kettle bells

itsgood

I'm interested in working with kettlebells and curious to hear what people who use them have to say. I'm actively losing weight and want to start working out for both strength and cardio.

h1udd

I love my kettle bells.

I decided to give them a go when I started to get quite bad shoulder impingement .. that I self diagnosed to bad posture causing my barbell overhead lifts to be causing my scapular to over rotate on one shoulder as the other shoulder would move it out of position as they were both locked in to the same plane thanks to the barbell. I decided that I should still lift but use something like dumbells that would give the shoulders free reign to move about on there own.

It has made a massive difference

since using them, my impingement has gone. my posture is greatly improved, my mobility is greatly improved, I have grown in size (my shoulders and traps are noticeably bigger). I get less injured now, my core strength I swear has doubled.

basically they seem to have hit my core and supporting muscles way more than the barbell was, and I notice it, playing with my 6 year old is a breeze these days, I roll, I tumble I get off the floor, I can go from laying down with her on top of me to standing up still holding her .... even when not playing with her, I can now get up off the floor without using my hands, just sitting cross legged and stand up .. moving stuff around is effortless. They are functional strength compared to absolute strength ... I have eased back on the barbell for the time being, but in a couple of months I will do both and hopefully reap the rewards of strength AND mobility

As for cardio

yes they raise the heartrate a LOT more than regular weights as you are doing a lot of repetative movements requiring all muscles to be engaged .. but I do a lot of cardio anyway, so havent noticed any benefit from the cardio side ... but doing a lot of swings or snatches should get your heart racing .... I find thoght that I run out of strength before my heart gives up .. perhaps I should use a lighterbell to get the cardio benefits ?

vallary14

I have a 15lb at home and I use it when doing squats, overhead raises, rows and swings. This is a good size for me.

stanmann571

Huge fan. Get one of Pavel's programs and follow it

Russian Kettlebell Challenge
Enter the Kettlebell
Simple and sinister

S&S is the most current, but they all lay out the same program and explain the progression.

Get the book for the programming and progression, but here's the TL;DR below

Warmup
KB Squats/halos/hip mobility drills

Workout
5x TGU
10x10 Swings EMOM or thereabouts.