Can Kettlebells Make you Big?

The general principle for getting big or gaining muscle mass to be more precise, is and always has been the overload principle.

The saying ‘your body will improve to the degree of stress you place upon it’ sums this up perfectly.

So let’s look at the overload principle..............basically you start off shoulder pressing 40k, as your body adapts and tries to make movement easier for you, you will start to develop muscle mass in the deltoids which makes the weight appear lighter. Once this becomes easier and you can lift the 40k with little effort or for more reps, you start to shoulder press 50k.

Upon lifting 50k your body feels the extra stress of this and responds by trying to build more of and thicker muscle fibres in the deltoids and supporting muscles such as the triceps. You will also gain tendon strength in the wrist and elbows as the body does everything it can to make this easier.

The above pattern continues as you lift more and more weight – this is a basic explanation of the overload principle in building strength and muscle mass.

The overload principle is fine in theory; it does of course depend on a lot of other factors such as diet, rest and recovery and to some extent genetics.

Everyone will have a genetic potential for growth and strength and the role of genetics should never dismissed with physical development and performance – think of how many White sprinters you see in a 100 metre final line up and then thing of how many African American Swimmers you witnessed at the recent Olympic Games. The truth is that people from African decent tend to have denser bones which makes them heavier in the water and therefore they are usually at a disadvantage when it comes to swimming. People with African decent also tend to have a higher number of fast twitch muscle fibres which contributes to success in spring and power events.

The overload principle will also not work if the correct diet and recovery are not taking place – you will struggle to lift more and more if you are under nourished for instance and obviously you will also struggle to develop muscle without a protein rich diet.

Coming back to the original question..........Can Kettlebells make you big?

Of course they can, as can Barbells, Dumbbells and even bodyweight exercises to some extent. As long as the overload principle is followed and accompanied with good diet and rest you can get big, strong, powerful and lean using Kettlebell exercises.

 Any well designed Kettlebell Workouts will aid you in getting big as long as you remember the key points highlighted in this article.