The first time I trained with Russian kettlebells I was nervous. I had every reason to be: my trainer had warned me beforehand to go straight home afterwards and soak in a bath of Epson Salts. It was advice I now deeply appreciate.
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And after a month of training with the kettlebells I think I can safely say that this really isn't something to be tried at home. At least not until you've had some proper training first.
But first things first, what are Russian kettlebells?
History of the kettlebell
Kettlebells are cast iron cannon ball-shaped weights with a single handle on the top. Those I used ranged in weight from 4kg to 12kg. As their name implies, they originated in Russia and, according to KettlebellSoldier.com, go back hundreds of years: the first mention of kettlebells is in a 1704 edition of a Russian dictionary. Men who lifted these weights were called girevik, from the Russian word for kettlebell, girya.
How they work
Personal trainer JC Moolman is passionate about kettlebells. She believes it to be a great way to get a full-body workout.
She has done several courses on the different instructions associated with kettlebells, and doesn’t beat around the bush when she tells you how, after several hours of training, she was so stiff she could hardly move the next day.
There are several moves unique to kettlebells. One example is the 'swing', in which you squat down, swing the kettlebell between your legs, and then straighten up sharply and swing it up to shoulder height. All this while holding your back straight, tightening your abs and making sure your grip is right so 12kg of cast iron do not go flying through the window. It's no easy feat, I tell you.
JC Moolman shows off some of the more common moves used with the Russian kettlebells.
Where it works
The best part about kettlebell training - apart from the all-over body workout - is the variety. With a trainer as imaginative as Moolman, every session is an adventure. She points out that, since the intensity of the workout means you're looking at sessions of only 20 minutes, it's easy to incorporate kettlebells into your other fitness regime.
My experience
When Moolman agreed to train me with the kettlebells for a month she had a rather cheeky twinkle in her eye that made me nervous. A month later I am now accustomed to that twinkle, and regard it with the same suspicion and trepidation.
She has been training clients with her trusty kettlebells for several years now, which has given her plenty of time to get bored with some of the more common exercises and led her to experiment with others. This, I soon found out, would be to both my detriment and, I can now grudgingly admit, benefit too.
The first day she took it easy on me and we did some 'basic' exercises. The second session, two days after the first, had me in agony for the whole weekend. That's when I learned I was nowhere near as strong as I had thought.
No pain, no gain
The day after the second session I woke up feeling very achy. My muscles knew something had happened to them, but they were still coming to terms with just how bad it was. By that evening my arm muscles quivered when I even looked at them. Picking things up was not an option, neither was opening doors, moving too fast or (towards the end of the day), moving at all.
However it did get easier, and by the time my next session had rolled around I was raring to go. One thing about this kind of workout is that you sleep like a baby after every session.
As the weeks progressed JC varied my workouts so that I never knew what to expect, and every time I left I felt like I'd done a full hour of hard exercise even though it was only 20 minutes. It's that exhausting.
Interestingly, I found that not only did I sweat more, but I drank more water than during a spinning class. I didn't think that by just lifting 'weights' I'd work up such a sweat, but that's the beauty of the kettlebells – it's an all-over body workout. No muscle escapes under Moolman's watchful eye.
The verdict
Since I only went to two sessions a week with Moolman, I continued spinning classes and other gymming on the 'off' days, but I noticed that as the weeks wore on, while the kettlebell training was getting more intense, everything else seemed to be getting easier.
That's one of the changes I noticed – that in less than a month I felt much stronger and more toned. When I did the circuit at the gym I had to increase the load because the weights I had used before didn't feel like they were making any difference.
Although my arms and legs have better definition, they're not bulkier. This is one of the major pluses of kettlebell training for women; it builds muscle and tones without making you bulk up. Of course kettlebells are used by body-builders too, but I would assume they'd use heavier ones, at greater intensity, and involving different movements.
I would highly recommend this to men and women who are looking to jazz up their fitness regime with something interesting.
Source: JC Moolman, personal trainer, kettlebell instructor and triathlon trainer, visit www.activelifetraining.co.za or www.zenstudio.co.za; KettlebellSoldier.com
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