It has been over a year now.  I mark the weekend of St. Patricks Day as my official entry into the kettlebell world.  I guess that I could say it was February of 2009 that I started but that was not as memorable.

So here is the chronicle of my rise to the kettlebell.  My wife and I have been looking for something to supplement our weight machine and elliptical.  She asked if I had heard of these “kettle thingies”.  I didn’t realize it but I had.  I remember saying “those are those Russian things that are supposed to be really good exercise.”  I did some research after that and decided that I was right, kettlebells were a great workout.

In February, I went a bought a set of kettlebells at Big 5 sporting goods.  The set had a 5#, 10#, 15#, and 20# and it was on sale.  That is what sold it for me.  I looked up some exercises and started with the 15 and 20#.  I was quickly done with both as they were way too light.

It was St. Patricks Day weekend in 2009 that I bought my first 35# bell and went crazy from there.  Now I have written about how cool kettlebells are for me before.  I have also written about how much time I have spent researching and playing around.  I am fairly content now, using my 35# for most things and my new 55# that I got for Christmas for swings and heavier practice.

I just love using the things.  I don’t do much with the lighter bells anymore.  Even with all the time I spent drilling out the 15# bell I don’t load it up much anymore.  I am teaching my kids to use the bells though.  My 3 year old uses the 5# for “up downs” which are her versions of swings.  This is one of the main reasons that I started with kettlebells.

I want to get healthy and stay healthy.  I want my family to be healthy.  I want my family to have something to do together that will let us go play baseball all day long.  I want my kids to be strong both mentally and physically.  They should be able to lift heavy things.

I would live to hear comments!

Justin