STRONG IS THE NEW BLACK

“When I say kettlebells, I mean strength. And when I say strength, I mean kettlebells.” – Pavel Tsatsouline, creator of the Russian Kettlebell Certifi cation.

Fawn is just one of many strong women in Pavel Tsatsouline’s world famous RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certifi cation) system. With a background in yoga you wouldn’t immediately make the link between power lifting and holding poses. But Fawn says, “Training is a form of meditation. It focuses and stimulates the mind, not to mention being great for your health, firing up your immune system and stimulating the hormones that keep your brain healthy and body young. I use kettlebells to keep my joints healthy and my body strong for my competitive lifting”.

Kettlebells, and when I say kettlebells I mean strength, are the new black.

If you go back only a few years you’d find women entering the gym and being told to either lift weights in the “women’s section” or to just do some cardio. Firstly, muscle isn’t gender specific. Fibres are made the same whether male or female. Th e distribution may be a little different, but there are far more similarities than differences once we get the clothes out of the way and peel back the skin! So why on earth would a woman need to train differently to a man?

Nikki Shlosser from California doesn’t think she should. And with best lift s that make most men drop their heads in shame why should she? At 62kg and 160cm she is well known in our community as one of the strongest girls. She’s able to complete a 32kg single leg squat, 120kg deadlift and a variety of ‘odd’ lift s such as a 32kg Bent Press. “I love the athleticism of kettlebells, and the mental focus they require. They provide an aggressive, disciplined outlet, where physical effort is enhanced by mental effort. The study of movement and the skill practice involved, makes the kettlebells so much more fun than any other type of training I have done.”

“Not only is the kettlebell good for strength, it is unmatched as a weight loss tool.”

Look at the benefits of weight training – heart health, lower blood pressure, increased metabolism, injury resistance…and the list goes on. Noted strength author Dan John, Senior RKC, has this to say, “In the next few years (and honestly we have seen the evidence pile up), the notion of healthy diet and healthy body is going to see some revisionary thinking. A program that builds lean body mass – I was recently told the measurement of lean body mass is practically all you need to determine the physical age, not the actual age of the person – might actually be as healthy as what we used to think about sprouts, wheat grass and colonics”.

“It is entirely possible to be super hero strong while also being feminine and sexy.”

The key point – lean mass – is the main difference between the old school bodybuilding type workouts and the modern understanding of strength training. The RKC system is a veritable “how to” program developed around one central philosophy – being as strong as possible. Note that it doesn’t say “as big as possible.” Contrary to popular opinion the two are very different creatures and it is entirely possible to be super hero strong while also being feminine and sexy.

The CNS governs strength. It is not a matter of how big the muscles are, but rather how strong the connection to them is. To explain, if we put it in computer terms, most people have the brain/body connection of the old dial up internet. In contrast, a welltrained individual has highspeed cable internet, capable of allowing the muscle to produce more force without adding unnecessary size.

Consider this typical kettlebell story of thirtysomething year old Karen Smith trying to get in shape: “I was spending 14 hours a week in the gym doing my daily hour of cardio followed by an hour of light weight training. All the while I was staying at 25 per cent body fat. I was extremely frustrated. We have all been led to believe that we need hours and hours on cardio machines, or very light weights at very high repetitions. I met the kettlebell back in 2007. In three years while I only dropped 3kg, I halved my body fat percentage from 25 per cent to 15 per cent and dropped two dress sizes!”

“I love that my Hardstyle Kettlebell training gets me far more results in far less training time. Thanks to the RKC and the kettlebell, I am now thirtyseven years old and in the best shape of my life. I am getting stronger, leaner results – but feminine results!”

This same trend is seen in Neghar Fonooni. “Lift ing heavy (heavy is relative) and training intelligently hard, as well as maintaining a strict nutritional lifestyle, is what gave me the body I have today. I gained 20kg when I was pregnant with my son, and didn’t understand why, considering I was “working out” on the elliptical machine and doing leg presses. I haven’t touched an elliptical machine in years, and I have never been happier with my body.”

“We are under the impression that we should lift tiny pink weights in order to get “toned” or we shouldn’t lift weights at all and we should stick to yoga or Pilates for “long, lean muscles”. Don’t get me wrong, yoga is great for so many reasons, but it won’t get you the body you want. Unfortunately though, an alarmingly large percentage of women think if they lift heavy weights they will get “big” or “bulky”.”

Now, not only do I maintain 13-14 per cent body fat and an athletic physique but also I have accomplished things with my body that I never even imagined. Th at would be: deadlift ing 120kg, strict pull-ups with a 16kg kettlebell, single leg squats with a 24kg kettlebell, single leg deadlift ing 60kg and snatching a 30kg dumbbell – all at 56kg body weight. If I can do it anyone can.”

The weight gain during pregnancy wasn’t a problem for Yoana Sindeman. She just kept on training. At only 152cm and 51kg Yoana is tiny – the kettlebell she used during her pregnancy was almost as big as her belly! She’s also able to regularly perform super hero feats of strength including her lift ing Master RKC Dave Whitley – all 180cm, 120kg of him (that’s two and a half times her bodyweight).

“I love that my Hardstyle Kettlebell training gets me far more results in far less training time.”

Not only is the kettlebell good for strength, it is unmatched as a weight loss tool. Research shows that calorie use per hour of kettlebell training is actually higher than any other form of training including running, riding, rowing and swimming as well as traditional resistance training.

“Research shows that calorie use per hour of kettlebell training is actually higher than any other form of training including running, riding, rowing and swimming as well as traditional resistance training.”

For instance, Tracy Reifk ind, RKC, managed to lose over 45kg just by adding in two twenty minute kettlebell swing workouts per week along with her diet changes. Tracy’s story is so inspirational it features prominently in author Tim Ferriss’s best-selling new book The Four Hour Body. She says, “I credit the kettlebell swing for increasing my metabolism while burning fat and building muscle simultaneously. I’ve done some big numbers in the gym like snatching the 24kg and one thousand 24kg swings in fift y minutes! Since my training focuses on the speed strength of kettlebell ballistics (not absolute strength of the grinds), I use mostly two 12kg kettlebells.” Tracy’s story has become so well known that she has just signed a book deal. The book will focus on her weight loss methods; including her now famous swing methods (Programming the Kettlebell Swing is available from www. dragondooraustralia.com).

Delaine Ross trained for the Ms. Fitness America pageant using only kettlebells – instead of traditional bodybuilding methods. “The monotony of the diet and training drove me insane. Hours and hours on the hamster mill made me want to gouge my eyes out! When I changed my diet to the Warrior Diet and replaced normal gym weights with kettlebells I wound up placing second, my best result. Not only that, my body still worked properly, not as a mish-mash of random isolated parts. And compared to the other girls backstage I actually had fun!”

The final piece of the puzzle is forging a healthy body or rehabilitating a broken body. Desi Bustos is another who has benefitted greatly from kettlebell training. In 2009, aft er AC joint surgery she was told like many including myself, that she would never be able to train heavy ever again. But her husband soon introduced her to the kettlebell and she is now able to snatch a bell that is more than half her bodyweight as well as press half her bodyweight overhead one handed! Not bad for someone who was told two years ago that she was finished with heavy training!

There’s a reason that kettlebells, and the RKC, are taking the world by storm. Strong is the new black – don’t get left wearing last year’s body fat.