I am one of two of my parents' children and I am the oldest son. So being the big brother I always took on my responsibility in making sure that my little brother would be tough enough to play the sports and be competitive with other kids his age. I did this by making sure to participate in years of physical torture and normal aggravation towards him in the role that all older brothers generally take part in, at least to some degree. This awesome job that I did in being the big brother has certainly paid off with his kettlebell training. I guess I knew all that big brother torment would eventually payoff somehow!

I had the fortunate opportunity to hangout with my "little" brother recently. I say that word "little" jokingly because now my so-called "little" brother stands about 6'2" and weighs in at about 220 lbs on average. I also made sure to take on my responsibility in keeping him interested in training his body long after the days of serious athletic competition. Well, like always, he met all the challenges and has certainly responded very well. He recently filled me in on how he has incorporated the iron bell into his personal program to achieve size, strength, and overall conditioning.

He used an approach that was rather simple, but the level of difficulty was immense. Basically, he explained that he was structuring a powerlifting type workout focusing on variation squats, deadlifts, and chest presses. He elaborated saying that he wanted to do a somewhat traditional powerlifting type workout with the inclusion of high volume kettlebell swings between every set of squats, deadlifts, and presses. He said that he even incorporated a normal progression of pyramiding working up to intense weight with the traditional lifts while still hitting the swings between every set. All I could say was WOW, as I followed up by asking him how long he was able to last. He said "as long as I could, and then I left the weight-room!" The result is that he has had an increase in size, strength, and overall endurance. Now I will always be the "Big" brother, but I may not try to aggravate him so much anymore without thinking twice. Ok, I've thought about it. He's not getting off that easy!