Issue 018
October 2006
By Rob Beauchamp and Stan Pike
Kettlebells are gaining in popularity and becoming more familiar as an all-round, practical training tool, yet they are so old that no single nation can lay claim to inventing them. The old Soviet Union implemented them into their athletic and military training and used them as a sport in their own right long after they fell into disuse everywhere else.
Perhaps this recent association of kettlebells with “Mother Russia” is an unfortunate thing, because it has contributed to shaping the very inaccurate view of kettlebells and their training effects – that of gigantic, grunting, bearded men in circus rings performing legendary acts of strength. Many people think of old-fashioned, primitive brute strength when hearing the word kettlebell. This opinion is beginning to change though, with recent articles in newspapers referring to the use of kettlebells by a number of female Hollywood stars.
The Nature of a Kettlebell:
Before we explore the history of the kettlebell, we need to explain why they are so different to other forms of resistance training equipment, and then we can understand more deeply the unique benefits provided by the kettlebell. A kettlebell is a simple iron ball with a fixed U-shaped handle attached, with the ball below its handle this increases its gravitational pull both towards the ground and away from the body; the handle also provides an additional joint or link in the chain for the lifter to control, thus wherever it is, the kettlebell is constantly obeying the laws of gravity, which the lifter then has to control as opposed to a dumbbell or barbell that can be balanced during the exercise.
This makes the kettlebell unique in its application as a fitness tool. The body’s muscles are constantly working in order to control the kettlebell, and when swinging the kettlebell you need strength, speed and coordination within the body’s movement in order to get that kettlebell up, but as it comes down to the ground it is gaining speed, which has to be controlled and then pulled against. At the bottom of a swing it is estimated that you will be pulling between four and seven times its actual weight, and this effect would make an 8-kilo kettlebell weigh between 32 and 56 kilos.
Benefits of a Kettlebell:
Strength training in general lacks the appeal that other forms of exercise such as Yoga and aerobics enjoy. However, the benefits of strength training are absolutely essential to any health, fitness or sports specific training programme, especially as strength training is the only scientifically proven activity that positively influences such things as muscle strength and mass, body fat, bone density, basal metabolic rate, blood sugar tolerance, blood pressure and aerobic capacity – all things which decline with age. In addition, strength is essential to developing both speed and flexibility.
Kettlebell training offers the benefits of strength training but combined with those of other activities such as Yoga, Pilates, and aerobics – and these are gained all at the same time, developing a body that is as robust and strong as it is proportionate and graceful.
Kettlebell training primarily increases strength-endurance like no other form of exercise and can be so brutally hard that it can tax the reserve of the most seasoned Olympic athlete. Kettlebell training also dramatically improves the muscles’ “strength-flexibility” and speed, whilst causing fat to “melt like ice-cream in a desert”, thus creating a lithe, symmetrical physique laid over a foundation of functional strength. Because of the fact that certain kettlebell exercises provide controlled ballistic shock, kettlebells can virtually injury-proof your body.
Kettlebells are for some the Holy Grail to the machine-versus-barbell, and the aerobic-versus-weight training controversy. Because kettlebells are purposefully designed to present leverage with a dynamically shifting fulcrum, kettlebells provide effects that are simply not attainable with conventional weights. For these very same reasons, they also have great effect on the stabilizing muscles, developing inter-muscular teamwork and real core stability. In fact, the kettlebell is the “King of Balance and Co-ordination”, as it’s nature forces the muscles that criss-cross the human frame to stress, strain and support at all times and from all angles, to which all mixed martial artists will relate. Plus, many of the kettlebell exercises teach the important lessons of developing power from the core out to the extremities, and then accepting incoming ballistic shock from a moving body.
Training with kettlebells has been described as the Yoga of Iron – Heavy Metal Yoga if you like! You can do things to enhance your body and performance with a kettlebell that are impossible to do with any other form of exercise or gym equipment.
Kettlebells for General Fitness Training:
Kettlebell workouts are famous for building tremendous cardiovascular fitness whilst burning fat. You will find the time efficient and super effective kettlebell impossible to beat as a single exercise package. The kettlebell is an inexpensive and convenient alternative to a commercial gym membership, as very little room is required to actually exercise with a kettlebell.
Kettlebells for Mixed Martial Arts:
Mixed martial arts requires the development of speed, strength, endurance and flexibility, along with a high degree of co-ordination, agility, and core stability. Anyone concerned with building useable speed-strength will soon discover kettlebells to be a powerful assistance tool, as they provide dramatic increases in core stability and control, allowing the mixed martial artist to lift even heavier weights and develop speed in a far safer manner than the conventional approach of plyometrics and Olympic-style weight-lifting.
Certain kettlebell exercises develop strength-flexibility, as opposed to passive stretching that has little application for sport. Whilst others develop great co-ordination and agility, most of the exercises develop more than one component of fitness at once, thus reducing the number of exercises and training sessions required, and therefore the total time spent training, which, conveniently brings us to the next point.
All fitness-training programmes are a compromise, almost always forced by time constraints. As the kettlebell naturally fits the gap between the all-out effort of a single, maximum repetition, and the measured expenditure of force involved in running a marathon, they can be used with virtually every training philosophy. Kettlebells offer the mixed martial artist a sport specific alternative to the more traditional (but mundane) approaches to strength and cardiovascular training, i.e. weight lifting, bodybuilding, and running. None of these directly relate to the demands of the sport, or their core stability and flexibility training.
Mixed martial artists will find kettlebells far more enjoyable, and far better suited to their purpose, thus improving adherence to their new, all-round, synergistic kettlebell programme that will be highly beneficial for their MMA specific fitness, general health, and body management.
On first reading about kettlebells, many immediately picture them as old-fashioned tools, long superseded by more modern, and therefore superior, exercise equipment. Go and read of those old-timers, men like Arthur Saxon, who at bodyweights rarely above 90kgs performed unbelievable feats of strength such as one-arm 140-kilo presses. These are something that today’s strongmen have never emulated, which speaks volumes of modern equipment and methods.
Yes, the kettlebell builds the brute strength of the circus strongman, but the kettlebell also offers an entire spectrum of fitness benefits besides. The kettlebell is a highly versatile, mobile, simple to use, yet devastatingly effective. They are practical for those trainees who want an effective, convenient, holistic and synergistic approach to their mixed martial arts fitness, but experience the all-too-familiar constraints and pressures of modern living.
Article adapted from “The Kettlebell Bible – A Total Gym In The Palm Of Your Hand©” by Rob Beauchamp and Stan Pike, published by Bear Publishing Ltd.
