Kettlebells have gained popularity over the past few years although they have been around for decades. They are a traditional Russian cast iron weight, and now a days, you can find modern versions of them in any fitness store that sells exercise equipment. They come in a range of sizes from 8 lbs. up to 100 lbs. or more.
If you're like me, you probably wonder if kettlebells have an advantage over dumbbells. You have probably seen some kettlebell exercises and wonder what is the big deal? Can't you do the same thing with dumbbells? Some people may say yes and others may strongly disagree.
Can You Do the Same Kettlebell Exercises with Dumbbells?
From what I've read online, the answer is yes you can. However, kettlebells add more of a challenge due to their size and shape. The handles on a kettlebell are much thicker than that of a dumbbell which means it is more of a challenge to grip and move around. Therefore if you are looking for a more challenging workout, kettlebells will probably provide it a little more than dumbbells. Also, I would imagine the shape of a dumbbell would make it awkward to do moves like the kettlebell swing.
photo credit: WilsonB
Why Kettlebells Then?
Kettlebell movements cause your body to work as one unit. You utitilize stabilizer muscles on a lot of the moves. Also, the movements are fast and after several reps and sets, you will have done an incredible cardio workout.
While kettlebells are still "weights" they do help to build muscle. If you are looking to build a bodybuilder's physique, stick to what bodybuilders use: dumbbells, barbells, etc. Kettlebell training is known to effectively burn fat, shed the pounds, and develop more muscle definition in general.
Are Kettlebells Better Than Dumbbells?
Depending on who you ask, you may get a yes or no. In general, one is not better than the other - they are just different - and both offer their own sets of advantages and disadvantages.
I like having variety in my workouts so I'm sure kettlebells would be a great fit in my home gym. What is your take on the kettlebell? Have you tried them?
Sources:
Kettlebell Training Concepts and Benefits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettlebell
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Kettlebells shouldn’t just be picked up and tossed about. They are much more technically challenging than dumbbells. I can’t wait until all the fervor dies down. Many of the exercise idiots are prescribing have no basis.
I’ve never tried kettlebells before, but I’ve noticed how they’ve been gaining in popularity. I’ve seen people use them in the park a few times. Some of the exercises look awkward to me, but people seem to like them.
- Dave
I use kettlebells in all around core conditioning (ie, swinging them around your body uses more muscles than isolated dumb-bell curves).
Data points, Barbara
I knew a fellow gym-goer who used to swear by kettlebells for core training. I tried them one time, but they were kind of awkward to use so I just kept training with regular dumbbells. I suppose if I had give them more of a chance, I could of got used to them. With kettlebells getting less expensive in the stores, they might be a nice addition to my usual weight training routine.
@Sandy – I’ve only seen a few kettlebell exercises myself. I wonder what is being taught.
@Dave – Same here, seems like there is a huge following.
@Barbara – Core conditioning seems like one of the biggest benefits of using them.
@Stacy – I plan on adding them to my routine as well. I think they will provide challenge and fun to a workout.
I tried kettebells before and they are not bad, like you said they offer a different range of motion but to be honest I use my dumbells and get a workout that is as good if not better than kettlebells.
I’m 47. I played NCAA Football. I am also stronger, fitter and have better mobility than I did 20 years ago. I haven’t used any tools other than the kettlebell and my own bodyweight in 26 months.
Kettlebells are great for core training, there are many exercises that you can do more comfortably with a kettlebell than you can with dumbbells. It’s true kettlebells are not better than dumbbells, they are just different.
As with most fitness trends, kettlebells relieve boredom for those of us who crave variety. Yes, the kettlebell provides a different type of force (as does a sandbag) but is the average individual going to sustain a kettlebell workout? I don’t think so. It would be better to get folks working toward fitness with something more accessible and convenient. If you can’t naturally integrate a kettlebell workout, then it isn’t going to last. Only diehards will do this and just as a temporary respite from the standard dumbbells and barbells.
It’s almost like comparing apples and oranges. Both kettlebells and dumbbells have their uses.
No doubt. Here’s the main thing though. I haven’t been able to get equal work in with equal time. Kettlebells allow you to go to heck and back in 10 minutes. Difficult to pull off with another tool. That’s why my busy clients seem to like the tool best, I guess.
I love kettlebell workouts because I get a cardio/strength workout with no impact.
They require good form though, I highly recommend going to some classes in person to get the hang (or swing!) of it.
I’d venture to say that 99.95% of people who are negative on kettlebells have never been instructed by a certified Kettlebell instructor. It isn’t something you go by at Target, pick up a video and learn. I can tell you that from experience LOL
I have used kettlebells in the past. But I find that they do not allow natural movement. Compare dumbbell bicep curls to kettlebell bicep curl and there is no comparison.
I find that you can work the muscle much better with a standard dumbbell, plus kettlebells take up a lot more space.
Kettlebells aren’t designed to do isolation type movement. Clearly you haven’t even invested the time to discover their proper use.
Kettlebells are great for compound, total-body movements. In gengeral, compound exercises burn more calories than isolation exercises. Although one cannot achieve many isolation movements using kettlebells that can be achieved using barbells and dumbbells, they will certainly help to increase strength. Many people use Kettlebells extensively in core training as they are generally a lot less awkward than dumbbells and barbells.
I personally, wouldn’t say either dumbbells/barbells or kettlebells are better than the other. They both have their benefits and downfalls. However, some exercises are definitely easier achieved using one over the other.
http://www.EngageNutrition.com
I don’t think one is better than the other. I think they both serve a purpose in the gym. For example, I wouldn’t want to use kettle balls in place of dumbbells for bench pressing. However, kettle balls also have their own specialized exercises: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kettlebells.htm
I think you’re probably right. Both dumbbells and kettleballs will have different benefits. Still never tried kettleballs myself. I wonder if they’ll start rolling them out in my gym in the future?
I like kettleballs too compared to dumbbells, they are far more challenging to use.
I’ve noticed a lot of you speaking in terms of kettlebells vs. dumbbells. the truth is kettlebells provide an extension of fitness that dumbbells cannot provide alone. A ton of elite athletes use kettlebells for explosiveness as well as core conditioning as well as cardiovascular. You can get a full body workout with a kettlebell that will stimulate every muscle in your body as well as cause your lungs to feel like they will explode. You want to speak of fitness, just ask the Navy Seals. Professional boxers. I’m not saying that you are looking for this type of expertise. I’m just saying if it works for them why should we question the professional trainers.
Yes its a lot more difficult, but i’ll guarantee your dumbbell workouts would benefit a lot more with them than without them.
kettlebells are a great workout. Definitely more for the advanced exercise gurus. If your a novice stick to dumbbells and master them before moving on.
I think kettlebell is the best choice, and workout is more funny about dumbell.
Kettleballs and dumbbells are sport tools that regularly pepole use to reduce weight or gain muscle. But I prefer Kettleballs than dumbbelss, because it is cool and popular. Fit for women. God bless you.
I have used free weights for years now and compete in powerlifting. Needless to say, I love my free weights!
I started to become interested in kettlebells just over 18 months ago now, and can safely say that if used correctly, they are the single most versatile tool for developing all round fitness on the market today.
The secret is to ditch the notion of working for reps, and work for timed sets intsead.
2 Minute sets of kettlebell jerks and snatches will work your body like nothing else, providing a strong toning benefit while at the same time delivering a strong cardiovascular effect.
The result is a significant level of Excess Post Exercise Oxygen consumption, which means more calories burnt AFTER the session is finished.
Kettlebell swings for timed sets is another awesome exercise.
I now use kettlebells exlusively as a tool for reducing body fat, while also developing a well rounded functional fitness element. I cant praise them enough!
Kettlebells are great, and I use them in conjunction with dumbbells. But if you don’t want to spend the big bucks for kettlebells, or you don’t have the room for a bunch of them, stick with dumbbells and do the same moves. Although it’s not exactly the same, I trust experts like Ross Enamait and Scrapper when they say you can get the same benefits without the prohibitive cost.
Kettlebells are indeed a tool, as some people here have described. Yet they are a needless tool. You can in fact, do compound ballistic movements with dumbbells, and you can also cheaply manufacture your own T-handle for swinging movements. http://www.rosstraining.com has a wealth of info on this.
Keep in mind, KB’s are solid weights. You cannot alter them. That’s stupid. So all the dumbasses who buy 16 and 24 kg kettlebells have effectively wasted a couple hundred bucks on something they’ll outgrow in no time flat. And if you think you’re going to use them to rep out and get “conditioned”, then why not try wind sprints, carries, or something else that won’t tear your hands to shit? Try 100 reps with your 16 kg KB and let me know how your hands are doing… stupid, just stupid.
They do look cool though. Maybe that’s the allure – that or all the ad copy.
I have a lot of respect for Ross Enamit, but saving money by using dumbells instead of kettlebells for KB exercises isn’t a great idea. Try playing golf with a baseball bat. The offset center of gravity unique to the kettlebell simply isn’t replicated with another strength implement.
Also, if your technique is proficient your hands don’t get torn up. THe only “jacked up” hands I see are with folks who need to work on their form. I did 264 reps with the 20 kg bell yesterday. Hands are fine.
Great Post. Looking to add kettlebells into my studio.
For all around functional fitness, Kettlebells cannot be beaten. I cannot believe people still do isolation exercises at gyms these days. The body does not work in isolation so why train it to? Anbody doing tricep extensions, bicep curls or leg extensions should be laughed at.
I guarantee that after six months of kettlebell training you will be fitter, leaner and stronger than you ever imagined! Do not fall into the body building mentality you see at gyms these days (still the same after 40 years!). Grab a kettlebell and swing yourself to complete all round fitness!
After 9 months of kettlebell training, I did indeed feel fit, lean and strong, as you say.
Unfortunately I had not taken certified kettlebell instruction, but had learned from books and dvds.
I worked up to sets of 6 cleans and presses each arm, sets of 8 snatches each arm, with the 24kg kettlebell.
This seemed to be going very well, for 9 months, then, 2 months ago, I did the 2nd rep of a set of snatches and broke my left forearm.
I had to have surgery and now have a steel plate and 6 screws implanted on my radius bone.
When I wrote to tell the author and publisher of the books I had been using, the most famous proponents of the kettlebell art, neither person would even reply.
Their representative told me they felt there was “nothing to say”.
I had thought they might have felt it necessary to warn people that the kettlebell snatch could do more than merely bruise a forearm.
I very much wish I had stuck to dumbbells etc.
Before this, I had been training for 24 years with no injury, ever.
I posted full details of the injury on the transformetrics.com website, if you Google “kettlebell snatch broken arm” it will come up on page one.
If you are getting bruised forearms doing kettlebell snatches then your technique is completly wrong no matter what the weight. As for the broken arm….Then again there are people who have been put in hospital putting on their jeans in the morning!!
My I suggest you get some proper instruction and perhaps for the kettle bell too.
I guarantee there are more injuries from Dumbell training!
I’ve been doing snatches for months and have never had the slightest bruise. Push your palm through at the top of the move.
Regards
Mike
Lance Armstrong uses kettlebells – enough said.
Great post! Kettlebells are like the secret weapon for conditioning the body and building functional strength. There are so many advantages to kettlebell training.
I feel that this post could be fradulent. Something about it just doesn’t jibe. Not sure what but it’s a feeling I have. Snatches didn’t cause his injury if he had one, his snatches did. As for a warning, all DD Kettlebells come with a warning tag attached that they can “cause death.” I kinda laugh because what couldn’t cause it these days. I am an RKC and I’m sure Mr. DuCane’s lawyers advised the tag necessary in this day and age.
Hello Mr Sommer,
If you contact Dennis Armstrong at Dragon Door I am sure he will confirm to you that he corresponded with me in full detail during April about my injury.
Likewise, if you Google “kettlebell snatch broken arm” the various websites where my injury has been fully documented will come up on page one.
If that does not satisfy you, please let me know exactly how I may prove to you that my post is not fraudulent.
If you Google and follow the links you will find full description of how the injury came about.
I trained very happily for 9 months before the injury occurred.
I was doing sets of 8 snatches each arm, once a week or so.
I had no warning, not so much as a bruise on the arm, then the arm broke doing the 2nd rep of a set.
Before this, I had not been injured in 24 years of training.
I have serious family responsibilities and run 2 businesses.
At 41, I certainly would not knowingly have risked injuring myself in this way.
Neither myself, nor anyone I have been in contact with, have heard of a snatch breaking an arm before in this way (that is, someone doing snatches happily for months and then having this happen…RKC Josh Hillis did tell me of a woman who broke her arm doing a crazy first-snatch attepmt with a 32kg bell…and I have read of a woman on a website who had a stress fracture from snatches)
Of course, you are right to say it must have been “his snatches”…that rep that broke my arm must have swung wild somehow…but I think it is worth warning people that this can happen…to someone who had been snatching for several months beforehand with not so much as a bruise for warning.
I had never been injured during 24 years of previous training, probably because this was solely non-ballistic training.
The ballistic element seems to have been my downfall.
I’ve contacted Steve Cotter, Steve Maxwell, Clarence Bass, and others, about this.
You will find that Steve Maxwell posted my letter and his detailed reply to it, on his website, so he did not share your “feeling” that my account did “not jibe”.
Hello Mike,
like you I did snatches for months without a bruise (6 months to be exact…I did not do snatches for the first 3 months I used my 24kg bell).
That did not stop me breaking my arm on 4th April.
If I had been doing dumbbell snatches I would not have been hurt.
On one rep I lost control of the 24kg bell which I had done 6 months of snatches with happily up to that moment…I still do not know exactly how this happened….and the bell went right through my radius, which if you research it you will find is a very fragile bone if hit just right…and to hit it just right you only have to get tired or lose concentration once.
A dumbbell could not have hurt me this way, just as no dumbbell hurt me in the previous 24 years.
As long as you keep hold of the dumbbell it will not hit you.
I kept hold of the kettlebell even when it broke my arm.
I even finished the rep and lowered the bell in control.
But a kettlebell can hit you heavily enough to break your arm, even if you have full hold of the handle, arm locked out etc.
The South African orthopaedic surgeon Dr J P Driver-Jowitt has also corresponded with me about the injury, and he suggested I warn others as the radius is extremely vulnerable to injury when the arm is locked out overhead, if it is struck.
Perhaps someone will read this and not make the same bad mistake.
If I had read that snatches had ever broken an arm I would not have taken up the practise.
I researched kettlebells thoroughly for weeks before trying them, reading online reviews at Dragon Door etc, and heard of no such injury ever happening so I felt safer than I should have.
Likewise, being able to do sets of snatches for 6 months with not so much as a bruise made me feel completely safe, but none of that meant anything when I was drinking morphine in hospital or now that I’m trying to rehab a forearm with a plate and 6 screws in it.
Fair enough. Your logic is troubling though. People get killed in the bathroom. Does that mean we should avoid it? You may consider reading a copy of “Struck By Lightening” and I think you may feel better about kettlebells. Remember, you stated how much swings and snatches help you get lean and apparently other resistance training wasn’t helping you in that regard.
The best, SS
Hi Sandy,
To verify that you are who you say who you are, I was just checking out your website…very impressive 40kg turkish getup there.
Regarding leanness, I had already discovered how to acheive that with diet, before getting the kettlebell, but I am sure that swings and snatches do help people greatly to get and stay lean in general.
It is just, in my case, this was not worth a broken arm, surgery, plates and screws holding my bone together now.
I’m sure you can understand that and would feel similarly.
Regarding your startements about logic, I have used bathrooms without injury for 41 years.
The kettlebell broke my arm after only 9 months of use.
My logic troubles you but you do not say why exactly.
I am simply warning people that it is possible to break your arm doing a set of kettlebell snatches, even if you have been doing them seemingly safely for 6 months beforehand (no signs of bruise on forearm etc, or pain beforehand, no warnings such as those which were the only warnings I had ever read about in the kettlebell books).
I know that people are not aware of that risk, because people are so surprised when I tell them what has happened, including RKCs and Dragon Door’s representative.
I don’t actually feel bad about kettlebells or think people should avoid snatching (although if you find Steve Maxwell’s response to me on his website he makes good points about snatching and its possible overuse as an exercise…I’ve had an RKC write to me similarly and tell me that it is something that he does only 5 per cent of the time).
I really enjoyed snatching until the rep that broke my arm.
I had influenced 2 friends to buy kettlebells by then and they thought my form and training looked safe and that such an injury was unimaginable.
To finish with logic again, if I had been doing a dumbbell snatch with 24kg on April 4th I would not have broken my arm.
I’m just putting the true information out, in case it stops anyone making the same mistake I did.
Perhaps my mistake was trying to learn from books and dvds.
I had successfully used books to learn weight training, yoga, chi k,ung, over 24 years previously, but maybe kettlebells are a different matter.
It may be that RKC training leaves you with such good form that you could never make a mistake and break the forearm.
That is hard for me to believe now, because I have seen how easily that bone breaks, and breaks so badly the surgeons then have to come in and screw the bone back together.
I had never had any injury beforehand, from training, no broken bone.
So it seemed to me logical now to warn people that snatching does have this danger.
You said earlier that it was not “snatches” that injured me but “his snatches”.
That could be said of anyone, obviously everyone’s snatches will not be perfect or ideal.
My snatches were good enough to get me through 6 months of training, many sets of 8, with no injury, bruise, or pain, or warning like that.
I have never been killed in a bathroom or struck by lightning, if I was I would call that an accident.
But if I throw a 24kg metal ball up over my head again and again for 6 months and then one day I walk into my garden and do it again and end up in hospital…that seems something I really could have, and really would have, preferred never to have done to myself.
Why was I doing it?
Because I’d read and watched dvds for months, of people doing it safely, it seemed very safe, no warnings were being shown.
In 41 years, I think it;’s the only time I ever let myself be brainwashed into thinking something was safe, that, if you thought about it without the positive suggestions everywhere that 24kg balls can be thrown up at speed without danger of injury, your commonsense would tell you that, no, this is probably very dangerous.
Again, regarding logic, I’ve already told you that the South African surgeon who was good enough to correspond with me, he suggests that the information should be out there, people deserve to be warned, that the radius is a fragile bone when the forearm is locked out overhead, and the snatch, even a perfect one, has to arrive against that bone.
No mistakes? Not even on the 200th rep of a SS Snatch Test? When fatigue sets in?
All I’m saying is, this injury was very very easy to do, it happened in a fraction of a second.
The first rep of the set was fine, the 2nd broke my arm.
Let people reading this make their own minds up, about what is logical.
cheers,
John Logan
The risks using Kettlebells are small and Health and Saftey beauracats have no place in the fitness industry. Tell me whats more dangerous – walking around with 20kg of lard around your waist or snatching a kettlebell that could perhaps hurt your wrist. If people think kettlebells are dangerous go back to your metrosexual gym with the pathetic video screens (never really understood those), ceiling to floor mirrors, isolation machines and plug in your ipod. Leave the hard stuff to people that know what’s good for them.
Please can we end this post on broken wrists!
Regards
Mike
PS: The H & S warning on my iron tells me not to iron my clothes whilst wearing them – surely it’s quicker that way?
Mike, your snotty comments are completely out of line and
I’m surprised you can read the warning on your iron – obviously, testosterone poisoning affects the brain first.
By the by, I read quite widely (novels, newspapers – not irons) and have never read of anyone being killed in bathroom.
Plenty of people have been killed in the bathroom by slipping over whilst standing in the shower and cracking their head.
As for testosterone – that’s what the kettle bells do to you and of course the hormome that is key to your overal well being. Forget waisting your money on protein shakes. Do some squats, kettle bells swings etc and see your levels rise. (the wife likes it too!)
I read the broken arm post on Steve Maxwell’s blog ( a couple of months ago??) and now I see it here. Obviously no one was there to see it happen or your technique or even if it was “one of those things”. I DO know as an RKC that this is the first time I have heard of this kind of injury. I also don’t overdo snatches with KB’s. I use swings much more often. I do use KB’s for many workouts and exercises. I love em. Dumbells are good for other stuff. They are definitely better for isolation type exercises. They are ok for snatching, cleans etc. The main difference is that the dumbell sits in my hand while the KB hangs on the back of my arm. It works my shoulder much differently. They are also VERY versatile. You have to learn how to move yourself under the weight instead of the other way around. A TGU is a great example.
Having said that though it is s good idea to switch off sometimes. I (for example) was doing clean and pressing with a DB the other day (first time in a long time) and I could feel the difference and that is a good thing sometimes. Change it up sometimes. Plus if I ever decide to go after the “showy” muscles (like the biceps) I would use DB’s much of the time.
Hi Mike,
In Scotland where I come from, when people talk about the “hard stuff” they usually mean whiskey!
I’ve never been to a metrosexual gym…
I was not talking about a hurt wrist from the snatches…I have never injured myself before in 24 years of training…I worked up to stuff like 17 slow one-arm pushups with right arm, touching chest to ground on every rep (only 11 with left arm)…so my training background was never “metrosexual” whatever that is.
And I was very happy training with the 24 kg bell, did sets of 8 snatches easily, weekly, for 6 months…I’m happy to shut up now about the injury because the warning is out there, which I feel a certain responsibility to accomplish…
But if you keep trying to reduce the injury’s significance, I’ll have to keep countering that…to repeat, it was not a “hurt wrist”…the bell snapped the radius bone in my forearm clean in two pieces, about a third of the way up the arm from the wrist. There was no way that bone was ever going to go back together naturally…left alone you basically would have a flipper, a hand that could not be turned or used for anything.
So then they have to do major surgery, Mike, leaving you with a steel plate and 6 screws through the bone, permanently, unless you want to risk a removal operation later, after 2 years, which has the risk of causing nerve damage and losing use of the hand.
A hurt wrist, Mike?
No not exactly.
Hello Robert,
Yes, I wrote to Steve Maxwell after the accident (which happened 10 weeks ago today), his reply was very thoughtful and encouraging and he posted it on his website.
There was actually a witness, and even a photograph taken of the lowering phase of the first snatch rep, before the 2nd rep that broke the arm.
Neither factor would prove anything conclusively about my form though, so I mentioned above that a full account of the accident and my attempt to describe form, can be had if you google “kettlebell snatch broken arm”, from where I posted on the transformetrics.com site.
Since I’d done 6 months of snatches with the 24kg, with no pain or inury or bruise or warning that I managed to sense, I think there must be an element of it being “one of those things”, but I’ve also tried to describe above why (I’ve now been told by otopeadic surgeons) the arm is very vulnerable to injury in the snatch position.
I know that you are right that this is an unheard-of injury, because I have been told the same by other RKCs etc, and by kettlebell experts in the UK.
I certainly had no idea such a thing was possible.
Interestingly, to me, the reaction when I informed some of the most famous kettlebell teachers, including the origin of the RKC movement, was not what I expected.
I would have expected the man who started the American kettlebell movement off about 8 years ago, or his publisher, to want to know how and why exactly this injury happened.
Those people do make claims to a high level of professionalism, focused on preventing injury etc…but the fact is, those two gentlemen would not even reply to me, their respresentative simply told me they felt there was “nothing to say”.
One of the reasons I felt so safe snatching the bell weekly for 6 months, aside from the fact that it felt good, and there seemed to be no possibility of that changing, was that I’d thoroughly researched it first, reading all reviews at DD and elsewhere, and could find no mention of such an injury being possible.
It is not a risk I would have taken knowingly.
Also, it is very hard to find evidence online of people rehabbing this injury successfully (which will not stop me doing so, at the 10 week poijnt since surgery I can clean and press a 10kg dumbbell 15 times with the bad arm, not allowed to go heavier yet)
Maybe Americans reading this should be extra careful, my surgery and physiotherapy was provided by the National Health Service here, so I receive no bill.
In America, even with insurance an unnecessary injury like this will have costs…and without insurance could wipe someone out financially.
The main difference between kettlebell and dumbbell, on the snatch, is not that the dumbbell sits in your hand and the kettlebell hangs on the back of your arm…the main difference is that a dumbbell snatch where you keep firm grip of the db, cannot break your arm…but a kettlebell snatch can.
My form?
It was good enough to get me through 6 months of weekly snatching safely and comfortably, sets of 8.
No bruises, no pain.
But it was not good enough to prevent me getting this injury…or else the injury was a freak accident…it happened so fast I still do not know for sure even 10 weeks later.
John:
A triathlon competitor died of a heart attack a few weeks back in Stratford upon Avon whilst on the cycling segment. Like kettlebells, I think the public should be warned on the dangers of cycling. You broke your wrist, it cost this guy his life. So KB training much safer than cycling. Though perhaps KB training on a bike could be worse.
By the way Kettlebell training is all about timed sets, not about X number of reps per set.
I’m up to 182 single arm 24kg snatches in 10mins. 200+ is the goal for year end (unless I break my wrist or fall of my bike).
At least you have a macho plate & scar on your forearm!
I’ll shut up now.
Regards
Mike
John Logan,
It was unfortunate that you received such an injury. While it is good to warn others about what may happen, it sounds like a freak accident. You know, maybe the planets were aligned wrong or the westerly winds were flowing harsh that day. Wait… what was I talking about?
-John
Hello John,
I’ve admired Clarence Bass’ books for many years, so I sent him an email about the accident in April.
What he said was very much like what you say, he thought it was a freak accident…and that I “hit one rep where stars were just not right”…
Wow some tension here.. As a personal trainer I am open to all forms of exercise and believe that injury can (and does) come from any form of that exercise. It’s a matter of identifying the risk and eliminating it..
I’ve just startrted to bring kettlebells into my sessions, slowly, and I love them. They are different and keep clients excited.
Boy, John Logan. You certainly are an unlucky fellow. And a long-winded one…for one who has broken his wrist.
Aye Nelson…well, lucky or not lucky is all relative…it’s the only injury I ever got in 24 years of training…
Long-winded…well, typing is good rehab…and I’d have loved to keep it short…and did intitially if you read above…I only got wordy when people were doubting that my injury was genuine.
Then I hit them with full detail, which, when you’re telling the truth, is sometimes very convincing. But yes, it gets lengthy.
Also, I had to keep correcting people who did not read what I had written.
It was not the wrist or anywhere near it that broke.
It was the mid-third of the forearm bone.
That is important because there are some kettlebell “experts” who think the only risk is to the wrist, from those badly designed short handle bells that bang the wrist….but the bell that broke my arm had a deep handle so they’re definitely not as safe as the “experts” are making out.
Also, the long-windedness is to provide the full detailed picture to anyone reading who might need to know kettlebell snatching can break your arm, even if you’ve been snatching happily with no problem for many months…if I didn’t go into the lengthy detail, people would believe and listen even less.
The “experts” tell me I’m the only person in the world this has happened to. On the other hand, I had private emails from 2 famous kettlebell experts who told me they believed there had been other such injuries but that they were not well publicised…they blamed some of the training systems that encourage heavier bells too soon…
So I’ve tried to publicise my injury a bit.
MOst annoying thing about the injury at the 7 month point now after it…is the feel of a steel plate inside one’s forearm…I’d like to get it out in a year or so, but half the docs say it is too dangerous to take out because of risk of nerve damage…my local docs say that, they think metal should stay in for life (this may be British NHS trying to save money, I’m not sure yet).
It is unfortunate when people get injured during exercise. However, the benefits of all exercise, not just kettlebells, out weigh any reasons not to do any. Accidents do happen – you could drop a dumb bell on your foot.
Let’s talk about the benefits of kettlebells – Increased strength, power, endurance, speed, explosiveness. All in one indistructable tool – the kettlebell.
Hey Mike…you said on June 16 you were going to shut up about this! (kidding)
You also said your target for year end was 200 plus snatches in 10 minutes with the 24kg bell.
In the 9 months I was snatching…I had the same book you did maybe…with the 200 snatch goal…”then you’d be a man”…
You were at 182 snatches in June you said…(see above)…closest I got was 16…so I had a long long way to go but I really wanted to get there…them kettlebell books and dvds made it look like it was true…”you’ll be a man”…(I should have remembered I was probably already one of those at 41 years age)…but the hype was so sweet…
Instead, I got a steel plate.
Now, if I’d got it in my foot by dropping a kettlebell or dumbbell on it, I’d call that an accident…and there’;d be nothing more to say…
But now I know that an exercise where you are deliberately aiming an iron ball at speed, basically at the forearm, again and again…well, there’s no room for error….
Let’s just say we’ve got different experiences of the good old kettlebell Mike.
Also, a one-size-fits-all goal like 200 snatches with a 24kg bell in 10 minutes and you are “a man” “a special forces operative”…that’s exactly the kind of hype and focus on weight…that them 2 kettlebell experts whose names you’d recognise wrote me and told me they thought caused injuries like mine.
There’s a lack of real knowledge behind all the hype.
That’s why the so-called experts were so surprised such an injury was possible…they just weren’t so “expert” after all.
It’s pretty arrogant to world-mass-market a training tool, without even knowing all the risks involved…like that snatches break arms.
I’ve been told outright by these people that they did not know such a thing could happen…and yet they’re writing books on the subject?
The reason I did not get hurt in the previous 24 years training was that I was never following any latest trends or gimmicks…like them thar iron balls that many people believe went out of fashion 100 years ago for a good reason…they can hurt people!
Not the “I dropped a dumbbell on my toes” kind of accident…more the, I just put my kettlebell through my arm while “snatching” kind of thing.
Momentum and weight…ballistic momentum…coming together is something my previous weight training etc did not prepare me for…
I thought i had…and for 9 months it was going great so I thought all was well…then it went through my arm?
That wasn’t in the book, man.
But I agree it’s an indestructible tool…it’ll go through bone so easy that, did you hear, they used to make cannonballs (without the handles) and fire tham at people?
Napoleon made a career out of it.
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