Kettlebell Training
When I first saw people training with kettlebells I wasn’t convinced. I thought it was just another fitness craze that everyone would become obsessed with and then the phase would slowly die down. I’m glad I was wrong.
My partner has been telling me about kettlebells for a while now, always saying what a great all over body workout they provide and how much better they work all the muscles in the body; it’s compound exercises rather than isolation ones. It’s also a cardio workout at the same time which means you can get in and out of the gym in less time than usual. Great when time is of the essence.
Two weeks ago I asked my partner kindly to show me how to use these mysterious weights. A quick twenty minute session that made me sweat and hurt. I only did two sets of four exercises but it was enough and felt like I had been working with weights for an hour. I was beginning to see the fascination people had with kettlebells. Working out with them felt great and it was so different from just your every day squat or back row.
I wasn’t prepared for the pain the next day. I had worked muscles that I didn’t even know I had. The tops of my calves were in pain. Touching them hurt as if someone had whacked them with a hammer. It was fantastic. I couldn’t remember the last time a gym session had that impact on me.
Since then, I’ve been adding a couple of exercises with kettlebells into my weight training routine. I’ve made sure that I train with weights at least twice a week and in just a few weeks I’ve noticed changes in my body. My abs, arms, butt and thighs feel tighter than ever before. The kettlebells are going to make an ever bigger difference to my training and will help me achieve the six-pack I’ve dreaming of for like forever.
As I get more comfortable using kettlebells I’m going to introduce new exercises into my routine to continuously challenge my body. The important thing is to take things slowly and if you do end up training with kettlebells get an experienced trainer to show you how to use them as it’s easy to get injured if you’ve never tried it before. A book I recommend is The Russian Kettlebell Challenge: Xtreme Fitness for Hard Living Comrades by Pavel Tsatsouline.
Have you tried kettlebell training?
Hmm, dunno if I want that much pain on my calves! But it’s incredible that you can see changes already – and no more pain? Was that just the initial stages?
The pain was just in the initial stages because I over did it. My partner warned me to only do a couple of exercises with kettlebells but I did like five which is why I was in so much pain. Now I’m including only a couple once a week, but I’d like to eventually do 1-2 kettlebell only workouts per week. They are really are fantastic to train with.