Kettlebells. Most people that I speak to have never heard of them, yet they've been around for centuries!. In the United States their recent growth in popularity seems to have come from a guy named Pavel Tsatsouline, a former Russian special forces instructor. They are yet to make an impact here in the UK, although, having said that, Virgin active health clubs are now stocking up with kettlebells and run classes.
I'm not too sure of the nature of these classes so it would be interesting to hear from anyone who has had some experience with them.
As a personal trainer, I have to say I love them and not just for clients. About 50% of my own training is now done with kettlebells. As a die hard ex-bodybuilder, I have traditional heavy weight training ingrained in me and still train like a bodybuilder today so for me to start using kettlebells as a training tool it certainly says something for my believe in them.
So, why are they so great? Here are 10 reasons why I believe you should incorporate kettlebell's into your training.
1. Great for metabolic workouts.
Traditional cardiovascular exercise such as jogging and cycling always have a part to play in training. However when incorporated as steady state (achieving an elevated heart rate and then maintaining it for a set period) you are missing out an post exercise calorie burning. You burn calories while you are training, which is great but there is minimal metabolic effect afterwards. What about the remaining 23 hours of the day? Kettlebells by the very nature of the training produce a tremendous after burn effect, boosting your metabolic rate for hours afterwards. So just think, even when your just sitting around the house, you are continuing to burn more calories. That's got to be good news.
2. Time efficient.
A super intense workout can be had in 20 minutes or less. No need to spend an hour doing boring CV. In fact, if you train properly with kettlebells you will struggle to surpass 20 minutes anyway. Of cause, if you are a beginner, you will have to gauge the exercise intensity accordingly. Make sure you use an appropriate weight bell, usually 8kg for a woman and 12 kg for a man.
3. Fun.
OK, that may be a stretch (unless you're a masochist) but kettlebell training is certainly more enjoyable than most forms of training. The ease at which you can swap instantly between exercises makes training a lot more interesting than just sitting on a stationary cycle or treadmill.
In a 6 minute circuit you could incorporate 6 different exercises, swiftly switching between exercises with no delay.
4. Works the posterior chain.
If, like the majority of people you spend most of your time sitting at work (all you IT workers out there) then you are spending your entire day in flexion. Even when you move from your desk and go for your lunch, you are sitting again, not too mention the drive to and from work. No wonder everybody has round shoulders, tight hip flexors, chest and hamstrings.
Kettlebell training is part of the solution for this. When you swing a kettlebell, you are bringing the body to full extension which means stretching your hamstrings, extending through your back, tightening your glutes and pinning your shoulders back.
5. Postural benefits
This links to the point above. Great postural benefits can be had through kettlebell training.
Depending on your starting point and any postural dysfunction you may have, the correct use of an appropriate kettlebell exercise will help remedy any problems you may have.
For example, hunched up and rounded shoulders could be helped by swings (pinning the shoulders back) and windmills (to increase shoulder mobility)
6. Portability.
Personally, if I was going on holiday via a plane, I would take my TRX. If I was holidaying locally, and travelling by car, I would take a 20kg kettlebell. It's all you need to cater for your strength and CV needs. Extremely portable, takes up no space and because of the quick nature of the workouts, takes up very little of your time.
The portability factor also allows you to take it out to your garden or even a local park.
7. Works the stabilising muscles.Unlike traditional barbells and dumbbells, the weight of the kettlebell is offset, therefore the kettlebell is constantly pulling away from you. This means that your body has to recruit a lot of stabilising muscles in order to control the weight. This is as far removed from sitting on a plate loaded machine as you can get. When you use these types of machines, you are forced to follow a certain groove. This negates the use of stabiliser muscles as there is very little stabilising to be done.
8. Strengthens every muscle.Unlike isolation movements, kettlebell movements work multiple muscle groups at once, highly functional in nature, these movements will also help strengthen the tendons and ligaments surrounding the joint.
9. Quick to learn.
With the right instruction kettlebell movements are quick to learn. Once you know the basics you can start adding more advanced moves but in the beginning just a few moves will see you well on your way to improved fitness, fat loss and increased strength and flexibility.
10. Great for women.
Unlike free weight exercises, kettlebells won't add big muscles to your physique. What they will do however is build a svelte, lean shape very much enhancing the look of the female body.
These are just some of the benefits of kettlebell training. They are of cause just another tool and can be used with other forms of training. If you were to choose just one form of training however, I can't think of any other methods that encompass as many fitness elements as kettlebell training.
