Profile:

Tyler Hass

It seems like almost a dream, but it has been a year since I started lifting kettlebells. I feel like a completely different person from the way I was a year ago of course, I have a hypothesis about why this is. I recently read an article that discussed the effects of exercise on gene expression. It said that a sedentary person and an intensely active person look completely different from one another in terms of the way their set of genes are used. I take this to mean that I really am a different person, due to the radically different environment I have created for myself. I certainly look different, despite the fact that I only weigh five pounds more than I used to. More striking is the difference in the way I move. I feel so much more dynamic and powerful than I was before I started lifting kettlebells.

I was introduced to Pavel's evil methods of strength training the summer before my freshman year of college. I picked up a copy of Relax into Stretch at my local bookstore, not really knowing what to expect. I was struck by the blend of science and common sense in Pavel's book, so I started applying it immediately. I did not realize that Pavel was also a strength expert, so it was a leap of faith when I ordered Power to the People. To this day it is still my favorite book. After I doubled my strength in two months, I was hooked on strength training because I had finally discovered the proper way to train.
This is also the time when I discovered the Dragon Door forum. At first Kettlebells looked like a novelty item to me, but I kept hearing about them on the forum. I decided to take another chance on Pavel and purchase his Russian Kettlebell Challenge video. After watching, it I headed straight to the gym and tried swings with a 25lb dumbbell. I had never experienced anything like it before. It felt powerful and I knew I was working every muscle in my body. After the first workout I felt like I had been hit by a Mac truck; my lungs were on fire, my heart was racing and despite my tiredness, I had a grin on my face. After a week of trying RKC with dumbbells, I decided to invest in a Kettlebell and I haven't looked back since.

When I first started working with the 1 pood bell, I thought that it would fly out of my hands at any moment. I did not even dare to snatch it. I spent the first week doing nothing but swings and presses. Over the next month I worked through most of the exercises presented in the video. I was now snatching for sets of ten and I could really tell that I was improving. My t-shirts were also starting to fit a little bit differently because of my sprouting traps. I also noticed how much quicker I was around the tennis court. My speed was becoming one of my weapons, something that is important on any athletic field. Seriously, speed kills and every athlete knows this. I enjoyed playing tennis simply for the opportunity to go fast, to knock the carbon out of my engine and to run down tough shots with time to spare. That winter, I could feel my game reaching a new level.
Shortly after tennis team tryouts, in late January, I had a disaster. I was performing barbell power cleans in the weight room. I had been taught to lower the weight by dropping it and catching it at my thighs before setting it on the ground. It was much quieter this way. Unfortunately, I tweaked my back using this faulty technique and 15 minutes later I was lying down in bed hoping this was not serious as I writhed in pain for the next few hours. I was in horrible pain, but it slowly went away over the next ten days. Unfortunately, I decided that it would be okay to pull a few light deadlifts to test how much my back had healed after two weeks. Everything was fine, until on the last set I felt a horrible pain in my back. I knew right then that I had done something horribly wrong. I spent the next weeks limping around, unable to sit in a chair for more than 15 minutes and sidelined for the rest of the tennis season. When I tested the recovery of my back that day, rather than just a test, I tried to turn it into a "workout" and that was my big mistake.

I have to thank Scott Sonnon, because it was his MaxPEC program that got me through the next few months. I had to completely recover the mobility of my spine and hips. After a few months of rehabilitation, I finally started lifting my kettlebell again. I was out of shape and my lungs started catching fire immediately, but surprisingly it did not irritate my back. Gradually I started to train more aggressively and I quickly regained the strength and confidence in my body that I had lost. I even returned to playing tennis, but my speed was gone. My back was still interfering with the drive from my hips. My tennis skills also suffered, because the rest of my body was accommodating for my injured back. Each compensation was probably very small, but the end result might angle the racket off by three degrees, but this was enough to miss shots. Despite my frustration, I woke up an hour early ever morning so that I could do a comprehensive joint health program. Later in the day I lifted kettlebells or practiced my tennis on a ball machine. My persistence paid off and by the time I arrived home for summer, I felt stronger than ever before.

That summer I met Pavel for the first time at his kettlebell workshop in Seattle. I was incredibly impressed by him. Not only his strength, but his teaching abilities, sincerity and of course, his sense of humor. He encouraged me to start up the Seattle Russian Kettlebell Club, which I did. We started out with about five members, but it was great. I met some very strong and knowledgeable people. The club has grown to over thirty members since that first meeting. I also decided to take my training up a notch. After months of enjoying my 1 pood kettlebell, I decided that it was time to invest in more kettlebells, a 1.5 and a 2 pood. Since then my strength has skyrocketed. I feel stronger with every workout and I frequently exceed goals that looked so far away a year ago. Recently I bottoms-up pressed a 1.5 pood kettlebell and I feel like I'm closing in on pressing the 2 pood. My back pain is history, in fact, I am beginning to feel like one of those fortunate people with an "iron back". I am also more explosive than ever. I have not tried dunking a basketball yet, but I can now stuff a tennis ball through the hoop. I am now as strong with the 1.5 as I was with the 1 pood when I started training. When I show people what I do with a kettlebell, they are always surprised by how easy it looks, especially after they heft it off the ground with both hands. It is possible to be strong without having huge muscles and I know that I am nowhere near the limit of what I can do with my body. Starting at an average level of conditioning (for an athlete), I got into the best shape of my life twice in one year with the help of kettlebells. My next year of training will be interesting, because I now have the knowledge and the tools to train for any goal I can think of.

Tyler Hass is the publisher of Girevik Magazine and founder of the Seattle Russian Kettlebell Club.