Back in October I received a bit of money for a not so special birthday. Ah found money, it opens up so many possibilities. Birthday money is like the Schrodinger’s cat of birthday gifts. Until you spend it, it could be great or it could be meh. With this in mind I kind of sat on it wondering what little treat I could get myself down the road.
For years I have done a basic weight training routine in order to be able to fend off any surprise attacks from the kids. What I’m missing though is a pair of 30 lb. dumbbells, so these were a definite possibility. Looking online it seems that thanks to a certain pandemic the price of said weights went up but never came back down. When I bought my original set not that long ago (maybe around when John Candy died) weights were about a buck a pound. Now days that number has more than doubled!
So anyway we were out on a shoe shopping expedition sometime later (yes, I too needed new shoes) when we passed by an exercise super store. Now I don’t know if you’ve been into a fitness-mega-mecca, but they have pretty much every device you might need to torture yourself many times over. They have machines and mats, dumbbells and treadmills, benches and balance boards. You name it, if it makes you physically uncomfortable, they have it.
Well we pulled into the said super store and started to peruse their wares. We found the barbell/dumbbell section and began to lift the heavy objects, as you do. We clearly looked lost because it only took a minute for a fit looking dude to come over to offer his assistance. I of course was obliged to puff myself up and lift the heaviest thing within reach which was thankfully not that heavy. After giving us the once over and deciding we were not too serious about bulking up, fit dude suggested we look at kettlebells.
I of course have seen kettlebells and immediately wrote them off as a girly fad. Dumb dumbs want dumbbells damnit! Don’t side track me with these johnny come lately gym accessories says I. Kyla of course was happy to listen to fit dude and it wasn’t too long before we were getting the skinny on kettlebells. In pre pandemic times Kyla loved to go to Body-pump classes at a local gym. This kettlebell thing was somewhat similar and resonated with her immediately… I knew I was doomed.
As we left the store with three different sized kettlebells I couldn’t help but feel like I had just spent my birthday money on Body-pump classes for Kyla. Damn you Schrodinger! I have to admit though by this time I was somewhat interested. After years of doing the same thing week after week, maybe a change would be good. You know, switch it up a bit, add a little spice to an otherwise mundane 45 minutes.
When we got home we lugged our new “exercise equipment” to the “work out area” where we had an unboxing; and then there they were. Our shiny new kettlebells lined up in a row between our borrowed stationary bike and our John Candy dumbbells… where they sat for a couple of days while we decided how they fit in to our retired-busy lives. We do our weights three times a week so kettlebells were going to be an odd day addition to our routine.
This is the point where my mind was totally changed and I see the value in kettlebells. While the weights themselves are fine, it turns out that YouTube is full of kettlebell workout videos and this is the real interesting part. From 15 to 45 minutes, for the beginner or advanced, the free kettlebell workouts are pretty much endless. The people making these videos are young and pumped up and enthusiastic, just like us… twenty years ago! No matter what your motivation level on any given day there’s a video for you to work out to, and this makes using kettlebells really easy.
There seems to be a set format to kettlebell workouts. They run through a series of exercises that last for 20 to 45 seconds followed by a rest. So a workout may consist of 5 to 10 different exercises repeated two or three times depending on the length of the video. It’s easy to follow and you get a really good, all body workout in no time. These are great as supplemental workouts, or they could be your entire regime. Incidentally, kettlebells cost a bit less than dumbbells.
So there you have it. Kettlebells, who knew?