Kettlebell Training as a Skill & The Circumnavigator

Happy Friday - Don here.

Two announcements before we begin this week’s Fit Tip Friday newsletter.

Firstly, The Kettlebell Strength System is open!

If you’re a Christian guy who wants to lose 10+ lbs and build functional strength at home with kettlebells, this is for you.

Here are one guy’s results since joining only a few weeks ago.

Secondly, next Friday (8/16) marks the 100th Fit Tip Friday newsletter. How we got to this milestone is an act of God’s grace… but here we are!

To thank you for your readership and to celebrate this milestone, there will be an opportunity for you and your friends to win some prizes next week.

More details will be shared next week… so stay tuned!

Let’s jump into this week’s newsletter.

🔎 In This Fit Tip Friday 

 Inside you'll find:

• Tip: Kettlebell training as a skill

• Finds: How to eat like an Olympian (and more)

• Story: The circumnavigator

• Quote: Magellan’s evaluation of the ocean’s dangers

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📈 Kettlebell Training as a Skill

I started tinkering around with woodworking at the end of 2023.

My introduction to this craft began with making a few gifts… a birdhouse, a few cutting boards, a cookbook stand for my wife, things like that.

I can’t tell you how many mistakes I made at the beginning. Especially when I tried cutting joints.

A huge pile of scrap-wood grew at my feet.

But with practice, practice, and some more practice (and with hours of YouTube tutorials), I stopped contributing as frequently to the scrap pile.

I am not an expert woodworker by any means, but I did learn the basics.

And I can tell you that kettlebell training begins very much the same way.

The movements you do with a kettlebell require skill. And a lot of practice. And the willingness to have a growing pile of mistakes behind you.

But… if you are willing to approach kettlebell training like a skill, and take the time to practice and hone it, this will reframe your approach to exercise and will increase your enjoyment of it.

🔎 Finds This Week

Here are some of my favorite finds this week:

• How to eat like an Olympian (more)

• Fit for Office: How some exercise extends ministry (more)

• An NFL coach introduces kettlebells to elite athletes (more)

• This guy set the Turkish Get-Up Guinness World Record by lifting a total of 15,000+ lbs in an hour (more)

• What is bone broth, and what are the benefits? (more)

• Should you start working out barefoot? (more)

• This lower back/hamstring stretch (more)

🌏 The Circumnavigator

You can read the following post on my website if that’s preferable for you.

Stories of strength, heroes, risk takers, and bravery inspire us to get off the couch and get into action. This is one of the reasons I share a story in every newsletter.

This week’s story is about the first explorer to circumnavigate the world.

Ferdinand Magellan, born in 1480, was a Portuguese explorer who eventually sailed under the Spanish flag.

I suppose this was pragmatic more than anything else. The King of Portugal refused to endorse a western trip to the Spice Islands (east of Indonesia), while the King of Spain was more than willing to do so.

When he was 39, Magellan and his fleet of 5 ships left Spain and set out west for the Spice Islands.

This adventure is difficult for a modern mind to comprehend.

This wasn’t a cross-country road trip, or a long weekend of deep sea fishing.

This was an uncharted trip across oceans with 2-years of supplies while commandeering 5 ships with 270 rowdy sailors.

Here are some of the stories of what happened along the way:

• One of the fleet’s 5 ships was lost to a storm.

• 3 captains led an attempted mutiny against Magellan.

• Magellan found a channel through Chile that allowed him to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This route is typically foggy, cold, hazardous to cross, and it took Magellan 38 days to find his way through it to the Pacific.

• When Magellan entered the Pacific Ocean, he expected a three to four day journey to Asia… and he was off by about 3-months. 30 men died crossing the Pacific due to lack of provisions.

But the most interesting question of this story is this: what motivates a guy to do something like this? 

Magellan’s mission was to find a sailing route west to the Spice Islands instead of taking the eastern route. Which he accomplished.

But why did he do this?

Was it for glory? Notoriety? For spices to make his breakfast tacos extra tasty?

While the complete historical answer to this question is outside the scope of a newsletter for Christian men interested in fitness… I do want to offer one observation in the form of a question that is of particular interest to Christians.

When Magellan made it to the Spice Islands, what did he do? Did he load up with spices and immediately go home?

He stayed in the area and taught the people there about Jesus.

In fact, after Magellan spent several weeks in the Philippines, there were over 2,000 converts to Christianity.

Food for thought. And put some spices on that food.

👍 Did You Like What You Read?

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I’ll see you next week.

Be strong,

Don

P.S… Tired of spending time commuting to a gym?

In the 30-40 minutes it takes you to drive to and from the gym, you could already be done with a workout at home.

The Kettlebell Strength System is designed to help you save time by exercising at home.