Kettlebell Exercises Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Saxon’s Kettlebell Press

Posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2018 by John Wood

Something that I find pretty interesting is that Arthur Saxon demonstrated this unique Kettlebell pressing exercise in The Textbook of Weightlifting back in 1910, yet with all the hubbub about kettlebells these days, I have never seen it listed or performed in any modern kettlebell training course. Saxon wrote that this exercise was good for building thumb strength and I agree.

The Mark Berry Bar Bell Courses Poster Set

Posted on Friday, September 15th, 2017 by John Wood

“Something NEW for your Gym Wall!”

Give your weight room an OLD SCHOOL look with the Mark Berry Bar Bell Course training posters:

Milo Kettlebells

Posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2016 by John Wood

While kettlebells do certainly have a history in Russia and many other Eastern European countries, what many people don’t realize is that kettlebells also have a long tradition in the United States as well.

Back in 1902, Alan Calvert founded the Milo Barbell Company — the very first commercial strength equipment company in America. Along with barbells and dumbbells, Calvert also manufactured kettlebells, one version of which is shown on the right.

The Milo Kettlebell consisted of an outer “shell,” with the inner plates sectioned to allow for easy progression. The lathed free-rotating wood handle made the kettlebell especially useful for presses and kettlebell swings as evident by the instruction shown in Milo Barbell training courses which Calvert distributed to his clients.

Russian Kettlebell Lifting Contest, 1965

Posted on Friday, May 13th, 2016 by John Wood

Here’s something you don’t see every day, an actual Russian Kettlebell contest. This one was held in Moscow, circa 1965. In these types of contests the object is to get the kettlebell (or bells, when a pair is used – look closely, there’s a pair on the platform here.) overhead as many times as possible in a 10:00 time period. Usually the one-arm snatch or two arm jerk is contested and, as you can see there is certainly no lack of willing participants.

Al Tauscher’s Kettlebell Press

Posted on Monday, April 4th, 2016 by John Wood

Did the oldtime strongmen understand some things about training that we don’t today? I would say so, otherwise, we would see more feats like this one. Al Tauscher was one of America’s greatest lifters and strength athletes at the start of the 20th century. He was one of the first lifters of any bodyweight to lift 300 lbs. to the shoulders and jerk it overhead. At a bodyweight of 165 lbs, here’s Al in mid-lift of a “bottom up press” with a 122 lb kettlebell – now that’s strong!

Latvian Sport Club, 1970

Posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2016 by John Wood

The view from a Latvian Sport Club, circa 1970. Not that it’s any great revelation but kettlebells were (and are), very popular in eastern Europe countries.

Reg Park Kettlebell Handles

Posted on Friday, April 11th, 2014 by John Wood

You can count Reg Park among the many strength athletes who trained with kettlebells, in fact, Reg sold his own set of plate-loaded kettlebell handles through his equipment company. The above advertisement is from 1956.

It should be noted though that Reg et al, performed bodybuilding movements with kettlebells, (usually shoulder and arm work) and did not train with them in the kettlebell methods that are widely promoted today.

John Grimek ~ Chest Expander Training

Posted on Saturday, January 14th, 2012 by John Wood

John Grimek did every kind of barbell, dumbbell and kettlebell exercise known to man in his training. While his preference was always “weights,” he often augmented his workouts with chest expanders to fill in some of the gaps. It should also be noted that training with one of the chest expander handles “anchored,” like Mr. Grimek is demonstrating here, offers a tremendous number of possibilities which are not often covered in most chest expander training guides.

Russian Kettlebell Exercises

Posted on Sunday, August 21st, 2011 by John Wood

Kettlebell Exercises

If you’re going to train with Russian Kettlebells, may as well go back to the source to see how to do it right. Pictures help, but you’ll get a little more out of this post if you can read Cyrillic. “Traditional” kettlebell exercises consist of the snatch (which is more like a “swing” since it travels in an arc) and the clean and jerk (mainly just the jerk) done for maximal high reps.

Sig Klein ~ Kettlebells!

Posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 by John Wood

Sig Klein was talkin’ kettlebell training decades ago. He had kettlebells in his gym… he featured kettlebells in his training courses… he wrote articles about kettlebells in Strength and Health… Yet you don’t hear ol’ Sig’s name pop up much in modern kettlebell literature… Some of the experts need to do a little more homework.