“I Don’t Want to Do Kettlebells!”

4/13/09 Posted in Kettlebell Crazy  |  1 Comment

Krystina is the Office Manager and self-proclaimed Fitness Protocol Lab Rat for the American Kettlebell Club. This is her story:

[By way of explanation: the AKC trains with competition style bells. These are made of steel and come in identical sizes, but are filled with varying densities of iron or lead and color-coded according to weight: red for 32kg; green for 24kg; yellow for 16kg; blue for 12kg; and just recently, a pink model in 8kg. (to learn the equivalent weight in pounds, multiply by 2.2). Their fitness program places its emphasis on Olympic-style lifting for both fitness and competition; namely the clean, the jerk, the snatch, and the long cycle, also known as the clean and jerk.]

I DON’T WANT TO DO KETTLEBELLS!

Anyone else would’ve loved being in my position… working directly with World Champion Valery Fedorenko and Eric Liford, Editor of WKC/AKC every day as Office Manager of American Kettlebell Club.  Any question about Kettlebells or training at my disposal. But I wasn’t interested in picking up the bells.  There were many times Eric would say, “Just see what you can do with the 12kg.” Finally, I gave in. I worked directly with Coach Fedorenko a couple of times, but the 12kg just seemed too heavy. So instead of putting in the effort, I whined, and I told the guys when they made a Kettlebell lighter than the 12kg i would try it. I’m sure you know what happened next… The 8kg Kettlebell and the Fitness program. No more excuses.

Some people make fun of the pink “girly” Kettlebell, but I thought it was cute. Nevertheless, I still wanted to be lazy. So it was begrudgingly that I picked up the 8kg to test what level I could do. I actually didn’t do too bad. The guys explained the different levels of Fitness Program and the rules… I wasn’t allowed to go to the next level until I passed the current one. Not allowed?! That made me want to do it more. So I started working hard to pass the levels. I wasn’t interested in competing, but i was interested in challenging myself to make it to the next level. I started picking up my 8kg every day, on my own, to see what I was capable of–sometimes in the gym nearly an hour. I started seeing results fast. The more results I got, the more I was hooked.

I also started running as part of my working out. I had never been able, in my whole life to run a mile, or even a 1/4 mile without stopping because my sides hurt. After a couple of months using my 8kg, I was able to run a mile without stopping. I was able to keep adding a lap to my run to where I can consistently run two miles without stopping. And even though I’ve never been heavy, I started to lose weight and see some tone.  During this time, I was still telling the guys that I was never going to work with the 16kg or anything heavier… I didn’t want to do sport and the 16kg was too heavy. Eric told me that really I just needed Kettlebells for fitness, not to compete.

Then i started seeing videos… Girls my size working with the 16kg for for long periods of time. “Why can’t I do that? They’re my size!” I said. “They’re just stronger than you,” was the response from Eric. Coach Fedorenko would tell me of girls smaller than me doing a crazy amount of reps, one after the other, girls my size and smaller, lifting the 16kg, the 24kg and the most recent is cleaning the 44 kg! It really amazes me every time! So after much reluctance, I started using the 12kg in my Fitness Program. After a few days, I went back to my 8kg because the 12kg was just too heavy… It wasn’t too heavy–it was just harder! But after picking up the 8kg again, it was too light! And even in the few days of using the 12kg I saw even more results. No excuses again. I could either maintain my body with the 8kg or improve it with the 12kg. I’ve been using the 12kg ever since.

The 8kg will always hold a special place in my heart, because without it, I would have never started working out. I feel sorry for it, sitting in my workout room collecting (chalk) dust, but i had to do what was best for me. Although I accept the fact that I may never be able to clean the 44kg, instead of telling the guys that I’ll never do something with the Kettlebell, like use a certain size or compete, I don’t rule anything out anymore.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up the 16kg to do jerks. It was only for a few reps, but I just wanted to see if I could do it–and I could. I also started using it for swings. And guess what? When I try to swing the 12kg, now it’s just too light!  My friends were saying the other day, “I want to get in the best shape of my life this year”, and I didn’t say a word. Why? Because I’m already in the best shape of my life–
Ever!  And i just keep improving. The truth is there are no excuses not to use the Kettlebell. If an 80-year-old, a 10-year-old, and I can do it, anyone can. I used to be the lowest specimen of fitness possible. Not anymore.