The Demon Made Me Do It!

Art meets training with DemonBells

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated May 14, 2019

If you've taken a good look at my body art, then you probably know that I enjoy art, specifically Asian art, or even more specifically, Japanese art.

I practice martial arts and my father was a martial arts instructor when I was young. So I've spent some time in dojos surrounded by Asian art. These images I find both exhilarating and soothing at the same time. That's part of the reason why I've covered most of my body with a Japanese-style body suit composed of dragons, foo dogs, kabuki masks, cherry blossoms, wind and fire, water, and kanji.

So when I first saw DemonBells, the very artistically designed kettlebells, I just had to have one.

The Hannya DemonBell, which represents the Hannya Demon Mask popular in Japanese Noh theatre, as well as Japanese tattoo art, combined my love for Japanese art and my love for exercise. So at the 2012 CrossFit games I bought one from the DemonBell booth. It was the best $100 that I have ever spent!

I expected to just keep the Hannya DemonBell in my home as a cool piece of art.

I actually use it to prop my swinging door open in my kitchen. And it looks awesome! Using it for a workout was never an option. After all I have plenty of kettlebells that I can toss around and beat up in my gym. Why would I bother using such a gorgeous piece of art for a workout?! But there's something about this DemonBell that's hard to explain. I swear it has a life of its own. I can't walk through my kitchen without having to stop and do a few minutes of kettlebell, er I mean DemonBell swings, or snatches, or cleans. It's as if it's calling to me and it forces me

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