Kettlebell 101

What is Kettlebell?

A kettlebell is a Russian cast iron weight pictured below.

During a kettlebell class you will use a kettlebell to do several different exercises which strength train both the arms and the legs. Kettlebells can be all different lengths so each person can choose the appropriate weight and adjust accordingly. If you would like to see kettlebell in action click here.

Why am I talking about Kettlebells today?

About a month ago one of my good friends at work asked me if I'd want to take a kettlebell class with her. She told me she hasn't been great about lifting weights lately (I'll be honest, minus the shred I am ALWAYS terrible about lifting weights) and was looking for some motivation. She heard that kettlebell training is a work out that is supposed to get fast results. I was a little concerned about my knee at first because of the frequent squatting involved in kettlebell. However, I actually read some articles about people who had improved knee problems through kettlebell, so how could I argue with that. I signed up the next day and a few weeks later, today was my first class.

Since signing up I had heard some rumors about how I was not going to be able to walk the next day. Since walking, and standing up/sitting down etc is a large part of my job I was a little scared.

The Verdict

I made it through ALIVE and well! I actually really enjoyed the class. I love how kettlebells has the benefits of weight training but its a little more exciting than doing endless bicep curls because you get your legs involved too. In fact, my instructor kept saying, "it's all in the legs." Of course I was trying to take the pressure off my legs since basically everything in kettlebell is a squat. However, the instructor told me if I turn my feet out a bit I'll take some pressure off my knees (why has no one ever told me this before) and to be honest they really did not hurt at all during the class. We will see how tomorrow goes.

Since the class is at my gym, but is a registration based class- we really started at the beginning today learning the basic moves including the swinging that you see in all the kettlebell videos, pressing the weight up into the air, and then some weird middle move that involves flipping the kettlebell without bruising your arm that I am still not sure I have mastered yet. I definitely will be sore tomorrow but I am not too concerned about walking. However I do have some now third grade students (that I had in kindergarten) who like to jump on me. I may hide from them tomorrow because although I can still lift them, I don't think my body will be happy to lift them tomorrow.

If you ever get a chance to take a kettlebell class, I definitely recommend it. Especially if you are a bit of a reluctant, or maybe I should say slacker, weight trainer like I am :)