Thread: Kettlebells

I have never used them or knew they still existed.

i have

Sometimes as a warmup/glute activation move I do kettlebell swings between the legs. I also do renegade rows and Turkish getups with kettlebells sometimes. I saw one of the trainers at my gym doing overhead pressing while trying to keep the kettlebells pointing straight up. I tried that, and it is humbling! It takes some serious grip strength and shoulder stability to do them in a controlled fashion.

Originally Posted by P-funk

i have

Exclusively? What did you think of them? What was your motivation for using them?

Originally Posted by Bakerboy

Exclusively? What did you think of them? What was your motivation for using them?

I don;t use them exclusively, no. I don't use them at all really now.

I used the before for a little bit. Some of my buddies are really into them as a conditioning workout (like cardio)....

My opinion is that you can do a lot of things with them...front squats, great for teaching people how to squat when held in front between the legs sumo style, presses (overhead presses, floor presses), various swings to hit the posterior chain and work on explosiveness, various complexes and circuits, cleans, jerks, snatches, etc....

I don't like doing doing cleans or snatches with them for the reason that they rotate in your hand (they have to inorder to make the lift) and you have the handle and then all this mass (the kettle bell) rotating over your hand. So, on something like a snatch, if you over pull or pull to hard or have porr technique or you extend to far....that mass is going to pull on your shoulder pretty bad and things can get ugly really quick from there. If I am teaching someone, I would much rather do a DB snatch because it is a little more stable since the weight doesn't rotate backwards in your hand.

But ofcourse, if done properly it is fine.....

I just don't do them because I focus to much on my technique for olympic lifting to worry about trying to learn the technique to clean or snatch a kettle bell.

Defenitly a fun conditioning type of workout though. they can get you going. especially if you are training with friends and they are throwing them in the air, and catching them on a flip etc...