This Way Up | Putting the kettlebells on Women power up with the "Stonehenge rocks" of training, marrying balance, flexibility, strength-building, cardio.

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, November, 2006 by Art Carey

At 6:45 on a recent Saturday morning, as darkness yielded to dawn's rosy hues, eight women were obeying the commands of their trainer at the foot of the Art Museum steps. Early-bird runners who passed by could be forgiven for gaping. The exercise tools these women were using looked like cannonballs with cast-iron handles.

They're called kettlebells, and their pedigree goes back to Russian strongmen who could bend rails into knots, and before that, to Atlas and Hercules, who pumped up with boulders. In the fitness field, ever quick to invent and embrace fads, kettlebells have found a following among manly men eager to spice up their strength training with some athleticism and spontaneity. Their appeal is understandable; kettlebells are to free weights as jazz is to classical...