An ancient Russian tool wins over west coast athletes

Gathered underneath the Cambie Street Bridge at Cooper's Park, a few hardy men and women each pick up what look like cannonballs topped with a curved handle and swing them in figure eights between their legs or lift them high above their heads. The black cast-iron globes are as elegant as objets d'art, but they're actually a type of Russian weight-training tool called a kettlebell, and they're heavy. The lightest is seven kilograms (16 pounds), the heaviest is 24 kilos (53 pounds). The participants manoeuvre the kettlebells in a gruelling series of repeated exercises with names like slingshots, snatches, and thrusters. Led by fitness instructor Tricia Dong, the class is clearly not for the faint of heart–and not because this particular morning is bitingly cold and miserably wet. Rather, Dong's kettlebell training is for those who take their workouts seriously and who don't mind going hard.

"There are no princesses here," Dong says, urging her heavy-breathing followers to "suck it up".

Dong isn't afraid of intense physical activity herself. The head instructor in the police-training program at the Vancouver YWCA, where she prepares law-enforcement hopefuls for the test's rigorous fitness requirements, Dong is a former constable.

In an interview after that rainy weekend kettlebell session, the 35-year-old Vancouver native explains that she studied criminology and was motivated to join the police force after a friend was killed by a drunk driver in 1992. Dong spent four years on general patrol. She was ready to move on, though, and left to pursue other interests, including journalism. An avid runner, she also started teaching fitness classes and in 2005 became a certified personal trainer through the British Columbia Recreation and Parks Association. She started her own company, Code 5 Fitness, which takes its name from the police term for a stakeout. Dong practises judo and teaches boot-camp classes, but her real passion is for the kettlebell.

In his book The Russian Kettlebell Challenge: Xtreme Fitness for Hard Living Comrades, aficionado Pavel Tsatsouline explains how kettlebell-lifting went from working-class sport in czarist Russia to physical-training regimen of choice of the army. According to Tsatsouline, every Russian military unit is equipped with kettlebells, or girya, and personnel attribute their stamina, strength, and agility to using the tool. People involved in combat sports like wrestling and boxing also swear by the bells, which help athletes learn to absorb ballistic shock, Tsatsouline claims, and weightlifters use them to build shoulder and hip flexibility.

After Dong attended an international conference on kettlebell training in the fall of 2005, she was hooked. "I love the simplicity of it," Dong says. "It's portable, functional; you can use it in the gym, at home, or outside. And yet it's also deceivingly complex. A beginner can pick up the basics in two minutes, but it takes a lifetime to master."

When Dong took the three-day test to become a certified Russian Kettlebell Challenge instructor–one of just a handful in British Columbia–she was "all fired up". "That was the hardest physical training I've ever done," she says. "And I loved every minute of it."

Using the kettlebell helps people gain a better understanding of their bodies, she explains. "It teaches you upper- and lower-body connection; it gives you a kinesthetic awareness," she says. "It also improves balance, coordination, and agility; builds strength, your cardiovascular system, and flexibility. It does all these things simultaneously."

Dong says the kettlebell would suit professional athletes wanting to improve their game, stay-at-home moms or others who might be short on time or money, and marathon runners interested in balancing their workouts.

She'll be hosting a two-day introductory workshop on the kettlebell on July 7 and 8 with her mentor, Steve Cotter, a California martial artist who has made several instructional kettlebell DVDs. She also teaches various fitness classes; more information is on her Web site (www.code5fitness.com).

During her kettlebell workouts, Dong stresses the mental component of serious physical training.

"It doesn't matter how athletically gifted you are: if you don't train your mind, your spirit will be broken," she says. There's definitely no room for princesses.