'Kettlebell' training as a form of exercise takes its origins from Russia and has been popularized in the west by one Pavel Tsatsouline. What makes it unique, besides the shape of the weight you're lifting, is the nature of the exercise. The western paradigm of exercising for strength really means that you divide the body into all its individual muscle groups, figure out what muscles are responsible for what types of motion, and finally perform those motions against resistance. In fact, this is the general idea behind bodybuilding. On the other hand, kettlebell exercise tends to place less emphasis on training muscle groups, focusing instead on movements.
Ok - so what's the difference and why do you care?
Imagine a bicep curl - you're standing (or sitting) with the weight in your hands as you raise it towards your shoulders. As you work to perform this exercise, there is relatively little contribution from your core to stabilize your body (especially in the seated position). This means that all your efforts are going into lifting the weight with your biceps muscle and the brachialis. Also, most of the activity in the muscle involves lengthening and shortening with minimal isometric contraction (i.e. where there is tension in the muscle but no change in its length).
Now compare this to the one handed kettlebell swing.
If we had to breakdown the movements involved in this exercise and the muscles responsible for them, it might look something like this:
- extension of knees - quadriceps, iliotibial band
- extension of hips - gluteus maximus, hamstrings
- stabilization of upper body - transverse abdominis, internal/external obliques, abdominals, quadratus lumborum, intercostals, erector spinae muscles
- stabilization of shoulder joint - supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, teres minor, peri-scapular muscles
Simple math shows that a kettlebell swing seems to stress a lot more muscles than a biceps curl; and there is more isometric work being done per repetition as well. It seems that the body as a whole is being stressed to a greater extent with the kettlebell swing when compared to a biceps curl. This effect is true for several kettlebell exercises.
What if I'm Interested in Fat Loss? Or Strength?
If fat loss is your only concern, you'll certainly have no problem training just with kettlebells. A lot of kettlebell movements take two seperate exercises and put them together. This increases the density of your training sessions, meaning you're doing more work per unit of time. Always a good thing! These curiously shaped weights also have a favorable effect on strength. For instance, those of you familiar with the clean, the clean and jerk, and the snatch - you can perform these exercises (with one kettlebell or two) with considerable weight using kettlebells. I'd even argue that it's a good starting point before you move on to the real thing.
The Bad News?
The disadvantage is that kettlebell training can be quite intense for the beginner. Many of the exercises involve coordinating some pretty complex movement patters so things can get tricky if you're not that athletic. Compound this with the reality of a heavy iron mass and you've got a recipe for potential injury. Following that train of thought, some exercises in the kettlebell arsenal are questionable so use your common sense - if it hurts (not from effort), don't do it! Now before all the top notch kettlebell instructors bombard my email with russian for "!*%# you," I will say that if you're instructed properly (i.e progressed through varying levels of difficulty at an appropriate pace for your fitness level), then the risk of injury is reduced. Also, you're limited in the amount of weight you can lift, which means you're limited in how strong you get. Strength training exists under 6 reps. Most kettlebell routines rely on volume to make up for the limited amount of weight available to work with. While you'll certainly get a terrific workout, for the small niche of people that love hoisting big weights, relying on kettlebells as your only modality of training just won't cut it.
The Last Word
Ideally, you want to mix things up as much as you can. If your training largely involves lifting big weights, try taking a break every month, drop the intensity and increase the volume a little with a kettlebell workout. On the other hand, if you've never strayed from kettlebells, introduce yourself to something new. In fact, you'll find yourself able to handle the novel stimulus well because of the foundation you've built for yourself with the kettlebells. At the end of the day, there will never be a single exercise or piece of equipment that will take you all the way. Change is all important.
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