kettle bells

What the heck are kettlebells and can they really get me in shape?

If you have ever seen someone working out with a kettlebell but had no idea what one was, you might have thought they you were watching someone who went a little crazy and started swinging cannonballs over their head for no apparent reason. The fact is kettlebells are one of the most effective ways to get lean, strong, and increase cardiovascular performance in existence.

Ok, let’s go back in time a few years…maybe a few HUNDRED years to the beginning of kettlebell history. The actual exact history is a bit fuzzy, but the best info I can gather dates kettlebells back to a 1704 Russian dictionary. It seems the bells were originally used as counter weights in Russian markets. To pass the time and test each other’s strength, some of the more adventurous Russian shop owners began lifting and throwing around the weights. They would test the strength of each other to see how heavy and how many times one of the bells could be lifted. This practice graduated into Russian Kettlebells becoming an extremely popular Russian sport and their go to activity for increasing strength for sports and military training. In fact, instead of using pushups and pull-ups as a means of testing strength as the US military does, the Russian Military uses a Kettlebell Snatch test using a 53 pound bell.

So, can these “cannonballs with handles” help you get you in shape? The answer is a definite YES. The principle of just about every kettlebell lift is one of a FULL BODY movement. That means that when you are moving the kettlebell, you are using every muscle in your entire body. Recruiting more muscle means burning more calories, building more calories, and building your cardiovascular system to the max! While dumbbells can be very effective for isolation exercises such as dumbbell bicep curls, they are not designed to be effective tools for multi-planar compound movements. Kettlebells are PERFECTLY designed for these types of exercises. The round bell coupled with the handle that extends FROM the weight instead of being in the same plane such as with the dumbbell make the lifts both challenging and effective. Let’s take the kettlebell swing for instance, which is the core kettlebell movement.

kbswing

The kettlebell swing is a movement that uses your entire body to swing the kettlebell through your legs and then forward and up to eye level or even high. To understand the physics involved, think about an old wooden catapult. You have this large wooden frame that uses a counter balance and a long arm to launch a heavy weight through the air. Ok, so when doing the kettlebell swing, YOU are the catapult, and the weight you are launching is the kettlebell. What about the counter balance you ask? Great question and this is the beauty of how the kettlebell can be so effective as an exercise tool. You see, the counterbalance is your CORE. The catapult is made of wood, so it can’t self stabilize itself using muscles so it must rely on extremely heavy weights to get the job done. You, on the other hand, can simply imply the techniques of core stabilization to make sure you stay in one place and can move the kettlebell through space. This one principle alone makes the kettlebell swing one of the most effective core workouts ever. Add to that fact that the motion of the swing allows the weight of the bell to be transferred throughout your entire body and you have the makings of a super workout.Fast, efficient, and FUN.

Kettlebells aren’t necessarily designed to make you BULKY, but instead, they get you ripped, lean, and extremely strong. They work with the principles of functional strength. Make sure that you employ the talents of a certified kettlebell instructor your first time or two because while the principles are fairly easy to understand, if you do it wrong, it can HURT. Good luck and happy kettlebelling!

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