What is a Kettlebell?

A kettlebell as we know it today is a round weight with a handle on the top, they are usually made from cast iron. Kettlebells come in various sizes for both men and women, the most common sizes available on the market range from 4-62kg. Kettlebells are equally suitable for those that are either just getting back into exercise or seasoned gym goers, it is probably advisable to start off with a lighter weight so as to prevent injury and damage to surrounding objects.

Kettlebells have started to become very popular of late hailed for the fat loss and body conditioning benefits they offer, despite their virtual anonymity until the last couple of years kettlebells are not a new phenomenon.

Kettlebell History

Kettlebells have been around in Russia for a very long time, so popular were they that Russian strongmen and weightlifters were referred to as "kettlebell men." In Russia kettlebells are know as Gyria, Russia probably did not invent the kettlebell though. There is strong evidence to suggest kettlebells where used 1000's of years ago in ancient Greek civilization by the Athletes and Gladiators of the time.

Even the legendary fighting monks of the famed Shaolin Temple used granite padlocks known called "Chinese kettlebells" as a training tool to enhance their kung fu fighting skills.

What Benefits does the Kettlebell offer?

Kettlebells offer an excellent way to burn fat, a few high rep sets of kettlebell swings or snatches will work your body as one complete unit and burn a great deal of calories. To increase the fat burning effects of a kettlebell workout you could try adding some skipping or jogging in a circuit training style, for example 10 swings on each arm followed by skipping for 1 minute and repeat with snatches etc.

Because many kettlebell exercises are compound movements using your major muscle groups they not only increase your calorie expenditure during exercise. Kettlebells utilize your major muscle groups in these compound movements the muscle groups include your hamstrings, upper and lower back. Building and toning these muscle groups not only improves your posture and strength, the more muscular tissue you have the more calories you burn, your metabolic rate will increase so you burn more calories even when your resting.

What benefit does the Kettlebell offer over Dumbbells?

The benefit offered over a dumbbell which is used mostly in isolation movements like the dumbbell curl is that kettlebells enable you to get your whole body working together, strengthening your supporting muscles as well as your major ones this means you become stronger as well as leaner. These compound movements will improve the way your muscles work together, increasing your explosive power delivering vast improvements in nearly all sports (maybe even ping pong and darts).

The compound movements and short bursts of high intensity exertion that kettlebell training requires will see your cardiovascular fitness improve, if time is of the essence for you the average time of your training sessions will be reduced down to about 30 minutes.