Archives: Testimonials

Hi, my name is James and I’ve known Steve for about 20 years. I’ve seen him train through three competition level disciplines and a ton of personal learning and certification:
  – rugby
  – football
  – competitive power lifting
  – kettlebell
  – full body conditioning
  – health (nutrition, meaning of life)

I’ve come to appreciate what he’s pointed me towards with kettlebells on a whole new level.

It’s been a trip – quite literally. Take what you learn from what he teaches
you and apply it to what you naturally enjoy doing:
  – dancing
  – running
  – sitting
  – making love
  – climbing

 And then imagine doing those activities with the power and poise of a kettlebell practitioner. Whatever it is, you get to know that activity with a new body. It’s so incredible to re-experience a common activity because your body changed so much.

I’d highly recommend it for anyone who has a body and 30 minutes a day.

Climbing is a great example. While climbing at a gym, there is a sensation of
hanging on to something that feels so much like many portions of the kettlebell
swing; especially overhung routes.

Both make you understand how to hold on to something with the best form. If you don’t understand this aspect of climbing, then you won’t progress, whether that be in:
   – complete control of motion and force
   – trying something you’ve done time after time but in a more upright, strong way
   – again, think of any movement where you have to exert power (motion) AND strength (load)

As an additional bonus: you get to see your body physically change! It’s fun to
see how my body adjusts to master the weight I’m working with. Past habits and working assumptions about how I should move through a motion are being
challenged. It’s been transformative for my posture, despite every other part of my life being confined to sedentary activities.

10 out of 7 – would recommend. If there’s more from where that came from I’d love to know 😀

When I was younger, I had always been active playing contact sports and worked out everyday during my time in the military. I have since been living a much more sedentary lifestyle chasing my post-military, civilian career.

Several years ago, Steve proposed I go through a kettlebell training session with him. Having been in the military where workouts tended to be more common things like weight lifting and running, I had always been skeptical about kettlebells. I mean, how much benefit is there to swinging weights as opposed to straight lifting them?

But I obliged and met Steve at a local park where, true to Steve’s fashion, he demanded we do the training barefoot. To that, I also obliged.

Through Steve’s guidance and pointers, what started off as a real awkward motion swinging the kettlebells quickly turned more natural as I perfected the swing in no time.

I had mentioned to Steve that I had a lingering shoulder issue stemming from an injury I sustained from my military days doing combatives. It wasn’t so bad to the point where I couldn’t perform the swings, but to assist, he pointed out that I should be packing in the shoulders and that they shouldn’t be relaxed. I complied.

Again, I had been skeptical of all this, but over time, my shoulder started to bother me less and less. Today, my shoulder bothers me to the point where I no longer remember which shoulder was the problem. Which is to say, it bothers me no longer. I was completely surprised by this and have Steve to thank for getting rid of a problem that had plagued me for many, many years.

I’m not so dramatic to say this training session changed my life, but it definitely had immense benefits that I never thought about. I wish I would have gone through the kettlebell training session with Steve sooner.