by Bud Jeffries

This will continue our series on why we train with the particular tools we train with and
what they work best for. The kettlebell is an old weight that’s had most of its life in the
Baltic states. It’s split off from the dumbbell at the beginnings of manufactured steel
weights. The dumbbell went west and the kettlebell went east. Regardless of where
you think it might have come from (some people say Russia, some say Mongolia, some
the Celtic countries), it’s been reintroduced to America and the rest of the world by
extraordinary trainer Pavel Tsatsouline.

Here’s a look at some of the reasons I use it and the benefits to be had by this training.

1. It works. It’s the real deal. When they were first being re-introduced many
people scoffed at them, because they didn’t understand the methodology
behind them and just blatantly said they weren’t anything special. They were
wrong. After personally testing it I can tell you this. It is definitely one of the
top 10, all-time tools for physical strength endurance and incredible workouts.

2. The kettlebell allows you to get both muscle stimulating strength work,
explosive speed building work and unbelievable endurance work all at the
same time. That means it fits perfectly within our alternative conditioning
style. Stimulate the muscles, and blow the cardio out of the water without
taking away from strength.

3. The kettlebell stimulates tremendous abdominal contraction because of the

mostly explosive conditioning movements that you use it with. That means
you’re working your abs even when you’re not working your abs. Because of
this tremendous abdominal contraction and coordinated breathing it provides
a very high level of conditioning especially for the fighter types.

4. The kettlebell balances the need for extreme contraction that you would have
with high-level strength work and relaxation that you have with high-level
endurance work. I.e., You’re super tight when you lift a heavy weight, but lose
when you do conditioning. The kettlebell alternates periods of intense
contraction and controlled relaxation to give you a superior workout that
melds into both the strength world as well as the endurance world.

5. The shape of the kettlebell lends itself to unique exercises and its odd center of
gravity forces you to do more work, stabilizing and creating explosive
movement with the bell. The shape also allows you to use it comfortably in
exercises that are almost impossible with other implements and to do Olympic
lifts safely with a very small learning curve. It’s much easier on the wrists and
shoulders to rack kettlebell cleans and to hold for front squats than it is to use a
barbell. It’s much faster to learn one-arm kettlebell snatches than barbell
snatches and just as potent an exercise.

1
6. Many of the exercises including the main learning exercise of the kettlebell,
“The Swing,” are very general in nature. What that means is that when you do
them your whole body works together spreading the fatigue out over many
muscle groups so that you can drive your conditioning to the absolute highest
level. You’re not all that likely to stop from burn in a particular muscle group,
but you are likely to beg for mercy, because every muscle in your body is
screaming as well as your heart and lungs.

7. Ballistic movements or explosive movements that are applied to many

kettlebell exercises will take your conditioning to a very high level and are very
real-world in their application. Almost all sport is based on fast movement and
fast movement recruits more muscle fibers and heart and lung involvement for
a tougher workout.

8. The methodology behind kettlebells is unique and therefore lends itself to

many physical attributes. Normal western progression is to progress to a
limited number of reps and continually add weight to an exercise. Kettlebell
progression can include weight progression, but is often based on progression
of repetitions or to a harder exercise. Which means you can get killer strength
and endurance work without necessarily having to use the heaviest weight you
can find. You just tweak the exercise for the result that you want.

9. Many of the exercises used in kettlebell training are powerful grip builders.
This is something that carries over to both the strength and endurance world
and is lacked in many endurance exercises. SO you can be working on your
cardio and building some muscle and at the same time getting great grip work.

10. Kettlebells allow you to work the back hard without necessarily having to train
it heavy. This is hugely useful for high level lifters as well as the average guy. If
you spend a ton of time doing ridiculously heavy squats, sometimes its not the
smartest thing in the world do to heavy load-based exercises that also work the
back. So you can get plenty of back strength work without heavily loading
your spine buy using the kettlebell. For the average guy that’s going to mean a
stronger and more injury resistant back, just like it does for the heavy lifter.
Also many conditioning exercises don’t really hit the back muscles all that well,
but the kettlebell does.

11. The kettlebell mixes well with other implements and can be a tremendous
assistance exercise for barbell or strongman lifting as well as adding
conditioning in to any workout that you do. Lots of high level strongmen and
powerlifters are now using them in conjunction with their other training for
increased strength and stamina. Including and not limited to the West Side
crew, Donny Thompson, Jesse Marunde, and the Diesel Crew.

12. Kettlebells allow you to do some unique exercises, many of which at the same
time allow you to build joint strength and flexibility along with strength and
conditioning. Even the basic swing has a great hamstring stretch and other
exercises such as the windmill, and single leg deadlift also build massive
flexible strength.

13. There is an implement similar to the kettlebell in almost all the real, hard core
training cultures of ancient times. In the first paragraph of this article I said that

2
 certain people think the kettlebell came from different areas of the world.
That’s partially because there’s a kettlebell type implement in Russia, Mongolia,
Scotland, used also in the Shaolin Chinese Kung Fu training, Japanese Martial
Arts, etc.

14. Many of the people we would consider legends of the old time strongmen
trained with barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells using them all to great
advantage. If people like Arthur Saxon, Herman Goerner and many of those
other strength giants thought they were great to use, then why shouldn’t we
be using them?

15. Some very hardcore people in America and all around the world have used and
are using these kettlebells. Not mentioning the powerlifters and strongmen
that I listed above, but I’ve seen pictures of improvised kettlebells in the
training of none other than Bob Peoples (a lifter from the 40’s and 50’s who
deadlifted 725lbs at a bodyweight of 181), and was a mentor to Paul Anderson.
There are also pictures of Vasily Alexiev, the great Russian super-heavy, training
with kettlebells. My friend Dennis Rogers told me he used to do part of his arm
wrestling strength training with an improvised kettlebell. John Brookfield also
uses them all of the time. You can’t get much higher recommendation than
these guys.

16. Some of the most brilliant training minds and incredible athletes in the US
today are using them. Including, but not limited to Steve Cotter, Mike Mahler,
Jeff Martone, Brett Jones, Dave Whitely and Steve Maxwell.

17. They are a fun, addictive little toy that’s also good for you. They have been
some very enjoyable workouts for me and once you start singing that little
thing around sometimes its hard to stop.

18. They’re simple. Like anything else, the deep nuances of kettlebell training are
just like the rest of athletic training. Even the pros work on constantly keeping
their technique tight, but you can be using them safely and effectively in five
minutes. I taught my eight-year old son and my completely un-athletic sisters
how to do some basic exercises in five minutes.

19. Within our style of training the use of the kettlebell makes for some of the most
powerful strength and conditioning combos as well as some pre-exhaustion
style workouts for better strength, endurance or more powerful striking and
grappling.

20. For people who don’t have space or time or want a real fitness based workout
without going sort of “to the Dark Side,” of really heavy lifting, kettlebells might
be the ultimate workout. Even for the more hardcore guys but especially for
the beginners they help to distill high level concepts into simple terms and
exercises. This is one of the most brilliant things about Pavel Tsatsouline’s
work.

21. Even though they’re safe and simple to use, they’re just scary enough to the
average gym mullet to keep them at a safe distance away from the real
training.

3
There you have it! If you haven’t given kettlebells a try you might be missing one of
the key ingredients to taking yourself to the next level. Look for a kettlebell
instructional DVD from us in the near future. If you haven’t gotten Pavel, Jeff, Mike,
Steve or … uh… Steve’s materials yet, well it’s all bad to the bone stuff.

Also look for more Twisted Kettlebell info and workouts coming up on this site as well
as our new books, “Twisted Conditioning” and “Super Strength & Endurance for
Martial Arts.”

Learn More About Kettlebells - http://www.dragondoor.com/p10.html?kbid=1925