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A few more questions & answers

  1. ★ Are kettlebells dangerous?

A remarkably small percentage of kettlebellers (only 8.8%) on the Russian National and regional teams, reported injuries in training or competition. Note that these were not regular guys but elite athletes who push their bodies to the edge. Which does not give you an excuse to lift kettlebells flippantly; any type of strength training can be dangerous if you use bad judgment!

Am I too young or too old?

At the 1995 Russian Championship the youngest contestant was 16, the oldest 53!  And we are talking elite competition here; the range is even wider if you are training for yourself rather than for the gold.

Is it actually good for my health?

Russian doctors discovered that kettlebell training lowers the heart rate and the blood pressure. “Exercises with kettlebells enable one to quickly build strength, endurance, achieve a balanced development of all muscle groups, fix particular deficiencies of build, and they also promote health.”

  1. ★ Isn’t it just lifting weights?  How can kettlebells improve my cardio endurance?

Proper kettlebell technique can reproduce results achieved by a wide variety of dissimilar intense phsyical activities. Researchers at the Lesgaft Physical Culture Institute in Leningrad (Vinogradov & Lukyanov, 1986) found a very high correlation between the results of a kettlebell lifting competition and the following tests: strength, measured with the three powerlifts and grip strength; strength endurance, measured with pullups and parallel bar dips; general endurance, determined by a 1000 meter run; and work capacity and balance, measured with other specialty evaluations!

  1. ★ I want something that delivers an all around fitness package. Are KBs for me?

Russian researchers observed two groups of subjects over a period of a few years and tested them with a standard battery of armed forces physical training tests: pullups, a standing broad jump, a 100m sprint, and a 1k run. The control group followed a typical university physical education program that emphasized the above. The experimental group just lifted kettlebells. When both groups were tested again at the end of the study, the kettlebell group showed better scores in every one of the events, in spite of their lack of practice on the tested exercises! Most methods that claim ‘all around fitness’ deliver no more than compromises.  Accept no compromises – choose the Russian kettlebell! 

  1. ★ Can’t I just learn this from DVDs or You Tube?

DVDs and videos are great tools for reference and can really help to illustrate proper techniques. Unfortunately, they can also illustrate improper technique just as well (beware of You Tube’s many so-called kettlebell “experts!”). With that said, there are many excellent DVDs and instructional videos available. As helpful as they are in some ways, even though you can watch these videos, they can’t watch you! Only a qualified instructor can work with you to ensure you are using techniques that are safe and achieve the maximum results.

  1. ★ Can kettlebells help me lose weight?

Kettlebells melt fat without the dishonor of fad dieting or aerobics. Losing 1% of bodyfat a week for weeks is not uncommon. If you are overweight, you will lean out. If you are skinny, you will get built up. In one test group, 21.2% increased their bodyweight since taking up kettlebelling and 21.2% (the exact same percentage, not a typo), mostly heavyweights, decreased it. The Russian kettlebell is a powerful tool for fixing your body composition, whichever way it needs fixing.