Many years ago, I was browsing a website that focused on military-style fitness. There started to be multiple references to “kettlebells” and how military units, special forces, police forces, etc. were incorporating kettlebell work into their fitness plans. They did this because it was efficient and effective. So I looked into it. In the USA, DragonDoor.com is the home of kettlebells, as far as I’m concerned.
I bought my first kettlebell in September 2003, a 16kg (35lb) unit, as recommended. I also got a book and a dvd to learn the exercises. I began using it and was seeing some great improvements, mainly in my endurance and recovery times. I was seeing some increases in muscle tone and definition, especially in my upper body.
I remember a backpacking trip the next summer, where I went with a few other adults and a group of 14-18 year old boys on a mountain adventure. Let’s see, I was about 38 at the time, so I was not the youngest buck in the herd. However, due to my kettlebell work, I was able to reach camp before most of the others and felt great doing it.
Before that, I had been KB’ing pretty regularly, without a lot of running in preparation for the Bolder Boulder, a big 10-k race in Boulder Colorado. I wasn’t super fast, but was able to keep on going at a fairly comfortable pace through the race. I probably could have picked it up towards the end, but didn’t know about that. I was surprised by my endurance and how quickly I recovered afterwards.
In both of those instances, I needed less rest, and my recovery time was faster than it would have been the previous summer. Now, I’m not trying to brag, and I’m definitely no Superman, but I know I would not have been able to complete either of these events as easily had I not been KB’ing.
I wanted more, so I bought a 24 kg (53lb) kettelbell in August of 2004. It was difficult at first and I practiced on and off for a few years with that bad boy, occasionally getting more serious about it, then having periods where I didn’t do much. Not an atypical story.
In 2008, I was having conversations with my co-worker Clif about kettlebells. He ordered a 16kg and was just getting into it. In October, I began again in earnest to accomplish something with my kettlebells. I began following the “program minimum” as described in the book, Enter the Kettlebell. I was able to go through that with the 16kg pretty easily, then I moved to the “Rite of Passage” with the same kbell, which was also not that challenging, but was a good workout.
The inevitable winter blues took their toll, and I slacked off again. In May of 2009, Clif and I decided to set some goals and establish a solid program that we could both work on. We would report back to each other, creating some accountability, which has really helped.
Our goal was to complete the Rite of Passage with the 24kg by the end of 2009. The final exam for that, so to speak, is the “SSST” (or Secret Service Snatch Test) which is 200 snatch reps in 10 minutes, and press half your bodyweight one time with each arm. That press will be the equivalent of pressing both my kettlebells at the same time, or around 88lbs.
We mapped out a rough outline of what we would focus on each month as we built up to that. Here is what the overall outline looked like, working backwards from the goal:
December 7 would be the test. Pearl Harbor Day. We are planning to be ready to do 200 snatches with the 24kg bell and press an 88lb bell 1x with each arm. Yikes!
November would focus on the final month of the Rite of Passage, with additional emphasis on doing snatches with decreasing rest breaks
October would be Rite of Passage, with the snatch practice beginning in earnest in the last two weeks of the month
September would be a transition from preparation work to goal-focused preparation. We would do a snatch test on 9/11 to see where we are, and begin working heavy snatches for volume in the latter part of the month
August would be “explosive fitness” month. We wanted to have a month, while it is still nice outside, to do all the crazy combination killer stuff you see coming from Steve Maxwell, MovNat, and other sources. We would do medium/light/heavy days, with an additional day for “SFP2.0″ and one for “Crazy Barefoot Nature Day.”
July would be “wicked strength” month. This would involve a medium and a heavy day, where we would do push presses, lunges with both kbs, get-ups and cleans. There would also be a day for SFP2.0 and one for running. The running day began as continuation from June’s long runs, but turned into shorter runs with sprint intervals to boost fat loss.
June was the beginning of the program and was focused on rebuilding the base we had begun to build the previous Fall. It had two SFP2.0 days, two days where we focused on the basic moves like clean and press and the swing. There was a long run day, too.
So far, things have been going according to plan. You can check later posts to keep updated on my progress, referring to this outline if you need to.
