The Budget Kettlebell That Vulture Writer E. Alex Jung Swings at Home

I first became familiar with kettlebells a couple of years ago at a gym called Krank (yes, two Ks), housed on the eighth floor of a concrete storage facility off the Tillary Street exit of the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway. True to its name, the gym encourages a no-frills masochism I came to enjoy—communal but not cultish. The rows of kettlebells, spotted with various colors of spray paint, fit in with the spartan surroundings. The kettlebell is intimidating in its simplicity: a ball with a handle, like a Biblical weapon or a giant bull’s testicle. The off-center weight distribution (which sits mostly in the base rather than the handle) allows for more aggressive, ballistic movements like swings and snatches. At the start of the lockdown, Krank sent us each home with a loaner kettlebell from CAP Barbell, the same brand as Wirecutter’s budget pick, and began live-streaming workouts structured around it. Suddenly, the kettlebell and I were tethered to each other. Tom Hanks had Wilson in Cast Away, and I had this dumb, beautiful, 45-pound hunk of metal. My rock, my witness.