Kettlebells........My life has never been the same again!

So here I am listening to Josh Henkin's Interview with Anthony Dilugio from Punch gym and Art of Strength and it brings me back to how my journey started with Kettlebells. I was certified in April of 2003 along with a stellar class of strength coaches and trainers that have all gone on to do huge things in the fitness industry and push the fitness industry to new heights. Who was there at the April RKC 2003?

Josh Henkin
Anthony Dilugio
Jason Brown
Steve Rochet
Josh Everett
Steve Cotter
Mike Burgner
Tim Larkin
Shawn Mozen (Agustu KB's)

Check out Josh's Interview with Anthony here!

and many more. From what I can see everyone on that list has gone on to do huge things in this industry and continues to influence people in a MAJOR way. I am proud to be part of that group.

And since then my life has changed in ways I could have never imagined. I came back from the 2003 cert on FIRE, and told Yoana that we were going to open up a Kettlebell studio and that is jsut what we did. Next month in November will be 4 years that we have been open and it has been a dream come true for both Yoana and myself. And it all started on a friday afternoon in fall of 2002 in Santa Monica. Like a lot of people, my life was forever changed when I met Pavel Tsatsouline. A client of mine and I met up in Santa Monica and hired Pavel for two hours to help us get started using these kettlebells. The bottom line is that the session changed the direction of my life forever. It was also brutally hard and showed me how dysfunctional I had become using corrective exercise for years. From that day on I stopped using the wobble boards, woopie cushion discs for standing on, and all the other "functional" toys and got serious about my training. I had essentially "wasted" so many years on balls and boards and started focusing on my kettlebell skills. But it wasn't until the April 2003 Certification that I was able to really get the technique downs and progress as a kettlebell student and athlete.

And today.....today I am more excited about kettlebells and health than I was back in 2003. Am I where I want to be? No. Am I headed in the right direction with my training? Yes. My body feels better than it ever did when I was doing the "functional training" and I attribute that to Pavel and to kettlebells. Are kettlebells the only tool I use? No, but they certainly make up a fairly huge chunk of my training and I don't see that changing in the near future.

As Anthony Diligio says, Joint mobility and corretive exercise are built into the kettlebell movements, especially the foundational RKC movements:

1) Swing
2) Turkish Get Up
3) Cleans
4) Military Presses
5) Front Squats
6) Snatches

If you can get those movements down, even if they don't look pretty in the beginning, you will look and feel better, period! I know I am preaching to the crowd here but those six movements above are life changing and so is the RKC!

Power to all of us! I thank God every day for the opportunities He has given me and Yoana and I am so glad to be alive at a time like now where their is a Renaissance in the fitness industry like their right now!