The #1 Reason People FAIL to See RESULTS from Kettlebell Workouts (Besides this…)

If you need some training resources, I’ll leave a list in the description below.

Fat Loss / Get Lean

Kettlebell Burn 2.0 - 3x week, 45 minute sessions; single KB

Get Stronger

Kettlebell STRONG! - 3x week, 20-30 minute sessions; double KB

Get Stronger & Recomp

‘THE GIANT’ - 3x week, 20-30 minute sessions; single or double KB

Recomp / Conditioning

The King-Sized Killer - 3x week, 20 minute sessions; single KB

Stress Relief

Kettlebell W.O.D. - 5x week, 15 minute sessions; single & double KB

Besides inconsistency, the #1 reason people fail to see results is…

Wait, I think this is best illustrated with a story about how I made my wife furious on vacation…

In June 2003, my wife graduated with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy after 3 grueling years of study, labs, and internships.

Courtney’s last 6 months was at a remote and intensive neurological rehab internship about 4 hours from home and she rented an apartment during the week. She came home on the weekends. Worse: Her clinical instructor played some serious head games with her and almost failed her.

To say it was intense was an understatement. Fortunately, she got everything sorted out.

My life was no walk in the park either. I was rapidly expanding my business, and was working probably about 90 hours a week. I was burning my candle at both ends too, making the most of Courtney being gone to get work done.

To celebrate her graduation, we went to St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands for 10 days.

We rented a little chalet at a beachfront resort.

But…

For the first 3 days, the only thing I did was sleep, watch TV, and eat.

I think I made it to the pool once.

I’d been training extremely hard and heavy for weeks before we left, but insisted on working out while we were on vacation. So I brought some bands.

I was exhausted. And my body literally crashed. I was sleeping 10-12 hours a night, and taking a nap in the afternoons those first 3 days.

Courtney was furious.

She couldn’t understand why I was behaving that way.

I told her to give me a few days to unwind and then I’d be good to go.

She relented and I was.

We ended up having a great vacation.

I came off my monk-like diet, and lived primarily on cheeseburgers while there.

And my workouts?

I think I did three: 1x Pull Up and Box Jump (to a picnic table) workout, and 2 band workouts.

Now, common wisdom would say that I came home a fat weakling from eating too many burgers and not training.

Here’s what was funny:

I’d measured my body fat before I left.

When I came back, I re-measured.

It turns out I’d lost 3% body fat and gained a few pounds on the scale (5, if I remember correctly).

How?

Why?

I gave my body a chance to RECOVER.

I gave it a chance to finally ADAPT to my training program.

See, most people [still] think their “gainz” are made from their workouts - their training.

Nope.

Workouts are the STIMULUS to create an ADAPTATION (a.k.a. RESULTS / “GAINZ”).

What happens between the two is RECOVERY.

Most people forget about the “recovery” part.

See where it says “Supercompensation?”

Those are your results.

Stronger. More muscular. Less body fat.

The SRA Curve represents both -

[1] Your individual training session, and -

[2] You entire training program

Both are important.

It’s all your workouts, or workout cycles, accumulated.

It looks like a series of upward waves, because it is.

Again, you’ll notice that the adaptation comes on the heels of recovery and yields what the graph calls “new ability” or what we call “gainz.”

You cannot - will not - have the second - the “gainz” without the first - the “recovery.”

And again, most people skip the “recovery” part and only focus on the “stress” part - which is their workouts.

“How much can I do?”

“How hard can I work?”

“How heavy can I lift?”

In fact, it has been rightly said that many in “Kettlebell Land” are “stimulus addicts.”

They’re always working out or working out as hard as they can because somewhere in the recesses of their psyche, they think that working harder will get them “better” or “faster” results.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for “harder” work. (Usually before kids and after they’ve left the nest - but not always.)

But for most of us, we’d do better if we kept our effort levels at an average of 7 or 7.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Leave some gas in the tank, money in the bank, so to speak, after each workout.

Why?

Life stressors.

Jobs. Bills. Bosses. Spouses. Kids. Mortgages. Etc.

They all take a toll on your mind and your emotions.

They all are a form of stress.

And unfortunately, your body cannot tell the difference in many cases between emotional stress and physical stress.