Kettlebells and Quarantine

“The kettlebell is an ancient Russian weapon against weakness.”

Pavel Tsatsouline

Who’s bright idea was it to weld handles to cannonballs and juggle them for sport and entertainment?

The Russians, of course.

Once I’d purchased half a dozen kettlebells, I concluded that paying money to subject oneself to a tyranny of choice at a gym is a mug’s game.

A couple of heavy-ass kettlebells is all the equipment required to effectively supplement your sport and stay fit, mobile, lean and powerful.

Rather than spreading oneself a mile wide over the innumerable machines and possible exercises in a modern gym, one can go an inch wide and a mile deep with the core kettlebell lifts: snatch, clean, press, front squat, goblet squat, swing.

For sport, performance and health, dumbbell isolation exercises are dumb. They are for ‘show’ muscles. If you want ‘go’ muscles, you want kettlebell Olympic variants (clean, jerk, snatch, squat), plus the almighty kettlebell swing.

Pavel Tsatsouline, who is credited with carrying the kettlebell to Western popularity, says “the perfect kettlebell swing alone is superior to 99 percent of the sophisticated strength and conditioning programs out there.” Though somewhat hyperbolic, I am inclined to agree with him. It is one of the best ‘bang for your buck’ exercises out there.

And what better time to arm yourself with some strength, and something to chop up your day, and power up your person? Kettlebells and quarantine go together like Adam and Eve.

I walk by my twins ‘bells (32kg’s) or the Beast (48kg, pictured below) and am compelled to do something with them. A great perk of working from home.

If you can get ahold of a kettlebell locally – I say locally because you’re unlikely to find an online store in stock – then now is the time to grab it, grab it by the horns, and go for your life.

You won’t regret it.