Kettlebell training is rising in popularity as a fitness routine for athletes and desk jockeys alike, and for good reason: lifting kettlebells is an incredibly efficient and effective workout. Not to mention kettlebells are affordable and can easily be used to train in the comfort of your own home. When you take into account that proximity is directly related to the number of workouts a person completes throughout the month, having a set of kettlebells at home greatly increases your probability of sticking to a consistent workout routine and getting results.
Millions of Americans make resolutions every January to get into shape. Every year, we tell ourselves that this is the year we will follow through and make it to the gym to work out. Unfortunately, time is a finite resource and most of us struggle to find extra time around our careers, family, and other daily demands. Last spring, the Wall Street Journal published an article about the direct effect of proximity on weekly workouts completed at local gyms. The longer the commute is, the less likely we are to attend. The most successful participants lived within three miles of their neighborhood gyms. Commuters who traveled more than five miles dropped their visits to an average of once per month.
Building a home gym may be the best way to address the issue of proximity, especially if you are pressed for time to work out. With its affordability and portability, the kettlebell is a great option when building a home gym. Kettlebell training and the kettlebells themselves don’t require much space, so your “home gym” could mean your kitchen or a small corner in a garage or backyard. In the time that you would spend on a commute to the gym, you can complete a kettlebell routine that tones muscles, increases flexibility, and strengthens bones.
The American College of Sports Medicine’s national guidelines recommends getting two to three days of resistance, neuromotor (functional fitness), and flexibility training, as well as 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week. Exercise machines found at the gym are phenomenal for isolating individual movements and preventing in-gym injuries. However, they provide little benefit in terms of functional fitness or flexibility. Many of us have strained our backs while missing a step off a sidewalk or dodging an unaware toddler or dog. For the sake of preventing injury and ensuring longevity, we should prepare the body for strength and flexibility in all planes of movement, rather than the specific, isolated strength that comes from using machines.
One of the reasons kettlebell training is so effective is because the kettlebell acts as an instability device. Kettlebells are often incorporated into rehabilitation and functional movement regimens for this very reason. You’ve likely read about instability devices such as the BOSU ball, TRX suspension trainers, and wobble boards. These work on the principle that muscles fire at different locations to produce a steady movement. In other words, you get more bang for your buck than performing the same movement on a steady surface. The kettlebell is also a type of instability device. The kettlebell’s weight may increase or decrease with momentum, rotate around your body, or shift your center of gravity; these changes increase the amount of muscular activation and stability required to perform movements. Free-weights and dumbbells are also unstable, however, the shape of the handgrip and symmetry of the weight distribution limits their usage to a few traditional exercises.
While you can add a kettlebell to any strength or calisthenics exercises and maximize results, kettlebells are especially beneficial when used to perform high-repetition dynamic movements that not only increase your strength-endurance, but also enhance your cardiovascular fitness. Movements such as the swing, clean and press, and snatch contract the agonist muscle groups, while recruiting fibers from the smaller, supporting muscle groups to co-contract. This calls on the antagonist muscles to act as stabilizers. These exercises will give you a full-body workout. They can be done with any size kettlebell; the key is to use a weight that does not compromise your form over many repetitions and to go at a speed where you can control the momentum of the kettlebell.
While it is always a good idea to consult with a qualified trainer to ensure you are using proper form, there are a number of videos to be found online that teach technique and provide free workout routines. One way to get access to new kettlebell workouts every week is to subscribe to the Kettlebell Kings mailing list.
With a home gym consisting of just a few kettlebells, you can greatly enhance your functional fitness while saving time commuting to and from a gym. In addition to increasing the chance that you will actually stick to your workout routine by working out at home, kettlebell training provides a myriad of benefits. When done correctly, the movements will appear effortless and controlled and the results will be visible. You will heighten motor recruitment and muscle activation, build stability, improve functional fitness, prevent injury, and build strength and cardiovascular fitness simultaneously. And you can get all of these benefits without having to pay a monthly gym membership or even leave your house!
Want to start your home gym but not sure what kettlebell size to buy? Click here for guidance.
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Kettlebell Kings is a leading kettlebell equipment and kettlebell content creator in the United States. We are proud to offer five branded lines of kettlebells, and we work closely with individual workout enthusiasts and national gym chains to advance kettlebell equipment and kettlebell knowledge.
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