Novice vs. Expert - Part 2

Say you want to use a basketball and a hoop as tools to get in shape. Obviously you would want to learn the game of Basketball, with all its rules and strategies. That would maximize your potential with those tools and make you the best equipped to improve physically using those tools. You would want to select a teacher that would acknowledge and imitate the best basketball players, past and present. Know that no one is going to take an orange ball, hoops, and a gym and create a better game than basketball as we know it.

Classical Kettlebell lifting is a sport. It has rules, strategies, and some amazing athletes to imitate. It is an ultimate strength-endurance test, the ultimate fitness-sport.

There is a popular movement of "experts" in this country who use the kettlebell as a tool to get stronger and more in shape. Their ways of using the tool delivers great gains for a time. Sadly, many of them display their "power" for all to see and practice the "impressive" feats of strength (not bad in itself) and their basics are horrible. It is like a "basketball player" who only does twirling dunks and half-court shots but cannot function in a game of basketball. Even though many of their students are getting good physical and metabolic gains, they make it look hard. How? They are full of needless tension. This is not maximal powerlifting, folks. Wasteful tension has another name: stress. Purposeful relaxation, especially under a load (mental, or physical), takes a lot of discipline and skill. It is an integral strategy of the kettlebell sport and wellness in life. Efficiency and confidence (the opposite of tightness and stress) is how the experts make it look easy.

A kettlebell is a mass of weight that can be used for any lifting habit. I encourage you to explore what is was designed for: lifting it off the ground and over your head many times with a purposeful efficiency and make it look easy. You have to feel it to believe it.