KettleBell Protege Lorna Kleidman Wins Gold at Girevoy Championships

Press Release:

February 18, 2008 New York, NY -- The next time you're at the gym, grab a 35-pound dumbbell and swing it over your head just once. Difficult isn't it? Now imagine snatching that weight over your head 193 times in just 10 minutes. Seems impossible doesn't it?

Well, that's exactly what 42-year-old Lorna Kleidman accomplished at the Girevoy Sport Championship last December in San Diego to take gold and silver medals. An amazing feat for her kettlebell competition debut. No, she doesn't look like a Russian weightlifter; in fact, she is absolutely beautiful with an incredibly defined, cut body -- like a goddess.

… I got into aerobics classes. I was just trying to stay fit, then I started boxing; but it wasn't until I started using kettlebells that I began to develop real strength and power."

-- Lorna Kleidman, winner of gold medal at the Girevoy Sport Championship

Lorna Kleidman (above) won the recent Girevoy Sport International Championship by snatching a 35 lb. kettlebell 193 times in just 10 minutes.

Lorna credits her youthfulness, strength, and power to recently training strictly with kettlebells. During her younger years, she did the traditional forms of exercise such as aerobics, but really wanted to take her body to its top level of fitness. She thought boxing would do it and dedicated a couple hours a day of vigorous training for that sport. She recalls, "In my late 20s, I got into aerobics classes. I was just trying to stay fit, then I started boxing; but it wasn't until I started using kettlebells that I began to develop real strength and power."

The object of her affection is the kettlebell which resembles a metal cannonball with a handle attached to it and whose use originated in Russia over 300 years ago. Contrary to standard weight training, kettlebells actually employ momentum across a wide range of motion to exercise multiple joints and muscles. It also simultaneously gives a high-level cardiovascular workout as well, thus making it a very time efficient workout for all-round fitness.

When Lorna started working with kettlebells, she says "the skill of it and the precision turned me on to doing something that makes you healthy and makes you look great, but it is also a precise skill; that is what I love about it."

KettleBell Concepts Trainers Intensified Her Training

Lorna came upon kettlebell training by sheer happenstance. She had met the married training team of Adam and Michelle Khai-Cronin who had a reputation of developing sports enthusiasts and dancers to their highest strength and conditioning levels. Although they both have advanced qualifications in all the exercise modalities, their most effective tool, bar none, is the kettlebell. In fact, they are partners in KettleBell Concepts (KBC) and have certified hundreds of kettlebell trainers all over the country.

So, Lorna made a complete paradigm shift in her training methods and adopted kettlebell training as her sole method -- and excelled at it. As Lorna recalls, "I trained with Adam and Michelle for two years straight, three days a week. I didn't miss one training day. I fell in love with kettlebells and I fell in love with them."

With Lorna's dedication to training, Adam and Michelle realized that she had elevated to the point where she was ready to start learning the nuances from an bona fide Russian kettlebell coach - the "real deal" in kettlebells. So they suggested she go out and train under Russian kettlebell coach and guru, Dmitri Sataev, who is now based in San Diego.

Under Dmitri's tutelage, Lorna advanced to the point where she could qualify for a national competition. As Lorna recalls, " I had no intention of ever competing, but Dmitri said, 'You know, you just qualified with 91 reps. I would like you to think about competing. If you train hard, you will do very well.' I thought about it for a day and said 'Well, if you were to help me, train me, coach me, I will promise to do my best.' And that's what I did. "

The Girevoy Sport Championship

The competition Lorna participated in was the 15th International Girevoy Sport Championship held in San Diego last December 1st and 2nd, 2007. It was hosted by the U.S. Girevoy Sport Federation (USGSF), of which Lorna is now a certified instructor. The USGSF was founded by Lorna's Russian-born coach, Dmitri Sataev, with the expressed mission to advance the sport of kettlebells in America.

The competition attracted 87 competitors from 10 different countries, mostly the Eastern Bloc countries. "They were just beautiful to watch. It was a combination of watching a dancer and a bodybuilder. They were all very lithe and very long, yet strong and flexible . . .just beautiful to watch, " said Lorna.

Lorna trained very hard to prepare to achieve Master of Sport. To earn this title, she would have to snatch a 35 lb. kettlebell 155 times in 10 minutes and she eventually was able to achieve that. "So I said okay, my next goal was to be International Master of Sport. I wanted to go to the next plateau and achieve 190 reps." She actually broke through that barrier with a total count of 193 reps at the competition.

All that training and hard work paid off, Lorna won the gold in her age group of veterans age group 40 and over and she also won the silver in her 60 KG (132 lbs.) body weight class.

Adam Khai-Cronin (above)demonstrating a kettlebell movement, is a partner in Kettlebell Concepts and was a coach to Lorna.

KettleBell Concepts Endorses Girevoy Sport

As effective as the Girevoy Sports kettlebell training is for superior fitness, the general U.S. population has yet to fully appreciate it. According to Dave Ganulin, CEO of KettleBell Concepts:

"If 1% of the fitness population know about kettlebell training, then a mere tenth of that 1% know about Girevoy Sport . This modality is very new in this country. Therefore, it appeals to a very, very specific demographic and isn't something you will see in your local health club. Still, we feel it's absolutely imperative that our KBC instructors understand that this is the root of kettlebell training. If they want to pursue formal training in it as their skills progress, we turn them on to Dmirtri at the USGSF. All KBC instructors are also members of the USGSF by extension, and Dmirtri and I will be working together in the future so we can continue to bring the best education to our instructors. Adam, Michelle, and I could not be prouder of Lorna and we wish her continued success!"
As for what's over the horizon for Lorna, "I'm going to keep training with Adam, Michelle and with Dmitri and prepare for the next international competition next year, which I will hopefully attend," she said.

About KettleBell Concepts

KettleBell Concepts, based in New York City, supplies both kettlebells and kettlebell instructor trainings to health clubs, personal trainers, and boot camps all over the world. Its courses are CEC/U approved by the NASM, NSCA, ACE, AFAA, ISSA and other governing organizations. In 2008, KettleBell Concepts will roll out its group exercise program for instructors that will be taught by international fitness trainer Keli Roberts

The company has trained over 500 instructors internationally. It has instituted kettlebell training at Equinox health clubs, Spectrum health clubs, La Palestra Center for Preventative Medicine, Highland Park Hospital and many others.

Go to KettleBell Concepts info page.

Source: Kettlebell Concepts

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