Pretty good place to start, right?
First of all let me explain what they’re not. They are not a doorstop!! I’ve lost count of the amount of ladies that have joined our indoor facility in Northampton that have said they brought a kettlebell in the past and now use it as a doorstop! Needless to say they’re not used for that purpose any more.
What are these strange cast iron objects that are appearing in gyms up and down the country right now and how do they work?
Very brief history:
I suppose it looks a bit like a cannonball with a handle and dates back to 18th century Russia! In fact the Russian military have been using them for years (and anyone that’s seen Rocky 4 will have an idea of how tough those Russians are!).
It wasn’t until the 1980 Olympics, when the Russians swept gold in the throwing events that people started to look at the reasons why they had such phenomenal success. The big secret that the Russians had been keeping from the World were that their athletes had been training with kettlebells.
Then an ex military national kettlebell lifter named Pavel Tsatsouline brought this training technique to the USA and made it mainstream. As ever, it takes a while for the UK to catch up with anything like this, but over the last few years the appetite for kettlebells has increased exponentially.
Why the hype though?
Good question. Not only are professional athletes and sports people using them as part of their training programme as a fitness tool but following extensive research by the American Council of Exercise (ACE), it has been proven that the calorie burning potential of kettlebells can only be matched by quick uphill cross country skiing. If you haven’t tried this before, it’s really mental and burns gazillions of calories.
Ahhhhh – Now I Get It!
Yep. It’s a fat stripper. In fact it’s a fat stripper that comes with huge credibility. It’s got a history. It’s not a gimmick. In all honesty it completely outshines all this other fad stuff that keeps being bought to market like the abdominizer (not even sure I’ve spelt that right).
But there’s more to it than that….
You see, if you just go out for a run or start doing a bit of zumba then you’re burning calories but you’re not actually building any muscle. I’m not talking about bulking up right now. I’m talking about getting some of that quality lean tissue back that you lose when you get older and have kids.
The beauty of kettlebell training is that because you’re working your muscles with the weight you start to preserve and add to that good stuff. For example with the kettlebell swing, your stabilizing muscles around your back and abdomen are forced to engage to counteract the momentum of the bell. This leads to a tight butt and strong abs!
Still not finished yet…
Due to kettlebell training forcing the body to work as one integrated unit with multi directional moves it burns more calories in less time than conventional weight training or cardio. Now I know that time is a big issue for many, so to find something that can blast up to 500 calories in just 25 minutes of training is pretty damn convenient.
Bookmark this site for loads of training tips, free videos and up to date fat loss recipes that will compliment your kettlebell workouts.
Ricky
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