Kettlebell Saxon Press [1908]

Pavel Tsatsouline writes in his first kettlebell book:

“Finger and thumb pressing a bottom up kettlebell bell with two hands is a decent exercise, one favored by the great Arthur Saxon. Keep your fingers and thumbs tight… do not hyperextend and jam them.”

Here is the original instruction from Arthur Saxon — “The Iron Master”, from his excellent book, The Text-Book of Weight-Lifting, published in 1908:

[E]xcellent arm exercise, which will be found to benefit the whole body…

Care must, however, be taken in performing this, and as light a weight as possible used at first, which should be increased only gradually, unless the reader wishes to damage his face severely.

Stand with feet apart, with kettle-weight, say 10 Ibs., to commence with, on ground.

Stoop down, and securing this with both hands, rise erect, bending the elbows and bringing the ball in line with mouth, taking care to keep the fingers close to the ball and arresting any possible backward swing of the ball with the thumbs, which should be placed as shown. Now thrust the ball to full arm stretch above the head, as shown in photograph, position 3. Return to No. 2 and then to No. 1.

Repeat ten to twenty times, and increase as before.

Description of the photos:

A GOOD EXERCISE WITH A KETTLE WEIGHT.

Stooping down, seize the bell (hands as shown), and bring same smartly into this position. Note the placing of the thumbs.

Thrust the bell to arms’ length above the head.

– Arthur Saxon, The Text-Book of Weight-Lifting, London, Health & Strength, 1908.

An excerpt from the Kettlebell VIP online course press module (running time 19:22)