Kettlebells
It wouldn't surprise me if you've never heard of a kettlebell or "girya" (in Russian). To tell you the truth, this is the first time I've heard of them myself. But instead of scratching my head, I did some research and found that kettlebells are cast-iron weights that kind of resemble cannon balls with suitcase handles. One weight training kettlebell can total anywhere between 8-pounds and 88-pounds.
So, you likely won't know what a kettlebell is unless you're training to become an Olympic weight lifter. Olympic movements performed with kettlebells possess a greater range of motion (in other words they use more than one major muscle at a time), increasing your flexibility and reaction time. This is because kettlebells are much harder to control compared to stiff barbells. This places an increased demand on your muscles and would be of benefit to say, a sprinter, when there's a limited amount of time to generate maximum muscle force.
Kettlebells are not a new invention. In fact, they were used hundreds of years ago by legendary Soviet strongmen such as Arthur Saxon, who performed his famous 448-pound "Two Hands Anyhow" lift with kettlebells. Today, Russian Special Forces still perform military drills with kettlebells.
For the rest of us, kettlebell training can have many benefits. The first, being to mix up a routine program of barbell squats and deadlifts because there simply has to be more variety in your workouts every once in a while. If you're an athlete simply into training for a healthy, strong body and to keep up with your sport then kettlebell training will help isolate your weaker muscles and strengthen them. For example, when performing lifts with a kettlebell it will actually rotate around the circumference of your wrist. This forces your body to use several major muscles at once. This kind of training also gets your body used to the sudden bursts of reaction from your fast-twitch (or rapidly fired) muscles. Training your fast-twitch muscles is critical for athletes who want a strength training workout that can transfer directly into their high intensity, competitive sports.
