Baron von Raschke
Level 3 Valued Member
I haven't posted much lately but thought everyone might like this holiday story from xmas eve.
My sister-in-law and her husband (I'll call him Brother-in law No. 1) have been seeing an expensive personal trainer for some time now. I've been following S&S for a while, though lately time constraints have reduced it to more of a maintenance workout. Over the last year and a half I've been coaching my wife through KB swings. She has bad knees and a foot injury but through my amateurish tutelage (and much advice from this board) has worked her way up from 8kg swings to where she's now doing 16kg swings comfortably.
On xmas eve my sister-in-law was asking everyone to feel her arms. She was pretty proud of herself and I asked her what she'd been doing. Her PT was having her do isolation lifts with mostly machines, I believe. Her arms felt great, I have to admit. So at some point her and my wife decided to arm wrestle. I had an immediate reaction of Strongfirst vs. conventional expensive gym workouts, clash of cultures, my amateurish coaching versus a pro, all these competitions zipped through my head. My wife flattened her! It was tense at first but my wife wore her down and was victorious.
So now apparently, the husbands had to go at it. B-I-L No. 1 outweighs me by about 30 lbs (155 to 185) and is going to the same personal trainer as his wife, so I was nervous but couldn't back down. He's also an experienced handy man with the forearms of a carpenter so I thought the deck was stacked against me. And I'm lefty and we were wrestling right-handed. Anyway, I got off to a fast start and gradually put him down. Another victory for kettlebells! He then wrestled B-I-L No. 2, who is about my size but doesn't work out. B-I-L No. 1 won easily. My sister-in-law then beat their remaining sister, so that put my wife and I at the top of the heap. Later on I beat B-I-L No. 1 with my left hand, too.
Now my father-in-law, who'd been watching closely, wanted to arm wrestle me. He's 220 lbs, only about 7 years older than me and has been working out most of his life, using a variety of systems over the years. I gave a pretty good account of myself but lost in the end. The good news is, his arm was sore the rest of the evening, lol.
Anyway, that's it for my holiday hijinks. I'm very very pleased with my and my wife's performance. We went up against some "dreaded" gym rats and came out victorious, using only our little kettlebells. Incidentally, my wife's swings looked very good to me last night. I think she may have gotten the realization that hey, these things really work!
Happy holidays, everyone!
My sister-in-law and her husband (I'll call him Brother-in law No. 1) have been seeing an expensive personal trainer for some time now. I've been following S&S for a while, though lately time constraints have reduced it to more of a maintenance workout. Over the last year and a half I've been coaching my wife through KB swings. She has bad knees and a foot injury but through my amateurish tutelage (and much advice from this board) has worked her way up from 8kg swings to where she's now doing 16kg swings comfortably.
On xmas eve my sister-in-law was asking everyone to feel her arms. She was pretty proud of herself and I asked her what she'd been doing. Her PT was having her do isolation lifts with mostly machines, I believe. Her arms felt great, I have to admit. So at some point her and my wife decided to arm wrestle. I had an immediate reaction of Strongfirst vs. conventional expensive gym workouts, clash of cultures, my amateurish coaching versus a pro, all these competitions zipped through my head. My wife flattened her! It was tense at first but my wife wore her down and was victorious.
So now apparently, the husbands had to go at it. B-I-L No. 1 outweighs me by about 30 lbs (155 to 185) and is going to the same personal trainer as his wife, so I was nervous but couldn't back down. He's also an experienced handy man with the forearms of a carpenter so I thought the deck was stacked against me. And I'm lefty and we were wrestling right-handed. Anyway, I got off to a fast start and gradually put him down. Another victory for kettlebells! He then wrestled B-I-L No. 2, who is about my size but doesn't work out. B-I-L No. 1 won easily. My sister-in-law then beat their remaining sister, so that put my wife and I at the top of the heap. Later on I beat B-I-L No. 1 with my left hand, too.
Now my father-in-law, who'd been watching closely, wanted to arm wrestle me. He's 220 lbs, only about 7 years older than me and has been working out most of his life, using a variety of systems over the years. I gave a pretty good account of myself but lost in the end. The good news is, his arm was sore the rest of the evening, lol.
Anyway, that's it for my holiday hijinks. I'm very very pleased with my and my wife's performance. We went up against some "dreaded" gym rats and came out victorious, using only our little kettlebells. Incidentally, my wife's swings looked very good to me last night. I think she may have gotten the realization that hey, these things really work!
Happy holidays, everyone!
) with the guys around my age in my social circle at the time.
