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Thank you to Pavel and Strongfirst

babyhauler

Level 1 Valued Member
Hi

I just want to post a brief thank you to Pavel, Pavel M., and the Strongfirst organization.

I have been considered by others to be a fit person my entire life, blessed with unusual cardio endurance, however I always had a very weak upper body. I have always enjoyed walking, jogging, skating. skiing, cycling and stuff like that. Due to weak upper body I had a lot of problems that are too long and boring to write about today.

I have tried many times to build up upper body strength. When I was in high school my cross country and track coaches had us lift weights. In college I too a weightlifting class and went to the gym often enough. After college I tried to do things on my own while juggling demands from my family and job. But nothing really worked until now.

About a year ago (age 45) a friend gave me two printed sheets explaining Pavel's method for building pull ups. I tried it and went from 2 pull ups to 8! That got my attention! I had never believed I would be able to do 8 pull ups! Then the same friend introduced me to Simple & Sinister.

I now practice the Simple and Sinister routine, usually 6 days a week. When I started I couldn't do a single get up with 16kg. I could barely do halos with 16kg, I started those with a 5 lb plate! I followed Pavel's schedule and got some help from my excellent local trainer Christina Callesen (Arlington, TX). I do the 3 warm ups, swings, get ups, and the two stretches exactly as Pavel prescribes in his book.

Now every morning I'm swinging and doing some get ups, swings and halos with the 24kg kettlebell and in several weeks I'll start practicing with the 32kg. So excited about that. I also do some other bodyweight stuff and some kettlebell dead lifts throughout the day to keep my body warmed up as I work from home, but S&S is my most important daily morning ritual.

I am experiencing a total body transformation. I feel stronger opening doors, picking up children, walking around. My posture improved. I don't care about bodybuilding (for appearance) but my wife says I have muscle definition all over my upper body where there was nothing before. Also the other day I went skating and my legs felt Iike they did when I was a teenager. And now I can easily pick up my aged uncle when he falls on the floor.

I intend to keep this up forever and after achieving both the sinister and simple levels, to do even more fun stuff. But I'm not adding anything else until I achieve simple level, in a few months. No rush.

(And I also love reading this forum, and the articles Strongfirst sends me)

Anyone have tips or suggestions for me? If you do I'm eager to listen.
 
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babyhauler said:
I intend to keep this up forever and after acheiving both the sinister and simple levels, to do even more fun stuff. But I'm not adding anything else until I achieve simple level, in a few months. No rush.

(And I also love reading this forum, and the articles strongfirst sends me)

Anyone have tips or suggestions for me? If you do I'm eager to listen.
Click to expand...
Congratulations on your progress! That's great.

Sounds like you are really good at following a program and path. That's awesome, and you've already overcome the trade-off of reduced progress that many other people have of program hopping too often. Now the question becomes finding that balance of when DO you change the approach and go to something different? I'd say the simple answer is 1) when you stop seeing progress, AND 2) you see something else that interests you to do (different program, tool, modified approach, coaching, etc.). BOTH. Not just one. If it's just the first, you're giving up good maintenance for something that might knock you off the wagon entirely. If it's just the second, you become a program hopper and you don't get the most out of each thing you do.
 
Anna C said:
Congratulations on your progress! That's great.

Sounds like you are really good at following a program and path. That's awesome, and you've already overcome the trade-off of reduced progress that many other people have of program hopping too often. Now the question becomes finding that balance of when DO you change the approach and go to something different? I'd say the simple answer is 1) when you stop seeing progress, AND 2) you see something else that interests you to do (different program, tool, modified approach, coaching, etc.). BOTH. Not just one. If it's just the first, you're giving up good maintenance for something that might knock you off the wagon entirely. If it's just the second, you become a program hopper and you don't get the most out of each thing you do.
Click to expand...
Thanks Anna C, I'm not changing anything until I achieve Simple level, which is swings and get ups with 32 kg. After that I'll review everything with my local trainer and make plans to go on to Sinister level and probably branch out a bit. I already know at that time I'm interested in adding some barbell training, and I also want to do the bodyweight stuff like hand stand push up. But for now, just keeping it simple until I achieve simple level.
 
babyhauler said:
Thanks Anna C, I'm not changing anything until I achieve Simple level, which is swings and get ups with 32 kg. After that I'll review everything with my local trainer and make plans to go on to Sinister level and probably branch out a bit. I already know at that time I'm interested in adding some barbell training, and I also want to do the bodyweight stuff like hand stand push up. But for now, just keeping it simple until I achieve simple level.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a great plan! Also sounds like what I did :)
 
Great job. I felt extremely “fit” when i had achieved Timed Simple. Been a few years and I still wonder if I shouldn’t just be swinging a heavy KB instead of other randomness….
 
babyhauler said:
Hi

I just want to post a brief thank you to Pavel, Pavel M., and the Strongfirst organization.

I have been considered by others to be a fit person my entire life, blessed with unusual cardio endurance, however I always had a very weak upper body. I have always enjoyed walking, jogging, skating. skiing, cycling and stuff like that. Due to weak upper body I had a lot of problems that are too long and boring to write about today.

I have tried many times to build up upper body strength. When I was in high school my cross country and track coaches had us lift weights. In college I too a weightlifting class and went to the gym often enough. After college I tried to do things on my own while juggling demands from my family and job. But nothing really worked until now.

About a year ago (age 45) a friend gave me two printed sheets explaining Pavel's method for building pull ups. I tried it and went from 2 pull ups to 8! That got my attention! I had never believed I would be able to do 8 pull ups! Then the same friend introduced my to Simple & Sinister.

I now practice the Simple and Sinister routine, usually 6 days a week. When I started I couldn't do a single get up with 16kg. I could barely do halos with 16kg, I started those with a 5 lb plate! I followed Pavel's schedule and got some help from my excellent local trainer Christina Callesen (Arlington, TX). I do the 3 warm ups, swings, get ups, and the two stretches exactly as Pavel prescribes in his book.

Now every morning I'm swinging and doing some getups, swings and halos with the 24kg kettlebell and in several weeks I'll start practicing with the 32kg. So excited about that. I also do some other bodyweight stuff and some kettlebell dead lifts throughout the day to keep my body warmed up as I work from home, but S&S is my most important daily morning ritual.

I am experiencing a total body transformation. I feel stronger opening doors, picking up children, walking around. My posture improved. I don't care about bodybuilding (for appearance) but my wife says I have muscle definition all over my upper body where there was nothing before. Also the other day I went skating and my legs felt Iike they did when I was a teenager. And now I can easily pick up my aged uncle when he falls on the floor.

I intend to keep this up forever and after acheiving both the sinister and simple levels, to do even more fun stuff. But I'm not adding anything else until I achieve simple level, in a few months. No rush.

(And I also love reading this forum, and the articles strongfirst sends me)

Anyone have tips or suggestions for me? If you do I'm eager to listen.
Click to expand...

Well done. it is particularly good that you are following well-established programs. You will get the best results that way.

Too many of us waste a lot of time with trial and error.

I suggest achieving simple and then switching to the other classic programs such as rite of passag (pressing)e, power to the people (deadlift), etc. rather than going right to sinister. You will get the best long-term results with an all around base including bodyweight and barbell. Check out the naked warrior as well. Pavel and Strongfirst advocate for use of all modalities. Many say that they wished that had built a more solid bodyweight foundation along with their KB use. A simple S&S foundation is a solid base for learning to snatch the bell.

Yes, the lifelong perspective is the way to go. Your future self will thank you someday.
 
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