Not the King of the Swingers

Medium Day, swings and grind 'em outs :)

Warm Up:
Mobility Drills (Neck, Shoulders, Upper Spine, Hips, Knees and Ankles)
Front Squat 16kgs 3x5
Halos 16Kgs 3x5 Clockwise and Anticlockwise
M Press 16Kgs 2x3

M Press 24Kgs (1,2) x 3 L/R
Swings 24Kgs x 6mins (started 25 reps & 10s rest, quickly dropped to 10 reps = 105 reps)

Decompression Hang / Hamstring Stretch

Again, very tired before I started. Been a hectic week for me, new job, long hours travelling, blah blah blah. The grinds felt good though, KB didn't feel quite as heavy as it did the other day. Was really concentrating on "zipping up", making myself as tight as possible. Will have a good old re-read of ETK and write down all the coaching points for the clean & press for next time.

Bit disappointed with the swings though - my form was really good throughout, popping the hips through, locking the knees etc - but I thought that I'd have a lot more in me than that. Possibly closer to 140!! Oh well, leaves plenty of room for improvement. I've got a feeling that I would really need to be hitting well over 300 in 10 mins to have a good chance of the SSST.

Thinking about it now, I can't really complain. Sure I can always improve the form but it was pretty solid throughout and I gave what I had on the day. Can't really ask much more than that.

Potential "What The Hell"Effects

What the hell (WTH) effects for those who don't know, are the great side effects that come with training with Kettlebells. These are kinda outlined in the story below of the study in which a group was able to increase scores in PT test exercises simply by doing KB training.

People have experienced good gains in running, chins, deadlift, vertical jump, standing jump, throwing, push ups etc and many other unrelated exercises to KB training. This is what draws so many to them I think.

So, just to check for any WTH effects while I'm striving for the ROP test I'm going to record some of my PR's and see if I can bust 'em after I reach these goals.

1.5 miles run - 8mins 55secs
100m sprint - 14 secs (yeah, I know...I'm like BillyWhiz!!)
Deadlift - 140Kgs
BW Deadhang Chin Ups - 3
Barbell Clean and Push Press - 65kgs

With the exception of the 1.5 mile run most of these were set fairly recently - so it shall be interesting to see what changes occur. I wish that I had some for throwing a shot put, standing jumps, long jump etc.

I will also keep you updated with any unusual ones that crop up in everyday life as I go along ;)

"Easy" Day

Easy day is snatch day and I was keen to try it with the 24kg. It's been a while and I didn't have especially fond memories of it. Workout was as follows:

Warm Up:
Mobility Drills (Neck, Shoulders, Upper Spine, Hips, Knees and Ankles)
Front Squat 16kgs 3x5
Halos 16Kgs 3x5 Clockwise and Anticlockwise
M Press 16Kgs 2x2

M Press 24Kgs (1) x 3 L/R
Snatches 24Kgs 5L/5R x 5 (10 at the top of each min for 5 mins = 50 reps)

Decompression Hang / Hamstring Stretch

Felt pretty tired before hand, and the 24 felt heavy!!! Still was easy enough to grind through, as it was very low volume. Snatches were quite hard though, I was puffing quite heavily after 3rd minute!! It was round-about here that I really concentrated on form and they seemed to get a fair bit easier...if thats the right term.

Recovered fairly quickly though and feel pretty good now afterwards.

Revised Plan

Well, yesterday certainly came out of the blue for me. Just goes to show how you are capable of more than you think when your heads in the right place. Feel generally tired today, but nothing is sore I'm glad to report.

After discussing it with a few people in the know I have decided to go with my gut instinct and start this cycle with ETK ROP. I will still use AOS swing and snatch numbers as a guide to where I should be in terms of volume with those, but I'm going to start the presses a little lower than is advised in that. I feel that starting off with (1,2,3) x 5 @ 24kgs for a heavy day is a little much.

Given that I didn't come through a cycle and a whole load of pressing and snatching to pass with the 16kgs - I feel that I'd be fresh enough to take this approach on this cycle.

Being able to do 200 reps satches in 10 mins with the 24kgs seems crazy to me now. I can still remember the day I got it and couldn't resist trying to snatch it. I got it up there, but it nearly yanked my arm out of the socket and my back throbbed for a little while. Haha.

It shall sure be interesting to see how I get on with it tomorrow on my easy day!!

How do you measure up? (Part 2)

Test Day!!!

I decided that I wanted to know exactly where I was with ROP before starting into ETK. I didn't think that I was that far away with the 16kg KB and so I was going to start about halfway through AOS workbook instead of right back at the start.

Anyway - here's how it went....

C&P 16kg 2, 2, 2 per arm
Loaded Clean 24kg x 2 per arm
C&P 24kg x 6 Left 5 Right (PR)
USSS snatch 16kgs x 200 (equals PR)

Thats right - I NAILED IT!!!

Didn't think I'd be far off the snatches - maybe around 180, but I certainly wasn't expecting to grind out those C&Ps first. Absolutely delighted I am.

Kinda puts me in a quandry though of where to start with the AOS workbook with the 24kg KB. Shall have to seek advice.

My Goals and The Plan

Although I've already said that I want to lose fat and gain muscle, according to anything I've read on setting goals these are not specific enough.

So, I have another more specific set of goals for the first set of medium/long term.

Goal - Pass the RKC Rite of Passage drills.
Which specifically means being able to one-arm press half your body weight and snatch a 24kg KB 200 times in 10 minutes....to become a man among men!!!

So why have I selected Kettlebells as my vehicle to reach my goals? KB lifting is one of the best tools for all round physical development. A russian study was done which observed two groups of students over a period of 2 years. Performance was measured using a standard battery of military PT tests - Pull Ups, Broad jumps, 100 meter sprint and 1k run. One group practiced using a standard program emphasizing the above exercises, the other group only used KB lifts. In spite of their lack of practice in any of the tests the KB group showed better scores in everyone of them!!

KBs are highly effective for building strength. It is great for your heart. It improves body composition. Good enough reasons? I think so. By getting myself to the level of my goals I have no doubts of improved stats in weight and fat percentage, also being much stronger and having a greater work capacity.

The Plan

Is simple. I will follow Pavel Tsatsouline's Enter The Kettlebell along with the AOS workbook which supports it. I will cycle through them both over and over with heavier KBs until I have passed the ROP. I will post each workout here along with some pics and any other info that I feel is relevant.

How do you measure up? (Part 1)

The way I see it is if you have a vision of where you want to be, the first thing to do is to know where you are now. So here's where I am now.

This is going to be in 2 parts. First up is recording my weight, fat percentage and various girth measurements of body parts (no not that one!!!!). Then tomorrow I am going to test myself with the RKC Rite of Passage drills - more on that in another post though.

Here are my stats:

Age: 34 Height: 5' 11"

Weight: 14st 5.6lbs (201.6lbs) Body Fat %: 25.3

Body Part Measurements
Neck: 14.75" Chest: 42" Upper Arm: 13.25" Waist: 42" Hips: 42.25"
Thigh: 24" Calf:15.5" Forearms: 11.5"

Ok, lets take a look at these.

I can't do much about the first 2, but if I found that by the end of this experience I was 2 years younger and 3" taller then I'd open up the worlds first Kettlebell Church and never stop preachin'!!!!

The next 2 however are of a lot more concern to me. I have been in and around this weight for a couple of years now. I have been "fat" throughout my life and more than likely consistantly clinically obese. Although at one stage in my adult life I had been down to 11st 7lbs - I still had a fairly flabby stomach!!

Below is a table of the categorized ranges of body fat percentages:

Description	Women	Men
Essential fat	12–15%	2–5%
Athletes	16–20%	6–13%
Fitness	21–24%	14–17%
Acceptable	25–31%	18–25%
Obese	32%+	25%+

I fall slightly over the acceptable range for men into obese (depending on accuracy of my scales). Although looking at my picture you wouldn't say I was obese and certainly none of my friends would call me obese. I can tell you that I do have large deposits of fat around my midsection - which judging from what I've read about it is the worst place to have it as it puts you at risk to all sorts of nasty diseases.

So in terms of body weight and composition - its not good and both need to take a nose dive.

The other measurements aren't really all that important to me - I don't strive to have a 45" chest or 18" biceps. It is unlikely that Kettlebell practice will give me those anyway.Kettlebells forge doers’ physiques along the lines of antique statues: broad shoulders with just a hint of pecs, back muscles like steel cables, wiry arms, rugged forearms, a cut midsection, and strong lean legs. I took those measurements just to see exactly what changes would take place.

So my goal is to drop body fat and weight overall, while maintaining or increasing the muscle I have so I never hit that 11st 7lbs and still flabby body again. Sounds like an original goal huh?

First Post

My name is Colin. I am 34 years old and like many I consider myself overweight and operating WAY below my physical (and dare I say my mental) capacity.

This is about how I am going to use kettlebell workouts, alone, at my house for 3 or 4 workouts a week to get the body I want. My vision is of being lean, strong and having plenty of endurance. I want to be able to handle all that life can throw at me, be it lifting and carrying akward heavy objects, pulling myself up and over obstacles, swinging a sledgehammer or digging a ditch.

I am going to use this blog as a way to record and measure my progress, and hopefully to motivate and inspire those of us who are struggling to get a lean, strong and healthy body.

I look forward to sharing my journey as well as hearing from others who share the same interests.

Colin