excellence and high-level physical performance, whatever your current condition.

“Dan John is one of the premier strength coaches on the planet. I was thrilled to see him focus a book on the fundamental aspects of kettlebell training, the HKC. The kettlebell swing, goblet squat, and Turkish get-up represent movements that have been a foundation of my own strength programming for both my patients in the clinic, and fitness clients in the gym. I have seen profound changes in health and performance using Hardstyle kettlebell methods, from the fire fighter recovering from a low back injury, to training partners at my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy.

Dan breaks down the core Hardstyle kettlebell movements like no one else. I thought I had a firm grasp of the technique, programming, and application of the swing, get-up, and goblet squat until I read this amazing book. He truly goes a mile deep on the subject with no fluff, and filled in the missing pieces for me that I didn’t even know I had. This is an absolute must read for any coach or trainer looking to incorporate kettlebells into their clients’ training. The HKC is also a great starting point for the average person wanting to start strength training but who is lost in the internet sea of (mis)information overload.

I give Dan John’s The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge my highest recommendation, absolutely essential reading for the coach or trainee.”—
Chris Hardy, D.O. MPH CSCS, Physician and Strength Coach, author of Strong Medicine

“Dan John has put into words so succinct and with laser precision, the absolute value and meaning of Hardstyle kettlebell training. The fact that this comes from such a renowned strength coach gives it a weight that is impossible to ignore.

This book should be in every kettlebell lifter’s library. Even if you have been using or teaching kettlebells for years, there is something in there for you.”—Andrea Du Cane, Master RKC, author The Ageless Body

"If you’re serious about strength training, you study Dan John. If you’re serious about kettlebells, you study Hardstyle. The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge gives you both. What more could you want?"—Pat Flynn, author of Paleo Workouts For Dummies

"Coaches with Dan John's breadth of experience and knowledge are few and far between. Even rarer is one who can articulate their ideas so clearly, and in such an entertaining manner. Dan has an uncanny ability to draw parallels between seemingly unrelated topics and put difficult concepts into words we can all understand.

Mr. John's incredible combination of world-class teaching skills and phenomenal writing talent make The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge an essential read for any fitness trainer or serious student of strength.

My primary training modality isn't even kettlebells—it's calisthenics—but this book still gave me ideas and insights I could immediately put to use.

Other Formats: Paperback

Fat Loss Happens on Monday: Habit-Based Diet & Workout Hacks Nov 28, 2014

by Josh Hillis , Dan John , Valerie Waters

( 152 )

$9.99

Most diet and workout books are focused on the wrong things: They focus on WHAT instead of HOW. The leanest people focus on how, on their eating habits, not on fad diets. Diets that rely on willpower and discipline fail. The path to results is made up of eleven small, simple, step-by-step habits. Rotating through phases of metabolic, endurance, and strength workouts yields the best fat-loss results.

1. Almost all diet and workout books are focused on the wrong things—They focus on ‘what’ instead of ‘how.’

2. The leanest people focus on eating habits, not on fad diets.

3. Diets that rely on willpower and discipline fail. A smart plan wins.

4. The path to results is eleven small, simple, step-by-step habits.

5. Rotating through phases of metabolic workouts, endurance workouts, and strength workouts yields the best fat-loss
results.

6. Pull-ups are the strength move for fat loss. A smart, progressive plan can take you from absolute zero, to your first,
third, or tenth pull-up.

7. High-intensity workouts are power tools, most effective only twice per year before important events.

Josh Hillis and Dan John know these habit-based diet and workout hacks, and they teach them well.

JOSH HILLIS is a nutrition coach who specializes in habits-based, positive changes. LoseStubbornFat, his popular fat-loss blog, has tens of thousands of readers, and his fat-loss and kettlebell-training ebooks have helped people reach their personal goals for more than 10 years. Josh is currently the head coach at PowerHour Personal Training in Denver.

DAN JOHN spends his work life blending workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is an online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. His books include Intervention, Never Let Go, Mass Made Simple and Easy Strength, which was written with Pavel Tsatsouline.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Never Let Go: A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning May 17, 2011

by Dan John , Dave Draper , Pavel Tsatsouline

( 379 )

$9.99

Coach Dan John breaks down the most complicated concepts of strength training and high-performance athletics in his personal, no-nonsense, thought-provoking and motivating style.

Workout routines, Olympic lifting guidance, Highland Games, track and field and Strongman events are all covered, in addition to weight training philosophy for the general public.

You'll learn...

How to get stronger, faster and leaner;
Simple steps to great conditioning;
What it takes to compete at high-level athletics;
Dan John's top training tips;
Effective workouts to carry you through your training seasons;
Variations of the classic 5x5 workout;
Sample kettlebell and barbell workout combinations;
Outdoor cardiovascular training options for athletes;
And much more...

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Mass Made Simple Dec 4, 2011

by Dan John

( 159 )

$9.99

What does it take to build solid power and size? Gaining lean body mass is the Holy Grail and the Lost City of Gold and the Atlantis of bodybuilding. It gets talked about a lot, but few seem to unlock the secrets. In the past few decades, Dan John, author of the bestseller, Never Let Go, has found the key to this enigma-It is based on a few principles, a few days a week in the gym and a few key movements.

It sounds simple because it is simple. But don't let simple fool you. This isn't easy. Set aside six weeks, prepare a gym bag to stock with food and enter the world of attaining lean body mass with Dan John as your guide.

Note: The print version of this book is spiral-bound, with the final 42 pages being a typeset training log with the exercises organized to match each workout in the book. In this electronic version, when you get to what would be page 121 in the print book, you'll be given a link to a printable PDF version of the training log pages.

Other Formats: Spiral-bound

Intervention: Course Corrections for the Athlete and Trainer Nov 21, 2012

by Dan John , Thomas Plummer

( 194 )

$7.99

You have two choices:

~ Be luck enough in middle school, junior high or high school to be taught basic body movements and step-by-step instructions in the Olympic lifts, powerlifting, mobility, flexibility, kettlebell training & tumbling

~ Apply Intervention

For most of us, it’s option two.

Five Principles

Here are the answers, but the questions are the real keys–

1) Strength training for lean body mass and joint mobility work trump everything else.

2) Fundamental human movements are… fundamental.

3) Standards and gaps must be constantly assessed.

4) The notion of ‘park bench’ and ‘bus bench’ workouts must be applied throughout the training lifetime.

5) Constantly strive for mastery and grace.

I’ve always said the greatest compliment to a coach is to say he gets it. Dan John really gets it…and knows how to put it on paper. Read and enjoy. ~Michael Boyle

I love Dan John’s back-to-basics yet progressive approach, his coupling of the physical and spiritual dimensions of training, his attention to detail and his ability to help push us to find our inner limits. ~ Todd Durkin

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Before We Go: An Ongoing Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning Nov 18, 2015

by Dan John , TC Luoma

( 72 )

$9.99

Picture this (go ahead; it’s an easy one): You’re bored with your workouts. Nothing’s changing; you’re not getting stronger or leaner or feeling better, and, heck, maybe you’ll just take a layoff and see what happens.

You know what happens. That two-week layoff lasts a year, that’s what happens!

Now consider this: Traffic was light and you’re fifteen minutes early for your dental cleaning appointment. You flip open your tablet and bring up your new copy of Before We Go. By the time the dental tech calls you, you’ve read two article chapters and are amped to get to the gym. Your mind is racing through the appointment, and it’s all you can do to stay in that squeaky lounge chair.

You get to the gym an hour later and sail through the best workout you’ve had in months, maybe years.

That’s what this book can do for you.

“I go through one chapter at a time, slowly, and let it percolate.” ~ TC Luoma, Editor-in-Chief, T Nation

Dan John’s Before We Go will spur your training to that exciting level you love.

Following the pattern set by his earlier book Never Let Go (230 reviews averaging five stars, still in the top 30 weight training books after five years on Kindle), Before We Go is the second compilation of Dan’s best articles previously published online.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Now What?: The Ongoing Pursuit of Improved Performance Mar 24, 2017

by Dan John , Chip Morton

( 39 )

$7.99

In Intervention, Dan described how he evaluates adults and suggests course corrections to improve the basics.

He followed that with Can You Go?, where he addressed assessments trainers and coaches might use with their clients and athletes.

Now, in Now What? Dan loops back around to tell us what to do next. You’ve brought your clients up to the minimum standards. You’ve done your assessments. Now what?

That’s the question Dan answers in this book, the third installment of this series.

Dan John’s Now What? will help you determine the next steps in moving toward the goals of your clients and athletes.

“In Now What? Dan presents basic tools and training principles from his experiences as an athlete and coach, and applies them with experienced hands and through empathetic eyes toward the personal growth of his readers. It’s a reasonable approach to help us all reach our goals, bringing greater satisfaction while working through the process.” ~ Chip Morton

From Dan’s Introduction to Now What?:

The lessons learned about the road to success from elite athletes and performers can make everyone’s life better. From de-cluttering the inbox or letter pile with a shark habit, to applying pirate maps to ongoing health and fitness, most people can free up some mental space to focus on moving ahead with all of life’s goals and dreams.

Elite performers focus on the fundamentals and basics more thoroughly than the hobbyist. Elite performers keep their heads clear, carving out the clutter of life—both the important and the unimportant—with a scalpel. When needed, the elite focus on two- to twelve-week programs to shore up a weakness or some other issue. Elite performance is principle based.

Most of us can learn from this “carving of the clutter.” At times, we can follow a program, but most of the time, we can adopt a simple list of pirate maps for our fitness, health and longevity needs and goals.

The stumbling block of Now what? soon takes on a new meaning. After emptying the inbox and finishing the laundry, we can ask Now what? as the start of a new adventure, a new challenge.

In this book, I outline a simple quadrant showing how I teach elite performers the tools to deal with life, living and high-end achievement. And if you don’t think you’re an elite performer, I would like you to reconsider this. ~ Dan John

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Can You Go?: Assessments and Program Design for the Active Athlete and Everybody Else May 14, 2015

by Dan John , Chad Harbach

( 181 )

$7.99

Training people in sport as a coach or in fitness as a personal trainer is certainly rewarding work. But there’s a problem: What do we do next? There are countless books on diet and exercise, hundreds of machines, devices and gimmicks to train people, and new gadgets and gizmos are popping up with every passing day.

Can You Go? answers this question: What do we need to do next?

Appropriate assessment leads to an appropriate answer. When we find a mobility issue, let’s focus on mobility work. The same is true for both body composition and strength—we focus on what we need to do, not what we want to do.

For the performance athlete, sometimes assessment can be the short, brutal and harsh question, “Can you go?” Lessons from this frankness can be learned by both the coach and the trainer. The deconditioned and the elite share the same basic human body. Our job is to enhance performance and quality of life with every training situation.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

40 Years with a Whistle: Life Lessons from the Field of Play Apr 7, 2019

by Dan John , Chris Long

( 25 )

$9.99

40 Years with a Whistle—40 years of coaching tips woven into a touching memoir of a coach's life

Dan John has been performing as an athlete for six decades. His coaches—the mentors he describes in this book—steered him on the narrow path toward success in both sports and life. These coaches emphasized performance, yes...but they all also insisted on the balance of health, fitness and longevity.

From Dan's introduction to 40 Years with a Whistle:

I’ve learned a lot over those decades and would like to share these lessons with you. I didn’t want a book filled with “Xs” and “Os” or sets and reps. I wanted to share the lessons that apply to life and living.

I begin with what are clearly my 10 best lessons of coaching. Each of these works well for the teacher, student, parent and neighbor too. Following the advice of the 10th lesson, I explore the stories of the people who shaped my career and the gems of advice they shared with me. I finish with my vision of coaching—basically looking at training from the big picture and the toolkit to allow one to succeed.

The lessons are simple. The application is difficult. The rewards are worth everything.

The lessons learned on the fields and in the gyms will lead to a successful life. Hop on board.

“As I read through this book, over and over I found myself mentally saying, 'Yup' and 'Absolutely.' If you’re a coach, an athletic administrator or the parent of a school-age athlete, you need to read this book. I know my coaching staff will be reading it.” ~ Chris Long, Athletic Director, Juan Diego Catholic High School

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

A Lifelong Approach to Fitness: A Collection of Dan John Lectures May 12, 2016

by Dan John

( 16 )

$4.99

Note from the author: In this collection of short talks, I tried to link together what I thought was crucial and important in the fitness field—and in sports in general—that sometimes don’t work very well in something like a book or an article. These are all too long for an article, and too short for a book. But they’re all very important principles, and these are all concepts I think need to be linked together.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook

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