Kettlebell training is a great way to shake up your workouts

Kettlebell training is a great way to shake up your workouts, blow away the cobwebs and get into incredible shape! I believe kettlebells are among the best pieces of equipment available today. There are many reasons why. Let’s explore that a little more. This article covers the essentials of kettlebells, how they differ from traditional weight training and why you should start training with them today!

Kettlebells consist of a cast iron weight, with a flat bottom and a handle on the top. They typically range from 5 to 100 pounds. However, they come in various casts, sizes and colours.

Kettlebell training has been around for years. It is rumoured that they have been brought into the fitness world sometime in the 1800s by a Russian man named Vladislav Kraevsky. He is thought to be the pioneer for the involvement of kettlebells in the weightlifting world. Since then, kettlebells have grown dramatically in popularity with a huge movement in the last decade.

How is the Kettlebell Training different from Traditional Weight Training?

The most obvious difference is the shape of the weight. A dumbbell has weight evenly distributed on both ends with the grip in the centre. This allows for the body to try to stabilise the weight through slow and controlled movements. As the kettlebell is offset by the handle, it throws you off set, and forces your to work your core stabiliser muscles. This allows you to grop the kettlebell in different ways and forces you to engage the whole kinetic chain and use the 600 muscles in your body.

One isn’t necessarily better than the other. But if you want fat loss amd all round strength and cardio, then go for kettlebells. The way you use them will depend on your fitness goals. There can be some cross-over in the way that they are used like dumbbell training. Illustrating some kettlebell movements can be used with dumbbells and vice versa. However, the kettlebell is far more versatile and allows you to do more fluid movements like snatches, swings and clean and jerks.

7 Reasons Why You Should Do Kettlebell Training…

1. Kettlebell Training is a Total Body Workout

As you work the 600 muscles in your bidy, kettlebell training works you up to a sweat fast as you have to engage the entire body in a variety of multi-joint, functional movements. Just a kettlebell swing alone engages the whole posterior chain, you will discover new muscles and reactivate old ones fast!

Of course you can still do your compound lifts like squats, presses, rows, lunges and crunches etc, but the traditional kettlebell exercises like, swing, clean, snatch, Windmills and Turkish Get Ups, will tax the whole body and challenge many different components of fitness within the body (balance, power, core strength etc.).

2. Kettlebells

Are Cheaper Than a Gym Membership

Because kettlebells allows you to work the many aspects of your fitness, its like having s portable gym. Of course there is a wide range of pricing, colors, sizes, and levels of quality to choose from. But not only they are portable, but they take up less space than traditional weights, and its like having a gym but a fraction of the price. However, when starting out you just need one or two bells for an effective workout.

3. Kettlebells Are Portable

Kettlebell

They are small enough to transport easily. So, if you don’t have a gym membership or don’t have time to get to the gym, kettlebell training is perfect for home training.

4.

Kettlebell Training is Fun and Effective

Lets face it you won’t get bored when training with kettlebells. Not only will they challenge you, but stimulate the nervous system and will add fun and variety to your current fitness regime. Although Kettlebell training exercises are unique, challenging, and can help you lose weight, they always add a different dimension as they always add variety and are a challenge which will keep you engaged.

5. Kettlebells Training Hits Your Core

When you do kettlebell training, as the handle is offset, this forces you to work your core stabilser muscles far more as you have to work your centre of gravity more to lift the metal object. So you wont need to do a seperate core workout or endless crunches as you will have a rock solid core from your kettlebell training!

6. Kettlebell Training Prevents Injuries

When kettlebell training, you not only engage a lot of muscles in one go, but you exercise functionally and in the frontal plane, sagittal plane and the transverse plane. So when performing kettlebell moves in these planes this will prevent injury as you will replicate daily movements over several joints. Therefore building strength and flexibility in all three planes of motion is essential for athletic performance as well as healthy mobility for quality of life.

7. Kettlebell Training Can Shift Fat Fast

Remember, when doing traditional weight training, you only burn calories 4-6 hours post workout. But when training with kettlebells you burn calories up to 24 hours post workout. But again it does depend o how you strcture your workouts. Of course you can use kettlebells like dumbbells for isolated strength movements. But the most calories are burnt when doing HIIT training with short rests in between bouts of exercise. But bare in mind, more isn’t necessarily better. A well-designed kettlebell training program, like any other high intensity workout, shouldn’t be done every day or take hours to complete. But, when done properly, kettlebell training is a great way to tax the body and a great way to build up work capacity in a short space of time and burn a load of calories!

by Jamie Lloyd BSc NLSSM IICT

Award Winning Fit Pro, Gold Medallist The British Kettlebell Championships, Bio-Synergy Ambassador