The Kettlebell…What’s all the fuss?
Whether you have trained all your life or you are completely new to strength training, if you haven’t experienced training with a Kettlebell, chances are there are qualities of fitness that for you are under-developed or even absent…So why all the fuss about a cannonball with a handle on it? Well, in my opinion, it is because they are well-suited to fill a gap that most people never realize they have.
When I first began using kettlebells in my training, I was at a point of burnout. I was in my early-30’s , hammering myself with heavy barbell squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and all varieties of accessory exercises …chasing PR’s in sessions that would sometimes last 2 hours or more. Why? I mean, I wasn’t a competitive powerlifter or a strongman competitor, I was just a regular guy who wanted to feel “strong”.
That idea…Strong. It means many different things to different people and at the time for me it meant lifting heavier and heavier, as I built my deadlift up to 575 lbs and had a squat of 425…sure I was “strong” by most standards, but at what cost? I didn’t look forward to my workouts, my joints ached constantly and I was pounding 3-4 energy drinks a day just to momentarily clear all the brain fog I was experiencing as a result of nervous system fatigue and frequent over-training. To put it bluntly, outside of the weight room, I was useless… I knew something had to change.
Enter the Kettlebell.
My Intro to Kettlebells story is not unlike that of many others out there…I had always noticed them lying around in the gym where I trained collecting dust...It was around 2015 and there wasn’t a whole lot out there about them but I found a YouTube video by a fine young man by the name of Pat Flynn. It was a kettlebell complex he created called “The Great Destroyer”. With my YouTube university technique, having no idea what I was getting into, I tried the Great Destroyer complex and learned very quickly why he named it that. Here I was, as “strong and fit” as I thought I could be but I was punished and completely smoked in mere minutes by a chain of exercises using just 40 pounds of total weight. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the least. What was so different about this implement? How could they smoke you but also make you feel fantastic? All I knew was that they were different and they immediately seemed to call to me, training with them felt authentic and primal.…little did I know that this little iron onion had many, many layers just waiting to be peeled back!
What became abundantly clear to me as I began to take my kettlebell training more seriously was the reason I could be smoked so easily inspite of being “strong” was that I had many Gaps in my fitness and the kettlebells were exposing them. Was my mobility really there if I needed 200lbs on my back just to squat below parallel…was my conditioning there because I could move weights fast and for a long time? Was my stability and balance really there because I could perform a lunge?? The answer is NO. The fact is, I was a Frankenstein…just a collection of parts, 600 separate muscles, engaging what needed to be engaged when the lift called for it, and even though I had been utilizing full-body compound movements…I was not “knitted” together very well at all.
So what’s all the fuss about with Kettlebells…here it is. THEY TEACH YOU THAT YOUR BODY IS ONE PIECE. They help you understand that we are not made up of 600 separate muscles but 1 complete muscle that has 600 parts that work together to produce an action. The kettlebell has the ability to not only integrate every muscle into a single movement but also bring together your breath and your focus. In other words; body, mind, and spirit are integrated and elevated together. This is what I mean by being Knitted, and this oneness is the Gap that most training programs, tools, and modalities are sorely lacking.
It’s not to say that Olympic lifting, powerlifting or even training on machines( ok…maybe a stretch there ;-) ) cannot tie you together in the way proper KB training can…certainly at the highest levels of such pursuits, everything must work in harmony but the Kettlebell stands alone in that it is accessible to all, adaptable to all and in terms of risk versus reward, safer for all. Not only that, the unique design of the KB allows for something no other training implement can come close to replicating…virtual force (more on that later). For a coach like myself, whose mission it is to make the world a stronger, more well-knitted place, the Kettlebell is indispensable.
Today, I can say that I am Truly strong thanks to the investment I made into my practice with the Kettlebell. I have achieved things in my late 30’s and now early 40’s that at 21 felt impossible. Today, I am excited to train, my joints do not ache, I move with fluidity and some might even say grace, I have power, I have speed and athleticism, and with highly effective workouts that take less than 20 minutes on average, I have all the energy I need to meet the demands of life as a parent, husband, coach, and business owner without sacrificing one ounce of strength or muscle. This is the Magic of proper KB training…but the Kettlebell alone isn’t magic, it is a tool…What proper KB training or any kind of strength training worth its salt comes with are principles and techniques that great instructors utilize to get the most out of the tool…That is the magic and that is why step one on anyone’s KB journey should be to seek a qualified instructor like those you find within the ranks at Strongfirst, we are, after all, the Gold Standard ;-) .
If you made it this far, thank you for reading. As your reward, you are the first to know that I will soon be releasing a free Kettlebell foundations program.It will help you to get started on your own path towards truly experiencing what it means to be well-knit and expressing your full potential!
Click the link below and drop a line in the contact form here to receive an alert when the program is released.
https://edgeofstrength.com/contact-us
Stay strong, stay supple, stay knitted - Coach Q.
