Die Kette(The Chain)

Now we come to one fo my favorite workouts of old.Die Kette or The Chain.

You can use dumbbells or Kettlebells .This was a regular workout of old time strongman Hermann Goerner.
In the book Goerner the Mighty it he would take a total of nineteen kettlebells the first one weighing 28.5 pounds and the last one 115.75 pounds,and pair them off,except the last and heaviest one,giving a gradual increase of approximately 5 to 10 pounds per pair..

The kettleweights were placed in a row on the floor of the gymnasium,and working "Die Kette'(or The Chain) meant that Herman would start out taking the first kettleweight in the right hand and swinging it to arm's length overhead,after swinging it,the weight would be lowered to the shoulder and then pressed up again over head,relowered to the shoulder and from there to the "hang" and then curled to the shoulder,the pressed overhead again and finally lowered again and replaced on the floor.

He would then repeat this with the next kettleweight,using this time the left hand.The whole length of The Chain would be worked through in this manner-in Hermann's case he would lift all the bells in this fashion with the exception that he did not curl the final and last weight of 115.74 pounds-but he could curl both the 110.25 kettle weights!

I hope you have found this interesting and will give The Chain a try sometime.