The Kettlebell

Kettlebells are the biggest new thing amongst personal trainers for a reason - they work. I
know from personal experience that kettlebells can make a huge difference in how an athlete
performs at their peak level, and more importantly just how long they can stay at that level. I
have recommended to athletes from all walks of the sports world including football, hockey,
rugby, lacrosse and basketball players.

Kettlebells Are "Old School"

The funny thing is that when I show most people they look at me like I invented the kettlebell.
While I would love to take credit for the ingeniously simple design, it has actually been around
far longer than any of our bench presses or universal gyms have. The 1986 Soviet Weightlifting
team claimed that, "It is hard to find a sport that has deeper roots in the history of our people than
kettlebell lifting." In fact, kettlebells were so popular in 18th century Russia that any strongman
or athlete that competing in weightlifting was referred to as a "girevik" (directly translated
means "a kettlebell man"). It is no surprise that in a country such as Russia where resources can
sometimes be scarce, and where athletic results have always been so prized, kettlebells have
maintained much of their lustre. Ludvig Chaplinksiy wrote an article for a Russian Magazine in
1913 and stated that "Not a single sport develops our muscular strength and bodies as well as
kettlebell athletics." After using kettlebells for over ten years now I have a hard time disavreeing
with Mr. Chaplinksiy.

Generate Strength From The Core With Kettlebells

To understand why kettlebell training is so effective is important you realize the intrinsic problems
with the Western weightlifting doctrine that we have been taught. It has been drilled home to us
since we watched our fathers do it that truly strongmen only got strong by grinding out basic sets
of weights. Men who did this got bulging biceps and huge chests. That meant they were strong.
In fact this is not the case at all. When was the last time a football player ever curled or military
pressed an opponent? I certainly never did. What football players do on every play is explode to
100% as fast as then can and use leverage, speed, agility and power to accomplish their goals.
The key to succeeding in football and in many other sports lies right below your lower back. It is
called the gluteus maximus. Some people think this is merely a funny Greek word for buttocks,
but in fact it refers to the rotators of the hip and hamstrings (known as your posterior chain). This
is the little secret to building explosive energy.

The Next Step I n Sports.

Lately Western trainers have begun to embrace the idea that we generate power from the inside
(core) of our bodies, to our limbs and extremities. They now need to make the logical step that
the gluteus maximus is the main muscle that powers core strengths. This in turns generate
power for your whole body whether you are exploding off the line in football, powering up for a
dunk in basketball, of launching a body check in hockey.

Kettlebells aren’t that expensive and a great home set can be had for between 200 and 300
dollars. When you consider the price of home gyms and cardiovascular equipment these days
isn’t this a relative steal? Quit wasting your time and check out kettlebells online for more
information.