Written by I was recently reminded of the existence of Kettlebells after seeing them for sale in the unlikely venue of a high street supermarket. Kettlebells tend to enter and leave the weight trainer’s consciousness from time to time and they are still rarely seen in gyms around the country. One wonders why they’ve suddenly turned up on supermarket shelves bit any promotion has to be good news.
So what are Kettlebells? To start with they emanate from Russia, where weight training
Kettlebell
is something of a national sport. Russia has a history of respect for strongmen (the literal, not the political kind) and training for strength has long been a way of gaining local fame. Regional strongman contests have a long history and the winners were known as Bogatirs.
Kettlebells seem to have been devised with strength training in mind and were often used as the tests of strength in strongman competitions. Bogatirs also became known as a Girevik (Kettlebell man). Use in competitions almost certainly led to the unusual design of the weights involved. They look like a cannonball attached to a handle and are traditionally made out of solid iron. They of course are manufactured in a a variety of sizes to cater for all strengths and are credited with, among other things, helping the Russian army maintain excellent levels of fitness and strength.
Their attraction lies in the manner that exercises can be performed. Rather then just lifting the weight up and down as with standard free weights techniques, the handle on a Kettlebell allows the user to move the weight in many more directions, twisting the hand around the handle and essentially performing several different exercises at once. As with all routines, beginners can perform more basic exercises while working up to more complex ones. As a beginner, technique is very important as one can be moving several parts of the body at once.
Have a look elsewhere on this site for Kettlebell exercises.