Total Fitness Systems
26 Westpoint, Clonard, Wexford
tel: 086 2621488
email: mick@totalfitnesssystems.ie
Kettlebell Club or Girevoy Sport
Learn and train in the sport of Kettlebell Lifting for incredible endurance, mental toughness and strength.
Kettlebell lifting Sport focus in three main lifts, although in competition additional lifts are added as challenges. The three traditional lifts are:
- Jerk Lift
- Snatch Lift
- Clean and Jerk
Also known as Long Cycle Clean and Jerk or Long Cycle for short.
The objective of each event is to complete as many repetitions as possible of the lift within a ten minutes period. To accomplish this feat the lifter requires a tremendous level of endurance and strength. These qualities are achieved through thorough training.
Benefits of Kettlebell Training
Why Soviet Scientists Gave Kettlebells Two Thumbs Up!
Kettlebells showed better scores
Voropayev (1983) observed two groups of college students over a period of a few years. To gauge their performance, he used a standard battery of the armed forces PT tests: pullups, broad jump, 100m sprint, and a 1k run. The control group followed a typical university physical education program that emphasized the above exercises. The experimental group just lifted kettlebells. In spite of the lack of practice on the tested drills, the kettlebell groups showed better scores in every one of them!
Researchers at the Lesgaft Physical culture Institute in Leningrad (Vinogradov & Lukyanov, 1986) found a very high correlation between the results posted in a kettlebell competition and a great range of dissimilar tests: strength, measured with the three powerlifts and grip strength; strength endurance, measured with pullups and parallel bar dips; general endurance, determined by a 1000 meter run; and work capacity and balance, measured with special tests.
Great for your Heart
Siberian scientist Shevtasove (1993) verified what is obvious to any kettlebeller. She recorded a long-term decrease in heart rate and blood pressure. They clocked an average resting heart rate of 56 beats per minute.
Surprisingly safe
Only 8.8 percent of top Russian kettlebell atheltes reported injuries in training or competition (Voropayev, 1997). A remarkably low number, especially if you consider that these were not regular guys but elite athletes who push their bodies over the edge.
Melt fat / fix body composition
The Russian kettlebell is a powerful tool for fixing your body composition, whichever way it needs fixing. According to Voropayev (1997) who studied top Russian kettlebell athletes, 21.2% increased their bodyweight since taking up kettlebells and 21.2% (not a typo, the exact same percent), mostly heavyweights, decreased it.
Kettlebells build strength
The Russian Special Forces personnel owe much of their wiry strength, lethal agility, and never-quitting stamina to kettlebells. Solder, Be Strong! (1985) the official Soviet armed forces strength training manual, pronounced kettlebell drills to be “one of the most effective means of strength development” representing “a new era in the development of the human strength-potential.”
Never too old or too young
In the 1995 Russian Kettlebell Championship, the youngest contestant was 16, the oldest 53! We are talking elite competition here; the range is even wider if you are training for yourself rather than for the gold.
- Kettlebells are simply metal weights ; the offset handle allows a vast number of exercises to be performed in a fluid , functionally effective manner.
- Kettlebells are tools ; reading the instructions is wise, and the more you practise the better .
- Strength is a skill , the more you practise the stronger you can become.
- The stability and power of the human body starts with the torso (“core”). Kettlebells rapidly improve torso strength.
- Kettlebells condition all the muscles; any kettlebell exercise uses many of the key stabilising muscles , maintaining torso strength for safe day to day activities.
- Kettlebell training reinforces healthy breathing and movement patterns , remedying “stuck tension” prevalent in many humans.
- Kettlebells teach muscles to tense (strength) and also relax(flexibility). Strength flexibility means the body can operate safely at awkward angles and under unpredictable e.g. moving loads.
- Kettlebells are an excellent rehab tool; great for "bad backs" and "RSI". Realign and reinforce your body.
- Kettlebells can be used as a stand alone tool for developing amazing useful strength , flexibility and stamina or , to supplement one’s favourite exercise modality. No one really enjoys running on a dark, wet , wintry day - and treadmills are rather industrial and grey...
- Kettlebells can be used by the entire family, anyplace, anytime. Possibly the greatest drawcard.
- There are no gym fees , transport hassles, gym clothes , queues to use equipment etc etc.
- Ten minutes of solid exercise a day will whip you into shape fast. You will easily gain more in 20-40 minutes of kettlebelling than in an hour or more of traditional gym work.
- Modern sports science supports frequent , short duration , intense exercise as the ideal for longevity and all round health. In a busy world this is very good news indeed!
- Lose weight , get toned , control pain , become flexible , become energised & regain that spring in your step . Using kettlebells is quite unlike anything you've experienced!
- Lower the risk of osteoporosis , strengthen your heart & lungs and reduce blood pressure.
- The ultimate stress buster - take it on out the bell when you get home or use it at work to cool off!
World record holder Johnny Benidze, bodyweight 63kg