Why I Love Kettle Bells (with video)

Check out Jon playing with the kettle bells! Push ups, rows, “tap” swings, clean and press (with upside down KB), lunge, and swings - all in one shot!

Tempoary Link to video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FCeq-RH1U

Often I’m asked for my opinion regarding trends or new items in the industry.  “What do you think of (insert name of fad or product of the week)?

Well I’m here to tell you, folks, I love kettle bells – period.

I decided to write this article because unfortunately, kettle bells have started to work their way into the mainstream.  I say unfortunately, because becoming main stream usually means:

a.       Some people saw a video or article on kettle bells and declared themselves experts shortly thereafter.  (Not that I’m an expert mind you, but I know more than these knuckleheads.)  This leads to the gym population having a little knowledge about exercise.  And as we all know, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Going main stream also means…

b.      Like any other tool that’s not a bench, people now categorize kettle bells under the “functional training” umbrella.  As in the dismissive, “Those functional training guys use kettle bells.”  This typically is said by gym goers either not bright enough, or too lazy to learn something about bio-mechanics.  It’s much easier for them to dismiss it and label anything that’s not a pec-deck as “functional training.”

I digress.

For those of you who are curious about my thoughts on kettle bells, I decided to let you know why I love them.  There are dozens of reasons I love kettle bells, but I’m sure you’re bored already, so I’ll give you two:

1.       It teaches hip extension.

Hip extension is one of the most important movements in human existence and almost no attention is paid to it by the public.  It’s vital for strength and power development, knee and back health, and having a great looking posterior.  In other words, things in which every person on the planet is interested.

Yet in a large part due to our ever increasingly sedentary society, flexed hips becomes the norm with most people, even when standing.   See figure 1…

Figure 1 – note the excessive curve at the front of the hips.  It looks like the letter “C”, indicating flexion.  (No, that’s not Shakira…that’s Laurie, a trainer with whom I work…)

Without turning this into a lumbo-pelvic hip complex dissertation, trust me when I tell you this: The result of flexed hips usually is weakness in the glute maximus.  This in turn leads to very bad things: knee problems as a result of the hamstrings compensating for the lack of glute drive, and lower back problems as a result of the lower back compensating for the lack of glute and hip strength.  (To say nothing of a soft flat ass…yikes…)

Because of the kettle bells’ relatively heavy weight, it’s impossible to move it without using your glutes to extend the hips.  If you tried to swing it using your arm, hamstrings and lower back, the kettle bell wouldn’t move.  A strong hip extension from the glutes is necessary to lift the kettle bell in the first place.

2.       Deceleration

Kettle bells teach you to decelerate weight.  Yes, what the meat head population calls (insert pseudo tough guy meat head voice) “getting the negative, dude”.  Almost all injuries in life occur when we cannot slow down our own body weight in order to change direction.  Have you ever seen a football player sprinting down the sidelines, heading for the end zone uncontested and all of a sudden his knee blows out?  Nope – neither have I, and I watch a lot of damn football.

Yet how many injuries have you seen when an athlete stops and changes direction, and all of a sudden, there’s a knee issue or pulled muscle.  Like you, I’ve seen a lot.  And it’s because of an inability to stop one’s own body weight and change directions.

Needless to say, decelerating a moving cannon ball with a displaced center of gravity takes some effort.  The effort required to not only slow the momentum and stop it, but to quickly reverse its direction again requires the total body skill of deceleration, direction change, and acceleration again.  This is a crucial skill to have to maintain knee and back health whether you play sports or not. 

There are dozens of more reasons to use kettle bells.  But I just explained to you that you’ll produce more force which applies to the rest of your workouts, your knees and back will be healthier, and you’ll have a great looking posterior – what are you waiting for?  Go get your kettle bells now!

Directions coming soon on where to get them and which ones to get for your specific needs…

*As usual, this article is information only.  Adoption and use of information herein is taken at the sole risk of the reader.