There’s no question that Dragon Door has the gold standard of kettlebells. If you want to use the bells that RKC Chief Instructor Pavel Tsatsouline uses, Dragon Door bells are the route to go.
If you have found a bell you want to purchase somewhere other than Dragon Door, my advice is to make sure it’s cast in one piece. I don’t know about you, but I wouldnt want an iron ball over my head attached with a welded handle.
One of my favorite little training tools is a Gymboss. You can set the timer for different intervals and lengths of time – and you can set it to either beep or vibrate. It’s really handy – and inexpensive.
Most women should start with an 8kg (around 18 pounds) and men with a 16kg (around 35 pounds.) You might want to use a lighter bell for get-ups but instead of investing in another kettlebell just for that exercise, you can get creative and use a water bottle or even a milk jug at first.
There are some myths circulation that women will get bulky if they lift heavy weights and low weight for high reps is the way to get lean. Neither of these statements can be further from the truth. Use your entire body to lift heavy weights and you will get strong and lean. It’s as simple as that!
The best way to train is barefoot – hands down. You want to be able to root into the ground and move the joints in your feet to make them strong. If barefoot training is not an option, I recommend Vibram Five Fingers, Nike Free, or Converse Chuck Taylors - in that order.
But whatever shoe you choose, just make sure they have a pliable and thin – the closer to barefoot the better!
The best way to stay pain free and have your nervous system take the brakes off your performance is to MOVE. That may sound silly – you move every day! But do you move all the joints in all the planes of motion in which they are designed to move? Until we do that we will never have truly optimized performance. “But how?” you ask. A good way to start regaining lost movement patterns is with the Z Health Quick Start Guide, which can also be used as a warm-up and cool down in your training
