A Barbarian Blogroll Plug for Jeff at liftkettlebells.com who has some great new content, including video at his new and growing kettlebell-dedicated site.

You can find out who Kettlebell Kate is and what the SovietForce kettlebell gym is all about, (hopefully those guys know the Cold War is over)! Both of those sites have some good video up as well.

Jeff will also will fill you in on the best footwear for KB training and where the kettlebell gyms around the world can be found. This looks to be a work in progress so if you know of some gyms not listed, I am sure he would appreciate the tip.

Besides liftkettlebells’ growing collection of helpful kettlebell videos, you can listen to a detailed interview of kettlebell superfreak, Steve Cotter, linked to Super Trainer.

If you are new to kettlebell lifting as many of Val’s Kettlebells customers are, then this is a great place to get started. Of course, if you have logged a little more “swing time”, there is plenty here for you too.

MarkFu gives two thumbs up!

The newest addition to my kettlebell collection is this 32 kilo bell. You may have seen the 24 kilo bell I painted recently and I thought I would like to painted this one candy apple red and this is how it turned out. I was concerned that the handle might be too slick but actually it was just right, with or without chalk.

The ingredients were 1 coat of gray automotive primer, 3 coats of red lacquer spray paint and 2 clear coats for added shine and protection. All paints were Rust Oleum. This came after stripping off the original coating, rinsing with fast-drying solvent and sanding down with carbide grit abrasive strips.

It swung well on it’s maiden voyage, going for 100 reps.

One of the great things about kettlebells is you can squeeze a workout in just about anywhere, but probably not in a phone booth. (Are there any more of those these days?)

Late Sunday afternoon, I went to the local car wash and when I went to get some stuff from the floor of the back seat, there was my 24 kg kettlebell. I hadn’t gotten a workout in yet so why not? I decided from the time they started vacuuming the Jeep until the time when the illegal, er, undocumented, um, immigrant workers finished wiping down the last drop of rinse water, I would swing and snatch the kettlebell.

Good thing it wasn’t very busy, but during my time there, I got in 200 one-handed swings, starting with sets of 30 and eventually down to sets of 10.

After the truck was finished, I added in 100 snatches for good measure.

I then scratched off two things from the To Do list.

When you are ready to move beyond mere kettlebells swings…

And what about the geriatric guy who uses a pair of 80 pound kettlebells each day?

Pretty sick, isn’t it?

You saw my painted 24 kg kettlebell several days back, so take a look at a 16 kg KB Tori Lehman bought from Val’s Kettlebells and painted herself. She has artistic flair and some pretty good designs,according to Val. Take a look at her first effort.

Readers to this blog may know by now that MarkFu is an avid Green Bay Packer fan and I am just as astonished as the rest of Packer Nation at the Green and Gold’s 10-1 start. The NFC Clash of the Titans for supremacy in the conference was held in Dallas, Texas where the Cowboys were host to the Pack. I, along with countless other fans were on high anticipation and anxiety alert for this game and that grew the moment Packer icon Brett Favre went down with an elbow injury and a separated left shoulder and had to leave the game early. It ended up being a good and exciting game to watch, but in the end, the Cowboys won 37-27.

I had planned on taking the night off from training to enjoy the game, but my nervous energy got the best of me and I started swinging kettlebells in the living room while watching the game. I intended only to do that to dissipate some of that energy, but it turned into a full-blown and productive training session.

I started swinging light kettlebells and before long, went heavy.

Kettlebell Presses: I did sets of 10, each arm and started by doing 16 kg one arm presses, 10 each arm for two total sets. Following that, I changed up to the 24 kg and did 5 sets of 10 each arm. Each set of 10 was preceded by a clean.

Snatches: I needed to get in some reps especially since I was having problems getting a nice landing on my arm at the top of my snatch with my left arm. It seems the problem was in “taming the arc”. Most of my reps improved my technique and prevented me from bruising my forearms.

I stayed light, first doing a set of 10 each arm with the 8 kg. bell.Following that, I did 7 sets of 16 kg snatches, 10 each arm and stopped when my technique began to fade.

I followed the kettlebell work with 2 x 35 push-ups. By the time I was done, there was no longer any anxiety and I could, for the most part, sit back and enjoy the game, regardless of the outcome.

Seems like everywhere I turn, people are discovering kettlebells and I have heard they can even be found at Target. You know if it gets to a big box retailer, they have “arrived”.

If you want to get the straight scoop on getting started with KB’s, including the exercises, Scott Bird of straighttothebar.com has posted a comprehensive starting point here for the new and seasoned kettlebell user.

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Tuesday is the day Val goes to the track to do speed work and occasionally I will go do a workout in the infield. Sometimes I’ll actually run on the track, just not today!

I started off my workout by doing walking lunges…400 meters, around the track and it took 19:21.
I suspect walking up and down stairs for the next couple of days will be interesting.

After a five minute rest, I did
4 rounds, for time,
25 squats
25 push-ups
25 kettlebell swings, 20 kg
25 sit-ups
Total time for that was 15:52 and the splits were 2:52/3:22/4:37/5:01/. I was spent for this workout. Toasted, roasted, but never coasted.

I just got my Elite rings in today and may try them out tomorrow, but really, tomorrow is going to be a rest day.