Introduction to Kettlebells

A recent article in the journal for the American Counsil on Exercise (ACE) claimed that Kettlebells burn 1200 calories in an hour. True? Sort of. If someone performed continuous snatches for an entire hour they could burn 1200 calories. This would be about as much fun as gauging your eyes out with dull No. 2 pencils, but I digress. It is nearly impossible for a mere mortal to accomplish this feat. Having said that, Kettlebells STILL burn a lot of calories.

A few months back I spotted Kettlebells in the gym and decided to give them a try. Fair enough, but apparently I was lucky that I did not injure myself as my form was hideously wrong. How do I know this? My new bloggie friend/workout buddy, Jenn from Girl Heroes taught me the correct way to use Kettlebells.

This is Jenn doing “Jazz Hand” pose. Despite appearances, she doesn’t always wear head-to-toe pink.

First of all, some of you may be wondering, “what the heck are Kettlebells?”. They look like small bowling balls with large handles and come in all sorts of sizes/weights. Turns out they’ve been around for several hundred years. Used by Russian strong men, military and prisoners (honest!), KBs were one of the original heavy-duty weight-lifting tools. They incorporate cardio and strength training all in one fell-swoop. They are gaining popularity, so expect to see more of them in clubs and parks in the form of Kettlebell classes and Kettlebell Bootcamps.

Here is a whole family of Kettlebells: aren’t they cute?

Just like the stickers you used to see on the back of station wagons and SUVs everywhere

The Kettlebell community is quite a tight one. Just as Cross-Fit has devout followers, so do Kettlebells. The terminology is pretty entertaining. A person who practices Kettlebell exercises is called a Girevik. Your fellow Kettlebell enthusiasts are called Comrades and if you are training someone, that person is a Victim (I’m not making this up).

You need to use correct form with Kettlebells or you risk injury. Even high-standing members of the fitness community are confused. Specifically, Jillian Michaels butchered the proper Kettlebell form and the whole Kettlbell community is up in arms (doh!) about it. Even the respected ACE’s pamphlet demonstrates the Kettlebell swing incorrectly. (The model is descending into a squat before swinging the bell, just like Jillian- this is a mistake. Instead, he should stick his butt out as if to fart on a little brother, with a slight bend in the knees, but NOT descend into a squat.). A good site to find an instructor near you is at DragonDoor.com.

Here was the workout that Jenn devised for us and her recap of our fun day. It was my first ‘real’ supervised KB workout and I loved it:

Apparently this routine, performed 3X should have taken us 20 minutes. This is a huge boon for busy moms like Jenn- a total body workout in 20 minutes? Yes, please. Well, 2 hours later we finished our awesome workout/gab-fest and 800 calories were burned nonetheless- WOOT!

Yesterday, I used the Kettlebells at the gym between sets of Power Plate lunges and squats as a cardio-interval tool. I watched my heart-rate soar up into the 160s during swings. That’s high for me. It was fun to mix it up. Also it was great to have a cardiovascular workout without any high impact jolting whatsoever. In fact, the real true gireviks do not even wear shoes while doing KBs! Eek, my plantar fasciitis might not go for those shenanigans.

Our reward for all that effort? Burning more calories on the way back to the car, of course! 63 calories if you must know.

Honestly, I didn’t notice that this was a “hill” until we were walking back after the workout.

Finally we made it back and had our reward:

I believe that we were suckin down some sweet PB&J Smoothies.

By the way, thanks to Janetha Bean for inadvertently introducing us! If she and her Mom hadn’t been interviewed for Girl Heroes, I might not have found Jenn when I did!

I definitely see more Kettlebell lovin’ in my future. How about you?

Q: Have you tried Kettlebells? Is it something that sounds like fun? Or torture?