Kettlebell Kings Blog

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We are glad to have Kimberly Fox back to talk about Proper Breathing Technique Part 2! In case you missed it, here is Part 1. 

Kimberly Fox is a World Champion kettlebell lifter and member of Team USA. She will be representing Team USA at the IUKL World Championships in Seoul, South Korea this year which are the world championships for Kettlebell Sport in which the best lifters from all of the world compete.  We asked Kimberly if she would share some of her best advice and tips for Kettlebell Sport training with us leading up to the World Championships and she was very happy to help.

This is an exciting year for women in Kettlebell Sport because this is the first year women will be competing in Two Arm Long Cycle.  Kim competes with TWO 24 kilogram competition kettlebells and will be going for personal and world records in reps in South Korea. The top kettlebell athletes in the world will be competing in Seoul to represent their countries and Kim has some awesome goals we wanted to learn about.   

WATCH KIM EXPLAIN PROPER BREATHING TECHNIQUES BELOW AS WELL AS THE REMAINDER OF OUR INTERVIEW AND HOW YOU CAN HELP SUPPORT KIM REPRESENT TEAM USA AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.

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Kimberly Fox is a World Champion kettlebell lifter and member of Team USA. She will be representing Team USA at the IUKL World Championships in Seoul, South Korea this year which are the world championships for Kettlebell Sport in which the best lifters from all of the world compete.  We asked Kimberly if she would share some of her best advice and tips for Kettlebell Sport training with us leading up to the World Championships and she was very happy to help.

This is an exciting year for women in Kettlebell Sport because this is the first year women will be competing in Two Arm Long Cycle.  Kim competes with TWO 24 kilogram competition kettlebells and will be going for personal and world records in reps in South Korea. The top kettlebell athletes in the world will be competing in Seoul to represent their countries and Kim has some awesome goals we wanted to learn about. 

Additionally, we were able to ask her a handful of questions to try and learn more about how she started competing in Kettlebell Sport as well as her goals for herself.  You can watch the full video below in which she goes over proper breathing technique and answers our questions about her kettlebell background. 

Q. How long have you been training with Kettlebells?

A. I started training kettlebell 5 years ago.

Q. How were you introduced to kettlebells?

Q. I was mostly doing some hybrid hard style technique I had learned from YouTube videos. A friend, Matt Sanders, saw that I was really interested in kettlebells and told me about GS. I was instantly hooked. When I first started training, I used other people's goals to set my own. But you can never truly grow and develop unless you are true to your own goals.

Q. What are your goals for your kettlebell training?

A. My current goals are to push myself to where I could not think I could go. Kettlebell sport is the opportunity to push myself to a new level at each training session. At some point that level will be 70 Long Cycle reps with 24kg bells and then to win at the IUKL worlds in Korea. 

  

WATCH KIM EXPLAIN PROPER BREATHING TECHNIQUES BELOW AS WELL AS THE REMAINDER OF OUR INTERVIEW AND HOW YOU CAN HELP SUPPORT KIM REPRESENT TEAM USA AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.

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We are excited to introduce our new 33mm handle competition kettlebell. Our goal as a company has always been to listen to lifter feedback and provide the kettlebells that lifters need. Since we have been in business there has always been a desire from some lifters to have a 33 millimeter handle. We believe we have released a kettlebell that a lot of lifters can support. We sent out samples of the prototype to a number of the top Kettlebell Sport and Team USA members and the support has been overwhelming. We are really happy with what some of the top lifters in the United States have had to say:

"The distribution of weight in the Kings new 33m model - at lockout and in rack - is very even, creating a comfortable stability unique to most bells on the market. The window allows for a quick, secure insertion, and the 33m handle allows for a solid grip even from smaller hands. I'm very happy with the quality of these bells!" - Melissa Swanson, 2xMSIC and North American Record Holder

We wanted to share some thoughts on what went into creating the new bell below as well as show you a video review by a member of Team USA. 

These competition style kettlebells have 33 millimeter handles compared to the 35 millimeter handles of our other competition kettlebells. These bells are ideal for someone who prefers a slightly smaller handle diameter for high repetition kettlebell workouts.  Just like all of our other bells, they have a lifetime warranty. Here are some of the highlights:

• SAFETY, our competition kettlebells are specifically top-heavy molded with a thicker handle base and a greater percentage of load toward the top of the bell's body.  This ensures that the kettlebell does not pull the lifter's arm to the outside when overhead or in the rack (resting at waist level) yielding injury prevention and energy conservation.

 

• CONES, enlarged cones on side angle of bell for greater comfort on hands, wrist and forearm in wrack and overhead position. Doug Seamans, who competes for Team USA in Kettlebell Sport shares his thoughts, "Now, the cone/ear, this is also a big deal because the more material can be cast into this area, the more comfortable it will be in rack and in overhead position, and the quicker you will feel insertion on the clean and snatch. But and even bigger deal about casting more material into this part of the bell is that it changes the center mass or balance of the bell. The more weight there is in the handle the less weight there will be in the body of the bell, thus bringing the center of the mass closer to your wrist which will keep your wrists from fatiguing early in your sets. Lastly, changing the center of the mass also changes the flip or rotational speed of the bell and the impact it has on your forearms and wrists, because the bell takes less energy to spin or flip in snatch and clean movements, you will again conserve energy and may gain some speed in those movements and you will fatigue less quickly.

HANDLE, TEARDROP SHAPE, the handle is modeled after Ural style bells with a 'teardrop' shaped handle which is 35mm from top to bottom and 33mm side to side. This is shape that more naturally fits in your hands. If you make the shape of your hand when it holds a bell it is not perfectly cylindrical, it is smaller side to side then it is top to bottom. In the video review below, Doug shares his thoughts on all of these items.  You can read and watch his full review HERE as well. 

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We are really excited to be a part of the Silicon Valley Kettlebell Open. This is one of a kind contest in the world this year in that it is made specifically for competitors who are new to Kettlebell Sport and want to try! This is a great way to be a part of your first kettlebell competition. Watch below to learn more!

What Makes This Contest Great?

It is geared towards you, the beginner, and will have training along the way by some of the world foremost Kettlebell Sport athletes and coaches. The event is being put on by our friends Mike Salemi, Brittany Van Schravendijk and Mind Pump Media. The event will be held at the Mind Pump headquarters in San Jose! You might have read some of our previous posts by Mind Pump, they have a really popular podcast with over one million downloads per month, were recently placed in the Top 8 Fitness Podcasts by Men's Health and developed our Kettlebells 4 Aesthetics training program.

Mike and Brittany are some of the top Kettlebell Sport competitors in the country and amazingly positive and knowledgeable coaches as well. Both of them recently won at the WAKSC World Championship! Watch the video below and read about the free training program leading up to the event!

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What a great weekend and great event! This past weekend we attended the World Assocation of Kettlebell Sport Clubs (WASKC) World Championship event at Innovative Results in Costa Mesa, California.  This was one of the biggest if not the biggest Kettlebell Sport event in the world this year.  WAKSC puts on events all around the world as part of their Grand Prix and this year chose to have their world championship event at the California Open which is put on yearly by Orange Kettlebell Club.

What Made This Event So Awesome?

As mentioned, this year's event is one of the biggest competitions in the world. There were over 300 competitors from 20 different countries! One of the coolest things about this event is the team format, so while their are individual awards, competitors came representing their different kettlebell clubs from all over the world and competed on total team scores as well. So, there was an amazing atmosphere of individual and team competition. 

Records Broken

 There were a number of North American and World Records set at the event! Some big time numbers put up in all lifts.  If you have never attended a Kettlebell Sport event we highly recommend looking for one in your area, these competitors are INCREDIBLE.  You can see video below of some of the rep counts, but men and women alike were putting up big numbers with serious weight. 

Prizes

One of the really unique things about this competition is the awards that were given out. There were awesome medals and trophies given out to the competitors for their individual performances as well. Additionally, Kettlebell Kings sponsored the event by providing all kettlebells used at the event as well as gift certificates to Kettlebellkings.com. For individual winners of their events we provided gift certificates of $250, $125 and $75 for first second and third prizes. Additionally, for the men's, women's and team overall winners we provided gift certificates for $500!  

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We have posted pretty frequently breaking down the lifts involved in Kettlebell Sport. One of the most common questions we get is how to apply it.  If this is your first time hearing the term Kettlebell Sport, we have published extensively on it. You can read an intro HERE, that breaks down all the lifts. What we have created for you now is a free 4 Week Training Program for beginners in Kettlebell Sport. Our goal is always to provide the absolute best training equipment and best content to help you get maximal use out of your kettlebell and your training  so we have created this at no cost to you. 

Kettlebell Kings has collaborated with Texas Kettlebell Academy, which trains some of the top Kettlebell Sport athletes in the United States, to develop a four week training program designed to help you get started with this method of training. Texas Kettlebell Academy also hosts the annual Texas Open which is attended by top kettlebell lifters from around the world. We highly recommend you give it a look should you decide to become more involved in Kettlebell Sport, it is in our great hometown of Austin, Texas!

Kettlebell Sport has all the elements that make for a good training regimen and workout! You build strength, endurance and test your will!

The Basics of Kettlebell Sport:

• endurance kettlebell lifting, lifters have 10 minutes to complete as many reps as possible
• efficiency and technique are important to maintain energy throughout set
• lifters compete in specific lifts with either one arm or two arms

The Benefits:

1. great goals to motivate your workouts
2. blend of strength, endurance, balance and coordination in one workout equals efficiency
3. build amazing mental tenacity, this carries over to other aspects of life

 

 

 

We have created a 4 Week Training Program You Can Sign Up For Here: 

How Does It Work?  

If you subscribe to our weekly workouts, we will be designing the format just like that. After you sign up, for the next four weeks you will receive an email each week which breaks down your training regimen for that week and how to apply it.  Each email will list your workout each day of the week as well as links to demonstrations about how to perform each lift correctly. We like this format because it keeps your workouts new, exciting and challenging which is important to break up the monotony of knowing what is coming each week. 

The training program is three days per week (example: M,W,F or T,TH,S), just make sure to take a rest day between days and then two days after the third day over a seven day period.

ALSO, if you have any questions you can consult directly with the experts who crafted this training throughout the four week program!

 

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Have seen you seen kettlebells with colors and wondered what those are about?

We have a lot of colored kettlebells and when we post them to social media, people frequently ask questions about the color designs so we thought we would tell you why. 

There are a few explanations.  The origins of the color coding is in competitive kettlebell lifting in which there are international standards for specific weights, but color coding kettlebells is also an easy way to designate specific weights in your gym.  If you run a gym, color coding your kettlebells is a great way to tell clients which kettlebell they need to grab instead of having them sift through all the bells.  Below, we will go over the international color code if you need ideas and want to follow the standard. 

Some of the more popular traditional style kettlebells available today, including our Powder Coat Kettlebells, have colored bands on the handles to indicate the weight.  However, if you have traditional black kettlebells you could use paint or electrical tape to create similar markings on the kettlebells.

Competition style bells are usually all one color (pictured below) indicating the weight. These bells are used in competitive lifting in which lifters compete in weight classes in three specific kettlebell lifts. You can read more about that style of lifting here.

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See color coding below!

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In this post, Aaron Vyvial from Texas Kettlebell Academy breaks down the kettlebell snatch technique they teach at Texas Kettlebell Academy. 

The Texas Kettlebell Academy is where some of the top Kettlebell Sport athletes in the United States train. Additionally, they put on one of the great kettlebell sport events in the country each year in Austin, Texas. Kettlebell athletes from around the country and the world attend, compete and stay for additional training from world champions.  If you are looking for a kettlebell sport event to train for, we highly recommend you consider the Texas Open as one of your first events. It is hard to beat traveling to a city like Austin and you will get the opportunity to meet some of the top athletes and minds in Kettlebell Sport.

What is Kettlebell Sport?

Kettlebell sport, also known as girevoy sport (GS), is competitive kettlebell lifting. Lifters compete in mostly 10 minute sets, going for as many repetition as possible in three different lifts: Snatch, Jerk and Clean & Jerk. Athletes really need everything to compete succesfully; technique, mobility, strength, endurance and mental focus.

We have created a 4 Week Training Program You Can Sign Up For Here: 

 

The Kettlebell Snatch is a great movement which involves a full body strength and cardio workout. You only need one kettlebell for this movement. 

We recommend most men start with 16,18 and 20 kilogram Kettlebell Sport style kettlebells and most women start with 8,12, and 16 kilogram Kettlebell Sport style kettlebells. Why this style of bells? These bells are designed for maximum comfort during high repetition exercises so that your hands, wrist and forearm lock into position comfortably and easily. They are all the same size and dimension regardless of weight so the training is uniform at all times.

By Aaron Vyvial, Texas Kettlebell Academy:

Denis Vasilev, 6x world champion and MSIC athlete has a unique but proven snatch technique that we really respect and teach to most of our athletes. It almost can be compared to long cycle, which is clean and a jerk, but with one bell and without the 'clean' movement to chest. This technique works well for athletes that compete both in biathlon (two arm events) and long cycle.

In the video below, Denis shows his slower paced snatch and then switches to his sprint or higher paced technique:

One of the things we really like about kettlebell sport is how easy it is to get started with equipment, some workouts require lots of accessories like plates, barbells, racks, ropes and more.  

To start training for Kettlebell Sport you just need a kettlebell or two. Also, it is competitive, we are big believers in competitive fitness. Whether you are competing against yourself or others, competition brings out the best in most people and gives you something to work towards whether it is losing weight, improving strength or winning competitions. 

We have created an instructional guide with detailed descriptions and videos with one of the top competitive kettlebell athletes in the world, Brittany van Schravendijk.

 

Download the full explanation and videos of each individual lift for full training! 

The Benefits:

1. great goals to motivate your workouts

2. blend of strength, endurance, balance and coordination in one workout equals efficiency

3. build amazing mental tenacity, this carries over to other aspects of life

The Basics of Kettlebell Sport:

• endurance kettlebell lifting, lifters have 10 minutes to complete as many reps as possible
• efficiency and technique are important to maintain energy throughout set
• lifters compete in specific lifts with either one arm or two arms

In the video below, Brittany goes over Kettlebell Sport, the lifts which lifters compete, what it takes to get started and more. We believe this is how you can take your workouts to the next level and reach ANY fitness goal you have, this is a great form of workout for those new to working out to experienced lifters because there are so many different levels of competition.

We have created a 4 Week Training Program You Can Sign Up For Here: 

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We first met Chris Doenlen in Austin, Texas at The Texas Open Kettlebell Sport Championship. We were pretty new to the world of Kettlebell Sport competitions at the time and that weekend was the debut of our now popular Kettlebell Sport model. He also picked up a pair of 30 KG Kettlebell Sport style kettlebells that day, which we really appreciated. Thanks, Chris!

We reached out to Chris about writing a post about competitive kettlebell lifting for us because he competes in the biggest events in the country and we want to educate more people about this great form of competitive lifting and how to be involved. We mutually decided that some of ideas for training toward a competition would be most helpful for our readers. These concepts do apply for simply improving your workouts as well. Here is what Chris wrote for us.

Kettlebell Sport Program Design Basics

By Chris Doenlen

On the fitness spectrum, with pure strength like the powerlifts on one end, and pure endurance work like running, cycling, and swimming on the other, Kettlebell Sport falls right in the middle. As such, designing a training program for this unique sport requires a special blend of both strength and endurance work. Accounting for all of the training variables – weight, pace, and time – can understandably seem overwhelming at first, and so I’ve outlined a few aspects of program design that I consider to be the most fundamental.

Set a Goal and Then Work Backwards

Setting quantifiable goals in Kettlebell Sport is pretty straightforward – it’s a very results oriented discipline. You either get the reps or you don’t.  But setting those goals in the first place can be a bit more complicated, especially for those new to the sport.

A lifter’s first goal with a new kettlebell weight should simply be to go the distance – lift for ten minutes without putting down the bells.  This should be true whether it’s a beginner lifting 12kg or 16kg or a new a more experienced lifter transitioning up to the professional weights, which is 24kg for women or 32kg for men.

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Next we can consider results – a great place to start is looking at different ranking tables to see the different milestones at each weight for your weight class. The Ketacademy ranking tables , for example, may serve as a sort of map to guide the lifter from beginning to world class level. 

Be patient and work through the ranks – if you’re not at Candidate for Master of Sport level now, you shouldn’t be focusing on hitting Master of Sport. There are no shortcuts in Kettlebell Sport.

Once you’ve determined the appropriate goal, it’s time to plan how and when you’ll reach it. Pick a competition or a future date to test yourself and work backwards to design your training program. How much time you have will help you determine what you’ll need to focus on and what kinds of training milestones you should strive to hit. A twelve-week program will and should look very different from an eight-week or sixteen-week program. Keep in mind that it may take more than one training cycle to reach your goal!

Start Light and Fast, and Increase Weight Gradually

An intelligent training plan will progress the lifter from lighter kettlebells up to competition weight so that he or she is ready to give a true max effort on test day. An all too common mistake is to start working with the competition weight too soon – this often leaves the athlete feeling beat up and over-trained on the big day.

In the initial phases of the training cycle, start with light bells and focus on speed work to build a strong foundation. Then increase the weight by 2kg every one to two weeks, depending on the length of the training cycle, and reduce the pace by one to two reps per minute for every one kilogram increase in bell weight.

It’s possible to plan a sound training cycle with weights in 4kg increments, but keep in mind that the smaller the jump in weight, the less likely you are to lose speed and technique!