Kettlebell Workouts for WomenKettlebell workouts build functional strength and power. Coordinated swinging and pulling movements with these free weights that resemble cannonballs with handles offer both advantages and limitations.
These weighted bells offer the advantages of using free weights--you must grip, control the movement, and maintain good posture and balance the weights throughout the range of motion. Plus, they are versatile in the variety of activities and movements and can provide a good cardio workout. They take up little room, so they are easily transported and stored. There are downsides, however. Learning proper technique is important for avoiding injury. For women who have concerns about posture, poor technique could cause excessive strain on the back, shoulders, and neck. For sports, where specificity and overload are essential, workouts are more general in nature, which could limit sport-specific training results. A recent study that included recreational athletes ranging from 20-72 tested how well kettlebell workouts stack up to power cleans. They ran a close second, but I'd question how skilled the participants were in executing good technique. Skill level has a huge impact on the outcomes of this comparison. In my personal experience, these cannonballs with handles offer a good general workout, but I have seen a few skilled high school athletes in throwing events suffer when they abandoned free barbells for the bell. Viewing lots of training videos, I can see considerable dissimilarities in efficient, explosive whole body movements when you compare kettlebell lifting and Olympic barbell lifting on the power clean, jerk, and snatch. This makes for poorer transfer to sport performance using the bells. The bottom line, limit the bells to general strength and conditioning unless exercises closely simulate sport movements. They offer many benefits for everyday activities and general sports training, but the benefits may diminish with more sport-specific training for explosiveness. Perform Better offers a variety of products and useful instructional information (click on the banner below):
Kettlebells from the Ground Up offers 2 DVDs and a "step by step" manual to build strength and balance with this 7-step training program. For more about workouts and training, these two are popular programs: Kettlebellebody Workouts
Kettlebell Workouts
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