I have always been a very athletic, moderately competitive person my whole life.  I always approached an athletic endeavor the same way….going into it thinking strength, power, endurance, stamina and brute force will get me from point A to point B as quickly as possible. (Don’t get me wrong, those developing those athletic qualities are extremely important and should not be overlooked, but the most important athletic quality is without a doubt, skill development or the strengthening of the nervous system).

Unfortunately, when it came to swimming, that approach when right out the window.  The great thing about swimming is that you can’t B.S. the water or the people watching you swim.  You are either fluid or chaotic, silent or noisy, calm or in a panic. 

Learning how to swim was the first time in my life that I can remember, when I had to start at something from the absolute beginning, like crawling before you can walk. I never had to dissect something and break it down to the smallest of details. Literally, re-programming myself. I remember being ecstatic when I finally figured out how to float on my back!  I was also the first time in my life where it was pointed out to me that my nervous system had to be developed to adapt to swimming.

In 2007, I stumbled across kettlebells by accident.  I was at a TRX Suspension Training Workshop in NYC when I overheard some personal trainers talking about a Russian Kettlebell clinic they took the previous week and how blown away they were by their simplistic,  brutal  yet effective method of training.  I never heard of kettlebells so when I went home, I goggled them on the computer.  A cannon ball with a handle!  Sweet!

I read that an average man should be able to handle a 16kg or 35lb kettlebell for most movements.  Figuring I’m stronger than the average man, I purchase the 35lber thinking it would be to light.  Boy, was I wrong!  It was the heaviest 35lbs I ever lifted in my life!  Because of the off set of the weight and the thick handle, it felt heaver than it was. After dropping it hundreds of times, hitting myself with it a couple of times (that only takes a couple of times) and wrenching my shoulder, knee and back, I came to the realization, it was too heavy for me! Knowing I made a mistake, I purchased a 26lber and to be on the safe side, a 18lber (kettlebell go up in 9 pound increments).

I researched everything I could about kettlebell training and the way they trained in the Soviet Union. I read and watched videos of average sized men lifting  53, 62, and 70lb kettlebells non stop for 100’s of reps. Sometimes two kettlebells at the same time. This type of training would cripple most men in less than a minute!  Their approach to training was the polar opposite to the way we trained in the United States.  The first thing they emphasized was to strengthen and develop the nervous system.  Strength in the Soviet Union is approached as a skill set.  Instead of just arbitrarily lifting random weights with random exercises in a sloppy manor they methodically approached each rep of each set trying to perfect their lifting technique. They use one movement to compliment and strengthen another movement.  They break down complicated exercises, piece by piece The words "mindfulness" and "purposeful" entered my mind!

One of the training methods I found useful was to keep all sets at the beginning to 5 reps.  Pick 4 or five exercises and keep cycling those exercises sets over and over.  Why 5 reps?  The reasoning is that it is enough stress to strengthen the "mind to body" link (nervous system) by practicing the movement but not enough stress to exhaust the person.  Lets say you pick 4 exercises (one lower body, two upper body and on ballistic): kettlebell squats, overhead press with the right arm, overhead press with the left arm and two handed swings.  Do 5 kettlebell squats, then immediately do 5 overhead presses with the right arm, 5 with the left and then 5 swings. By the time you get back to squats, your legs have had a chance to recover.

When you can get through 6 or 7 rounds of 5 reps, increase it to 6 reps, then 7, 8, 9 and 10.  At that point, you can "graduate" to a larger bell and then start the whole process of re-programming yourself over again with 5 reps.  What are you doing?  You are basically "mindfully practicing" strength and approaching it as a skill, just like swimming!

Another method to developing strength was something called "laddering".  Pick an exercise…. say the kettlebell overhead press.  Do one rep with the right arm, then one with the left arm.  Do two reps with the right and two with the left, then three reps with the right  and three with the left, then four, five, six, etc. etc. and then cycle down, four, then three reps then two and back to one.  As one arm is working the other is recovering.  You  can do a tremendous amount of work in a relative short period of time, which is the name of the game….efficiency! 

The similarities between TI and systematic, methodic strength training are very close in my opinion. By staying in the moment and not spacing , having a plan every time you do a set, and truly break apart and think about the movements, strength training will become as exciting as learning to swim because you will always see progression!

The amount of strength, power, flexibility, stamina, endurance and FUN that kettlebell training has given me has be unimaginable.  I hope fellow TI swimmers will embrace kettlebell training the way they have embraced the TI philosophy of swimming.