Alan Calvert: Kettlebell Hand-to-Hand Swing - "General Exercise for the Back and Legs" [1911]

Stand with feet about 14 inches apart, kettle bell in front of you. Grasp kettle bell in right hand, and swing it between the legs in position Figure 22 Straighten up, swing the bell upward to about the height of the face, and while in that position shift the bell QUICKLY to the left hand and swing it back again. Change hands between each swing. Each time you go down into position Figure 22, you should rest the free hand on the front of the thigh.

The bending-down motion should be accomplished by a simultaneous bending of the body and legs. Keep the spine as STRAIGHT as possible, and in-dine the body forward FROM THE HIPS at the same time that you bend the knees.

Always keep thumb to the front-DON’T swing the kettle bell with your knuckles for-ward, for then you would not be able to shift the bell quickly from hand to hand.

Every third exercising day add 2 repetitions until 20 swings with each hand is reached; then add 5 pounds and start with 10 swings to each hand. This is a splendid exercise, as it develops speed and great flexibility of muscles and teaches you the importance of “timing” a weight, besides developing a wonderful grip.

The First Course in BodyBuilding and Muscle Developing Exercises. Philadelphia, The Milo Barbell System, 1911.

Alan Calvert (1875–1944), “The Grandfather of American Weight Lifting”—a lifter, businessman, publisher, and author who helped lay the groundwork for modern strength training in America. He built one of the first true barbell companies and was among the first to give strength training its own voice in print.

After reading Edwin Checkley’s A Natural Method of Physical Training, Calvert didn’t just start lifting—he changed his life’s direction.

In 1902, in Philadelphia, he launched the Milo Bar-bell Company, placing heavy, progressive dumbbell, kettlebell, and barbell work at the center of serious training. In 1914 he founded Strength magazine, one of the earliest American publications dedicated solely to building real-world strength. He ran both Milo and Strength until 1919, when he sold them to Richard L. Hunter and Daniel G. Redmond. In 1932, Bob Hoffman took over the company and later turned it into York Barbell.

Calvert wrote some of the foundational texts of strength training. He preached progressive loading, disciplined practice, and the idea that real strength is an advantage everywhere in life—“in the business world, and in the social world.”

Selected works

The Truth About Weight Lifting (1911)
Super Strength (Philadelphia, 1924)

Shown above is one of only two known photographs of Alan Calvert actually lifting weights – here he is performing a kettlebell hand-to-hand swing, a movement he explains in detail in Super Strength.

The second known lifting photo below shows him doing a one-arm dumbbell swing, reproduced on page 32 of The Truth About Weight-Lifting. Although the model is not identified in the book itself, David Willoughby penciled a note in a copy he presented to James A. Cameron, naming the lifter as Calvert. Cameron’s letter of thanks to Willoughby, preserved at the H. J. Lutcher Stark Center, confirms that the athlete in that photograph is indeed Alan Calvert.

The hand-to-hand kettlebell swing, the overhead kettlebell swing/snatch, and the overhead dumbbell swing are three distinct lifts. If you’d like to learn the dumbbell overhead swing, check out our free tutorial below.