Topic: Is Kettlebell training any good?

[Matthew Menze]

Hey, I am considering working with a kettle bell, along with bodyweight training. Think it's a good idea? I really only want 'functional strength'. I guess I mean I want to get stronger without putting on a lot of muscle to slow me down. if that makes sense. Anyways is a kettle bell something that would work well with me and compliment my bodyweight and parkour training?

Matt

[gearsighted]

Kettlebells are cool, but often overpriced. For the same amount of money you could buy 5 or 6 pairs of dumbbells to have more variety with many of the same exercises.

Keep in mind that putting on muscle is largely a function of diet. Don't eat too much and you won't get bigger. Lift heavy to get stronger, and occasionally lighter and faster for both power and/or endurance. Good luck!

[Matthew Menze]

How much stronger can you get without gaining mass?

[whiteninja]

http://jawbonejournal.blogspot.com/2007/04/debut-of-stonebell.html
Plate-loading concrete do-it-yourself kettlebell.

Use it on grass just in case you drop it.

[Steven Low]

How much stronger can you get without gaining mass?

A lot. Check out what the different olympic lifters are putting up in the different weight classes.

[naroz]

Get a strong gallon jug. Fill said jug with sand. Voila.

[chipset]

Or fill it with liquid lead and let it cool.  That'll make you 11.34 g*3758/1000 = 42 kg kettlebell
Now, where to find lead.... :\

[Matthew Menze]

Or mercury...being even heavier...maybe I can ask my friend who shut down the school with some mercury.

[Matthew Lee Willis]

Questions.  What about all that weight on your elbow joints and what not.  That doesnt seem bad.

[Steven Low]

KB weight is not as vicious on the elbows as stuff like one arm pullup/chinup and cross. If you've ever done significant high rep exercise you should be fine. The main people that have to worry about it are those who just get into strength training right away because the connective tissue grows much slower than muscles.

[Matthew Lee Willis]

so, when you do it, would you suggest keeping a strong angle and not letting your arm bend in that hyper flexed position?  So you think that KB's are for people that have Strength trained for a long time then?

[gearsighted]

This is where the KB isn't as effective as I would like. Those that are new need to scale back the load appropriately until they gain understanding of the movements and have given their body time to adapt. Unfortunately, unlike dumbbells, the KB doesn't have incremental adjustments, so you're stuck in a way by going up in reps for quite some time before making a bigger jump in weight than might be appropriate.

[Matthew Lee Willis]

Thanks for the info.

[Kyle Coleman]

You can buy adjustable Kettlebells that are plate loaded from www.ironwoodyfitness.com the only draw back is you are not capable of doing throwing exercises with them. They also have 5lb incriment traditional style kbs aswell.

The benefit a KB has over a DB is the position of the handle and thickness of the handle. Not to mention there a KB will generally rotate in your hand to a degree that DB will not.

Kyle Coleman

[wolf555]

   In my opinion kettelbells are the best thing ever, and if used right are worth so much more then gym memberships (unless the gym has a lot of kettelbells). No offense to the crossfitters, but usually they don't know the proper technique for the KB exercise's they do and thus don't get the best results, if your looking to train with kettelbells look for a RKC, and only a RKC. They know there stuff, they have to spend $2500 and 3 days of I think 10-10-6 hours to get certified to be a RKC. Bells are expensive but totally worth it, GoFit make's some good ones for less then most place's, also look at www.dragondoor.com, it's the RKC website and can show you trainers in your area.