Please welcome Mike Mahler to the Cf.com community, for those who dont know Mr.Mahler; he is an expert/advocate of Kettlebell training and has worked extensively in this field.
Mike, its all yours. Enjoy!
Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com
Mike,
From what I’ve seen of your articles and such, it seems like you exclusively train with KB’s and bodyweight exercises. While I agree these can compliment your training, I don’t agree that they should be used exclusively. Can you comment on your approach towards training so the board can have a better understanding of everything you’ve been doing?
Welcome to the board,
Chris
Chris,
Thanks for the welcome and I agree with you for many athletes. However, how I train myself personally is not necessarily how I would train others.
My goals are not to get super big and push super heavy weights around. I enjoy the simpicity that kettlebell training offers. I live in an apartment in Marina Del Rey, Ca. The weather is great in soCal and I rather take 2 88lb bells to a park or beach and get a great workout outside than go to a gym and listen to lame music and wait in line to use power racks that people use for curls.
2 88lb bells is all that I need for my goals and even very strong trainees would find my workouts challenging. That said, if I had space for a home gym, I would certainly have a power rack, a barbell etc. However, right now, I move around (not flying) a lot and kettlebells are easy to transport and a lot of fun to use.
In conclusion, I can achieve my personal fitness goals with kettlebells, bodyweight drills, and some clubbell training for active recovery. However, I can see myself using some standard barbell work in the future.
I do feel that many athletes could benefit from a month or so of KB only work or 1-2 days of KB only work in their routines to switch things up and give the motor pattersn that they are used to a break. It will build a different kind of strength and a new skill. Kettlebells ballistic drills such as snatches and cleans teach you how to absorb shock. Kettlebells are harder to control than dumbbells and work more stabilzier muscles. Kettlebells also develop more shoudler flexibility on exercises such as turkish get-ups, presses, and windmills. Just pulls your arms back into a better position.
I agree with you that ideally for most athletes kettlebells would be one piece of the pie. Just as most athletes would not train exclusively with barbells, most athletes would use a variety of tools as Coach Reeve has his athletes do at Wake Forest University.
Kettlebells are a great way for someone to get in shape and develop a higher level of strength that wants a home gym that does not take up much space or prefers to train outdoors like myself.
thanks
Mike Mahler
Mike,
What do you think of plate loaded kettlebells, like the kettlestack? A cost-effective option or garbage? Thanks.
The kettlestack is not a bad option and is better than most Kb handles on the market. However, it is not a substitute for the real think. I had a guy drop one from waist level to the ground at one of my workshops and the thing exploded! Plates flew everywhere, ha ha. Fortunately no one got hurt. I would to have the kettlestack come apart during a set of snatches. Plate showers do not look like much fun!
The best adjustable KB on the market is made by uskettlebells.com Great product and very close to the real deal.
Mike Mahler
Nice post. 
Thanks Pete!
I am a bit unsure about a few things involving kettlebells. Do you ever increase the weight like normal dumbells, or do you need several so you can move up in weight?
If you need to keep adding weight, they seem really expensive. I just did a quick google search and saw one that was 98 bucks, a little out of my spending range. I saw a website a while ago with detailed instructions on making your own kettlebell. I could try to do that I guess.
Anyways, I would be interested in using kettlebells for a month or so after track season, if I am able to get my hands on one.
I trained with barbell and dumbbells for over 10 years before i started working with bells. As I said for my goals, I have all that I need for now. Some beginners will need many bells as it will take a while to get used to it. Others will use kettlebells for GPP in addition to other things. Really it depends on what you are planning on using bells for and what your training goals are.
Also, the way to increase the intensity without increasing the resistance with kettlebells is to pick harder drills. For example, start with standing mil presses, then do seated mil presses, then sots presses (sots press is a mil press from the bottom position of a squat)
Another example, clean a bell, when that gets easy work on swiging it to waist level, then head level, and then snatch it. Then try doing snatches without a pre-swing, and then go to the hand position. If you get creative you can really maximize the benefits of one kettlebell.
Mike Mahler
kettlebells hmmm from your experience does it help in sports athleticism? and i’m wondering about this incorporated for sprinters where do you see the benefits.
No question that it does. Especially for combat athletes. Any athlete can benefit from explosive strength, coordination, and shock absorption skills. For sprinters you will have more wind and more explosion in the start. Kettlebell drills such as swings, cleans, and snatches work the hamstring in an explosive manner which will carry over to spriting. A set of high rep snatches feels like several sprints.
Of course you could get similar benefits from the same exercises with a dumbbell for spriting. You will not get the shock absorption benefits or as much coordination skills.
Also, here is what professional Baseball player Reggie Saunders said about Kb training:
Mike, how would you compare kettle or dumbell snatches to barbell cleans and bar snatches in terms of effectiveness for sprinting speed? I felt the strength curve was longer and more pleasing in the kettle bell snatch than in barbell power cleans. Still, with the bar you can use a lot more weight. What are your thoughts on this and welcome to the forum.
To the whole forum;
When it comes to power, is anybody really sure that higher force over short range (power clean), can develope more power than lower force over longer range (dumbell and kettlebell snatches)? Both have high acceleration quality.
It has been mentioned that it can take 0.4 seconds to reach peak output. Short range = plyo’s and olympic lifts. Nevertheless, it could also be a power challange to sustain power over longer range & time (dumbell/kettlebell snatch for exsample or even full oly squat jump.) Comments?
Both are useful. Barbell OL work with heavy weight would be more useful for the initial burst in spriting and kettlebells snatches for reps would be more useful for having wind to stay at optimal speed throughout the sprint. My recommendation? Do both!
I also think that weighted vest work with 10% of bodyweight would be useful for increasing sprinting speed.
i think speed endurance is better built through actual sprint work.
you would wear this during sprint work?
I think that using bodyweight as a guide for load is not nearly accurate enough (especially if you were to have them do sprint work with a vest). If you’re dealing with a larger athlete (300-pound) you’re adding more weight to a heavy athlete. You have to consider relative-strength/power when considering adding additional weight to athletes. You have to consider, Mike, that there are some very easily influenced readers of the threads here at cf.com, so often the more specific the guidelines the better.
I agree totally. These comparisons seem overly simplified.