Bad Food Derailed My Goals; Starting Simple & Sinister

Read Pavel‘s new book, Kettlebell: Simple & Sinister, his first one under the StrongFirst name, three times actually. Per usual with his writing style it gets me pumped and wanting to press a cow overhead and push over a car. I was already motivated after the last self-assessment when my body fat went over 16%. Then I got stricter on my diet, except for Christmas week, I cheated until the 26th; I jumped into a Kettlebell circuit program until I saw that this book was out and after reading it I couldn’t wait till the next cycle.

Two and a half weeks in I started S&S’s Program Minimum Remastered with its hip and shoulder mobility drills at the beginning, which take me between 7-9 minutes. Then it’s time to swing a Kettlebell followed by Turkish Get-Ups for 6 days out of a week. That’s two changes to the old PM. I started with the recommended 50 two-handed swings with my 53lb/24kg Kettlebell with the intention to use the 44lb/20kg ‘bell for my Get-Ups. It didn’t move hardly at all and I’ve stood up under the 24kg ‘bell. I could see how it was sinister already and I hadn’t even worked up to the 100 one-handed swings yet. I humbly picked up the 30lb Kettlebell for my TGU’s.

When this posts I’ll be up to 80 two-handed swings and alternating the 30 and 44lb Kettlebell for the Get-Ups. So what’s all this done for me physically…

Body Composition (inches)

Body Part                      Before                  After                   -/+

Neck                               14.4                   14               -0.4

Shoulders             44.5                   44.75            +.25

Chest                             38.50                  38.50         o

Waist                             33.4                  34               +0.6

Biceps                    12.75                 12.62             -0.125

Forearms                   10.97               11.12           +0.15

Thighs                         22.25                 22.75            +0.50

Calves                          14                    14                   0

Weight                  159.2 lbs          160.6            +1.4

Body Fat %                16.7%                18.6%          +1.9%

Lean Body Mass    132.7lbs            130.8           -1.9lbs

A few increases where I don’t want them in the waist, weight and body fat areas. I sabotaged myself on that one with all the sweets I ate towards the end. To fix that, I’m dropping carbs under 100grams a day to hit optimum fat burning. Lean mass dropped, I’m guessing that’s from the neck area alone.  The Get-Ups get credit for the musculature increase in my shoulders. The Swings get the credit for the more musculature in the thighs and forearms.

Wasn’t what I wanted, good gains considering the short time on S&S, the losses are my fault with diet. It’ll be fixed by the next one on February  10.