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Last week the Extreme Kettlebell Team went to York St Johns University to start their research into Kettlebell training. We had a great 2 days working with John Gray of the Sports Science Department. Our aim was to start exploring what effects kettlebells had on the human body. This meant that we would have to do some work! Firstly we were maximal tested on the treadmill, to allow us to relate the kettlebell exercises to our maximal output. This pilot study has set up some great studies which we are now setting up and are looking for people to take part. So any EKI's out there reading this who fancy contributing to the UK's first major scientific kettlebell research project should get in touch with us ASAP.


We spent the first day testing the our bodies physically, pushing ourselves to the limits and looking at the heart rates achieved at those limits. This was a great day and although immensely hard we have gained some really interesting results. The next day we woke up feeling like we did when we first used a kettlebell 5 years ago! Stiff and warn out we went back into the laboratories and started working on some initial analysis of the bio mechanics of the kettlebell exercises and their similarities/differences to olympic lifting and dumbbell lifting.



Although currently all the work is just part of a pilot study we aim to have some concrete results by the end of the year. We are also working closely with some athletes and students on studies looking at the effect kettlebells have on performance over time.



Keep an eye out for all the results of the pilot study which will be posted on the forum shortly.