02.07 Kettlebells

Your Physique’s New Best Friend
By Kimberly Dunbar

Leonardo Da Vinci was known more for his Mona Lisa than for his strength, but the Italian artist was said to have been able to bend a horseshoe with his bare hands.

Da Vinci could have trained with Kettlebells. Shaped like a cannon ball with a handle, Kettlebells at first seem more cumbersome than dumbbells. The weight of dumbbells is evenly distributed and doesn’t force grip strength, but the bottom-heavy Kettlebells are designed to hang down and move ‘ballistically,’ requiring the use of more stabilizing muscles, the way the body was meant to move.

Da Vinci’s piece the Vitruvian Man (also the centerpiece of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code), is the artist’s study of natural human movement, the primary focus of the art of Kettlebell training.

“It’s amazing what Kettlebell training does for your body,” says Anthony Diluglio, founder of the Art of Strength branding and the first-ever Punch Kettlebell gym in the country (Providence, RI). “The movements and the results are the way bodies were meant to be.”

Diluglio says that human organs are protected by muscle, and the reason Americans suffer so many injuries is because the organs are not protected properly or with enough muscle. “Kettlebells help strengthen these parts and build strength in every fiber,” he adds.

Diluglio experienced the benefits of Kettlebell training first hand. He has had two discs and a vertebra removed from his back, and was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. “With the kind of cancer I had, I should have lost my leg. But because of the way I train, my muscle is very dense,” says Diluglio. “I’m 41 and the strongest I’ve ever been.”

Russian Kettlebells are a very old form of exercise, dating back hundreds of years. More recently, Kettlebells were used by classic strongmen in the United States until about the 1920s, when the country turned ‘ball-oriented.’ When Americans started to turn to baseballs and basketballs, the bells were put away and have been gathering dust ever since. But Kettlebells are coming back. Just ask Bonnie LeFrak and her husband Douglas Nix, who are opening The Next Big Thing in Worcester: a Punch Worcester Kettlebell gym.

Bonnie Lefrak knows strong. Photos from her bodybuilding days ~ posing with fitness gurus like Jay Cutler and Nancy Andrews ~ hang on the wall of the modest Punch Worcester Gym on Grove Street that she co-owns with her police officer husband Douglas Nix, who, in addition to being an accomplished boxer, is also a huge fan of the Kettlebell fitness method, crediting it with keeping him in top form for the considerable rigors of his job. Oh yeah, and there’s that trophy that measures up to her tiny, muscular waist.

As a professional body builder, Lefrak was hesitant to even lift the cumbersome weights at first. “I was pretty skeptical of any other workouts,” she says. “I thought Kettlebells, shmettle bells. But after spending countless hours learning from Anthony [Diluglio], and getting my butt kicked, I knew it was the next logical step in my evolution as a fitness professional.”

In less than 2 years, Lefrak received her pro card after winning the overall at the Northeast Classic in June of ‘06 (held in Worcester and promoted by Andrews). Then she won the NPC Northern States Women’s Heavyweight class on November 19, 2006.

But Kettlebell training isn’t just for fitness professionals. Punch Gym-goers range from athletes and housewives to desk-bound executives.

“The Kettlebell circuit classes we offer as well as personal training options are designed for all fitness levels,” says Lefrak. “New participants learn the fundamentals by taking an introduction ‘workshop,’ which can be group or one-on-one training. The workshop encourages people to continue the one-on-one training and/ or participate in our Punch Circuits.”

The Punch Circuits, all designed by Diluglio, can range from work with just Kettlebells to a combination of Kettlebells, boxing, cycling and even some conventional weight training. Workouts and training systems at Punch are effective and authentic exercises packaged into a format that is fun and accessible. And the vocabulary of Kettlebells puts newcomers to the classes at ease immediately ~ with terms and phrases like “snatch,” “clean,” and “Do the Turkish Getup,” you get comfortable with your instructor and classmates fast!

For more proof that Kettlebells works, flip Pagio’s (publishers of this magazine) 2007 Worcester Heroes Firefighter Calendar to Mr. September, better known as Firefighter Jay Grokaitis. Grokaitis has been working with Kettlebells for two years and preaches that they are the path to real world strength. And just one look at his physique is all the proof you’ll need.

Just a warning: Kettlebells can be addictive. Lifting a 35-pound Kettlebell above your head does a lot for your confidence. If you think it sounds easy, you have no idea ~ and I know of whence I speak, since Bonnie was kind enough to give me a private lesson right after our interview ~ and this past week I returned for a group class, determined to perfect my form. And oh, it hurts so good! Get down to Punch Worcester and find out (you also stand a very good chance of running into Jay and his equally impressive firefighter friends, many of whom have caught Kettlebell Fever and now frequent the Grove Street gym).