Kettlebells are the “it” workout accessory of 2009 to stay fit!

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I had reviewed kettle bells a while back because it was getting a lot of buzz in Hollywood and celebrity trainers were introducing their celebrity clients to kettlebells.

If you missed my original post from 2008, you can still read it: Kettlebells: A workout straight out of Mother Russia

One of the reasons why kettlebells are becoming so popular (especially among women) is because this power-training that originated in Russia improves your cardio while targeting trouble spots to help you get a leaner and toner body. If you remember, in the 1980s athletes from Russia and athletes from the old communist countries used to leave the competition in the dust when it came to winning gold medals … that’s because kettlebells were their secret training weapon of choice.

A kettlebell training is an ideal workout for men and women who want to introduce strength training into their regime, but who don’t have that much time every day to workout. In one session you get your heart pumping while strengthening your muscles.

Kettlebells are excellent at targeting and defining legs and glutes and within a few workouts, you’ll quickly noticed how much more vitality, strength and stamina you’ve gained.

Another reason why kettlebells are so popular is because you can literally workout anywhere. You can workout with kettlebells in the privacy of your home, you can take them with your in your car for a gym session or you can take them with you to the park on a bright sunny day for an outdoor workout.

A workout with kettlebells is vastly different from doing strength training with dumbbells. The reason is very simply: dumbbells have a well-balanced stationary centre of gravity while kettlebells have a fluctuating centre of gravity and a lever-like handle, which creates a fluctuating resistance arm, generating a greater load on the force arm through a range of motion. With dumbbells you rarely will use your entire body during your training session, because you usually are trying to isolate muscles. Kettlebells will require you to use your entire body motion to swing the kettlebells.

The weights of the kettlebells vary and most women will start out with 18 lbs and then graduate to 24 lbs ones. Women who are already fit and who have been doing a lot of strength training will most likely be able to start at 35 lbs and work their way up.

On the road to aging well, strength training and cardio training are very important as you age … not only to allow you to achieve and maintain a certain body shape and weight, but also to help you keep feeling strong with each passing year.

There are many distributors of kettlebells and kettlebell DVD workouts and you can find them in most fitness stores across the U.S. and Canada. For a while you could only get them in California, but they’ve made their way out east and in Canada.

>>>>> Here’s a great slide show from New York Times featuring kettlebells: Gear Test, Kettlebels

Here’s a great video that shows you what a kettlebell workout like:

Here’s one from HyperFit USA. It’s actually a sort of bootcamp training where participants use kettlebells:

Here’s one showing a woman flipping 70 lbs kettlebells (that’s very impressive because that’s a lot of weight!):

>>>> Do drop us a line if you are using kettlebells in your workout and if you’re getting great results!!!

Photo by kl.fitness