“Kettlebell Crazy–Make a Light Weight Heavy and a Heavy Weight Light”
“The heaviest weight that you can lift is the weight you cannot lift.”–(Pavel, quoting someone else)
In a park somewhere in Moscow, not many years ago, a pudgy teenager happened upon an abandoned 53-pound kettlebell (loose kettlebells seem as common to Russia as stray dogs). Elated with his new find, he tried to lift it to his shoulder–no dice. Undeterred, he dragged the weight home, flattened a piece of metal tubing in the center, and hung the bell over it by the handle to do jerks and push-presses with his make-shift barbell. Eventually he grew stronger: his shoulders broadened, his waist narrowed; and his skill improved as well, as he began to incorporate cleans, presses, squats, and snatches into his routine. Daily practice with the kettlebell completely changed his body’s composition–from fat to muscle–and it cost him not a single ruble.
If your current weight has become too easy, or you’ve transitioned to a weight that was too big a jump, you have options.
Has that two-hand swing gotten too easy with your 20-or-35-pound starting bell? Switch to one-hand swings and transfers, and you’ll add definition in your obliques, to the multiple muscle-development benefits of this drill–and, if you haven’t tried it already, it’s a good time to move up to the swing, the press, the high pull, and the snatch. And don’t tell me you haven’t been doing those Turkish get-ups yet! Sure, they’re hard–but start with one TGU per each side, and you’re off to a good start; the good news is, we’re not training to failure here–we’re training to success! (Make that your motto the next time some gym rat hassles you about your low reps: never, ever do more than you can accomplish unless it’s in perfect form, and then no more than five times in a set–unless it’s the ballistic stuff, like the swing or the snatch; but again, in perfect form).
Now that you’ve gotten comfortable with that entry-level weight, you can do some even cooler stuff that’ll work some muscles you didn’t know you had: like the bottom-up clean and press (Dave Whitley can do TGU’s with this technique!). You can beef up your military presses with the waiter’s press: lay the ball in the palm of your hand, and punch it to the sky–but watch your head! Finally, there’s the circus strong man’s personal favorite that works every muscle in your body, and the only press that works the latissimus dorsi; those V-shaped things that run from behind your armpits and taper down to your waist: the Bent Press. (Dave Whitley demonstrates this better than anybody I know. You can see it on his “Full Body Power” DVD, available from www.irontamer.com). You’re only limited by your imagination.
I have a 35-pounder I can do most things with, a 53-pounder I can do a few things with, and a 70-pounder I can do fewer things with. For me, it’s cleans, push presses, jerks and squats with the 53-pounder (not to mention some low-rep snatches), and mostly only swings with the 70-pounder. Obviously, as the weight increases, the choices decrease. But don’t look at it as a disadvantage: if all you can start out with is a single exercise, you have no choice but to get stronger!
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