Kettlebell Union - Workouts, Routines & Supplies UK
Kettlebells Training & Kettlebell Instruction
Kettlebells, a brief history
No matter what you read, Kettlebells are here to stay. They’ve been around for over 300 years in one form or another. Originating in Scotland and then finding their way to the old Soviet Union. The first recorded account was 1704 in a Russian dictionary described as a girevik which means ‘a kettlebell man.’
Kettlebells were the training tool of choice for the early 1900's strongmen. The early bodybuilding and muscle building manuals and weight sets all had kettlebells.
In the early 1900's musclemen, bodybuilders and strong men of Europe, Canada and America like Arthur Saxon, Sig Klein, Louis Cyr and Eugen Sandow, to name a few all trained with kettlebells just like the Russian strongmen and athletes. Yet, while KB's disappeared in the West they began to flourish in the former Soviet Union. Everyone from common people, to the military, to Olympic athletes trained with kettlebells. In 1948 the first kettlebell competition took place in Russia. Later it became Russia's National sport.