Question from a russian dude

[golden1]

@sk213 Thanks for sharing. Your perspective is really interesting coming from American gyms and fitness culture.

For people who haven’t seen it, Brat/Brother/брат feels like a time capsule for a certain place and moment. Comparatively few explosions and action scenes, but you see the main character hang out with indie musicians and wear a cool sweater. I saw it a few years ago on a quiet night, and the big kettlebell on the patio definitely stood out to me — so it’s nice to hear more about it.

 

[sk213]

@golden1 Happy to share '

oh and if decide to watch Brat - maybe worth starting with Brat 2 (which is cult classic) and it mostly takes place is US.

 

[nelsa89]

@sk213 How are kettlebells used today in Russia?

 

[sk213]

@nelsa89 @kikicala made a great comment:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kettlebell/comments/1ckmt7q/comment/l2nyiun

as for me: I left Russia a while ago and not planning to come back as sorry for politics, but it's a fascist state now waging war, drowning in blood.

 

[cavitill]

@sk213 When did you emigrate?

 

[sk213]

@cavitill 2012

 

[xcalibre]

@sk213

it seems a bit "weird" as I was taught that a kettlebell is a single arm thingy.

This is still true for a lot of people, as the core/stabilizing muscle benefits of a single arm lift are real... But doubles have their own advantages as well.

Also how you got these mad heavy weights? We used to have only 16kg, 24kg and 32kg. That was all.

Literal capitalism flex

I even have one yellow, one silver, one purple, and one black kettlebell. I bet that blows your mind.

Today, after discovering this subreddit I am under a heavy impression that even though we use the same shapes of kettlebell, the ideas behind exercises are radically different.

There's a lot of ways to exercise, but they are all similar in that it's about moving a weight through space with the intention of building strength. Even on this sub you'll see a huge variation.

I'm curious, are swings super popular in Russia? Some people here basically only swing, which I find odd. To me goblet squats, lunges, and clean & press are the top tier KB lifts.

 

[sk213]

@xcalibre In "soviet school" i think it was mostly swings + clean + press + squat (the things that you can do with one arm basically), but the routine was quite limited i think due to "one arm exercise thing" i think. don't even remember doing Turkish get ups.

Now yall got me interested in getting a second kettlebell! The question is: what are main benefits (except for obvious flex)?

 

[xcalibre]

@sk213 Main benefits imo:

-More potential load on lower body/core, even if you can't do 1 arm reps with a specific weight, you can potentially do half of it in each arm. Like, you might struggle to do even a couple one arm deadlifts of 100 lbs, but with two 50 lb bells you can do reps.

-More grip/shoulder stabilizer strength and endurance. If I do single arm alternating lunges with a 55 lb bell, one arm is always resting while the other works. Meanwhile, if I do the same number of reps with two 35 lb bells, I'm not only lifting more for my legs, but my shoulders and wrists feel more burn too.

I still like singles for a lot of exercises, but doubles definitely have some upsides. Like, for front/goblet squats I prefer singles, and I like single arm deadlifts... But for heavier deadlifts or lunges, I like doubles if I have the choice. Granted, it's nice to just load up one single bell into your car and still get a great workout wherever you go.

 

[sk213]

@xcalibre so now I'll consider and be on lookout for another kettlebell! thank you!

 

[juancarlos]

@sk213

Today, after discovering this subreddit I am under a heavy impression that even though we use the same shapes of kettlebell, the ideas behind exercises are radically different.

So, what are your ideas for the exercises?

I guess you haven't been following kettlebell lifting in Russia much since your school days since all kettlebell sport and its masters come from Russia and they certainly use double bells for for example double jerks which is a competition lift.

And plenty of Russians, or well, I will clump together people from the USSR countries, have gone way up in weights, past 32 kg.

 

[sk213]

@juancarlos yeah, you're right, i wasn't following kettlebell sport. It's existence is TIL

and in general super happy with discussion as I learned a lot.

My kettlebell exposure was:

In my school you could pick kettlebell training as sports after 9th grade (read high school in American terms), so I did. So it was sort of gym but with kettlebells as the only equipment. No, we didn't have barbells nor dumbbells there (maybe they tried to teach us to not ask questions). Another option was skiing which wasn't that fun in -25 Celsius.

And also lots of people had a kettlebell somewhere at home, usually not using it. And the weights were only пуд (16), полтора пуда (24) and два пуда (32).

So kettlebell for me was from the same family as barbells or dumbbells, an equipment that meant to be used in a certain way. I thought the way was a single one with one arm.And yeah, I was aware of Olympic barbell snatches, but it's definitely not the first exercise you practice with barbell, and not with two hence my confusion and this post.

 

[wakemantk]

@sk213 I don't care what Russians think. I like using two heavy bells.