SEATTLE—For Adrian Cowens, picking up a kettlebell wasn’t just opening a door to a way to get in better shape, it ended up being a matter of life or death. While in his mid-30’s Adrian was fighting obesity, hypertension and kidney failure. “This was my epiphany moment that there needed to be drastic changes made if I was going to have the life that I wanted to enjoy.” Said Cowens, who at one time also faced a potentially fatal health problem of congestive heart failure.
Cowens joined Seattle Kettlebell Club and with the help of owner and professional trainer Nikolai Puchlov, managed to lose his first 20 pounds in just the first six to eight weeks of training. Along with starting a healthier diet, Cowens managed to lose 90 pounds during his first 10 months of kettlebell training. “Although I was being consistent in my eating and my workout plan, I found myself on a plateau. I then decided that perhaps now was the time to add a kettlebell competition to my active lifestyle pyramid” said Cowens. “Nikolai started working with me doing 60 minute kettlebell sport training and in 22 months I lost another 30 pounds.”
On August 8th, Cowens and seven other members of the Seattle Kettlebell Club will be participating in the 4th annual Northern California Kettlebell Sport Championship in Berkeley, California. The competition will feature representatives from all over the country.
Cowens says the hardest part of a 10-minute long competition set is something he calls “the valley of darkness” which is about minute four or five to eight or nine. “You are just standing on the platform holding the bells and everything in your body is screaming at you to put them down, but somehow you keep pumping out reps.” Cowens said of the difficult exercise, “I liken it to when the Space Shuttle is reentering the atmosphere. You lose radio contact with mission control, there are flames surrounding the shuttle, everything is shaking so violently you think there is no way this is going to hold together. Then you gradually breakthrough the atmosphere at about the eight or nine minute mark and you realize you are going to live and you get kind of euphoric.”
ABOUT SEATTLE KETTLEBELL CLUB:
Seattle Kettlebell Club is dedicated to the education and advancement of kettlebell lifting for fitness and sport through personal training, classes and workshops. Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SeattleKettlebellClub and be sure to visit our website at: www.seattlekettlebellclub.com
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