Eugene Sandow - a Kettlebell Lifter and Functional Strength GiantKettlebells - An Introduction 

“Without strength – and by strength I mean health, vitality, and a general sense of physical well-being – life is but a gloomy business”, Eugene Sandow (1867 – 1925).

One of the great developments in strength training in recent times has been the arrival of the kettlebell into the western physical culture scene. Kettlebells are a single lump of metal usually, but not exclusively spherical, with a large carrying handle.  They are not a Western invention, but have been around in some form or other in many cultures for centuries.  In Russia, from where their current emergence into the West originated, they are called girya and have been documented there in print since 1704.  It’s probable that they originally served as a fixed measurement of weight to divvy up agricultural produce, and this might explain the odd jumps in size characteristic of them.  But what makes kettlebells unique is not so much their shape, handle, or odd weight differentials; rather it is the use to which these characteristics allow the kettlebell to best be employed.  For the vast majority of people currently involved in kettlebell training in the West, this is where things literally get lost in translation…


A Kettlebell from the 1870sKettlebells are now to be found in almost every commercial gym in the country, and if they’re not there, they soon will be.  What’s not to be found is the knowledge necessary to use this tool to both its, and the user’s best advantage.  It’s rather like Bruce Lee’s explosion onto the world stage in the 1970s, and the subsequent setting up of hundreds of Chop suey Kung-Fu schools that were little more than crude forms of boxing with kicks.  As they say, “Nature abhors a vacuum”.  In the case of kettlebells, that vacuum is a lack of knowledge on how this exemplary strength-endurance tool should be used.  What’s happening is that kettlebells are becoming celebrity-endorsed substitutions for dumbbells.  For those involved in the real world of kettlebell and strength training, this is just plain dumb.


Its Modern Day EquivalentThe words that you want to hear when you enter a relationship with a genuinely good kettlebell instructor are snatch, swing, clean and jerk, high repetitions for time…  These are the mantras of those in the know, and if you’re serious about developing yourself physically, as you should be, come in and join the club.

Below we’ll be exploring a number of these lifts from a technical point of view, as well as introducing training ideas from some of the best instructors of this strength-skill worldwide.