Kettlebells

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therequiiem
therequiiem Posts: 133 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How many calories would I burn doing kettlebell exercises? How would I calculate the calories burned? What is the best starting weight for a 140 lb. female, 5’4”, not active.

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  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
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    Depends what exercises you are doing, on both counts.

    Vigorous swings are going to burn more than deadlifts or farmers carries or TGUs.

    I have one bell at home. It's 10kg. It's fine for most of my purposes. A bit light for two-handed swings and pretty tough for one-handed. Too light for farmers carries. Fine for goblet squats as a warm up. Fine for a row. OK for a clean. Just about pressable overhead. Too heavy for a TGU.

    When I started, the lightest bell we had at the gym was 8kg and I had to work up to everything except the two-handed swing by using lighter dumbbells. However you are likely to progress quite quickly if you concentrate on proper form so a bell as light as 4kg might be useful but you will quickly outgrow it. Given your stats I'd probably go for a 6kg starter weight if you are planning to buy one and have not done any kind of work with weights before.
  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
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    ^^ All this. I'm a bit taller than you, OP, at 5'7" and I have two KBs: 25 lb and 40 lb.

    I used the 25 lb for The 10,000 Swing Kettlebell Workout last fall. My Google watch clocked my time (by the end of the month) at 35 min for 254 calories. Caveat: there's DB (or calisthenic) work between KB sets in this workout so the calorie burn isn't accurate.

    I'm repeating the KB workout again in March (likely in a drop set format with both KBs) but I'm certain the watch will give similar caloric burn estimates. It's "looking" at my swings for a given amount of time. So, again, not all that accurate.

    KBs and forms of weight resistance training - imho - are for building lean muscle mass, provided you have proper form.

    Sheer caloric burn is more of a concern for fat burning and you can do that with some cardio and eating consistently in a healthy deficit.



  • HerNameIsMischief
    HerNameIsMischief Posts: 158 Member
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    I used to see ads for kettlebells in some fitness magazine years ago. The ad copy included something about how using kettlebells would allow you to “laugh at your opponents as their feeble punches now have little effect on you.” And this was not a boxing or martial arts mag. Lol
  • the_stained_ape
    the_stained_ape Posts: 35 Member
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    My KB routine hits 361 calories in just over 30 minutes. 481hy0hsomsc.jpg

    AMRAP program for 45 seconds with 45 seconds rest. All the major moves like Swings, Snatches, Goblet Squats, lunges etc with weights ranging from 20kg-28kg.
  • therequiiem
    therequiiem Posts: 133 Member
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    What do you use to calculate the calories? Is it pretty accurate?
  • the_stained_ape
    the_stained_ape Posts: 35 Member
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    therequiiem wrote: »
    What do you use to calculate the calories? Is it pretty accurate?

    Polar Vantage M watch. I've found this pretty accurate.

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