I am a 44 young Swed with a back ground in Bodybuilding before my eyes was opened to the system of RKC.
I did some national competition in Sweden for 4 years and had pretty good placings.
On account of a stress related sickness (PTSD) i had to stop doing Bodybuilding and left that way of training with big trouble in my shoulders, always trying to lift heavy with no real knowledge made me pay the price.
I stopped training for a year and under that period my shoulder started to act up big time. I had so much pain and mobility issue that it was horrible.
I missed my training but couldn't be in a gym (to much noise) but a friend of mine (who was going to a RKC instructor curse) showed me a Kettlebell, it was the first time i saw one and i fell in love with this black piece of iron.
I started to train and as most of us who think we can train i didnt seek up real knowledge direct.
But after a couple of month manhandling this nice piece of iron i started to read and trying to understand how to use it by reading Enter the Kettlebell by Pavel Tsatsouline.
Right there and then i got that my knowledge was not that much and i had to learn more, and were do you seek knowledge ? thats right at the best and that was the RKC.
Starting to train (yeas i say train because that was what i did) for my RKC instructor curse in Denmark 2009 i got more pain in my shoulders. I went to a Doctor and he said that i had impeachment on both shoulders and wanted to operate them. But that would mean no RKC and that was not an opinion.
I started to do my TGU and swing a lot and my shoulder got better by the time the Denmark trip was up.
At the RKC i learn a lot of good movement to fix my shoulder even more when i came home. But as many of us new RKC do i started to do a lot of crazy stuff thinking i knew Kettlebell and soon did my shoulders act up again. 6-7 month later i went to Dennis Frisch (Former TLRKC) and he showed me the Swing and i just started to understand what its all about. The Swing is not called Center of Universe for nothing. I went back home and started over again doing the basics TGU, Swings and Presses but not in a training way but as in PRACTICE.
In May 2010 i went to CK-FMS and that was one of the best thing i have done (that and RKC), now i started to hear not just listening what was saying. Pavel, Gray Cook, Brett Jones, David Whitley, Doc Cheng Jeff O`Conner and more of the best teachers was there and i was like a sponge taking in all that i could.
Mobility, stability and a lot of PRACTICE was the big thing i learned there ( and much more) so on the arrival home i started my new life. The weekend after CK-FMS i was an assisting instructor on the Danish RKC and i put everything in to work by LEARNING the basic and UNDERSTAND them as i saw others doing them and i was correcting the new RKC (that helps to understand what you are doing because you have to think hard to give as correct info as possible and do it safe, i love teaching). After an awesome weekend i had learn so much and i was on my way to understand it better.
I started to practice my lifts not training them as before, like the TGU going light to get the mobility right and then go heavy to get the stability and doing them slow so i didn't jump over the weak links i my have. Packing my shoulder, keeping the chest out, go correct every time (after that Doc had made us doing the TGU without weight but it should take at least 3 minutes to do one i learned to practice it) using my back when i did presses and Swings. Keep my shoulders in place by have the back work.
As soon as i started to get mobility i felt like it was easier to get the stability. So it was no brainer that i started to take the mobility serious, and do you know what? i became stronger.
My shoulders wasn't sore any more and my posture was way better. And at that time i bought two DVD,s Lats the super muscle by Mark Reikind Master RKC and Deepening your Getup Skills by David Whitley Master RKC and they are explaining the things i started to understand.
So it has gone one year since i went to CK-FMS and understood to listening and hear what all my good teachers at the RKC told me and do you know what? no shoulder pain and i am stronger and i have more mobility then i have had in a loooong time.
So what will i say with this? Listing learning practice and you will get better not only how you lift but how you fell
Joakim Bohm RKC, CK-FMS and CICS