“The Kettlebell is an Ancient Russian Weapon Against Weakness.” -Pavel Tsatsouline

The kettlebell, or girya as originally called in Russia, is a much-misunderstood tool. It is so misunderstood that many people don’t know what they’re even called. Kettlebell. Not kettleball. No such thing as a kettleball. Get it right!

The kettlebell was originally designed to weigh crops. Put a 20kg bell on one end of an apothecary scale, ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecaries%27_system ) put enough crops to even it out; congrats, you have 20kg of crops!

Naturally, the cannonball-shaped crop measuring devices quickly gained popularity among farmers as a way to compete with each other. They would compete to see who could pick up the heaviest bell, how far they could throw them, and to see how many times they could lift them. Fast-forward hundreds of years, and the kettlebell is used similarly for fitness and sport across the world.

Enter the Kettlebell

What makes the kettlebell so special is its versatility. It’s a small and compact weight, much like the dumbbell. But unlike a dumbbell, the handle is away from the weight, not between the bulk of the weight. This odd shape allows the weight to be swung, dynamically changing the direction of the weight, demanding a lot more coordination and reactive stability: kind of like what happens in sports!

Ever heard of “weight room strong”? As you may have brilliantly guessed, that refers to someone who is strong in the weight room. Being strong is a good thing of course, but it doesn’t automatically translate to being the strongest on the playing field. I can think of dozens of guys I played baseball with who were far bigger and stronger than me but couldn’t throw a fastball harder than me. Those guys may have been weight room strong, but I was stronger on the pitching mound. Why is that?

Turns out, there is more to athleticism than how much you bench or squat. Again, being strong in the big lifts is generally a good thing, but putting Ferrari parts into a Honda Civic doesn’t make it a Ferrari. The body has an entire kinetic chain that it uses to create forceful, athletic movements. You can have incredibly strong quadzilla legs and a chest built like a God, but if you don’t know how to explosively use the fast twitch muscle fibers between those strong muscle groups, performance will suffer.

And that’s where the kettlebell specializes. The kettlebell is not a great tool if bodybuilding is the goal. Bodybuilding focuses on specific muscles, trying to make them individually grow as much as possible: weight room strong. A kettlebell workout focuses on strong movements, not parts. It taxes the entire body. Rarely does a single muscle or small group of muscles get tired from a kettlebell exercise. This makes the kettlebell an incredible piece of equipment for developing explosive power, total body tension, stability, coordination, mobility, and many movement patterns useful in athletics. These attributes also make them powerful tools for fat loss.

Kettlebells for Athletes

Every sport and every athlete is different. It’s no secret that football players need to lift more weights than swimmers do. Meanwhile, soccer and cross-country athletes need to prioritize training their legs more than their upper bodies. Different sports require different training programs. However, the kettlebell can be the perfect tool to meet many of the demands of all athletes. There are literally thousands of exercises that can be done with kettlebells, but a few universal exercises can promote progress towards all goals. Here are 5 kettlebell exercises every athlete should do regularly.

1 Kettlebell Swing

Perhaps the King of all kettlebell exercises. This movement creates explosive hips, a stable core, and will jack up your heart rate. Every athlete can benefit from that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cVT3ee9mgU

2 Turkish Get-Up

I’ll be honest: nobody likes this exercise. But nobody likes broccoli either (you’re lying if you disagree). And veggies are good for you, so do the exercise! The turkish get-up (TGU) is a fantastic exercise that works on total body mobility and stability, a great movement for injury prevention. Just be sure you pick a weight you can lift safely, and go slow with your technique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13OVvvR7byo

For extra spice in your life, try the TGU bottoms up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZC7OItFAAk

3 Goblet Squat

I’m cheating a little. This one can be easily done with a dumbbell as well. However, the kettlebell version is superior because it demands a lot more grip strength, and you want a stronger grip, I promise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45dZiT5tSD8

4 Carries

Kettlebell carries opens up a whole new world of exercises. They all develop core strength/stability, grip strength andshoulder strength to varying degrees. Get good at carrying things, get better at life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCwJWE67aU

5 Bottoms up Presses (for overhead athletes)

Not every athlete needs to work on their overhead strength and stability, but it is very useful for overhead athletes and for all of us in life in general. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5PcL_WIx94

As I said, there are many more kettlebell exercises, and many more would be useful to certain athletes in different sports. Kettlebells can range in weights from 2lbs to 200lbs. They can be used for all movement patterns of pushing, pulling, squatting and hinging. The possibilities are endless.

As with anything, start slow, as there is a learning curve. Throwing around a cannonball with a handle is dangerous when you don’t know what you’re doing with it. Master the kettlebell exercises, and you yourself will become dangerous. Happy lifting, comrade!

Enter the Kettlebell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKx8xE8jJZs