My training has been Kettlebell & weight vest based for about five years. Now I have torn my tendons in my shoulder I am strongly urged to return to conventional bodybuilding.

This will mean selling my vests, kettlebells and clubbells and returning to the gym.

Back to dumbells, barbells and machines for 2017. I’m going to do it & my focus for cardio will be indoor rowing & outdoor cycling.

It will mean isolation training and a four or five day split routine. No more functional training. No more full body workouts. No more crossfit style workouts.

Call it periodization if you want but I am going to totally change how I train this coming new year.

Kettlebell based training is overtraining for the shoulders. Weight vests just make it worse. It was fun but its time for me to return to that which is best.

Healthy bodybuilding and cardio.

…But I’m about four months into healing this injury now. In another 2 months I will be able to comfortably rack & press the KB’s again with light weight. I can rack the 16kg now with my injured shoulder without pain.

Its a difficult decision that would be much easier if there was a nearby gym I really like. But there is not.

If I do continue with the KB’s and vests there will be some big changes safety wise. This will mean adding shoulder braces, slowly building up to greater weights and much more attention to joint health. There does not seem to be any safe way to put a heavy and awkward vest on or off.

Time will tell & this injury is so inconvenient that a repeat is definitely not acceptable.