Sep 6, 2007
Kettlebell fascination leads Wood to Minnesota
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Jason Wood has always had an uncanny knack for the unusual. Like when he turned 18 and went down south to join a professional wrestling circuit.
That was 10 years ago. For the last six and a half years, however, he’s been a trainer at the Ridgefield Recreation Center. Certainly nothing unusual about that.
But when it comes to his own training, Wood works out with “kettlebells.”
Kettlebells?
First, a little history lesson. A kettlebell resembles a cannon ball with a flat base and a thick U-shaped handle. While there is some debate, kettlebells are believed to be of Russian origin dating back to at least the early 1900s and some say even the turn of the last century. They were used for many years in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries to train members of their military as well as athletes.
In fact, many Soviet weightlifting legends began their careers with kettlebells, which helped them develop strength, power and endurance.
But it wasn’t until five years ago that Russian Pavel Tsatsouline introduced America to the benefits of kettlebell training.
That’s where Jason Wood comes in. The Ridgefield native first learned about kettlebells himself about a year and a half ago.
“A police officer friend of mine was working out at the gym with me when he kind of mentioned kettlebell training in passing and we started talking about it,” Wood recalled. “He said he learned about it through a firefighter friend of his and he knew a lot of other guys who started doing it.
“At the time, a lot of the things I was doing in my training did not make sense and I wasn’t happy. I did a lot of traditional weight training and whenever I worked out I was constantly sore. So I started researching kettlebell training on the Internet.”
To his surprise, Wood discovered a whole new way of weight training.
“The thing that’s unique about it is with the U-shaped handle, the center of gravity is different,” said Wood, a 1998 Ridgefield High School graduate. “It’s physiologically different than lifting traditional weights like dumbbells. Neurologically it’s different, too.
“It promotes flexibility, cardiovascular, strength, endurance and power,” he added. “My background is in American College Sports Medicine. I’m an ACSM health and fitness instructor. That’s considered the gold standard of fitness.
“I used to use a meat-and-potatoes style of weight training. But once I discovered training with kettlebells, it became my main source of training.”
There are some similarities, too.
“With kettlebell lifting, we do traditional weight lifting like a pull-up, dead lift, squat and bench press. So I still do that, but now I focus more on a total body lift rather than isolation.”
Wood was so infatuated with kettlebells that he even took a low-level certification test one weekend that focused more on the educational concept of kettlebell training.
“It was held in New Jersey and it was the only one around,” he said. “I passed it so I’m a level one kettlebell instructor.”
But that was nothing compared to the task Wood is about to undertake. Next month he will be going out to St. Paul, Minn., for Pavel’s Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certification Workshop Oct. 19-21.
“It’s an intense three-day, hands-on workshop,” Wood said. “The word ‘workshop’ is used lightly. It’s more of a challenge. I’m not going to sit there and take a test. It’s very demanding and physically grueling. You have to be in shape to do this.
“And it’s only held once a year in the United States and in Denmark.”
The test, or challenge, Wood hopes to successfully conquer is based on a drill called the “snatch,” which involves continually lifting a kettlebell over the head.
“It’s like when you clean your garage and you pick up a can of paint that weighs 16 pounds and put it on the top shelf,” he explained. “In the test I’ll be taking, you have to do that 52 times.
“The size of the kettlebell is based on your weight. I weigh 165 and I’m male, so I have to snatch a 24-kilogram kettlebell, which is equal to 53 pounds, and lift it over my head 26 times with each arm without stopping to gain certification.”
Kettlebells are traditionally sized in what is known as a ‘pood,’ a traditional Russian measurement equivalent to approximately 16Kg or 35 pounds. A 1.5 pood equals 24Kg, or 53 pounds, which is what Wood will be tested on.
“Today you see kettlebells sized from nine pounds all the way to what is known as the ‘Beast,’ which is 106 pounds (or three poods),” Wood said. “An 88-pound (2.5 poods) kettlebell is considered a ‘Bulldog.’
“Once you get to two poods (70 pounds) or the ‘Beast” or ‘Bulldog,’ you’re talking serious strength,” added Wood.
People attending the Russian Kettlebell Challenge can get tested anytime during the three days. The earlier the better says Wood.
“Pretty much everyone you talk to gets tested as soon as they get there when they’re nice and fresh,” he said. “You don’t want to do it on Sunday when you’re tired. But if you don’t pass it the first time, you can get tested once each day over the last couple of days.
“And if you pass it the first day, the rest of the weekend is spent practicing drills or exercises. There’s the ‘windmill,’ the ‘snatch,’ which is from the ground to over your head, and the ‘clean,’ which is to your shoulder.”
Wood is not surprised that kettlebell training is becoming more popular in the United States.
“Firefighters and policemen are training with it,” he said. “People in the armed forces are doing it. Even Secret Service men are taking snatch tests.”
Some professional teams in the NFL and NBA are also starting to train with them, as well as martial artists and athletes in countless other sports.
“In Russia there’s actually a kettlebell competition,” said Wood. “That’s their national pastime. It’s like what baseball is to us. It’s how they lift in Russia.”
This isn’t the first time Wood has tried something a little unconventional. There was that time he became a professional wrestler.
“When I was at Ridgefield High, I put on a senior fund-raiser with an independent professional wrestling company. That’s how I got hitched,” he said with a laugh. “Being a lifelong wrestling fan, I had an opportunity to go down and train to become a professional wrestler with the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) in their Mid-Atlantic Region in Charlotte, N.C. I wrestled under the name of ‘The Ambassador of Style, J. Wood.’ It was a pretty incredible experience.”
Wood even moved back up north and opened his own ECW-sponsored wrestling school in Waterbury with two other wrestlers.
But he eventually got out of the wrestling business and landed at the Ridgefield Recreation Center, where his official title is wellness coordinator.
“I’m in charge of our fitness center,” said Wood, who’s enrolled in the exercise science program at Norwalk Community College. “I advise and educate people who come to the center.”
But there’s no formal training in kettlebells at the local facility, at least not yet. That could change someday, however, and Wood says he’d love to be the one to train people.
“I hope to see the benefits of kettlebell training implemented in our community,” he said. “I would love to bring in policemen, firefighters and other emergency workers who would want to learn about it.”
In fact, anyone wishing to learn more about kettlebell training can contact Wood at 241-4709 or at kettleclass@yahoo.com.
“I can really see it catching on like yoga,” he said. “It’s just an incredible way of training.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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