What’s Old is New Again – Kettlebells!

Posted by Happy Fit Group Fitness on Jun 21, 2010 in What's old is new | 5 comments

Please read the much anticipated article about kettlebells from Happy Fit’s guest blogger Josh!

Kettlebells

Today’s spotlight is on one of my absolute favorite pieces of workout equipment – the Russian Kettlebell.  The kettlebell or “girya” (Russian) is a cast iron weight looking somewhat like a cannonball with a handle.   I can imagine the creation of the kettlebell was a short and productive affair.  One can assume that a battle-hardened army general in Russia was looking to save a little money on cannons, gunpowder and the lot and figured attaching handles to cannonballs would be easier.  This way his troops could just throw them.  As it turns out, throwing cannonballs as a military tactic never caught on, but they did discover a pretty incredible fat shredding, muscle conditioning ball of wickedness.

The first recorded mention of Kettlebells was in 1704 within a Russian dictionary though some argue Noah used one to anchor the Arc at one point when they stopped to let the animals stretch their legs. Kettlebells gained recognition as a superb weight loss tool when they were featured in the fitness magazine Hercules in 1913. In the recent history of the Kettlebell, they have become increasingly popular within the United States thanks to a man named Pavel Tsatsouline. Tsatsouline is a fitness author who used to be a trainer for not only the United States armed forces but the Soviet Union forces as well. Once the United States noticed that they could not endure as long as their Russian counterparts within competitions, they began incorporating the kettlebell into their training routines. I don’t need to remind anybody of what happened to Apollo Creed when he dramatically underestimated Ivan Drago in Rocky 4.

Some skeptics try to desperately attribute Dragos strength to his white training uni-tard, but I strongly believe it was the Kettelbells. Today, the Kettlebell is being introduced into the fitness routines of the everyday person, as their benefits have proven them to be one of the most useful tools for building strength, not to mention the surplus of kettlebells in Russia keep it from drifting into the Arctic Circle.

As the long history of the Kettlebell proves, it has many benefits to offer those who use it on a regular basis. These benefits include:

• The building of endurance.
• Toning and Strengthening of almost every muscle of the body.
• Overall resistance to injury.
• Increases flexibility.
• Helps you to shed fat.
• Gives you the freedom to get an intense workout from home.
• Noticeable results in less time than traditional resistance training.

The foundation kettlebell exercise is the kettlebell swing. The swing can be done with 1 or 2 hands. It involves hiking the kettlebell between your legs before using your hips and posterior chain to propel the kettlebell forward and up in a circular swing movement before it drops under control back between your legs. Proper in-person instruction is a must when starting any kettlebell program due to risk of injury.

Swings develop the important posterior chain muscles of the body such as the hamstrings, glutes, core and back. These muscles are often overlooked with traditional weight training but they are crucial for a large number of sports as these muscles are heavily involved in sprinting, jumping and tackling movements. Another bonus of kettlebells is that due to their unique shape their uneven load and movement mimics everyday activities like carrying in bags of groceries, lifting paint cans, etc. They truly help build a functional foundation of fitness.

The above are only some of the benefits a program of kettlebell swings can provide. Although it sounds too good to be true there is a downside of kettlebell swings … they are hard work. However, if you build into your program gradually, a program based around kettlebell swing movements will provide fantastic workouts to get you fit, lean and healthy in a surprisingly short amount of time, but most importantly, if you find yourself behind enemy lines in deep Siberia at some point your knowledge of the kettlebell will no doubt buy you credibility with their military not to mention the trust of their snow tigers.