Russian kettlebells blog & shop

Kettlebell training is now becoming mainstream all across the United States.  So what are kettlebells exactly?  Kettlebells, which originated in Russia, are a cast iron weight shaped like a basketball with a handle. Many famous Russian athletes made themselves strong by using kettlebells in their workout sessions.  Russian athletes training with kettlebells have gone on to have successful Olympic careers! Russian kettlebells have been a long time favorite of many people in the Soviet Region, and now Americans are starting to develop an interest in them as well.

Russian Kettlebells offer a lot of benefits to body-builders, athletes, and anyone else interested in fitness.  Kettlebells are very helpful with both fat loss and muscle gain.  Fitness enthusiasts consider Russian kettlebells to be a piece of equipment that they can’t do without.

According to research, kettlebells are the best tools that offer all around fitness.  Research has even shown that kettlebell training can single-handedly help a person lose weight and tone up without the use of any other exercising equipment!  It’s possible to lose weight without even dieting, just as long as a person exercises with kettlebells.

Russian kettlebells are made for women and men of all different sizes. They come in “poods”, which is an old Russian measure of weight. One pood equals approximately 35 pounds.  It’s recommended by experts that the average man starts out with a 35 pound (1 pood) kettlebell, and the average woman should start out with a 16 pound one.  Strong men can advance to 70 pound kettlebells, and women can advance to 35 pound ones.  Kettlebell techniques can be learned within just one week!

Russian Kettlebells can be used for squatting, swinging, rotating, lunging, pressing, rowing, and more!  The upper body and lower body both can benefit from training with kettlebells.
They can be implemented in a variety of different exercises.

Kettlebells are also a saving grace for those who can’t afford a gym membership; cheap kettlebells can be purchased online by any man or woman interested in fitness.  All though many companies across the world are making kettlebells, Russian kettlebells are thought by many to be the best.  If you’re interested in exercising with kettlebells, it’s best that you start out by purchasing only one. Buying one Russian kettlebell is enough to get you started, and you should take your training easy for the first week or so.  Don’t overwork yourself with Russian kettlebells; you do not want to burn yourself out.

When you feel that you’re ready for the next step, then you may purchase a pair of Russian kettlebells. Make sure you don’t purchase the heaviest kettleball pair you can find.  Buying one pair of moderately heavy Russian kettlebells will get you going through your next few weeks of training. Cheap Russian kettlebells can be found on our online store here, and you will want to make sure you get your money’s worth.  If you don’t strain yourself and take things slowly, you will get maximum usage out of your Russian kettlebells and they will be worth every dime!

* Accelerate the development of all-purpose strength—to easily handle the toughest and most unexpected demands
* Boosts your physical resilience—to repel the hardest hits
* Builds your staying power—because the last round decides all
* Ensures the correct blend of strength with flexibility—because strength that fails to reach is impotent
* Hacks your fat off—without the dishonor of dieting and aerobics
* Forges a fighter’s physique—so form matches function

Dumbbell training can be greatly improved by applying kettlebell program design. Dumbbells are one of the most effective pieces of equipment in your physical training toolbox. Unfortunately, most men and women don’t use dumbbells to their full potential, and miss out on the true muscle building, fat burning and fitness improving benefits. Ironically, the rise in popularity of kettlebell training has provided the means for resurrecting dumbbell exercise.

For those of you who don’t know, a kettlebell is basically a cast iron ball with a handle. They have been used by Russians and strongmen across the world for centuries for effective physical training. There is no doubt in my mind, this barbaric tool is brutally effective.

But, the greatest contribution of training with kettlebells is not its shape. You see, kettlebells are not adjustable. They are a solid mass of unchanging weight. (Obviously, you can get kettlebells in different weights, but workout can be conducted with one kettlebell and one weight.) This seems to go against popular exercise programs that change weights according to the muscle group they are training.

So, can you really get a great workout with only one weight? Absolutely!

Using only one weight, people training with kettlebells are forced to use their imagination and ingenuity to create workout programs to improve the entire body. (This is similar to the challenge facing bodyweight calisthenics, where the weight of your body stays the same.) And, the results are spectacular. Using only one weight and one kettlebell you CAN simultaneously improve all-around fitness, build a strong, athletic body and burn off ugly, unwanted fat.

But as much as I love kettlebell training, I’m here today to talk about improving your dumbbell training. The fact is, most people don’t have access to kettlebells, but DO have access to dumbbells. So, why not use the effective workout methods designed for kettlebells with dumbbells?

You see, the effectiveness of kettlebell training proves that the commonly help belief that you need a room full of equipment and a large quantity of different weights to create your best performance body. So, using the same methods of kettlebell training with dumbbells, you can get a great full body workout that improves muscular strength, power and endurance while SIMULTANEOUSLY boosting cardiorespiratory endurance and burning large quantities of fat.

So, here is what I suggest.

Stop thinking of you body as a combination of specific muscles. This is what bodybuilders do. They split the body into different muscles and try to target the muscles for maximum muscle growth. But I want you to start thinking of the body as a whole. And to train the body as a whole you need to use compound exercises than use as many muscles as possible to complete the exercise.

You see, fitness has nothing to do with muscle size. Fitness is a combination of cardiorespiratory endurance, strength, power, flexibility, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy and toughness. And using only one dumbbell, of one weight, you can target all these physical abilities and create a performance body that not only performs great, but that looks great as well!

The effectiveness of kettlebell training is a mind opening experience. “Traditional” methods of using different weights to target different muscles are thrown out the window. Applied to dumbbells, kettlebell program design builds fit, lean, strong, athletic bodies.

Isn’t it time you go the most out of your dumbbell training by applying kettlebell program design?

Take a look at the kettlebells in the store here

They say first impressions last the longest. In the case of kettlebells, my first impression was way off. I was formally introduced to kettlebells about three years ago by my colleague Josh Henkin during one of our weekend training sessions. My wife got hooked on them and almost immediately started looking for them on eBay. To say I was a little hesitant about kettlebells would be an understatement. As a matter of fact, when I learned that she had purchased a pair of 12 kg kettlebells, I believe my comment was something like, “You can do the exact same thing with dumbbells.”

My how things have changed. I now have at least 10 kettlebells in my facility and will probably add a few more in the relatively near future. I also drag around another six or so in my truck for my outdoor fitness camps. I’m sure some of you are thinking that I have gone and drunk the proverbial kool-aid.

No, what actually happened was I realized two things.

1. All of the best coaches that I know use them for many different types of clients. Whether they’re coaching for athletic development, fat-loss, powerlifting or hypertrophy, you will likely see kettlebells being used during some portion of a training day. There must be some merit to the implement if all those guys use them with their clients.

2. As a coach and businessman, I can’t afford to ignore such a versatile implement. I have a limited amount of square footage and a limited budget so it is important for me to invest in equipment that I can get a lot out of in a small amount of space.

In other words, kettlebells are just too big a deal and too good a tool to ignore. Whether you are a fitness competitor or a powerlifter, there are many reasons you should at least consider kettlebells. These are my top 10:

1. Pound for pound they are the best piece of home equipment you can purchase. Not nearly as expensive, and they take up a helluva a lot less space than the “clothes hanger” err… treadmill many of you have. For a modest investment, you can get a kettlebell, an instructional DVD, and probably one or two sessions with a local instructor - a much more effective start to a fitness program than “some assembly required.”

2. Price Point - They say duplication is the highest form of flattery. Well, that must be true in the case of kettlebells. It used to be that you could only get kettlebells at Dragon Door. Now there are no fewer than a half-dozen other distributors out there. Are they all the same quality bell? No, but if you do a little research and ask around, you can find out who is selling the best bell at the best price.

3. Instant Feedback Loop - One of the keys to coaching is having the client/athlete understand the difference between proper and improper technique. With the kettlebell, drills such as cleans and snatches provide clients/athletes with instant feedback. The way the kettlebell falls gives them a not so subtle reminder of their improper technique, and after a workout or two, they won’t have any trouble with the technique at all.

4. Teach Olympic Lifts Fast - The bane of teaching Olympic lifting has always been that the lifts are difficult to teach. Kettlebells make an excellent segue. Not only can you teach variants of the Olympic lifts but things can be taken back a notch farther. One of the first things you learn, even in the most basic kettlebell drills, is hip drive.

5. Great for Fat-Loss - I don’t know if there is a better, more easily learned drill than a two-handed kettlebell swing. There are so many different complexes available that the opportunities for ass-kicking fat-loss work are endless. If you could do only one drill, this is it because what you need for fat-loss is to move a load for as long as possible. That’s exactly what kettlebells allow you to do and you can add some speed as well.

Properly designed kettlebell workouts can:

* Increase your strength
* Decrease your body fat
* Shape your body
* Decrease stress
* Increase your energy level
* Increase your flexibility
* Increase your endurance