The kettlebell looks like a very simple tool – just a little lead ball with a handle.  But what can be done with it varies so much that it seems like every coach or trainer has their own “tricks of the trade” for the sometimes grueling kettlebell exercises they inflict on grumbling athletes who claim that kettlebells aren’t always the way to start the day.

Traditional kettlebell actitives include straightforward lifts such as the “snatch” or “jerk” as well as combination lifts like the “clean and jerk”.  These kinds of lifts, properly achieved, work those muscles involved in doing the kind of lifting that you might expect to do in a wide range of everyday tasks, and that’s one reason why so many trainers who are working toward occupational strength (like firefighters, police and military professionals) get instructed in kettlebells at the academy.

These obvious benefits of kettlebell training are apparent to, say, a ‘local Olympic’ trainer who wants to work out to train for the shotput, where handling heavy weights is essential.  But other experts tout more complex kettlebell activities as ways to tone more of the body.

Some trainers call this kind of kettlebell activity “bracing”.  The idea is that when you work a muscle set with a weight-bearing limb swing or throw, you can also work other sets by controlling how your body responds.  A good example of this is to “throw” the kettlebell (kind of like a bowling ball) from between your legs with one or both arms.  For a bracing activity, you’ll keep your body straighter – and you’ll feel how the different muscle groups involved in this control do their work, making “swing” or “throw” kettlebell sets an almost ideal way to train muscle groups, like the abs, that don’t always get the attention they need.  Kettlebell ab training is more subtle than the sometimes gimmicky “crunch” training, where the devoted ab trainer must get down on the floor and wiggle around.  With kettlebells, the abs are trained to respond to “real-life” stresses, as swinging, lifting or picking up the kettlebell is much like what any mason, foundry worker, or other manual laborer might do on any given day.

When you consider how these exercises work, you may find that the kettlebells are just what you need to break out of a routine that relies only on “machine training” and get into weight training habits that focus more on adapting traditional, real, old-world muscle tasks and movements.  However, you’ll always want some good advice on how to start out.  Kettlebells are not one of those “fitness toys” that you just pick up and play with (your local gym trainer will tell you as much is he or she sees you going toward them).  Careful kettlebell practice relies on knowing about how each activity stresses muscle groups, poper stretching and warm-ups, and above all, going slowly and methodically from low-stress, low-weight activities to higher-stress, higher-weight ones.  This kind of “stair-step” weight work will ensure that your weight training gets you stronger without sending you to the hospital or the local physical therapy center which, fancy though it may be, was not part of the original plan!

A little slow and steady kettlebell work will almost certainly make you a fan of these “simple” tools as you discover how some of the world’s toughest body builders get their strength, and how many lean and capable professionals get and stay that way.