Who invented kettlebell training?

As HIITer’s we utilize this piece of training equipment nearly everyday of the week to improve our health and well being and for that very reason it’s so easy to overlook it.

But the kettlebell is so much more than just a piece of training equipment as we came to find out in our research to answer this question.

While our findings took us back to ancient Greece and even China, it wasn’t until 1704 that the word “kettlebell”, or Girya, first appeared in the Russian dictionary.

Back then instead of pieces of fitness equipment, they were used as weights to measure grain and other crops.

Each girya, or pood as they were also known, weighed approximately 16Kg (or roughly 35lbs).

Interestingly enough here at HIIT HART™ recommend 35 pound kettlebells for men and 25 pound kettlebells for women for our kettlebell workouts.

Now it wasn’t until the late 1800’s; however, that a Dr. Vladislav Kraevsky, whom many consider to be the father of Russian Olympic weight lifting, transformed giryas from farm equipment into modern exercise equipment for the Russian Army.

But who exactly is Dr. Vladislav Kraevsky and why is he credited with the expansion?

Well Dr. Vladislav Kraevsky also happened to the physician to the czar at the time.

And after spending years studying the effects and benefits of kettlebell training, Dr. Vladislav Kraevsky opened his own gym in the 1880’s.

Of course while kettlebell training may have started in Russia, the States did play a role in its expansion worldwide.

You see in 1902, Alan Calvert of West Philadelphia founded the Milo Barbell Company and began manufacturing the Milo “Triplex” Kettlebells, later patented in 1919.

Interestingly enough, it wasn’t for a full century later that Rolling Stone Magazine voted that kettlebells were 2002’s ‘Hot weight of the year’ entering kettlebells back into mainstream popularity.

And that HIITer’s is a brief history of the modern day kettlebell as we know it and more importantly answering the question, “Who Invented Kettlebell Training?”

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