Thursday, June 15, 2006

Uh-oh. Kettlebells. Got my copy of Enter the Kettlebell a couple of weeks ago in the mail. Then, earlier this week, the 32kg kettlebell arrived in the mail. I've thumbed through the book, and am thinking it would be good to have a coach for awhile, although the photos of Pavel, the guru and who wrote the book, are pretty clear.

Walter said he would send me a DVD, however. Maybe that will be enough.

At the end of the book are some FAQs.

For example,

Is kettlebell training a fad?

The girya first appeared in a Russion dictionary in 1704(Cherkikh, 1994) Yes, it is a fad. I expect it to go away in the next 300 years.

Once I have put up the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) Rit of Passage numbers, where do I go next.

Get registered to vote and join the Marines; you are a man now.

Will they let a 60 year old man in the Marines? If so, I'm ready.

The kettlebell is very, very heavy. I may order a lighter one to get started.

The whole point of this, I think, is to use your whole body to lift and not to isolate on particular muscle groups. (But, gee, I want to look like a freak of nature.)

Pavel, the Kettlebell guru, is not the only guy who thinks simply lifting a big weight is good for you. So does his friend, Dan John. On Dan's site is a link to The Ten Commandments of Lifting, which is interesting.

I told Walter that we all need to go to one of Pavel's training sessions. Maybe we could make this a two or three day thing: one or two days with Pavel, and the last day with David Allen. If we find some dates, we will let everyone know and the entire Kith & Kin community can gather to do some heavy lifting.

CORRECTION! CORRECTION! Walter called me, deeply concerned. Did I really get a 32kg Kettlebell? That's 70 lbs! No, I didn't get that bell. I made a mistake and got my kg and lbs mixed up (after all, I am a history major). I bought a 16kg bell, and thats about 35lb. No matter, really, its still too heavy. I am going to get the 12kg (26lb) bell. By the way, 16kg is actually 1 "pood". A pood is some sort of ancient Russion measure of weight. The is interesting in that the French call their girly little dogs pood-les, and the Russians measure their manly weights in poods. I think I may be on to something here.

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