Intelligent Fitness

Three days after I posted the Kettlebell Considerations article, I glanced through a news stand copy of the December/January issue of Men’s Fitness. Knowing that the fitness/workout articles are in the back of the magazine, I flipped from back to front. I scanned the photos and to see who wrote the article. Some of the authors I know personally and others by reputations. Usually, if I see something of interest, I’ll buy the magazine. If not, I quickly put it in the rack and move on.

While flipping through the pages of this issue, I saw photos of kettlebells so I stopped to investigate. What I saw startled me. I blinked and shook my head to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Like witnessing a car wreck, I couldn’t look away. Yeah, I was right, evil Ken & Barbie had hijacked kettlebells. There was a photo of the fitness model doing arm curls with two kettlebells. Further down the page, the same model was shown doing pec-flyes on a bench with kettlebells. I felt the rage really take over my body when one of the photos showed the model standing on one leg, with his knee pointing out to his side while performing a one arm shoulder press. He looked like a circus act reject.

If I had purchased the magazine, I would have ripped it, stomped on it and then set it on fire. But since I had not, I returned the magazine to the rack. With my hands still shaking, I walked away muttering to myself. To those around me, I must have appeared to be a very upset homeless person yelling at some one in a parallel universe. Needless to say, I was pissed.

I did, however, take the time to look in the front of the magazine to find out who the idiot was who wrote the article and where did he receive his kettlebell training. In the paragraph about him, I found that he had no formal kettlebell training and it simply stated that he was a personal trainer who really liked kettlebell. Gee, sounds like an expert to me. That would be like a Playmate stating on her datasheet that she really liked to look at stars in the night sky and from that we were to conclude that she was an astronomer.

As I have stated many times before, the Russians evolved the kettlebell for over 300 years to be a brutally effective tool for developing strength, power and mutant work capacity. The necessary skills and exercises were developed and refined over a long period of time. The kettlebell was just re-introduced to the American fitness culture, after a long absence, in 2001 by Pavel Tsatsouline through www.dragondoor.com. More recently, the Russian influence continued when Valery Fedorenko, ten time kettlebell competition World Champion and Honored Master of Kettlebell Sport, came to the United States to build interest in kettlebell sport. The kettlebell is their tool and that is why I have studied with Russians. Who better to transmit kettlebell knowledge than the people who created it?

As one of the early kettlebell instructors and having been an instructor for 8 years, I have yet to meet anyone who has gotten it right by self-instruction (DVDs and books). Now, we have personal trainers with little to no formal kettlebell instruction attempting to teach others. Due to their lack of a proper kettlebell education, they just seem to make stuff up. Because they have the title of personal trainer, the public assumes these trainers know what they are doing. In this case, the public would be wrong and the concept of trainer expertise is another long rant. Most trainers do not have a clue what a kettlebell is all about and they are too arrogant to admit it. Sadly, the client and the kettlebell become victims of misinformation and improperly instructed technique. The kettlebell is too important of a tool to the strength and conditioning world to be corrupted in this manner.

You wouldn’t give a three year old a loaded .357 because you know somebody would get hurt if you did. All of you clueless trainers and gym rats, who are throwing kettlebells around without proper instruction, put the kettlebell down and back away. Please ignore any use of the kettlebell where a dumbbell or barbell would work better. And if you are really serious about using kettlebells, seek out someone who knows what they are doing. Here is a big clue; it is not Ken & Barbie!

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