Enter the Kettlebell! Strength Secret of the Soviet Supermen
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Pavel’s Kettlebell Training System The Fastest Way To Extreme Strength and Elite Conditioning. Guaranteed.
The kettlebell. AK-47 of physical training hardware. Hunk of iron on a handle. Simple, sinister, brutal and ferociously effective for developing explosive strength, dramatic power and never-say-die conditioning. The man s man s choice for the toughest, most demanding, highest-yield exercise tool on the planet. Guaranteed to forge a rugged, resilient, densely-muscled frame built to withstand the hardest beating and dish it right back out, 24/7.
Once the prized and jealously-guarded training secret of elite Russian athletes, old-school strongmen and the military, the kettlebell has invaded the West. And taken no prisoners thanks to former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor and strength author, Pavel Tsatsouline’s 2001 publication of The Russian Kettlebell Challenge and his manufacture of the first traditional Russian kettlebell in modern America.
American hardmen of all stripes were quick to recognize what their Russian counterparts had long known nothing, nothing beats the kettlebell, when you re looking for a single tool to dramatically impact your strength and conditioning. A storm of success has swept the American Strength and Conditioning landscape, as kettlebell Comrades have busted through to new PRs, broken records, thrashed their opponents and elevated their game to new heights of excellence.
With Enter the Kettlebell! Pavel delivers a significant upgrade to his original landmark work, The Russian Kettlebell Challenge. Drawing on five years of developing and leading the world s first and premiere kettlebell instructor certification program, and after spending five years of additional research into what really works for dramatic results with the kettlebell we have Enter the Kettlebell!
Pavel lays out a foolproof master system that guarantees you success if you simply follow the commands!
There’s one exercise called the “get up,” where you lie on your back on the floor, with one arm vertical, holding the 35-pound kettlebell above your head. From this position, you roll to a sitting position and then stand up, all the time keeping the arm holding the kettlebell locked out and vertical. Then you reverse the movement and lie back down. I’ve done that one a few times, but it still feels a little dicey. So, that’s my experience with the kettlebell so far. I like it, but there does seem to be a learning curve. After I’m more comfortable with the basic movements, I’ll be able to up the intensity, and I’ll probably like it more.
While it is a great exercise, it is hard to do well and I think Pavel takes this for granted. The first time I watched my wife do them I noticed her feet externally rotating and her knees bending inward. This is indicates overly tight adductor muscles (inner thighs) as well as weak gluteus medius/maximus among other things. Anyway, these are common postural problems for a large percentage of the American population (especially the knees bending inward during squatting movements) and need to be corrected. Doing the exercise improperly will only make the problem worse.
Pavel is my hero and I’ve read all of his books over and over. Kettlebells are not the only thing out there. And I am willing to admit that it is possible they are not even the “best” thing. It depends on your goals. But I am convinced that they are the best thing for me. I’m shelling out a pretty penny to go to the RKC certification in June, because I know I am in this for the long haul.
Enter The Kettlebell whittles everything down to basics. The book makes the case that doing a few things really well, will give you the strength, and the body you want. Does that sound hardcore? From my perspective it doesn’t. Although I am sure many passersby, and beginners might think so. A kettlebell is a very foreign, and dangerous looking strength, cardio and flexibility tool, but looks can be deceiving. I myself use some of the programs, and concepts from this book, and well…..if “hardcore” is building strength, endurance and having fun doing it, then I guess kettlebells are hardcore. Learning how to use your body to your advantage so you can get the most out of your exercise with less chance of injury sounds great to me. Sure, the “foreign” and intimidating look of a kettlebell may worry you at first, but once you learn what kb’s will do for you AND when used in the proper way, then intimidating they aren’t. They are instead a very useful tool.
If you're interested in making more efficient use of your workout time, and want to focus on strength, conditioning and health, you'd be hard pressed to find a more simple, enjoyable way to do it than by grabbing a kettlebell and starting with ETK. Bottom line, while the clarity, simplicity and intelligence of the ETK approach and program makes this new-ish to the west fitness device a key tool for progress, it's the philosophy of training embodied in ETK and demonstrated through this elegantly designed tool that produces the real epiphany.