I think not.  I have often posted on ironGarm my thoughts and opinions about kettlebells based on experiences of others including myself.  Bogatirs and GS athletes are the most impressive to me no news.

How to lift a kettlebell is very simple.

Simplicity and ease are not necessarily synonymous.  When people understand the concept of how to lift a kettlebell for the right reasons such as safety and performance they are not done.   Hard work is necessary for any results for people be it athletes or just fitness.

I watched Michael Phelps get his 8th gold medal.  I know what people will say.  “He is talented”.  Yes he is!  But that is not all of it.  He has hard work, he has a coach, he has opportunity.  He does all of things to make him the best possible athlete for him which happens to be a 14 time gold medalist in his career.  No matter who you are you will have to work.

One true way is not something I really understand.  But there are very rudimentary/fundamental ways to hold a kettlebell and why.  If I hold a kettlebell like a dumbbell I could will cause great injury to myself with a heavier kettlebell.  I think of the 200lb kettlebell or something relatively heavy for someone.

People who discuss and do so without frame of reference are not there to try to understand.  So when the answer is given, it is “not the right answer” or not the answer they want to hear so the discussion losses steam.  This is the problem when we talk about it but do nothing about it.  We don’t like what we hear and don’t try to understand it first-hand.  Out of everyone I have ever met that got started with kettlebells loved the idea of the rankings.  They haven’t been tainted with the mentality of “GS being good for GS.” because the market wasn’t there yet.

Non GS

What about one-armed LC with 48kg for 10 minutes?  What about 2 hour s of lifting a 32kg bell?   What about 60kg?  Not many people can do this and this is not GS.  That’s the point.  And I’ll say this again and again and again, based on that Flint Michigan meet, it seems that kettlebells lifting…for reps is picking up quite a bit.

Originally posted: 2008