I do think some of the claims made for kettlebell training are a bit over the top. I see no need to go get tortured for a weekend and pay all that money to get certified, don’t do it. I know I will probably have the remnants of the KGB living in the US hunting me after this post. Isn’t it unreal how quickly these former communists caught onto making money by selling secret Russian training methods or even Russian convict training. Amazing isn’t it.
If you are training to do more reps with a kettlebells or to express more strength with a kettlebell in a kettlebell competition then by all means just train exclusively with a kettlebell, if not look at the kettlebell method as one method among many that you can utilize. There are no “Russian Secret” kettlebell training methods, as current marketing hype would lead you to believe. Kettlebells were a staple of training in gyms and physical education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States and in Europe. Just like medicine balls, climbing ropes, Indian clubs and various other forms of apparatus training they fell out of favor as physical education changed and moved away from movement gymnastics toward team sports. There has been revived interest in the last ten years as kettlebells have become commercially available for purchase and somewhat affordable. The ease of availability has been a major factor in their resurgence. It was a mode of training I have been familiar with since the beginning of my coaching career, but it was not a viable option because we could not get kettlebells. They were either unavailable or too expensive to ship from Europe.
Use the method, don’t abuse it. Works well in certain situations with certain athletes. Personally I use kettlebells in my own training and with my athletes as another viable mode of resistance. Certainly that is not all we do.