Kettlebells: Learn from someone who has a clue

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word kettlebells?

Well for those who have used them hopefully have had positive experiences.  That also means you had good instruction on how to use them, which is another positive.  If your feel is negative and that they cause pain, or just an overall bad experience, ,you probably had a bad coach (or perhaps kettlebells are not for you, but I feel kettlebells are for everyone, so I may be hesitant to believe that .

Kettlebells are different than most equipment we use for training in many ways.  Many of the moves usually reserved for kettlebell training can be done with other tools, but the effects just aren’t the same.  In addition using kettlebells for ONLY dumbbell movements really discounts the value of the tool.  Besides, dumbbells are cheaper so why not just use dumbbells?

Reversing Momentum, power, explosiveness, feel, weight distribution, diversity are just a few things that seperate kettlebells from the rest of the tools out there.  Trainers who have never used kettlebells can’t expect to know how to use them as they are very different and must have the correct instruction on how to use kettlebells effectively before teaching others how to use them. Once an instructor has the knowledge on how to use kettlebells (and I’m not talking about watching an infomercial on Kettleworx or ANY Jillian Michaels videos), they have in their arsenal a whole new way to train, but also diversity in their training programs that can unleash power, strength, sport specific skills, and accelerate fat loss results.

Perhaps the biggest benefit to kettlebells and its diversity is that it can be used for strength but also for cardiovascular exercise.  Countless times I’ve recommended to clients that they perform swings or kettlebell snatches as a method of cardiovascular exercise because of knee issues and lower body overuse injuries.  Clients can still get their cardio exercise in while allowing for their body to heal.  And in fact, kettlebell training is more effective in cardio exercise (fat burn and increased cardio output) than the traditional running or other cardiovascular exercise…but you have to know how to do it properly.

Perhaps one of the biggest complaints I get with kettlebell training is back pain.  Back pain can be the result of many things: not performing the exercise properly, weak glutes and increased activation of the low back muscles, tight hamstring and hip muscles, or just a fatigued back from taking on the load of all the work the glutes should be doing.  9 times out of 10 it has to do with the glutes being weak.  Sometimes a swing is not performed properly, but it isn’t performed properly because often there is doubt about mobilizing the hips for movement of the weight (I’m referring to the kettlebell swing in particular).

Take a look at the video below of the difference between two swings.  The first is incorrect because of lack of range of motion of the kettlebell therefore lack of activation of the hips (conversely more activation of the low back equaling pain).  The second video is a proper kettlebell swing with lots of hip activation and much more range of motion of the kettlebell.

This is just an example of one error performed often with kettlebells (swing).  Another is squatting too much rather than moving forward and back.  Kettlebell swings in particular are a  hip dominant movement, not a quad dominant movement.  So the hips need to be activated not the quads.

Small subtleties like this can make all the difference between an amazing workout and a workout that just leaves you hurt with a bad taste for kettlebell training.  The Kettlebell swing is just one of the exercises we will work on a lot during our kettlebell workshop on Tuesday July 5th in Lyndon.  For more information about this workshop or to sign up email Ben at bensbootcamps@gmail.com .  This workshop is expected to fill up fast so be sure to sign up asap.