Scott Bush

We have many things to thank the Russians for: perogies, Matryoshka dolls, and the kettlebell. To (mis)quote Christopher Walken on SNL, “I got a fever, and the only cure is more kettlebell.” Kettlebells are a weight-lifting tool similar to barbells but oh so much better/worse for you (depending on whether your considering muscular benefits or body soreness the day after you work out with them). They’re basically a ball of cast iron with a u-shaped handle.

The karate sensei at our dojo is a proponent of kettlebells and we’ve worked out with them on a few occasions now. Their benefit for martial artists in particular lies in their “ballistic,” or all-over workout. Rather than working your pectorals with bench presses, a kettlebell exercise would work your pecs, obliques, delts, and other muscles as you performed an exercise. It’s similar to the benefits of free weights over Nautilus or other machines, where the lack of a specific path for the weight to travel along forces other muscles to stabilize the free weights as you perform the exercise. Or, maybe not… but it definitely works out your entire body. You can see some more pix like this one, if you’re interested in looking at people with more muscle mass than you or anyone you know.