Enter the Kettlebell!: Strength Secret of the Soviet Supermen

This is the essential fundamental work-out book for the Russian kettlebell. Pavel Tsatsouline has a great approach to learning how to exercise with this. He teaches the basics and then moves into the fundamental exercises. These are taught in a detailed and safe way:<br><br>1. The Clean<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1587857698i/29357790._SY540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br>2. The Swing<br>3. The Turkish Get Up<br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1587857698i/29357791._SY540_.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br>4. The Press<br>5. The High Pull<br>6. The Snatch<br><br>There's a detailed workout plan for a newbie to follow, safety tips, and lots of other information pertaining to the kettlebell. This is the first book (and DVD) you should undertake to get a solid foundation. <br><br>**Crossfit like to do it differently. I've seen people get injured (shoulders, back, elbows) because their movements differ from what Pavel teaches here.**<br><br>I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for a drastically different workout routine. If you're not convinced, check it out on YouTube. Thanks!

I love kettlebells, and this is probably my favorite entry level kettlebell book. Make no mistake, Pavel used to come off like a bit of a marketing caricature in his earlier days with dragondoor, but he is absolutely the real deal. His stuff works, period. If he needs to play it up a little to get his stuff out to a bigger audience, so be it, as long as it works I'm fine with that. <br /><br />Kettlebells really bridged the gap between maximum strength and strength-endurance/power for me. I was skeptical at first, and thought a dumbbell would be just as good. I was wrong. The kbs delivered as promised, helped me lose fat, improved my conditioning, and increased my strength endurance.<br /><br />The book thoroughly explains the mechanics of the swing and snatch, which is crucial for an exercise program in my opinion. Lots of pictures which lay out the moves so that they're easy to understand and implement. I agree 100% with Pavel, in that you only need a few basic fundamental exercises to stay in great shape. <br /><br />He lays out a simple progression in the book which takes you from entry level to more advanced, along with periodic self testing you can do to determine where you stand. <br /><br />My current yearly training plan goes like this: I do 9-12 weeks of barbell training (Tactical Barbell), followed by about 4 weeks of kettlebell work from ETK. I simply switch between the two year round and find that this gives me the best of both worlds. Barbell training gives me that raw maximum strength base, and the kettlebells draw from that and convert it into ballistic power, strength-endurance, and conditioning.<br /><br />If you can only buy one kettlebell book, get this one. Great for both entry level and advanced. Stick with Pavel for the kettlebell stuff. Some of the other kettlebell 'gurus' out there tend to overcomplicate things and add what isn't necessary. <br /><br />

This book was surprisingly good. I made the earlier mistake of watching one of Pavel's Youtube videos and it turned me off. Then I read someone say how he used humor. That, too, turned me off. Needless to say, this book was the opposite of what I expected--and it was very useful. <br /><br />Pavel corrected a lot of moves I was doing, and thus spared me from some serious injuries. If you pick up a kb and start swinging and cleaning, you will hurt your wrist. Painfully. Pavel shows you some basic pointers.<br /><br />EDIT: It's fun to reread. I picked up a few pointers I had forgotten.

Great book for starting kettlebell training. The step by step instruction on different exercises is very easy to follow. There is not an actual workout program outlined in the book but a companion pdf called 'Enter the kettlebell...the workout' by Anthony DiLuglio can be found for free online. DiLuglio's workout takes the concepts and exercises from the book and puts them into a 12-week kettlebell program.

Would be 3 stars because of the good coaching tips but the macho bravado is a little too much for me.

I first came across kettlebells 12 years ago in college in a weight lifting class and was surprised to see those curious "cannon balls with handles" in the corner. I'd seen some people doing some weird movements with them as well. No one was using them, and I didn't know how to use them, so curiosity piqued, I convinced my weight coach to do some research and do a demonstration in class. I've loved kettlebells ever since, nothing can compare to the versatility, portability, cardio, strength, and power delivered by one single device. And while I still love and train with the barbell, dumbbells, jump rope, running shoes, and bike, the kettlebell is just so superior to time-strapped working individuals who don't want to spend hours at the gym loading and unloading plates or long ponderous (and sometimes bitter and joint-destroying) cardio. I take my kettlebells with me when I travel and they've put me on the road to recovery after serious injuries. Pavel's Russian wit and humor alone make this a must-read.

Este libro te enseña lo necesario para usar las pesas rusas (kettlebells) y sus ejercicios básicos.<br /><br />El autor, Pavel Tsatsouline, es el responsable de haber puesto de moda estas pesas, y tiene una aproximación muy de la vieja escuela al ejercicio que es interesante y útil. El estilo de escritura es a menudo autoparódico porque se mete en su personaje del Ruso Malvado a tope, te llama camarada cada dos por tres, y cosas así, pero la información es extremadamente útil, y la explicación de los ejercicios (y la preparación para aprender los movimientos correctamente) es impecable. No se puede pedir más en ese sentido.<br /><br />Lo único negativo es que, como todos sus libros, la verborrea comercial y el estilo de vendedor de coches usados puede ser un tanto desmotivador. Así mismo, los libros de este tipo tienen una maquetación y un diseño que hinchan bastante el número de páginas y el precio.<br /><br />Kettlebell for Dummies es un mejor manual desde el punto de vista didáctico, en mi opinión, pero este es un excelente libro porque las rutinas que propone son más simples, y duran más tiempo antes de tener que cambiar a otra cosa. Es definitivamente recomendable, si te gusta el ejercicio eficaz y sin tanta chorrada de gimnasio. Ciertamente, ahora que tengo unas kettlebell no me planteo volver a un gimnasio pudiendo entrenar en casa en sesiones cortas e intensas. Con esto y ejercicios de peso corporal tienes todo lo que te hace falta.

For Russian strongmen, elite military forces, and hardened criminals in Chechnya, the kettlebell has been an essential tool for developing a balanced musculature, endurance during the most grueling physical trials, functionally explosive strength, and a whole host of other benefits.<br /><br />A tiny iron cannonball doesn’t seem that impressive, but after gripping at its cold handle and ripping into the momentum of a swing, there is nothing more punishing or more addictive.<br /><br />Kettlebells come in poods. For example, the average male beginner uses 1 pood (16 kgs. or 35 lbs.) while the advanced lifter uses 2 poods (32 kgs. or 70 lbs.). There are different weights for every level. One must master the lighter weights to progress onto the heavier ones, but even the most powerful athletes can accomplish their goals with 1 pood.<br /><br />In “Enter the Kettlebell,” Pavel Tsatsouline describes the correct (and most thorough) techniques available for exercises like the sumo deadlift, face-to-wall squat, halo, swing, snatch, clean, and get-up.<br /><br />Pavel encourages a daily practice, not a burnout. Kettlebell training requires a lot of skill and patience to do well. For instance, to do a proper two-handed swing, one needs to maintain a box squat alignment, keep a straight but not upright back, generate power from the hip but not in the arms, sit back rather than dip down, and so on.<br /><br />This book uses a minimalist approach and recommends two kettlebell exercises for the most benefit: the swing and the get-up.<br /><br />“The swing will take care of your back, legs, heart, and lungs. The get-up will temper flexible and resilient shoulders, ready for exercises and spots skills that traditionally trash them: punching a heavy bag, grappling, heavy pressing and jerking, and so on.”<br /><br />Once one has practiced these exercises for a long time (weeks to months to even years), focusing on finesse over speed and technique over high repetitions, additional exercises can be incorporated.<br /><br />Kettlebell cleans, snatches, and presses are demanding. One needs to use strength and flexibility to do them well. Pavel argues for slow strength training with lower reps. Rather than championing the popular fatiguing way of strength training, he believes that slow training minimizes injuries, while building resiliency and power.<br /><br />When using kettlebells, one is always in the Yin Yang of relaxation and tension. Like any good martial artist knows, it’s all about timing.<br /><br />“Tension and relaxation are the two sides of the performance coin. An always-tight powerlifter can hardly move. An always-loose yoga practitioner is weak. A karate master, who moves like lightning and then freezes for a split second to put all of his mass behind the punch and then recoil with relaxed quickness like a snake’s tongue, has both. In the words of the late Okinawan karate master Chozo Nakama, this is ‘relaxed tension.’”<br /><br />Kettlebells bring the entire body into each movement. One exhales with control like a boxer throwing a cross, relaxing and then tensing, building up their combat conditioning. Kettlebells reduce injuries through a stabilization of numerous muscles, strengthening the back, arms, shoulders, abs, legs, glutes, and grips.<br /><br />Pavel recommends training everyday. Stay consistent but always vary in the workouts each time, switching from heavy to light weights, focusing on proper technique in between sessions, never exercising until fatigue.<br /><br />He suggests using ladders, starting low. Switching hands, resting. Then slowly building up to fifty repetitions, one hundred repetitions, in a short period of time. Eventually, as one progresses, one will build 1 ladder (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) to 2 ladders, 2 ladders to 3 ladders, and so on. This can take a few minutes, a few hours, or even a full day.<br /><br />When it comes to rest in between sets, that depends on individual goals.<br /><br />“Either extreme of rest between sets—less than a minute on one end, and 10 minutes and more on the other—will make you strong for different reasons. Extremely short breaks will make you stronger by building muscle in the tradition of Charles Staley’s EDT (edtsecrets.com). Extremely long breaks will make you stronger by improving your skill of strength in the tradition of my GTG program from The Naked Warrior. Medium breaks will give you a mix of muscular and neural adaptations. This is why I have not specified how long you should rest between your sets in this book. Why complicate?”<br /><br />Kettlebell training can be timed as well. Alternating rep/rest periods at random, experimenting daily to build up to high reps in a short amount of time, can be challenging and rewarding. HIIT and Tabata are two beneficial methods for intense, short workouts.<br /><br />Kettlebells are versatile, adaptive to both the person and program. They’re simple, effective punishers, training raw power and strength, conditioning and balance, flexibility and skill.<br /><br />One can combine kettlebells with intervals of pull-ups and pushups, shadow boxing and sprints. Athletes can alternate with barbells and machines and dumbells and ropes. They can skip those tools all together and use kettlebells alone.<br /><br />From stretching hip flexors to stabilizing joints, from building raw power to reducing the chances of arthritis, from lowering heart rate to increasing balance, kettlebells are underrated in the fitness world.

A lot of macho bravado and not my book.<br /><br />This is not to say that this probably isn't a good book for another person but for me it's not what I need to learn. This isn't a beginners book and is a book that would be useful after a few classes but it grated a bit with the attitude.

The best book for beginners.