Kettlebell RX: The Complete Guide for Athletes and Coaches [Paperback]

I have been a kettlebell enthusiast for about five years, and in those years I have explored videos and books produced by several different coaches and "experts." But I can say with certainty that I have found a book, Kettlebell RX, that is written with the primary focus on safety and a "get it right the first time" attitude.

The book is written by one of the premier experts to the modern kettlebell movement in North America, Jeff Martone. Amongst his many qualifications, Jeff is one of the first Senior RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge) instructors, creator of H2H (Kettlebell juggling for athletes), Candidate Master of Sports in in the Long Cycle (Kettlebell Sport Clean & Jerk), and is both the subject matter expert for Crossfit and Head instructor for the Crossfit Kettlebell trainers course worldwide.

Kettlebell RX is written to address both athletes and coaches in the most important kettlebell movements that generate results. It starts off by explaining the importance of safety and the different ways in applying different techniques to learning the movements. From there the book is divided into three different parts: Kettlebell for Crossfitters, Rotational Power Development, and an Introduction to Kettlebell Sport Technique.

In the first part, Jeff goes into great detail to explain the importance of functional fitness, the selection of the correct kettlebells, and places an emphasis on safety and the mastery of the drills and movements. He then goes into different sections that explain and demonstrate every movement in detail both in writing and in vivid pictures. This ranges from Joint Mobility, The Swing Series, The Turkish Get Up Series, The Clean Series, and The Overhead Series. Each section shows the correct movement, common faults and corrections. What makes it easy and comprehensive are the pictures. The pictures show the movement step by step and leave no question on how to perform anything.

The second part explains Rotational Power Development. It goes into detail on why it is important and the uses of the drills. The drills in this section are the basic movements of Jeff's H2H (Hand to Hand) system, and the foundation to expanding any athletes or coaches kettlebell repertoire. Once again, this part is filled with tons of pictures explaining each step and correction. Also, Jeff explains how to be safe before and during the drills.

After sections 1 and 2, Jeff touches on some program design for both beginners and advance users. This gives the reader a way to apply the new skills learned and it provides weeks of training.

The last part of the book provides insight on Kettebell Sport. Jeff explains what the sport is and the different lifts that are evaluated (which are all covered in the book). Jeff tells his personal story on how he was exposed to the sport and gives examples of different Kettlebell sport athletes and coaches. There are highlights of the feats that those personalities have accomplished and how the techniques and attitude of the sport translate to other sports and movements. Leaving the reader with a question, "Why not give Kettlebell Sport a try?"

So is "Kettlebell RX" the book to have? YES! After reading several books on the same subject, "Kettlebell RX," is the only one that has left me complete. It literally covers everything form A to Z, with great emphasis on safety and correctly mastering the movements. This book relates to all types of athletes, both new and old, from the practitioner to the coach. It is written straight to the point with all the non-sense left out. The pictures are great, as they breakdown the movements and explain all the mistakes and corrections. It proves that Jeff Martone is a master of his craft. If you are a Crossfitter, fighter, personal trainer or coach, "Kettlebell RX," by Jeff Martone, needs to be in your library.

This is perhaps the best book on kettlebell training. It is broken up into three parts. 1) Kettlebell for CrossFitters. 2) Rotational Power Development. 3) Introduction to Kettlebell Sport.

For me, the first part is by far the most useful, and it is broken into six sections. 1) Joint Mobility/Flexibility. 2) Swing Series. 3) Turkish Get-Up Series. 4) Clean Series. 5) Overhead Series. 6) Program Design. While the movements of this Part could probably have been covered in a hundred pages or so, the author cover in great detail all the most common errors athletes make when performing these movements. This is a MASSIVE benefit, at least for me. He gives very detailed instructions on how to spot when you are doing something wrong, and then how to fix the error. As far as I know, no other kettlebell book on the market goes into this kind of detail. And with most of the moves having at least two angles (front and side--and sometimes back), nothing is left up to the imagination. The author even goes so far as to include drills to improve your form when you spot an error you are making. As far as the different movements covered in section 1, pretty much everything is there. I can't imagine you doing anything else beneficial with a kettlebell.

Part two includes mostly hand-to-hand kettlebell movements, which is something else I haven't seen in books. The author does a great job describing the benefits of practicing hand-to-hand kettlebell movements, such as increase hand strength and coordination, but personally I haven't gotten that into it yet. Still trying to master the basics. But if you are an advanced practitioner, this will probably be your only resource on this type of training.

The last section that covers kettlebell sport is pretty short. It goes over the history and rules and regulation, but I think the author made this section shorter because not everyone will be competing in Kettlebell sport. It was interesting material.

I have to say that one of the best sections of this book was on program design. There are a lot of crossfit kettlebell workouts, as well as regular workouts. It took me a little bit to understand all the programs, but they seem very well put together and they absolutely smoked me in the gym.

I have been waiting eagerly for Jeff Martone's new book "Kettlebell RX" to come out. I have read books in the past on kettlebells but non of them gave me a complete understanding of kettlebells. I always had to piece knowledge from one book to another to see the big picture.

Jeff came out with one of the most comprehensive books I have ever seen on kettlebells giving you the big picture. He covers everything from A to Z leaving no question in the readers mind on what to do next. Kettlebell RX covers flexibility and joint mobility drills with hundreds of other movements broken down. In this book you will learn various series on cleans, swings, turkish get ups, rotational development, program design and much more. His attention to detail and step by step methods makes it easy for the modern athlete to the common fitness enthusiast to learn from. His step by step illustrations shows the proper techniques as well as common error in techniques that you may come across.

This is the complete guide to kettlebell training and a must have in anyone's training arsenal. I was once running a 7:00 minute mile but since I have been using kettlebells I have knocked a minute off of my run time without even running. Kettlebells will give you a complete aerobic, anaerobic, and strength conditioning level of fitness. I highly recommend Kettlebell RX to anyone wanting to take there fitness to the next level. You can use kettlebells anywhere and keep fit with brief intense workouts. Jeff Martone set the bar extremely high with Kettlebell RX. It is a true no nonsense approach to true functional strength training.

Steve Vernon