“just right”–the goldilocks bell

12/3/08 Posted in Kettlebell Crazy  |  0 Comments

Since my conversion to kettlebells, via deadlifting, I’ve been a rabid advocate of lifting heavy, for both men and women–especially women.  The GoFit kettlebells run in sizes as small as 10 pounds; but Sarah Lurie, who is the face and voice for the GoFit line of KBs, and an RKC-certified instructor, would no doubt get you started with no less than 20 pounds.  In fact, during her pregnancy, she was quoted as saying she’d been going down to lighter weights; but at 5 months could be seen snatching 35 pounds–not to mention doing box jumps (YMMV)!  So the 10-pounder may be just your speed–if you’re a six-year-old girl!

I call it the Goldilocks bell.  Partly because GoFit’s 10-pounder is a banana yellow color.  But also, because it’s just right for my granddaughter.  At six years old, Myah is no stranger to weights.  At the tender age of two, she was standing up with a 15-pound Olympic plate.  And at three, she was lugging my 35-pound kettlebell from the living room into the kitchen. 

I don’t think we had her in mind when we’d bought it–I’m not even sure why we got the thing in the first place, except that it was $10 off at Meijer’s.  A paperweight, maybe?  But Myah’s always eying our kettlebells when she comes to visit.  She’s a lively little thing–always bouncing on the jogging trampoline, or rolling the stability balls around the family room, and rousting Grandma and Papa outside to walk with her to the school playground a mile away.  So when she caught sight of Goldilocks standing out from the austere black iron in our courage corner, that was it!

Of course, we were careful to supervise her.  But in a very few minutes, she was doing two-hand swings, guided cleans, and presses.  Next time, I’ll teach her the goblet squat:  holding the bell by the horns, and pushing the butt way back as if trying to reach a chair that’s too far behind her.

She’s got two strikes against her in this modern age of sedentary, obese kids, in addition to her father’s family history.  But it’s more an issue of nurture than nature:  her cousin, who had been skinny till he reached his teens, now hurts the scales at the age of thirteen with a whopping 200+ pounds!

All it takes is a little grandfatherly modeling:  my Grandpa Riggs, who used to make a living carrying 150-pound blocks of ice into people’s kitchens before there were refrigerators, could still, near the age of 70, hold onto the bottom end of a piano all by himself, as they wrestled it down a flight of steps to the basement, with Dad and Grandpa Spence sprawled on the top of it, fighting to keep a handhold.

It made a lasting impression on this youngster.  I only hope I can pay it forward.