Shaped like a cannonball with a handle, the kettlebell is a Russian hand weight typically made of cast iron. Via exercise sets of swinging, pulling and lifting, kettlebelling is an effective way to build strength. Kettlebellers claim that the exercises can build endurance, tone every muscle in the body, increase flexibility, help burn fat and even allow the body to take harder hits. Kettlebells come in a variety of sizes that range from 4 to 175 pounds.
The first historical mention of kettlebells was in a 1704 Russian dictionary. (In Russian, the kettlebell is called a girya, and the men who trained with them were called gireviks.) Kettlebell lifting was also a sport for the strongest men in local villages and towns to compete with each other. By 1913, kettlebells were recognized as a weight-loss training technique in the fitness magazine Hercules. A committee for the sport of kettlebell was created in 1985 in Russia, and 15 years later, Russian fitness instructor Pavel Tsatsouline introduced the kettlebell into the United States.
– February 21, 2012
In the April 2012 issue of Black Belt, Dr. Mark Cheng, Senior RKC, one of the magazine’s contributing editors, offered advice on how and why martial artists should start training with kettlebell weights. Here’s some bonus interview content that didn’t make it into the magazine!
When a person is starting out
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– January 25, 2012
Mixed-martial arts workouts involve training for a lot of ground-fighting techniques. After all, you need the ability to get out from under an opponent and establish the dominant position should you find yourself with your back to the mat. Such a situation calls for not only fighting skill in arts
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– January 23, 2012
The phrase “hard-style kettlebells” describes a comprehensive resistance-training program that’s guaranteed to enhance your martial arts ability. How so? It will bolster your grip and your strength at odd angles. It will improve your burst/rest cardiovascular conditioning. And it will remove the internal imbalances brought on by the one-sided nature
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– July 27, 2011
In this exclusive martial arts fitness video, John Spezzano shows you how to execute the overhead lunge with a kettlebell! John Spezzano is the author of The Martial Arts/Kettlebell Connection, which contains detailed photographic instruction on this kettlebell technique and scores of others to help your kettlebell training in the
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– May 5, 2011
A 30-year veteran of the martial arts, John Spezzano is a full instructor of Jun Fan gung fu / jeet kune do concepts and the Philippine martial arts under Dan Inosanto. Spezzano is also qualified to teach maphilindo silat (under Inosanto), wing chun (under Francis Fong) and muay Thai (under
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– April 8, 2011
A 30-year veteran of the martial arts, John Spezzano is a full instructor of Jun Fan gung fu / jeet kune do concepts and the Philippine martial arts under Dan Inosanto. Spezzano is also qualified to teach maphilindo silat (under Inosanto), wing chun (under Francis Fong) and muay Thai (under
Read More »
– March 24, 2011
A 30-year veteran of the martial arts, John Spezzano is a full instructor of Jun Fan gung fu / jeet kune do concepts and the Philippine martial arts under Dan Inosanto. Spezzano is also qualified to teach maphilindo silat (under Inosanto), wing chun (under Francis Fong) and muay Thai (under
Read More »
– March 24, 2011
A 30-year veteran of the martial arts, John Spezzano is a full instructor of Jun Fan gung fu / jeet kune do concepts and the Philippine martial arts under Dan Inosanto. Spezzano is also qualified to teach maphilindo silat (under Inosanto), wing chun (under Francis Fong) and muay Thai (under
Read More »
– March 24, 2011
A 30-year veteran of the martial arts, John Spezzano is a full instructor of Jun Fan gung fu / jeet kune do concepts and the Philippine martial arts under Dan Inosanto. Spezzano is also qualified to teach maphilindo silat (under Inosanto), wing chun (under Francis Fong) and muay Thai (under
Read More »
– March 23, 2011
In this excerpt from the new DVD Ultimate Conditioning – Volume 1: Strikers by international multi-sport champion and sambo coach Scott Sonnon, see a demo for a kettlebell exercise called the Push Press!
