As promised, this is a review of Pavel Tsatsouline’s Enter the Kettlebell (affiliate links: UK
Pavel, doing what he does best
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I bought Enter the Kettlebell along with a 16kg (35lbs) kettlebell about 6 weeks ago and I have been doing something akin to the “programme minimum” since then. I’ll come on to just what that is in a little bit. But first…
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What is Enter the Kettlebell?
“Enter the Kettlebell” is the revised version of Pavel Tsatsouline’s first book about the kettlebell, which was previously known as “The Russian Kettlebell Challenge”.
Legend has it that Pavel introduced the kettlebell from Russia to the US back in 1998 by writing an article for the strength sports magazine MILO. Dragondoor, the publishing house that issues all of Pavel’s work, was founded not long afterwards. In 2001, The Rissian Kettlebell Challenge was published, the first US-made Russian style kettlebell was manufactured and the first RKC instructor courses in the US were performed.
Since then, kettlebells have been a growing influence on the fitness industry in the US and beyond.
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There are loads of kettlebell books. Why get this one?
Pavel is the real deal. Pavel doesn’t just chuck you in at the deep end. While the programme in the book is simple there is plenty of support to get you to the starting line, to keep you healthy throughout the programme and to help you drill the movements properly and perform them correctly.
What’s more, Pavel always shows you what good form in each of the exercises or drills looks like. Then he shows you what mistakes you might make and what those might look like. He pulls a silly face on the mistaken ones so you can tell straight away that something is wrong. At first this seems like a gimmik but as you start to come back to to the book and flick through it looking for something, the right and the wrong form exercises jump out of the page at you very vividly.
Pavel sets out exactly which kettlebell you will need, depending on your gender and background. Some may think that he is overselling the kettlebell based on his recommendations but I think he is probably about right… and some may even find the recommended kettlebell tough. I went with the 16kg kettlebell despite being recommended to use the 20kg and it was quite enough to start with!
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Pre-emptive screening
Before allowing you to pick up a kettlebell, Pavel takes you through a couple of tests, including:
- The face the wall squat; and
- the lockout checklist
If you don’t pass these tests then he gives you a couple of stretches to do (and to master) before you can progress to even picking up a kettlebell. It sounds overly protective and unnecessarily dictatorial but, believe me, it’s better to sort your imbalances and tightnesses out before you kick off a new exercise programme…
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Mobility assistance exercises
Next up, Pavel gives you some preventative medicine to keep your shoulders and hips healthy, including:
- the halo
- hip hinging; and
- shoulder packing
The halo is designed to help you loosen up your shoulders and develop stability under load. The hip hinge is a great way to keep conditioning your body to move first from the hips and not the lower back. What’s more, you can do it any time because it’s so easy. Shoulder packing is a good drill to do whenever you’re near a pull up bar.
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The programme minimum
The programme minimum is based on the swing and the turkish get up. Essentially, you do each exercise twice a week and concentrate on building up good technique. There is no drive to perform more reps in less time. The goal is to learn the movements.
To support you in learning the swing, Pavel gives you a number of drills, including:
- the box squat
- the box squat to jump; and
- the towel swing
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Everything else
Pavel covers the snatch, the clean and jerk and the press in the latter chapters, as well as giving the details of the Secret Service Snatch test for those wanting to test themselves by the official standard.
He also covers a lot of history and provides anecdotes about the early use of kettlebells. Some may find this to be “filler” content designed to make the book longer than it needs to be. Others will find it interesting.
There is also a section at the end for the die-hard enthusiasts about how kettlebells are made. I haven’t got all the way through that section yet without wandering off for a cup of tea…
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Summing up
I am quite hard to please when it comes to fitness books. I have found sections of some very good and highly-recommended books by Eric Cressey and Mike Boyle to be wanting. As someone coming to kettlebells with absolutely no background or baggage, I really liked this book.
It was clear what was intended and I was never unsure about what I was supposed to be doing. There were bits that were unecessary but they weren’t hard to skip over without missing anything important.
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