As Indian kettlebell lifters continue to grow in this fantastic sport of kettlebell lifting, we are proud and glad to share that our our Fitter Strength team member, Anshuman Nopany, has become the first Asian to achieve the prestigious Candidate For Master Of Sport Rank in kettlebell Marathon under the IKMF. This is a great achievement for the Indian kettlebell community on the whole and demonstrates the potential of lifting in our country.

Anshuman achieved his CMS in the Jerk event in the V1 category in the Under 75 kg bodyweight division. To do so he needed to do a minimum of 650 jerks with a 20 kg bell and survive the full 60 minutes. He managed to bang out 678 reps and survive the time requirement to become CMS!

On behalf of the Fitter Strength community we congratulate Anshuman on his fantastic achievement and look forward to him scaling greater heights in future kettlebell competitions and keep inspiring us as he has done so far!

The IKMF Stage 1 in India was met with a positive response from around the country with around 30 competitors participating and being conducted in 4 states! There were some new records that were created and for the first time Indians achieving ranks in half marathon. 

The event started in Kolkata on 2nd April and on the very first day Fitter Strength women athletes Binita Bhutoria and Gunjan Ahalani became the first Indian women to achieve rank 3 in Long Cycle and Jerk respectively. On the final day in Kolkata on 16th April, Pari Mandal became the first Indian woman to achieve Rank 2 in Snatch. And among the men, FS athlete Anshuman Nopany achieved Rank 1 in Jerk. 

The second highest participation was from Delhi which saw the inspired lifters sweat it out in the tough Delhi summer and lift some impressive poundages. Manu Ruhail became the first Indian to go the distance with 32 kgs and similarly the other lifters too demonstrated good form and conducted the first half marathon format in the Indian capital.

Besides Kolkata and Delhi, there were individual entries from Pune and Ahmadabad, and again saw some impressive numbers being hit. Overall, with the growth in the number of lifters and in the number of reps and heavier bells being lifted, India is definitely welcoming kettlebell sport in all its forms with greater enthusiasm and purpose. We hope that Season 2 will also see some inspiring performances and see new records being created!

Click here for the Stage 1 Results

The Ultimate Girevik Cup is an International 30 minutes half marathon event that is played across the world in a league format. Last year we held it for the first time here in India- http://www.fitterstrength.com/blog/ultimate-girevik-cup-2015-stage-2

Here are the details for this year:
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LOCATION- The Bengal Rowing Club, Kolkata

DATES: 
2nd April (10 am- 12 pm)
9th April (10 am- 12 pm) 
16th April (10 am- 12 pm)

PLEASE NOTE, on which date a lifter will be lifting will be decided in advance and will be notified to the lifter. We are looking to have 6-8 lifters max on each of the lifting days.

LAST DATE for registration: 27th March, 2016

DISCIPLINES (choose any one):

Long Cycle
Jerk
Snatch
Half snatch

Entry fees: Rs. 300 per head. 

LAST DATE for registration: 27th March, 2016

Each particiapnt that completes 30 minutes will recieve the International IKMF certificate and a medal. 

Please refer to this link for more explanation of the rules and format:https://kettlebellmarathon.wordpress.com/league/

LAST DATE for registration: 27th March, 2016

To register, fill in the following details and email to fitterstrength@gmail.com

FULL NAME:
DATE OF BIRTH:
ADDRESS:
MOBILE NO:
EMAIL:
EVENT: 
KETTLEBELL WEIGHT:

​After months of waiting and preparations, 6th February witnessed an exciting and inspiring Nationals in Kolkata! Having participation from various parts of India, this event surely helped to bring the Girevoy community closer in India and most definitely helped raise the standards of lifting in the country.

Overall, there were 30 participants and almost 6 hours of lifting that took place during the event. A few Indian, as well as an Asian record was broken in the process of the competition.  
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Some of the firsts in India that we got to see during the competition include:

• Gunjan Ahalani became the first Indian woman to do a 16 kgs biathlon
• First ever Women's only snatch relay was held
• First time 20 kgs was used in Men's snatch relay
• Rajiv Sculler became the first Indian to achieve the CMS rank twice
• First time a tied score was witnessed in women's professional snatch with 16 kgs between Alina Martuniuc Ruhail and Pari Mandal.

​Besides these firsts, there was many more exciting results. Vinay Sangwan broke the current Asian 20 kgs Long Cycle record by performing 66 repetitions. He also won an extremely close battle with Sayantan Majumder by just 0.01 point! 

For the detailed results, please click here. ​

Overall, Nationals 2016 saw heavier weights being lifted and people going the distance more consistently, which is a positive sign for Girevoy Sport in India. A lot of talent was witnessed and we hope that everyone can reach their potential in this sport in the future.

As organizers, we paid extra attention to the finer points of lifting like fixations, etc which certainly helped raise awareness among the lifters and will help them for success in big international competitions. 
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After the event it was party time, and there were some great off the platform fun moments between the Fitter Strength team and the visiting guests. Clearly a sign that the Indian kettlebell community is much more than just those tough 10 minutes on the platform. 

With a great Nationals 2016 experience, we at Fitter Strength and the Indian GS community look forward to National 2017 and hope that it will be even bigger and better! As usual, all this is only possible when we have the support of some key people who have helped us far. 

First of all, we would like to thank the Bengal Rowing Club for allowing us to conduct the Nationals in their prestigious club, and for the wonderful facilities provided by them. We are truly thankful to our first ever sponsors, Emami Boro Plus, who helped us organize the event on a bigger scale. It is encouraging to see big corporate brands come forward and help grow a relatively new sport like ours. And of course, our core team at Fitter Strength who worked tirelessly to make sure that the event went smoothly, deserves a big thanks!

For the detailed results, please click here. ​

For the videos of the competition please click on the link below

The much awaited results from the Ultimate Girevik Cup, Stage 2 are out! This was the first time that India officially participated in it. As reported earlier in August, Fitter Strength organized the first ever half marathon kettlebell competition in India. Along with the international UGC event, we also had the Indian half marathon championships on. You can check the results of the Indian competition by clicking here.

The international competition on the other hand was conducted in many countries around the world and the results were compiled together by the IKMF, which is the organizing body of the overall event. In the final results for Stage 2, which runs from 1st June to 1st November worldwide, it was exciting to see how the Indian competitors fared against the international athletes. To view the results click here. 

Overall, considering how new kettlebell sport is in India and that this was the first ever kettlebell half marathon conducted in the country, the Indian athletes have shown a lot of promise. Some have even gone to top in their weight category. So definitely there is great potential for the Indian athletes in this sport. And we hope that in the future stages, there will be more inspiring performances from the Indians. 

Click here to see the international, Stage 2 results.

28th June 2015 saw a new chapter being written in the history of kettlebell sport in India. A new city witnessed the wonderful sport of kettlebell lifting for the very first time. In this case, it was the beautiful city of Pune. Fitter Strength was proud to help spread the kettlebell sport to another city in the country after conducting the India's first ever kettlebell championship in Kolkata. 

The unique thing about this particular competition however was the fact that most of the contestants actually took part in the competition after two gruelling days of the KTCC level 1 training and examination. Now you might think that these guys at this point might have done the competition as a mere formality, but that would be far from the truth! Almost of the the guys who did the level 1 showed so much enthusiasm and motivation for the competition that even after two hard days of level 1 training, they strongly decided to do all the three 1 arm events and not leave any single event. In most other competitions, where participants are fresh, they are reluctant to do more than 2 events, so needless to say that even I was extremely motivated seeing their enthusiasm levels. 

The lifting started around 5.30 pm and went on for about 2 hours. The Men's events saw some very close finishes and great numbers for lifters who just started lifting kettlebells the day before. The Men's 1 Arm Push Press and 1 Arm Clean & press was won by Sanket Patil, and the Men's 1 Arm Snatch was won by Sudeep Kori. The Men's Biathlon was won by Alakh Upasani, and the Men's Long Cycle was won by Siddharth Sarpotdar. All the three Women's event was won by the lone participant, Rhea, who is also an upcoming Rugby player. You can see the complete results by clicking here. 

Overall, Pune Kettlebell Championship was a new chapter in the history of kettlebell sport in India, and some very promising lifters were exposed to the platform for the very first time. Their performances gave the hope for some very exciting lifters coming out of Pune in the near future, and no doubt that Pune can soon become a powerhouse of great kettlebell lifters in India! 

                             You can see the complete results by clicking here. 

Fitter Strength is now officially the Indian representative in the International Kettlebell Marathon Federation. The IKMF is an organization that conducts kettlebell marathon and half marathon contests, and has representatives across the globe. 

At Fitter Strength we always strive to make kettlebells more popular among fitness enthusiasts. And while Girevoy Sport is becoming more and more popular, there will be some who might find kettlebell marathons more exciting and suitable. As of now, we are glad and proud to be the Indian representatives in IKMF and will soon be working on some marathon events in India in the near future. Stay tuned!

Last weekend Fitter Strength was back in Bangalore for another KTCC course. This time, the course was attended by two top level Indian bodybuilders, Mr. Ganesh and Mr. Vinay, who wanted to learn how to lift kettlebells, the right way. 

While bodybuilding training is mainly dependent on barbells, and dumbbells to look the best onstage, there is no reason why a bodybuilder cannot use kettlebells for a more well rounded level of fitness. Even ex Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has used kettlebells in his training. 

Of course, in the case of these two gentlemen, who also happen to be very successful trainers, a great motivation to learn kettlebells was to be able to offer more utility and variety to their valuable clients to help them achieve their goals. And oh, by the way, these two champions were on the dreaded "pre-competition" diet during the two days of the course and were to be onstage in the evening of the last day of the two day course! A clear example of the brutal mental strength that these two champions possess. 

Forward thinking athletes like them are fine examples for others in their sport and in other sports, that as a top athlete you should never stop learning and should always try to improve your knowledge and fitness levels, even if it means learning something outside of your own sport. 

In the future, we at Fitter Strength hope that more and more bodybuilders will try kettlebell training and find out how adding a kettlebell to their routine can help increase their stamina, endurance and flexibility levels to add to their already great levels of strength. 

For me teaching kettlebells to newcomers is always a pleasure. And when I see my students do the same, I cant help but feel proud. Shatrughn Desai of Pune, who learnt kettlebells during the KTCC course did a fabulous job by taking kettlebells to the streets and introducing this great tool to many people at the Happy Street event in Aundh, Pune on 1st February.

The response was terrific. After doing a few demos, people started coming on their own to Shatrughn and wanted to try out kbs themselves. Overall, Shatrughn did a great job and we wish him the very best for the future as a kettlebell and fitness instructor. Below are some photos taken during the day.