The explosion in popularity of the kettlebell in the last decade has led to many exercise enthusiasts wanting to incorporate them into their home gyms. A solid idea in principle, by doing this a greater varierty of training session can be had from the comfort of your own home.
Whatever your goal and whatever your training routine the Kettlebell can be utilized to do the job. Whether you want to follow the overload principle to a muscle building routine, design a Kettlebell circuit to perfom HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) to lower your fat content or use a high repetition full body movement such as the Kettlebell Swing or Kettlebell Clean for your more traditional slow fat burning cardio – The Kettlebell can be used for all these purposes.
The main negative to the Kettlebell as oppose to the good old fashioned Olympic Barbell is that additional weight cannot be added. This was original problem home gym’s suffered from using dumbbells until the adjustable dumbbell was created. The next logical step was the adjustable kettlebell.
The adjustable kettlebell appeals in the same manner as the adjustable dumbbell. The main advantages being two fold, cost and less storage required.
Think of the amount of money that would be involved in purchasing a full set of dumbbells ranging from 2k to 50k. Now think of the significantly lower investment of purchasing two dumbbells and a few weighted plates going up to 100k (meaning you can have a pair of 50k dumbbells).
Think of the investment that would be involved in buying a set of Kettlebells ranging from 2k to 50k. Now think of the significantly lower cost of purchasing a pair (or even one) of adjustable Kettlebells with weights that can be added in increments to continue overloading your body over time.
Both of the above options give you a far more cost effective option and require alot less storage – it is very likely a full Steel weight rack would be needed to support a set of Kettlebells or Dumbells ranging from 2k – 50k, not to mention that the rack would be supporting a grand total of 1300k! In direct comparison an adjustable Kettlebell with the capability to construct 2 x 50k Kettlebells would weigh a very manageable 100k of weight and can simply be stored anywhere you choose.
As the reader you may now be wondering why everyone has not went out and bought an adjustable kettlebell?
As with most things in the fitness industry (and life in general) there exists an obvious downside. The adjustable kettlebell suffers from the major downside of having to change weight, the exact same issue you have with barbells down the gym will exist at home with adjustable kettlebell.
For example,as anyone who has sculpted an athletic physique will attest to, one of the key training principles for building good quality muscle is to keep the intensity of your workout high.
The famous adage ‘you can train hard or you can train long, you can’t do both’ springs to mind.
If you are continuously having to adjust the weights the intensity of your Kettlebell Workout is severely hampered and so will your progress. This is the reason why any gym you walk into has fixed dumbbells and fixed kettlebells so people can keep the intensity and train with maximum results. Although......People don’t always do so and we have all witnessed groups of people having 5 minute interludes between sets, but that discussion is for another day, another post and another time.
As with most things, the choice of buying a full kettlebell set or a couple of adjustable Kettlebells (technically speaking, as most kettlebell exercises can be done with one hand, only one adjustable kettlebell is required for a kettlebell workout) is up to you.
It is worth noting that most adjustable Kettlebell sets you will find have a handle weighing 6k which for some beginners is already too heavy so those wishing to use adjustable Kettlebells may wish to purchase a 2k and 4k Kettlebell before moving onto the adjustable Kettlebell.
No comments:
Post a Comment