Day 1 - Enter the Kettlebell

Kettlebells first piqued my interest when I read about them in Tim Ferriss' book, The 4-hour Body. It's not that I hadn't heard of them or seen them being used before, but I always figured they were yet another fitness trend that could not surpass good old weight lifting. Little did I know, the Russians have been training with them for over a century. Russians are strong.  Tim Ferriss claims he got leaner than ever before using a combination of the slow-carb diet and kettlebell training twice a week for a relatively short amount of time. I was intrigued! Upon further research, I found that many more believers in kettlebells all claimed the same thing - that training with kettlebells was the most efficient and effective way to get strong and lean. The more I read, the more excited I got.

Enter the Kettlebell.

I found a trainer in Vancouver who was RKC certified (hardstyle kettlebell training) and booked a session to learn proper form. I've never been to a personal trainer in all my years of working out. I've always just read, experimented, and observed for exercises and techniques. This time though, I wanted to learn properly right from the beginning.

Next step was to buy a kettlebell. I chose a 12kg because that's what I used with Kettlebell Steve (my trainer). I ordered it from Canadian Kettlebells, which they delivered right to my door the same day! Awesome service and great quality.

The program? Tim Ferriss recommends 75 swings twice per week, but I'm going to start with Enter the Kettlebell, a program designed from THE master Pavel Tsastsouline intended to turn beginners into advanced KB trainers. It starts really slow, but like any program, I must believe in it and follow it to the letter in order to make it work. Trust the program and the expert who created it.

I did my first practice session after work today. I was so excited, I camehome from work, changed and got started right away. Ten minutes of wall squats, halos, and pumps and then 12 minutes of  20 swings followed by 1 minute of jogging on the spot (my choice for active rest). It was great. The warm-up got my heart pumping and by the time I started swinging, I was sweating! The swings got harder and harder, but I managed to stick to 20 each set. I lost track of how many sets I did, I think it was about 5. Tomorrow is the Turkish Getup. I have a feeling that is going to translate into a very long and painful 5 minutes. Bring it on! Nothing like a new challenge to feel motivated.

Weight today: 160.4 lbs