On Kettlebells and Benchmarks and Goals and Such

Why do we work out? Do you know?

If not, then you are like most of the people who are out there struggling to get more fit. As an example, "I want to get stronger" is not a goal. "I will do 100 snatches in five minutes by July 1, 2009 " is a goal.

Goals are important to the success of any endeavor. I mean how can you do something if you don't know what you want to do. Right?

We need goals for each workout. Goals for life. Goals for love. Short term goals. Medium ones etc. etc. Sunday drives with no particular destination are surely nice from time to time. But every day?

The start of a workout is not the time to decide what you are going to do. You really ought to consider trying to create your workout the day before. You should know what you will do and then do it. Folks who have no goals before a workout typically don't want to be held to account. Don't be this person. Look, freestyle workouts are great from time to time. But you won't accomplish much if freestyle is your workout of choice.

The only way to set up new benchmarks is to keep a workout journal.I find that those who keep a diary are much more successful than those who don't. Write down your results, your state of mind....in short, anything that will impact what you were able to accomplish. And your benchmarks should be realistic for you. 100 snatches in 5 minutes isn't realistic for most of my clients in the foreseeable future. Now 50 in 5 may be good. Benchmarks are personal and need to take into account lots of things. How hard you are able and willing to work? Your age, your sex, etc...all will come into play. The key is to always be improving.

What Is Hardstyle Kettlebell Training? Part 1

What is Hard style Russian Kettlebell Training, Part 1


It may be the best strength and conditioning protocol for those who need to spend as much time as possible training specific to their chosen athletic endeavor and thus have to compress their fitness work into a comparatively short span of time. Additionally, those of us who are simply looking for the most bang for our fitness buck and time invested need look no further than this system of building strength, endurance, power, flexibility, total body awareness and full resilience.

When I started training in the RKC manner, I was 45 years old. In reasonably good shape, I found quickly found out my fitness was far more cosmetic than useful.. The Kettlebell doesn’t lie and I was pretty weak, completely bound up and inflexible, lacking in wind and in general a mess. But hey, I looked pretty good. In fact, my “before” pictures taken back in November 2005 look a lot like the pictures of today. The work I can do in a workout isn’t remotely the same.


I was embarrassed when I first put hand to kettlebell. Nevertheless I knew right away that I had found a tool that I would use for along time, if not forever. My goal soon was to become an RKC certified instructor but frankly the likelihood was remote in my mind’s eye. With that former attitude it’s a miracle I was able to accomplish the goal in hindsight and should give all hope!

I could barely press a 16 KG kettlebell and now can fairly easily grind a 36 KG kettlebell overhead. I have gained amazing strength, conditioning, mobility and flexibility. I assumed I would never get any of this back at one point and now this former collegiate football player may be stronger at 47 than I was at 21. Nice, huh?

So what exactly is “Hard style” Kettlebell training? The main principle is that our body is a machine and should be trained as a unit. The primary elements of the system are “grinds” and “ballistics.” Grinds are Press, Turkish Get Ups, and Squats. Ballistics would be Swings, Snatches and Cleans. Also, we do much joint mobility to blast away old scar tissue and increase our mobility and flexibility while building incredibly useful strength.

Sandy Sommer, RKC

Check Back for Part 2 soon!