kettlebells

[sercuerdas]

do kettlebells really work and are they any better than tradional weight training?

[RobertG]

I haven't used them myself, but here is some criticism to consider:

http://www.dolfzine.com/page459.htm

Anything by Pavel or at Dragon Door is going to talk about how kettlebells are the greatest invention ever. I can't really see any reason why they're better than doing squats, cleans, snatches, deadlifts, etc. with dumbells or barbells. At best, because they aren't quite evenly balanced (e.g. you have a handle attached to a ball), you might work stabilizing muscles a little more. But I'd sooner look into the sort of training guys like Brooks Kubik
(http://brookskubik.com/ ) suggests than kettlebells. For one, things like sandbags are a lot cheaper than kettelbells. The weight is even more unevely distributed, hence it will work stabilizing muscles even more than kettelbells.

[terry]

Tsatoline lays it on a bit thick with the marketing spiel, doesn't he? Nonetheless, I believe there is something to be learned there. I tend to disagree with the Irish guy you cited. A MT or BJJ guy have a diversity of motions that they need to be good at. They need muscular endurance and speed-strength. They need good stabilizers and strong prime movers. They need good aerobic fitness as well as a highly conditioned anaerobic threshold. So, the supplemental training methods will be more diverse than, for example, a bicyclist (endurance), or a powerlifter (speed-strength).

I see stuff like kettlebell training as a reaction against bodybuilding training methods, such as muscle isolation, which have dominated U.S.-based strength training since the '60s. The bodybuilding emphasis on muscle isolation, slow-muscle motion training and too much hypertrophy work neglect important things a martial artist needs, such as tendon strength, speed-strength and the coordination of multiple muscle groups into one explosive movement.

Although I haven't done it myself, I suspect Kettlebell training gives you a lot of muscle stabilizing work as well as compound, multi-muscle exercises. My powerlifting coach has had me dragging a sled using different body positions to get a similar effect. In my training it is a supplement to, not a substitute for, more conventional powerlifting training methods (which have been discussed elsewhere on this forum).

I got into this kind of thinking by reading translations of training manuals written by Russian Olympic strength training coaches. I liked the Russians approach because they were so scientific about measuring improvements in different athletic events to a given training protocol.

In any case, the Russians have been rolling their eyes at the Americans' strength training for 40 years. It took until the 1990s for the American Olympic coaches to wake up and smell the coffee, and this is only now getting filtered down into the rank-and-file fitness crowd.