How kettlebells are used, not only do they increase strength, but they are even more effective at training power or the rate at which force is generated or athletic explosiveness. This is one of the reasons why kettlebells are such a solid (no pun intended) choice for athletes looking to enhance their performance in particular sports. A good kettlebell workout regime can help you jump higher, swing harder, move quicker, and have an advantage on the competition that does not use kettlebells.

The way that our kettlebell workouts are structured, they absolutely incinerate fat and send your metabolism into the stratosphere so that you can keep burning fat after the workout has ended. Additionally, because you are using almost all of your muscles to swing and control this cannonball with a handle, you end up training and toning a ton of different muscles, each of which will burn more calories just to maintain themselves. Contrary to a simple bicep curl, or an ab crunch that only work one or two muscles at a time, a kettlebell snatch can work upwards of several dozen different muscles to move, stabilize, and balance the weight throughout the movement. All of these little and big actors will burn plenty more extra calories than if if were just one or two muscles working at a time.

Due to the fast-pace nature of kettlebell workouts and kettlebell exercises, it’s no wonder why people think these workouts are so much more fun and different than what many people feel about weight training – regular boring old slowly lift a weight, slowly put it down, etc. Kettlebells require you to swing, toss, grab, jump, and more to keep the momentum going and the workout progressing keeping you engaged and challenged in different non-traditional ways when compared to standard weight-lifting and cardio.

You have to be mentally and physically engaged, you are blasting more calories, and you will have a great time in the process.

Since many kettlebell workouts and kettlebell exercises will require passing the kettlebell from one hand to another without rest, and in some cases bringing the kettlebell between your legs, tossing the kettlebell, etc., hand-eye coordination will also be trained in the process and will help generate body awareness. While this may seem somewhat trivial, it’s is extremely relevant and practical for most people to have a good understanding of where their limbs are in relation to their perspective so they can be more precise with their movements in any scenario.

Due to the different exercises you will be doing with the kettlebells involving a swinging mass on a handle with momentum, your balance will be challenged and will improve in the process. Balance is crucial not only in our daily lives to improve standard of living, but to prevent injury while exercising. This benefit goes hand in hand with the coordination component and will help improve your quality of life given so many aspects of daily life require good hand-eye coordination. Taking it a step further, coordination is crucial in sports and all other athletic activities.

One of the main kettlebell benefits is that getting started with kettlebells and kettlebell workouts is very inexpensive. You really only need one kettlebell (a pair is even better, but not necessary) to start and are typically less than the monthly rate for many gyms and fitness centers. With the one kettlebell, you can do the majority of exercises and kettlebell workouts making it one of the best pieces of fitness equipment for the value. In fact, most of the workouts here at kettlebell central are based off of just one kettlebell, making it easy to follow along spending relatively little money. Once you have your first kettlebell, you can then upgrade to a heavier one, get a lighter one for certain exercises, get a matching pair etc.

The upbeat rhythm can help give an excellent cardiovascular workout at the same time as a muscle toning workout, essentially killing two birds with one stone. This is one of the reasons why kettlebells are so efficient and how a kettlebell benefits you. Definitely beats running on the treadmill and a standard strength training workout.

Kettlebell workouts will help strengthen your core given all of the stabilization that the abdominals & lower back have to perform with the moving kettlebells and making sure that they stay on the intended path. Your body constantly has to balance itself with the kettlebell changing positions. Your core connects the upper and lower half of your body, and a good core will do this effectively. The saying “you are only as strong as your weakest link” could not be more true. You cannot effectively transfer momentum or power from your legs to your arms, or shoulders if you do not have a strong core. More importantly, you can be at risk for injury if your core is not up to par with the rest of your body (as is the case with many athletes).

Another great benefit of kettlebell workouts is that they help build a good foundation for grip strength. Given the weight and the speed that it will move at, your arms need to grip the kettlebell tightly to make sure that it doesn’t fly out into the blue yonder. The more you practice with kettlebells, the better the handle (no pun intended) will be on the kettlebell.

Humans are not made to move in a single plane. We just aren’t. Most training programs don’t account for most of the movement we typically do. They train with exercises moving forwards (lunges), going side to side (crab walks), going up and down (squats), and sometimes going backwards. Well, the truth is that we do many of these at the same time, resulting in much more complex movement patterns. Sometimes in life (especially in sports) you need to do a combination of these, for example, go forward and sideways at the same time, or you need to move in a rotational fashion. If you don’t train with these types of movements, not only are you missing out on many exercises that can help you strengthen these “weaker links”, become a better athlete, and have a more complete and balanced workout, but most importantly, these exercises can help you avoid injury. As another example (and I won’t win any “cool” points with this one), think of exercises going forward as addition in math, exercises going backwards as subtraction, and going one side or going to another side as multiplication and division respectively. Now we can safely say that in real life, we usually have to do a combination of these to get by, and if we are never used to training using several types at the same time it’s easy for us to make mistakes.

This is one of the main reasons many people that are very “fit” and can lift a lot of weight, or go to the gym often, run a lot, etc. but can get injured so easily. They are very well trained in the exercises they do often, but because during our day-to-day lives we move in different ways, injury is still possible.
Kettlebell workouts include more rotational movement in many of the exercises, and allow for a more complete movement pattern that more closely resembles how most people move.

Most traditional exercise routines use the hip joint very little, and this is a huge problem. Why? Several reasons – The hip is one of the strongest and most important joints in the body, it helps control the posture of the lower body, it connects your legs to your core, and because of modern jobs requiring the use of a computer and sitting down on a chair for several hours straight, the hip flexors become extremely tight, the glutes become stretched and weak and can lead to a weak posture, and in more extreme cases, a condition called lordosis. Having an unused or untrained hip prevents you from having ideal flexibility, as well as missing out on another untapped resource for strength, power, and stability in most sports.