100 Snatches in 5 minutes with a 24kg kettlebell.  Ah, good times. 

When I first started using kettlebells, there was no standard testing to determine your competency with a kettlebell.  Hell, when I first read about kettlebells about 6 years ago, I called around to every sporting goods store and fitness store within a 100 miles of my house to try and find a kettlebell.  Nobody had even heard of one before and one guy actually laughed at me. 

So, I jumped online and found one place that actually had kettlebells, DragonDoor.com.  I did find a couple of handles that you could mount to your dumbell but I wanted a real honest to goodness kettlebell.  If there is one thing you should know about me, one thing my father always harped on, it is that if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it right.  No half ass which meant I had to have a real kettlebell. 

So I got a 16kg kettlebell and and I bought Pavel’s book, The Russian Kettlebell Challenge and got to work learning how to use it.  What I really learned was an entirely new way of thinking about how I was supposed to be working out.  I had a paradigm shift in my thinking. 

Before I found Pavel and kettlebells, I was mostly into bodybuilding type workouts with a little powerlifting stuff thrown in for good measure.  Not that I was a bodybuilder but that was how I thought I was supposed to be training.  And I had been training that way for almost 20 years. 

Concentration curls and leg extensions and bench presses and pec deck flys and so forth and so on.  It’s all I knew at the time and I spent hours in the gym with very little results to show compared to the amount of effort I was putting forth.

What I learned from Pavel was that the body doesn’t work one muscle at a time.  Your body was designed to work as a whole unit.  Think about this, what muscle does a linebacker use when he sprints across the field fighting off blocker after blocker and chasing down the quarterback who he wants to kill at all cost?  What muscle does Ryan Howard use when he hits a fastball 400 feet?  How about Michael Phelps when he won all those gold medals, what muscle did he use?  The answer to all these questions is all of them.  So it only makes sense to train them all as one. 

Now, I’m not a linebacker or a Major League Baseball player and I don’t plan on taking on Michael Phelps at the 2012 Olympics, but I am a living breathing human being who is interested in what Bruce Lee called functional strength.  I want to be as strong as I look.  I ultimately want to take my body to it’s absolute physical limit. 

My limit and your limit will be different, so you have to set your own goals and not pay to much attention to what others are doing.  A 500 pound deadlift is a personal record for some while it’s a warm up for others.  Kettlebells are no different. 

The RKC snatch test is a standard set by Pavel and it reflects his vision of what an accomplished girevik should shot for.  It is by no means the be all end all and it may be something that you want to shot for as a way of keeping motivated everyday.  It is a worthy goal that will require both physical and mental toughness. 

My goal is to complete the United States Secret Service snatch test for 200 reps in 10 minutes with a 24kg bell.  It’s what keeps me going on those days when I’m really not all that thrilled about getting in the gym.  It’s a goal that 5 years ago when I got my first kettlebell I though I would never be even close to reaching but it’s one that I feel I’m closer then ever to achieving.  What are your fitness goals?  If you don’t known, put down the kettlebell and figure it out.  Good luck!

Yours in Health

Dennis

P.S. The standard for the ladies is 100 snatches in 5 minutes with a 16kg kettlebell.

This post is meant to give you some ideas and get you pointed in the right direction as it relates to using a kettlebell.  You will obviously not master the kettlebell just by reading this post.  I would strongly suggest you seek out quality instruction either with a certified trainer or through the use of books and videos.  The best in the business is Pavel Tsatsouline.  I would suggest to you “Enter the Kettlebell“  by Pavel.  As with any fitness routine, check with your doctor first. 

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