Eric Wilson
Level 6 Valued Member
I picked up my first kettlebell about 12 months ago, after about two months of working with dumbbells, before which I was mainly sedentary for decades. I was intrigued by this exercise I had heard about, called "swings".
I bought Simple & Sinister, and some more KBs a few months later.
In the last 12 months I have gone from:
- completely ignorant of all things kettlebell
- clueless about exercise programming
- very weak (could press a 20lb dumbbell, barely)
- poorly conditioned
- extremely skinny (124 lbs at 5' 9" -- down from high school weight of 140 lbs)
- two month history of training 3/week
To
- able to do (and enjoy) all the major kettlebell exercises
- somewhat informed about programming (loving ROP currently)
- much stronger (pressing strength nearly doubled)
- in much better condition
- 10 lbs heavier (still skinny, but 10 lbs of muscle is no joke for my body type)
- a habit of training 5/week over the last year
I want to thank the StrongFirst community for the part that you've played. I've learned so much from articles I've read here and discussions here on the forum. I've particularly benefited from discussions in which there was disagreement -- some of these discussions went longer than I expected, and many provided more benefit to me than I expected, as I came to understand different peoples experiences and perspectives.
I'm sure I'll have questions in the future, and I'll probably post some form-check videos in the coming months. But for now I just want to thank everyone for the patience and thoughtfulness that I've received in response to my (sometimes cranky) questions.
I bought Simple & Sinister, and some more KBs a few months later.
In the last 12 months I have gone from:
- completely ignorant of all things kettlebell
- clueless about exercise programming
- very weak (could press a 20lb dumbbell, barely)
- poorly conditioned
- extremely skinny (124 lbs at 5' 9" -- down from high school weight of 140 lbs)
- two month history of training 3/week
To
- able to do (and enjoy) all the major kettlebell exercises
- somewhat informed about programming (loving ROP currently)
- much stronger (pressing strength nearly doubled)
- in much better condition
- 10 lbs heavier (still skinny, but 10 lbs of muscle is no joke for my body type)
- a habit of training 5/week over the last year
I want to thank the StrongFirst community for the part that you've played. I've learned so much from articles I've read here and discussions here on the forum. I've particularly benefited from discussions in which there was disagreement -- some of these discussions went longer than I expected, and many provided more benefit to me than I expected, as I came to understand different peoples experiences and perspectives.
I'm sure I'll have questions in the future, and I'll probably post some form-check videos in the coming months. But for now I just want to thank everyone for the patience and thoughtfulness that I've received in response to my (sometimes cranky) questions.
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