Tag: evidence-based training

Study Looks At Kettlebells And Strength Gains

Kettlebells and strength gains. That’s a really big question and it’s not discussed nearly as much as I think it should be. After all, while we have tons of studies about how dumbbells and barbells can increase strength, there aren’t quite as many dealing with kettlebells.

And, to be fair, some of the kettlebell studies are flawed. I took a look at several studies here, and a look at another one here.

All in all, it looks like one can gain strength with a kettlebell, which stands to reason.

However, the science is far from settled on the matter, which is why a new study from August, 2020 deserves some attention.

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Unraveling The Kettlebell Swing

The kettlebell swing is the fundamental kettlebell movement. It’s the first thing a practitioner learns with a kettlebell in their hands, and for good reason. After all, it’s the movement so many others are built around.

However, it’s not really understood in a lot of ways.

That’s understandable in a lot of ways. It’s a movement that doesn’t quite work to the way many of us learned to train. There’s no simple movement pattern clearly designed to train a couple of muscles at a time. There’s no grinding out a rep to get a max or anything else.

It’s an odd approach to a lot of our minds, but it’s time to start trying to sort this mess out. Bear with me, though, because this will take a while.

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