Enter The Kettlebell from Dragon Door Publishing written by Pavel Tsatsouline is a DVD and book of the same name that offers a complete program on how to train with "the Russian Kettlebell" - an iron device that is often described as "a cannonball with a handle." With all the plethora of workout gear around, however, why add something more? Why would anyone choose a kettlebell?
The answer is at least two-fold: the flexibility of the kettlebell itself (compared to dumbbells or other gear) and second
it's not just the device: it's the philosophy espoused around the device that goes against the grain of just about every popular workout regimin. If you're familiar with the usual mantra of Aerobics plus Resistance Training where you ride a stationary bike, or pump a treadmill for 30 mins to an hour, and then work out different body parts with weights throughout the week, this may be the time to cue up Monty Python's "And now for something completely different..."
First to go with Enter the Kettlebell (ETK) is aerobics or "the dishonour of aerobics" as the author puts it; second to go is training body parts in isolation. Third to go is the notion of ever "training to failure" that weight pumping truism that says use a weight that, after 8-12 reps, you just can't do one more rep - you've go to failure. Well, with ETK, forget about failure: train for success.
If you're wondering where any exercise could possibly be left if you strip out body part workouts and aerobics, the answer in ETK is "lots." The philosophy is simple: focus on only a few moves that work the major muscle groups not in isolation but in combination, the way we use them naturally; perfect those few moves; use low reps, heavy weights, high sets; always finish each set, and each session, feeling fresh and ready to do more, not wasted. The goal is conditioning and strength, not muscle for the sake of muscle.
If you are interested in a great workout that is time efficient and effective, and oh so not boring, whether your goals are strength, conditioning, weight loss or all of the above, Enter the Kettlebell's reputation as the place to start and build a foundation is well-deserved and highly recommended. The next sections go over more about the program and experience with it.
Technorati Tags: fitness, kettlebell, Pavel Tsatsouline, workout, yoga
While there are a plethora of moves one can perform with this iron ball with handles -- swinging it with one hand or two; two bells at once or only one: pressing from the shoulders or bending to the side and pressing one bell up then standing up; sitting back and passing the bell from hand to hand; pressing while standing on one leg; walking lunges etc etc -- ETK teaches only four, and breaks these up into two phases: the Program Minimum and the Right of Passage (ROP).
The Program Minimum focuses on the Swing and the Turkish Get UP (images, left). That's it.
The ROP focuses on alternating the Swing and the Clean and Press with the Swing and the Snatch (images right). The guidelines for progressing in each phase are clear, sensible, and based on excellent exercise science. Most of all they include strong emphasis on rest, recovery and perfect form.
Practice with a kettlebell provides an intense, full body workout in less than half an hour. Each of the four moves works all the major muscle groups concurrently and provides a conditioning effect that blows aerobics out of the water. Because it is working so many muscle groups so effectively it is a highly efficient, time effective way to work out. The device itself is also very compact. It is possible to workout with the thing, really, anywhere. One can see why, as the story goes, russian special forces threw these in the back of their tanks to work out at rest stops whether in their barracks or out in the snow on the road.
This kind of practice can be applied to a range of exercises, and indeed Pavel Tsatsouline has written a number of other books which apply this philosophy to deadlifts and presses (Power to the People); to pistols and push ups (the Naked Warrior), and to weightlifting in general (Beyond Bodybuilding). But a tool that seems emphatically to embody these holistic values is the kettlebell. 20-30 mins with a kettlebell, using the ETK approach, is a complete workout that has proven to be effective for weight loss, strength building and overall conditioning. And, for someone with lower back issues like myself, it is perhaps the most excellent strength regimine there is.
While many books/dvds look at different aspects of kettlebell training, since its release in 2006, Enter the Kettlebell has become the defacto bible for starting up: it's the program everyone else assumes you already know or are working on, and with good reason. It is clear, concise and effective. It presents two programs: the start up, called the New Program Minimum, and the second phase of solid foundation work, called the Rite of Passage (ROP).
Enter the Kettlebell as an introduction and foundation course for kettlebell work is an exceptional book/dvd combination on several levels: first, it is very well written and an enjoyable read; second, it provides thorough discussions about both the history and the science behind its approach to working out; third, the book is very well illustrated and designed, the DVD is a well-presented, integrated accompaniment to the book.
Preamble: coming off intense aerobics and body part resistance and switching to ETK
Three and some months ago i had just finished a very intense 13 weeks program called P90X (reviewed here) that focussed on working out 6 days a week, alternating resistance training and aerobics. Its emphasis was a mix of resistance training 3 days a week and various forms of cardio and stretching the other three. Workouts lasted a minimum of an hour twenty a day. At some parts of the program, you're adding an extra cardio session, getting up to working out two hours a day, and truly taxing your partner's patience in (a) getting less quality time with you and (b) stinking up more of the house more often.
As i got to the end of this intense program, while i could feel and see that i was reaching goals for strength and weight loss, i was very perplexed about what next. There was little guidance on the company's site: this program is sort of their Ultra workout, after which there is no directed "what next."
After much research, i kept running into various work by Pavel Tsatsouline, including his earlier Russian Kettlebell Challenge book and DVD. I tried many of the moves from this book using my trusty PowerBlocks. I liked how these moves felt even with dumbbells (one of the ways Tsatsouline in fact recommends exploring kettlebell work in the Russian Kettlebell Challenge to see if it's for you). I liked the moves: they seemed to involve both skill to coordinate all the parts of a move and critical attention to detail while carrying out those moves.
Indeed, i started Enter the Kettlebell at one hotel gym, using their powerblocks, and then used the next hotels dumbbells as i waited for the kettlebell i'd ordered to arrive.
An immediate appeal coming off P90x was that i could still work hard, but without spending all that time in the gym. This turned out to be one of the biggest head shifts: less really is more, when that less is the Right less. In his series called Aggressive Strength Training with Kettlebells, Mike Mahler, another of the key voices in kettlebell training, makes the point about time out of the gym pretty strongly: there's more to life than the gym, and if you don't feel that way, you need to check your life.
So i've been following the ETK Rite of Passage now for the near four months it's been since P90X, and it's been very interesting. First and foremost, during P90X every day completing the prescribed workout felt like a huge accomplishment: sticking with the program required a tremendous mental effort, and each day completed was one more checked off and DONE from that daunting 90days. With ETK/ROP, three and a half months have flown by. I have a complete training log of working out 5 days every week, progress made etc etc. But i don't have that huge sense of the required "bring it" intensity and mental and physical drain that P90X demanded - along with an almost neurotic focus on achieving THE GOAL within that time. My god, that was intense.
These past several months with the kettlebell have made me wonder if all that's necessary to achieve the same ends? As said, i barely notice that it's been well, 100+ days since that last stint. And yet, the results are there and steadily improving. In other words, there's been no strength or conditioning loss; just solid improvements since then. And my body doesn't feel like it's being pushed to the edge; i'm sleeping better; i have more time to be with the people in my life, and especially for me, my lower back is feeling much stronger. While i still have chronic pain, the level of pain has dropped considerably, and, combined with yoga specially designed for my back, i have hope of that pain dropping even more.
I don't think i regret spending the time i did on P90X - it seemed to have been exactly what i thought i needed at the time: the structure, discipline, etc etc of that program to make the breakthrough back to health that i needed then. I don't think i would have believed that kettlebells alone would have worked; therefore i wouldn't have done it; therefore no changes, no making the breakthrough and no kettlebells now. But i'm very grateful to have found kettlebells now.
After three months of P90X if i had been told "do it again" i'd have balked. Beyond the intensity, i had reached a saturation point with the routine. After the same amount of time with kettlebells, i feel i've barely scratched the surface of what this kind of workout has to offer. I can't imagine getting bored with this, at all, ever. I can't think of another approach to working out or weights where i've felt that way. Hell these blobs of cast iron are dangerous - they even come with a warning label. That's kind of exciting, too.
An overview of the Enter the Kettlebell Approach:
Get comfortable with the bell learning the Swing, the core kettlebell move, and the Turkish Get Up, a move that teaches the body to coordinate working muscles together to keep from dropping a big weight on your head while moving from a prone to a standing position. When form is clean and the moves are solid, move from practice to the Rite of Passage with two new moves: the Clean and Press (swinging the bell up to the "rack" where it rests in the crook of one's arm and from here pressing it overhead. Rinse and repeat) and the Snatch "the Tsar of Kettlebell" moves. Like the C&P, the Snatch is a dynamic move informed by the big Lifts in Olympic style lifting. Here the bell is swung up to an overhead position.
Why ETK is such a cool book:
There are books that can simply describe how to carry out these kettlebell moves - for the most part this is the role of the ETK DVD. But what makes the ETK book special is that while it describes the moves, it also provides a rich rationalization for them based on science and historical practice.
Tsatsouline blends modern science, best coaching practice and historical references to old time strong men to describe the program he's developed for Western Kettlebelling. For instance, those who go to the gym for bodybuilding purposes, and thus work individual muscle groups, while staying away from the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, and snatches, may not be aware, that as in anything, there have been fashion trends in the body game. The historical 'strong men' who had a very different body composition than today's bodybuilders (check the pecs on X against say, Arnie in his Mr. Olympia days) had very different philosophies around training. Where the strong men focused on moves to build great strength and physique, by working muscles together rather than separately, today's body builders tend to work their muscles to do well at isolation moves, rather than for overall strength. No wonder guys on the platform can look a little well, freaky, rather than human. Likewise, special forces, whether fire fighters, rescue workers or soldiers have functional demands on their bodies that require strength and conditioning first (the resulting lovely physique second). This is the headspace from which Tsatsouline's kettlebell approach is honed.
The result of this history + performance science approach to describing each of the moves and why the program is put together the way is that it inspires both interest and confidence in following the program, and its philosophy. That philosophy includes variety - not variety in terms of doing different exercises each day of the week, but variety in level and intensity of the same exercises over the course of the week. This waving of intensity is backed up by science, but even without going into the details, the approach sounds like something that your mother would tell you: don't work so hard all the time; make sure to get enough rest (and dress warmly in the winter).
To back up the intensity philosophy, Tsatsouline emphasizes the use of time rather than number of reps as the arbiter of work. See how many reps you can get in in a pre-determined time frame and go from there. One day, do only 50% intensity for that time; another day 70; another day, full on. This means that if one does sets of a max of 5 reps, intensity can be varied by the length of rest periods between sets. Not that rest necessatily means dead stop. Most of the folks in the kettlebell community are proponents of active rest. That said, feeling fresh means finishing strong, means solid progress.
The advantage of a four move program like ETK is that it enables one, as the Matrix says to "free your mind" (there is no spoon). These moves are finesse moves: a lot is going on in each one; perfecting each one, is a daily challenge. The simple swing requires thinking about the planting of the feet, the position of the knees over ankles, the butt being back, the bend at the hips while keeping the back straight, the lats and abs firing, the pelvis tucking in and knees locking, the bell going to the weightless spot, and repeating - and then having the courage to stop when the form starts even slightly to deteriorate rather than squeezing out another rep. There is no cheat rep here. no bad form.
Indeed, there's so much going on in these seemingly simple moves that a trip to one's local registered Russian Kettlebell Certified (RKC) instructor to check your form once you get into this, is a Really Good Idea.
On another note, the text itself is well laid out and presented. The publishers have raised their game from previous books, and ensured that the physical presentation is in keeping with the content, the style of one informing the function of the other. The photos of the moves are not just photos stuck onto pages, but white backgrounded sequences that blend into the pages. The sections of the text are also clearly and logically supported by motifs on the pages: each section is closed by an impressive image of a kettlebell; each chapter is initiated by a black page with Russian-esque double headed eagle grasping kettlebells. Summative information from each chapter is presented on yellowed pages, with a file folder in the background. The publisher credits Derek Brigham with the design. It seems Bringham has done lots of other work for this publisher, but the work on this effort is a quantum leap beyond the earlier titles. If a Kettlebell book were a coffee table book, this one could work as such. Enjoyable read, great information and visually pleasing. What more could you want?
Why ETK is such a Cool DVD
Even when taking a few classes to get an expert eye on one's form, the DVD is invaluable for reviewing and refreshing the particular components of the moves - you see more after you've had an expert look at how you do your swings, C&Ps, snatches and TUG's. Get the DVD and you'll also get some bonus videos/guides on suggestions for what to do on the "alternate" days in the ROP.
Unlike most other workout DVD's, Enter the Kettlebell is not a "work along with" routine. The video simply illustrates all the moves in the Enter the Kettlebell text, as performed by the book's author, Pavel Tsatsouline. After each move, it reviews the critical points for carrying out the form accurately and effectively. Accuracy is critical in these moves: do them incorrectly and you're looking at injury, and not just from dropping the bell on your foot: a bad clean can mean a tweaked shoulder; improper form in the back can mean injuries in the lower back; poor lower body alignment in a swing can damage the knees. DragonDoor's own kettlebells come with warning labels for these very reasons. Because these issues are serious, there's a wonderful section called "It's your fault" about kettlebell safety. It really is. If you take your eye off the ball (figuratively) you only have yourself to blame.
The idea of this style of presentation that demonstrates moves, breaks them down, reiterates the points to perform the move, rather than having a follow along routine, is that you will be so focused on your own sets when you yourself are practicing either the Program Minimum or ROP that watching a TV screen at the same time would not exactly be a great idea. It's also not particularly necessary: the ROP program is simple: do x C&P's on day N; do swings at M% of max for Y mins on day N too.
ASIDE - If working out exactly how many "ladders" of presses and how long to do a swing session each day seems too mentally taxing (heh, you just want to focus on doing a workout) there is an Enter the Kettlebell workbook (scroll down the page to Books and EBooks) designed by another RKC trained instructor Anthony DiLuglio and available at the Art of Strength site. The nice thing about the workbook is that it gives you a tangible record of progress. One thing that just about all sports professionals agree is that keeping a log is a great tool for charting progress and firing motivation. The ETK workbook makes it easy to keep such a log for both the Program Minimum and the ROP.
I have only one qualm with the ETK DVD: too few reps of any given move for close close study. At times, in watching the snatch for instance, i've played it at super slow motion in order to dissect the way the arm moves to catch the bell so that it doesn't smash one's wrist. There are typically only three reps of any given move from front and side. A few more reps would help for this close look at any given move. Actually, slowing down the video, talking over the slo mo and adding some arrows or close ups to draw attention to particular points while watching really wouldn't go amiss. The closest ETK comes to this kind of move dissection is in the book's illustrations: they freeze frame these key points, which is just too hard to do from looking at a live action video.
Another Aside: if you've seen other DVDs by Pavel and Dragon Door publishing, the set of this video is a refreshing, more professional change. Just the addition of new colors away from the previous browns and tans is welcome. Gone is the set that looks like someone's rumpus room or garage (not that that doesn't have its own charm). The set is more open and colorful while looking/feeling serious enough for real work. ETK is easy to watch repeatedly.
It's more than a Book
Like many businesses these days, the folks behind ETK recognize that much business comes not just from the sale of the product, but from ongoing support. One of the features of these Pavel publications is the online forum at the publishers. In this case, the DragonDoor.com site hosts both a forum on which Tsatsouline is a regular participant, and the site has a host of related fitness articles by people interested in a range of training forms, from traditional big lifts, to grip strength to kettlebells and a range of interests in between (the number of folks with martial arts backgrounds is amazing, for example).
Beyond ETK?
There are so many other things one can do with a kettlebell and so many routine varieties it's hard to imagine ever running out of what one can do with the thing. There are a host of other videos as well - Art of Strength has several videos (Newport, Providence and Firepower) for working out actually emphasizing fast bodyweight moves combined with lighter kettlebells (8kg for women; 16 for men - max, they say and they're not kidding) where you do follow along with the video. Likewise, Mike Mahler's approach is to focus on double kettlebell routines (using two KB's at once) with big kettlebells. He has so far three videos in this space, each of which, like ETK shows moves rather than performing routines. Routines are described in accompanying e-Books. And as said with the community there are lots of people working in this space. Many certified RKC instructors have blogs with their training routines, logs and workout videos on their sites. There will be something there to intrigue and inspire. Check out the forum at DragonDoor.com for examples
One of the strong attractors to the ETK way however is that beyond ETK could easiily be more ETK. While there is a point at which Tsatsouline has a kung fu "if you can grab this stone from my hand" definition of when a Kettlebell neophyte would have a solid enough foundation to move into new territory. But what for? The philosophy of ETK suggests that perfection is its own reward, and perfecting a few solid moves can be as true and pure a pursuit as seeking out constant change. I'm about a month away from passing the grasshopper test in ETK, but i do not feel ready (or necessarily interested yet) in moving away from this methodology. There are three core workout days in the ROP and two "variety days." There's enough variety in the variety days to enable other things to be tried while still keeping the focus clear with the ETK ROP that there's no urgency to change. At one point recently in the forum the challenge was to work on one of the core moves, the Turkish Get Up, by doing it "bottom up" - that is, instead of letting the ball hang down while gripping the handle, grip the handle so that the bell is pointing up. Likely the weight of bell one usually does a TGU will not be the weight one uses to succeed here.
Future Shock and Finding KB's
Likely at some point in the not too distant future kettlebells will take off and go mainstream, and everyone will be swinging their way to health and strength. After all, it happened with yoga over the past decade where it exploded from people in sweats taking yoga classes to an industry with clothing lines and expensive accouterments. It seems hard to believe that the same will happen with kettlebells - after all, there have always been squat racks in gyms, but how often do you see them used for squats rather than bench presses? Kettlebells seem kind of like that.Colleagues of mine have asked me what these strange things are in my office, and more than not shy away, finding the thought of swinging a 16kg weight through the air an unattractive prospect. But a few do think it's neat. They try it, and get a bit of the bug. "How do you find out about these things?" asked one colleague who has also been coming back to workouts after a considerable time away, and is keen to optimize the effectiveness of the precious time he gives to any health regimine. Hence after one trial session with a kb at the office he decided to oder his own.
I wonder if the correlation between attraction or not to KB's is with folks who have some gym experience vs those who dont? Those who do seem immediately to get how quickly the kettlebell fires off all the responses one has only after doing much more traditional "work" in a gym, and immediately see the possibility of the less=more of kettlebells. For those without that background, perhaps simply the intensity of a few swings says "this is not where i want to go." Which suggests to me i may need lighter Kettlebells in my office for the less experienced to try.
Complementarity 1: ETK and Yoga
I've written before that yoga has been a lifesaver for my lower back. If anything, kettlebelling has been an incredible complement for yoga - and vice versa. There's a whole section in ETK about why KB's are excellent for the back. In these few short months i've only found that to be increasingly true. I've been doing Structural Yoga Therapy for my lower back, and the main prescriptions have been moves to help build up those lower back muscles, medius glutes and hamstrings - exactly what the KB Swing gets at. Yoga and KB's are super companions.
There is something very soothing as well about kettlebell work - the attention to form; the focus on strength and conditioning while listening to one's body rather than pushing, well, rather mindlessly, to failure. There's also something rather amazing about getting a complete workout from such a simple object. And like any tool where skill is involved, it keeps feeling like there's so much more to learn - no "am i done yet?" here. No boredom.
Complementarity 2: Quick Note on Diet and ETK
As Mike Mahler and other Kettlebell and fitness pros say, if weight loss, getting lean or adding muscle is your goal, diet is as important if not more so than your chosen workout. ETK recognizes diet but does not make any specific recommendations. Tsatsouline in the Q&A responds to a question about diet by saying he's not a nutritionist, but that he personally uses the Warrior Diet. A number of folks on the dragondoor forum seem to use this diet as well. I've written elsewhere that i'm personally not a fan of this staying hungry through the day; eating big at night approach. In particular, working out first thing in the morning without eating anything, as Clarence Bass points out, seems problematic. In the "eat frequently" camp, John Berardi's Precision Nutrition System doesn't even push eat *small* meals frequently. His approach is founded on 10 habits; paying attention to portion sizes without getting these habits straight, he suggests, is focusing on the minutia before the foundation is in place (a more in-depth review here). With what i'd call his masterpiece invention of the Super Shake as part of his approach (which includes 5 meal guides, dvd and audio stuff), his approach makes the same kind of scientifically grounded sense as Tsatsouline's approach to exercise. They complement each other.
In Sum
I've been doing the ETK ROP protocol now for near four months, and i can't believe that much time has passed - especially compared to how long it felt to get through P90X. In a way it feels way too soon to write about ETK, except that i wanted to reflect on "the next three months" since the _P90X experience. Likewise things like the ETK Workbook frame the ETK as a 12 week program, so perhaps apt time to consider. It's just that, as said, in other "12 week programs" one feels often like "thank god that's over" - with ETK, it's hard to believe 12 weeks have actually passed.
As with the ETK mantra, i feel fresher than when i started, keen and motivated. Working with KB's is so new it's an experiment in tuning these workouts with diet and even the shape of my body. Not in big ways but i notice my abs and lower back are different in particular. My upper body strength (measured in pull ups) is also at a different level than it's been before. But i don't measure this strength in terms of isolation exercises like bicep curls but in things i never imagined it being safe enough or me being strong enough to do: deadlifts, pull ups and snatches.
Recommendation
If you're interested in making more efficient use of your workout time, and want to focus on strength, conditioning and health, you'd be hard pressed to find a more simple, enjoyable way to do it than by grabbing a kettlebell and starting with ETK. Bottom line, while the clarity, simplicity and intelligence of the ETK approach and program makes this new-ish to the west fitness device a key tool for progress, it's the philosophy of training embodied in ETK and demonstrated through this elegantly designed tool that produces the real epiphany.
Highly highly recommended
(link to ETK site/page)
