Kettle Bells for the puposeful primitive

[kbjames]

I'm brand new to all of this exercise information. I bought PP thru dragondoor. I have kettlebells and want to use KB's and body weight primarily, at least in the beginning. So, my question is:

Using the 3 day split, can I use rep counts for my progression instead of weight increases?

Can I use body weight and KB's exclusively, and if so, will that eventually lose effectiveness? My goals aren't to get huge, just to be super lean and very defined with a good functional strength and good endurance. My focus will be on cardio and weights to lose weight and increase endurance. I'm currently 5'8" and 200 pounds of out of shape goo.

Thanks in advance to everyone who shares their thoughts!
James

[dhartnet]

I think Kettlebells and "Bodyweight only" are fine, depends on your goals. Diet is very important, so study up on that for fat loss. I like K-Bells, but I just use them for the power movements (squats, delts, presses, etc). Im a life-long weight trainer (31 years now since age 11, I'm 42) so that is what I like.

Have fun with your training, work hard and eat right. Its very simple for us simple folks :>)

Even though there are many Kettlebell centric sites out there, check out Laree Drapers site (Dave's wife - davedraper.com) and there's lots of great K-Bell, bodyweight and diet info there, as well as here at Marty's site.

Any exercise is good exercise, have fun, watch your diet, and shed fat, and the muscle will come thru...

[rjpseal]

I started with kettlebells early this year and saw great improvement. I lost weight and feel great. It resurrected that hard core feeling I had in my twenties when I was a Marine. Since reading PP I've added heavy hands walking and I love it. It's great for the rest of the family too. I know many people sneer at the "dishonor of aerobics" but I feel better than I did marching across the parade deck at Parris Island. If I had to choose only one exercise I could use for the rest of my life it would have to be heavy hands walking for the sheer logic of it. Great cardio with upper body improvement and a pleasent walk all at once...what's the catch? I'd still have wet dreams about my kettlebells, though.

[tyciol]

Kettlebells seem like the perfect tool to help in developing the shoulder strength and endurance for stuff like hand-walking. You can slowly build up your upper body and torso stabilization (and the leg load doesn't hurt either) while upright so the blood rushing to your head doesn't compromise lasting ability.

Being able to isolate the different components required for hand-walking seems like an interesting idea, basically. Like I like to practice being upside down independently too (inversion table) though practicing them together is the best regardless.