kettlebells!

[cardioqueen]

Hi -good to hear from you again. Am now back in action. Currently working on endurance with single and double snatches, using ladders to build up stamina

[Barcelona kettlebells]

HI all,

I use KB's in my school here in Barcelona, Spain

Students love them!

Michael

[Agent Provocateur]

I just picked up a pair of KB's with Pavel's From Russia with Tough Love. Looks like a very disorganized but informative read!

[jareddame]

Aside from the obvious (mike mahler) does anyone else here use kettlebells regularly? I've started training with them and they are great fun. I'm looking out for a workshop to learn better technique for the more complex stuff like the various cleans and snatches but the courses tend to only be available for qualified personal trainers.

I use Kettlebells three to four times a week. Best thing to do for better technique is find an instructor that isn't in it for the money and have them work with you. If you are close to Northern Colorado I would be happy to work with you or anyone just to have practice partners, but alas most people on this forum don't live close to me.

Have with the bells though

[cardioqueen]

Dragon door post names of RKC trainers - including uk trainers and you can rate trainers through this forum. If you are looking for a trainer near Nottingham I can recommend mine - not sure which part of uk flux lives in.

[aliquis]

i like kettlebells and have tried to use them, but they just don't have a place in my routine. i actually prefer to do one-arm dumbbell snatches to kettlebell snatches. that about sums it up.

With over 25 degrees celsius in Sweden during days for over a week now I think there have been plenty of places for kettlebells in my routine, like 4 AM in the morning .. Though I don't have any since they are indeed expensive and a barbell / two dumbbells makes it much more affordable to get lots of weights and to use said weight.

Anyway if I had them I would probably do some high-rep work / "cardio" (hey, it may not be cardio to cardio freaks, like the people who jog, or crossfitters, and such, but to me ) and on top of my regular workouts. I wouldn't replace barbell work with kettlebells, but I guess there is nothing wrong to play around with them every now and then.

I don't think one get overtrained that easily, especially if one do high-rep work instead of ones with them.

[^toby^]

I own a 16KG and I learnt the skill by watching Enter The Kettlebell and
Mike Mahler's beginner workshop DVD. I think Mike's one is better cause
you learn more drills from it.

High rep Swing is awesome "cardio"!

I agree with .flux bout Enter the Kettlebell DVD being entertaining.

"Comrade, remeber - Kettlebell is strength and strength is kettlebell"

[aliquis]

Well, I still can't decide to buy or not to buy.

I see benefits in being able to be outdoor and that it's sturdy.

But for the price you can get plenty of somewhat heavy objects which is as sturdy or cheap enough that it's ok to have them replaced by new ones once broken.

As far as I can tell it seem to suck for progressive overloading, strength development (except in hips maybe) and getting heavy weights in general.

Want to clean? Use a barbell.

Want to pushpress? See above, works fine with dumbbells to.

TGUs just see weird and unncessesary / of no obvious benefit. Sure you may get better at doing TGUs, but then what? Same for weird variants of presses.

Swings looks so boring and simple but it's the one exercise I can see a benefit in since it would be nice if it helps develop the hip / usage of the hip. Pull throughs and such with a cable isn't the same thing either since cable exercises always tend to be "slow" and un-explosive imho.


I can see lots of benefits of having kettlebells over nothing but not that many benefits of having kettlebells over dumbbells and barbells, and for outdoor use sandbags, tires, sleds, sledgehammers, stones, .. may work to.


Regarding the swing I often read how one can't do it with a barbell or dumbbell, and yeah, that's kinda correct, but with something like the powerblock I guess you can tie a piece of cloth inside it and swing it as some people swing kettlebells using cloth.


I was thinking about getting 16+24+32 with eventually a pair of 24 and 32s but I can't really see where I need 16 unless it's for juggling, 24 works fine for presses and 32 for snatches I guess, both for swings.

A pair would be nice for twice the load in swings and maybe presses and such but then we are there again with barbells and dumbbells ...

Of course they could be used for lunges or squats and such but so can a sand bag and it's more or less free.


Though, not as portable.



You who use both things, where do you really see a benefit? Do they come to good use? What weights do you have? Do you expect any kind of progress from them or is it just for fun / cardio?

[aliquis]

Maybe this was the wrong thread to be so negative in but earlier I read about how they came back, as in:

Pavel writes article.
Article gets lots of interest.
A company call Pavel and tell him to write a book and they will start manufactur kettlebells.

And it was on. Forward and there are lots of materials, kettlebells and resellers and lots of all those regular webpages promising the golden land if you just buy their shitty course. Fancy made up titles, contests and what not.

So that makes it kinda hard to see if there really is a genuine benefit or how much (98%?) is marketing bullshit. Looking of images of kettlebell athletes, including Pavel which one would expect to be the most obvious one they don't look that awesome. Sure some of them may be the strongest people AT PERFORMING THEIR LIFTS, but that's just because noone else gives a shit.

I also wonder if there really is some story behind the fancysoldiertrainingroutinenames or if that's just made up because it sounds much cooler with "OMG THIS IS WHAT THE NAVY USE!"

In any case my old Warcraft III team-mate who live in Moscow had no idea what a kettlebell was. So I doubt they are part in every russians morning routine.

[SpugFab]

Maybe this was the wrong thread to be so negative in

I think it's a very fair point.

I don't see that many people getting great results with kettlebells, in the main they fade away from using them once the initial gains from technique stop.

As for good cardio - I can get a good cardio workout by lying down then jumping up repeatedly

[JP]

on the other hand, what ever motivates people and gets the to WORK HARD!

personally i have time for kettlebells, in a way that i could see myself being into them...

[thestoatyone]

For what it's worth, I find them kinda fun and I do buy into the theory that they are easier on the shoulders than other kinds of overhead work. Stuff like bent press and turkish get-up seems both more natural and more challenging with a k-bell.

I was a massive fan at one point and kinda got a bit sick of them, think I'll come back to them when I've finished bulking over the winter and beach season rears it's ugly head again...

[Clem Snide]

I use kettlebells and they are effective, but there's certainly a lot of mad hype surrounding them. Like all mad hype, the sensible will disregard.

They are overpriced though. You could do similar work with dumbbells.

[thestoatyone]

They are slightly overpriced, but I think for workouts that flow from one motion to the other they have an advantage. Not worth the hype you're right, but they force me to workout different, and this I feel is good for me joints.

[Clem Snide]

^If they work for you, that's all that matters.

I got mine for free, I'm glad to say.