Jason and I were pulled out of the gym to do a surprise interview! Can you tell we came straight from training???

At the gym before the studio!

John Wild Buckley keeps an old copy of Mr. America magazine from 1942 because of the cover, specifically the anvil-shaped weights sitting at the feet of that year's barrel-chested, barbell-clinching winner.

"Kettlebells have been around awhile," he said, "but they're difficult to learn, so people just quit on them."

Buckley, 31, a former personal trainer at Equinox Sports Club in San Francisco, is a World Kettlebell Club master instructor, who now trains people exclusively on kettlebells, mostly at the Breakaway Performance Center in North Beach.

Bells, as they're called by those who use them, are primitive-looking pieces of equipment that look like cannonballs with handles. They weigh anywhere from 8.8 pounds to 88 pounds and can cost hundreds of dollars each.

They're also one of the most popular forms of high-level fitness pursuits at the moment, even though they are as old-school and basic as they come. Once mostly the province of top-level mixed-martial artists and serious competition-level strength athletes, all kinds of people are discovering the power of this simple tool.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/13/DDH316Q9JQ.DTL#ixzz0nuawuChE