OT: Kettlebells

Lion's Roar

Lion's Roar

Joined
Apr 11, 2004
Messages
828
I've been thinking about these for a while. Still haven't made up my mind about whether or not to try. I like to workout, and these look darn interesting. Kind of appealing in an odd, but effective sense, almost like a khukuri.

What do you think?

www.hard-style.com

Check out the kettlebells.
 
They look appealing and I have heard good things about them. I use a shrug bar and get a lot out of that. I was tempted to try kettlebells but haven't yet.
 
The guy who could work out with arms stretched holding a 88 pound kettle bell is someone I'd want on my side.

munk
 
And stacking firewood. Some of you martial artists are always welcome to come visit me in Montana and help cut, load,and stack firewood. If you used a khuk for the cutting, you'd get a workout superior to the kettle bell.



munk
 
Munk,

I love chopping and stacking firewood. It is a great workout.

I lived in a tepee, a tent, and a 180 year old Cherokee Chieftan (small log cabin) without electricity for a number of years in the North Georgia mountains, and used my khukuri everyday. I have fond memories because it really worked great for the size of wood that works best for tepees. I still remember heating up rocks to sleep with to keep me warm. Y'know, those tepees really aren't designed for North Georgia winters. :)

I don't know that it can do anything that a dumbell can't, that's one reason that I haven't bought one yet. That and I really don't care much for dumbells either. I usually workout with just my own bodyweight.
 
Have you tried a shrug bar, Lion's Roar? Here's a picture of one.

I use them for my core excercise, which is parallel grip deadlifts. It is a great full body excercise and can be done without a spotter with no danger, so you can excercise alone. I can't praise them highly enough, and this is the exact model I bought. (you don't need the stand or the "cage", just the bar and some plates).
 
Lion's Roar, felling trees and cutting segments with a khuk is still my number one form of exercise. I wish I had your memory of living in rudimentary circumstance. It's funny how perceptions differ. A writing instructor complained bitterly of living in just such a small cabin with modest amounts of food and heat to survive and small children. I wonder what she was bitter about? There usually is some money available for children in such circumstances. Her attitude was someone must have 'gypped her'. Society failed her. It wasn't fair. I didn't get the impression it built character in her. I don't think she hunted, either.
You can bet no matter how liberal I was, in such circumstances I'd be potting winter rabbit and anything else real fast. It wasn't as if in Appalachia there wasn't any possibility of pursuing this at that time- 1960's.


munk
 
Munk,
If it wasn't for kids, I might still be living that way (probably not, but maybe). Having kids could make that lifestyle a lot more stressful in a hurry. As a matter of fact, thinking about kids was one of the things that made me realize that I had to learn to become part of society back then. I came to the belief that as great as living in nature, removed from society was, that it would never be fair to my children to give them a life where they were not able to socialize with the world and fit in with the other kids. That was about 10 years before I had my first kid, and it took about that long before I was ready. Time flies.

I remember when I started living indoors again, I could hardly sleep from hearing the electricity run and couldn't get used to not hearing the katydids.
I miss running around in my moccasins and feeling Mother Earth massage my feet or shooting my bow out in the full moon light.

I know one thing, you don't need Iron Palm training or any other martial art if you get that much use from your khukuri from felling trees and chopping wood. That will let you slap a small bear silly if you have to.. :D
 
Lion's Roar said:
...Having kids could make that lifestyle a lot more stressful...
Click to expand...
Having kids could make ANY lifestyle a lot more stressful.

But, like you, it's what brought my wife and myself off the trail and back into society where we have been passing for "middle class" for years.

However, by following the rule "Take what you need, and let the rest go by", we have never had to swallow the whole package (if one even exists) and could pick and choose the best, and disregard the worst, and nobody knows anything except what they think they see or what we tell them.
 
Lion's Roar. These do give a different work out then just using a dumbell. A lot of it has to do with the handle shape and thickness. I have played with a small pair of these before. Years ago I use to work out at Coffee's Gym over in Marietta (you may know the place) and they had some weight bars that were about twice as think as a regular bar. Even doing presses where grip strength didn't come into play, using them made a difference in the exercise. It was as if your body could tell something was different and worked harder to do the same exercise because of the fact. Perhaps just a built in safety that the body has trying to avoid injury, but training with odd things like those is a great way to really change up your work out. Good luck


Mark
 
Hey Mark! Good to hear from you. Yep, I remember Coffee's off of Franklin Road. I think he moved again after that. That was the best hardcore gym.
I think it used to be $2 to workout for one day.

Thanks for your insights. It makes sense.

Cognitive, thanks for the link. I have never seen one of those before. Looks interesting.
 
I imagine kettlebells would do more to workout your forearms/wrists while you're doing other exercises.

Also, you would be able to use it to vary your workout intensity.

Think of it this way:

Work = Power * Distance.

Take munk's example. Dude holds the kettlebells loosely in his hand and raises his arms to 90 degrees (like you're flapping your wings)....allowing the kettlebell to hang freely.

Now imagine taking that same weight, holding it tightly in your hand (no longer hanging loosely) and lifting it to 90 degrees. Much more difficult, works out your grip strength.

Now imagine every angle inbetween (holding the kettlebell farther in/out) and you've got variety.

Seem quite versatile to me. A buddy has some at his place that I've messed around with. Have yet to find an inexpensive dealer....so I don't have any myself....:(
 
Lion's Roar said:
Cognitive, thanks for the link. I have never seen one of those before. Looks interesting.
Click to expand...

I am a great believer in doing big excercises that work the whole body and there are none better than squats and deadlifts. I don't believe in the "isolate your muscle" malarkey that is so prevalent today.

With the shrug bar you can do the equivalent of a squat but without the power rack and risk. With the shrug bar, you can always just drop the bar, no problem. It is much easier to maintain good form than it is when doing deadlifts with a barbell.

I don't even own a barbell and I don't own a bench. But I continue to make great progress with a minimal equipment, of which the shrug bar would be the centerpiece.

I use the shrug bar for bent legged deadlifts and also stiff legged partial deads, which work the back and hamstrings more. I have done shrugs with them as well, although I usually don't bother with shrugs these days.

I have been intrigued with the kettle bells as I said. The trouble with dumbbells is the weights at each end tend to get in your way once you get to a certain weight. The kettlebells look like you can deal with them more easily.

I could see using them for farmer's walks, which would be a terrific excercise.

I have heard of people using kettlebells for a lot of other stuff, but I would worry about keeping good form with them, so I would restrict my use of them to well-structured excercises in close to perfect form.
 
cognitivefun said:
I don't believe in the "isolate your muscle" malarkey that is so prevalent today.
Click to expand...


I agree to a large degree with this statement. I always ask people if they have ever seen a powerlifter with small Biceps.
 
Lion's Roar said:
Hey Mark! Good to hear from you. Yep, I remember Coffee's off of Franklin Road. I think he moved again after that. That was the best hardcore gym.
I think it used to be $2 to workout for one day.

Thanks for your insights. It makes sense.

Cognitive, thanks for the link. I have never seen one of those before. Looks interesting.
Click to expand...


Yeah that is the place. It has moved since then. It is not a place for everyone that is for sure. You will not see to many of the "gym as a singles bar" crowd there and by many I mean none. ;) I have not been posting much lately but need to get back into the swing of things. Posting here helps to keep my head up. Thanks guys.
 
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