The Benefits Of Kettlebell Training

Kettlebell training is a relatively new form of fitness training that has received huge amounts of praise in the fitness world. The reasons for this is that the unique nature of kettlebell exercises allows them to benefit the body in ways that many other exercises cannot. In this article I’ll be expanding on this topic and providing you with a full overview of the many benefits kettlebell training can provide.

Benefit 1 – Better Balance

When you lift, pull and swing kettlebells, your body has to work hard to maintain your center of gravity. This helps to develop a strong sense of balance which improves your athletic performance in other areas and also makes performing day to day tasks much easier. Challenging your balance allows you to burn more calories as your body has to deal with the muscular challenge and its center of gravity.

Benefit 2 – Efficiency

Most exercises focus on a specific fitness goal. For example, lifting barbells and dumbbells mainly develops your muscles but isn’t very good for burning body fat. Running on a treadmill blasts through body fat but isn’t very useful for strengthening and toning your muscles. Therefore, if you want to lower your body fat percentage and build up your muscles, you have to perform both these types of exercises multiple times each week and spend a lot of time working out.

Kettlebells are an exception to this and help you boost multiple areas of your fitness in one go. The weight of the kettlebells builds up your muscles, while the fast paced and dynamic nature of kettlebell exercises enhances your cardiovascular fitness and blasts through body fat. Working out with kettlebells also enhances your balance, flexibility and coordination. The best part is kettlebells improve all these areas of your fitness within a single 30 minute workout which makes them one of the most efficient forms of exercise around.

Benefit 3 – Full Body Conditioning

Barbell and dumbbell exercises are designed to target specific muscle groups. As a result, you need to perform multiple barbell and dumbbell exercises to ensure that you’re working every muscle in your body.

Kettlebell exercises work in a different way and bring all your muscles into play. This allows you to easily condition your entire body in a single workout or even by performing multiple reps of a single kettlebell exercise. This saves you time because in a short period of time you have been able to work all the muscles of your body without having to take several bodybuilding instruments.

Benefit 4 – Fun

Another great thing about kettlebells is that they’re fun to work with. The repetitive lifting motion associated with traditional weight training and the steady, consistent pace associated with traditional cardio exercises can quickly become boring. However, kettlebell workouts are fast paced, intense, challenging and most importantly, they’re always interesting and enjoyable. Fun during training is also important because it makes you want to start again. While starting your training thinking that nothing will please you will bring you to failure.

Benefit 5 – Functional Strength

While traditional weightlifting exercises do improve your strength, most of the lifts and presses performed with barbells and dumbbells are not practical movements that you can use in daily life. Kettlebell exercises on the other hand are very practical and replicate many of the motions that you’d go through when performing day to day activities. This helps to develop your functional strength which allows you to perform your daily tasks with more ease and efficiency. It’s always good to have a workout that serves us directly in everyday life.

Benefit 6 – Enhanced Cardiovascular Fitness

As mentioned above, kettlebell training is an excellent tool for firing up your cardiovascular fitness. By working out with kettlebells regularly, your heart and lungs will become stronger, your cells will become more efficient at utilizing oxygen and your overall energy levels and endurance will increase significantly.

Benefit 7 – Improved Coordination

Kettlebell exercises are very dynamic and require multiple parts of your body to work in conjunction with each other to complete the movements. This improves your overall coordination which then has a positive impact on your reaction times, your performance during sports and even your capacity to think creatively. This is because the kettlebell uses a lot of brain function and this allows the body to improve both physically and psychologically.

Benefit 8 – Increased Core Stability

Every single kettlebell moves engages the core muscles in the center of your body and helps to strengthen and stabilize them. This improved core strength and stability provides you with a solid foundation when performing other exercises and also enhances your posture and prevents chronic pain. It is very important that physical exercise allow you to regain good body stability so that you do not suffer from pain that can be avoided.

Benefit 9 – Increased Fat Loss

Kettlebell movements are one of the most efficient fat burning exercises around and blast through a substantial 1,200 calories per hour. With just three hours of kettlebell training per week, you can work off an additional 1lb of body fat.

In addition to this, the muscle building properties of kettlebells indirectly support your fat loss efforts. Muscle cells require three times more calories than fat cells to maintain, so the more muscle you build through kettlebell training, the more fat your body will naturally burn.

No other form of exercise torches calories at such an impressive rate while also developing your muscles and this makes kettlebell training one of the top fat loss tools.

Benefit 10 – Stronger Grip

A kettlebell’s center of mass is extended beyond the hand and moves constantly throughout any kettlebell exercise. This allows kettlebells to strengthen your wrist muscles and enhance your grip in a way very few other exercises can match.

Benefit 11 – Versatility

One final benefit of training with kettlebells is that they’re incredibly versatile. As mentioned above, they can be used to improve multiple areas of your fitness. They’re also suitable for both long and short workouts. In addition to this, since kettlebell movements work the entire body, you can utilize different exercises every time you use them and no two workouts ever have to be the same.

Summary

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to add kettlebell training to your fitness regime. Whether you want to build muscle, lose weight, train for a sport or target any other area of your fitness, kettlebells can help you achieve your goals. So if you’ve not tried kettlebells already, find a kettlebell instructor, book yourself in for a starter session today and start enjoying all the benefits discussed in this article.