Answering the Critics: Kettlebell Training

The barbell is the most effective tool for improving athletic fitness
– just ask Mark Rippetoe! With nearly a half-century of strength
coaching experience, Coach Rippetoe will assure you that to get
stronger and more powerful, barbells can’t be beat. Unfortunately,
many coaches who promote kettlebell training didn’t get the memo.

I’m not saying
kettlebells are worthless. They are durable, have no moving parts,
and their handles allow for quick release, making them useful for
throwers in track and field. I’ve read many articles from the 1970s
by European track and field coaches that illustrated outdoor throwing
exercises using kettlebells. That was then. Now, medicine balls have
become more popular with these athletes because they don’t damage
the turf and can be thrown indoors.

Kettlebells can also
add variety to a workout, making training more enjoyable for some.
And hey, the swinging and catching exercises (yes, catching) you can
do with them look really cool. That’s fine, and pretty much any
exercise is better than no exercise. But the hype doesn’t stop
there.

I’ve watched many videos by fitness influencers who claim that
kettlebell workouts are “functional,” evidence-based, and a
better way to improve athletic and physical fitness. Sure, and the
sky is blue because it reflects the ocean.

Seriously, if you’re
interested in adding kettlebells to your exercise toolbox, consider
these eight potential downsides:

1. Excessive Stress on
the Wrists. Charles Poliquin was one of the most accomplished
strength coaches in the world. He trained 78 athletes at the 1992
Olympics, five who won medals, among his many other accomplishments.
I was Poliquin’s primary editor for over 20 years, and I’ve never
seen a workout he wrote that included kettlebell exercises. Success
leaves clues.

One reason Poliquin
disliked kettlebell exercises was that their handles didn’t rotate.
Non-rotating handles put excessive stress on the wrists when flipping
the bell. Likewise, because they don’t rotate easily (and are too
stiff), weightlifters don’t use powerlifting bars. There’s more.

About 20 years ago, the
exercise equipment company I worked for considered selling
thick-handled, non-rotating barbells to enhance grip strength. One
reason we decided not to sell them was due to the backlash from
athletes complaining about wrist and elbow pain. It wasn’t the
thickness of the bars that was the problem, but rather that the
plates loaded on the bar didn’t rotate.

The occasional use of
kettlebells may not be a major concern for the general population.
Not so for many athletes, particularly those in sports such as
baseball and tennis, where the risks of wrist and elbow injuries may
outweigh the benefits.

2. Insufficient Strength Training Stimulus. Chris Beardsley is a
leading expert on muscle physiology and strength training. In his
books and video presentations, Beardsley explains that mechanical
tension is a primary factor in building strength.

Depending on the
exercise, many kettlebell workouts demand high levels of stability
and coordination. This challenge decreases the amount of mechanical
loading and, therefore, the mechanical tension a muscle can produce.
Case in point: The goblet squat.

A variation of the
Zercher squat (where the barbell is held at the crook of the elbows),
the Goblet squat is a fundamental exercise in many kettlebell
workouts. Sure, it works the same muscles as a back squat. However,
according to Poliquin, the amount of weight you can lift is limited
by the strength of your biceps, rhomboids, and anterior deltoids.

The website Strength
Level has formulas that convert your barbell back squat into a goblet
squat. Here are a few of these calculations for males (in pounds):

Although the
percentages increase slightly as the weight increases with these
standards, the bottom line is that you will use less than half the
weight in a goblet squat than you can in a back squat. The preferred
term is “progressive resistance,” not “regressive resistance.”

Next, many kettlebell exercises, out of necessity, involve very high
repetitions, which further decrease mechanical loading. You wouldn’t
do a kettlebell swing for five sets of two reps, as you need to
perform several repetitions each set to build momentum with this
exercise.

Beardsley also says
that high-speed movements, which would include kettlebell swings,
don’t produce enough mechanical tension to build strength
effectively. (His explanation is quite complex and involves the
detachment rates of actin-myosin crossbridges, but just go with it.)

The need for high
levels of mechanical tension also explains why weightlifters need to
squat. The best female weightlifter in the US is 2024 Olympic
champion and 2x World Champion Olivia Reeves. She broke world records
in two bodyweight divisions and squatted 500 pounds, exceeding triple
bodyweight. Success leaves clues.

3. Expensive. Kettlebells are expensive, and the urethane- and
rubber-coated versions are even pricier. For example, the company
one kettlebell advocate represents sells a cast-iron 22-pound (10
kilos) kettlebell for $76.99 and a 70-pound (32 kilos) kettlebell for
$232.99 — $232.99 can get you a pretty good barbell. Of course, a
gym can’t just have one kettlebell, and investing in a full set is
a hefty investment.

Another issue is that
heavier kettlebells often have thicker handles, making them harder to
use, especially for women. In 1997, the International Weightlifting
Federation introduced a smaller diameter grip barbell for women
because of their smaller hands. If they had stuck with the men’s
barbell, the records would likely be lower, as grip strength would
become a bigger limitation.

4. Places Potentially
Harmful Stress on the Spine. Many kettlebell advocates claim that
back pain expert Dr. Stuart McGill endorses kettlebell training and
that kettlebell swings can prevent back pain. Not exactly.

In one of his over 250
peer-reviewed scientific journal papers, McGill said, “Some unique
loading patterns discovered during the kettlebell swing included the
posterior shear of the L4 vertebra on L5, which is opposite in
polarity to a traditional lift.” As such, he says kettlebell swings
might improve lower back health for some individuals but cause it in
others.

I asked Dr. McGill to
explain how a single exercise can cause two opposite outcomes. He
replied, “Exercises are tools to achieve a specific goal. As a
spine specialist, I must know the goal, the person’s injury and
disabling pain history, their current fitness, and the state of their
spine and all related tissues to guide the training volume. This
information helps me determine the best exercises and appropriate
programming progressions or regressions. What’s the best exercise?
The answer is always, ‘It depends!’”

5. Lack of Transfer to Weightlifting Movements. The kettlebell swing
bears little resemblance to the biomechanics of the pull in the
snatch, clean, or other weightlifting exercises.

The movement pattern of
a kettlebell swing follows an arc, whereas the pull in weightlifting
follows a more vertical path (often, with a slight S shape). This
horizontal displacement is inefficient and reduces the contribution
of the quads.

Carl Miller was the
head coach for the 1978 US Weightlifting Team at the World
Championships. Miller discussed this difference in a classic 1974
article on pulling technique, published in International Olympic
Lifter magazine. “The second pull is started by an acceleration of
the straightening of the legs and hips, NOT an extension of the
back.”

Another reason for the
lack of transfer to weightlifting is that the kettlebell swing is
performed flat-footed. Therefore, it does not effectively recruit the
elastic properties of the powerful Achilles tendon, which functions
as a biological spring that amplifies the power of the quads.  

6. No Transfer to Sprinting Speed. “Sprinting ability is essential
to many sports,” says Captain Obvious. And numerous studies have
shown that barbell exercises, particularly power cleans, can improve
short sprint performance. Kettlebell exercises…well, not so much.

A study at Slippery
Rock University investigated this topic with 20 college-aged women.
None of the participants had previous experience with kettlebell
training or had participated in sprint or resistance training in the
six months prior to the study.

The training included
twice-weekly sessions, with a total of 15,850 kettlebell swings, over
two months. The sprint test covered 30 meters. Two students couldn’t
finish the study; one suffered an ankle injury, and the other needed
an appendectomy (hey, it happens). The results?

The researchers
concluded that kettlebell swing training “may not provide a
sufficient stimulus to improve sprint performance in recreationally
active females even with a focus on movement and velocity
specificity.” They suggested that one reason for the lack of
sprinting improvement could be the “low exercise volume” of the
workout. Fair enough – I’m looking forward to seeing the results
of a two-month study involving 25,000 kettlebell swings. Stark, Lebe.
“Brett Jones (STRONG FIRST) Replies to Steve Maxwell; Says Steve’s
Comments Are Ignorant.” Lebe Stark podcast. July 20, 2021.

7. High Learning Curve. Apparently, attending an in-person event is
necessary to perform kettlebell training safely, as Internet
influencers on YouTube often criticize those performing kettlebell
exercises. Case in point: Jillian Michaels, of “The Biggest Loser”
fame.

Michaels created a
kettlebell training video, and because of her popularity, she
introduced a large portion of the general public to this type of
training. You would think the kettlebell community would have been
thrilled. However, many Internet influencers publicly criticized her
swinging technique, claiming it could cause back pain.

I suppose the takeaway
here is not to purchase a set of kettlebells at Walmart, watch an
exercise video, and start swinging. Instead, you apparently need to
attend an in-person seminar and learn how to use optimal technique or
risk becoming a cripple. Likewise, gym owners who don’t have
on-site personal trainers to correct dangerous kettlebell lifting
techniques should avoid stocking their gyms with kettlebells, as such
negligence could put them at risk of legal jeopardy.

8. Injured Kettlebell
Instructors. The Internet has featured many heated debates between
those obsessed with kettlebells and those who think kettlebell
training represents a new level of stupid. One of the most vocal
critics is former kettlebell instructor Steve Maxwell.

Academically and
athletically, Maxwell has “Walked the Talk.” He holds a master’s
degree in Exercise Science and is a Black Belt Senior World Champion
in Jiu-Jitsu. Maxwell has since changed his opinion on kettlebells,
stating that he “doesn’t see any reason to use kettlebells at
all.”

In one interview,
Maxwell called out three champions of kettlebell training: Pavel
Tsatsouline, Brett Jones, and Dan John. All three have written
extensively on kettlebell training and have conducted workshops.
(Rippetoe, you may recall, did an eight-part interview with John many
years ago, which you can find on YouTube.)

Maxwell claimed that
Tsatsouline and Jones suffered multiple injuries, with Jones
requiring numerous surgeries, and John undergoing hip replacement
surgery. And with condolences to his family, Steve Cotter, another
major player in promoting kettlebells who promoted himself as a
“Longevity Coach,” died of a heart attack at age 54.

Jones responded to
Maxwell, stating that the injuries he and Tsatsouline sustained were
not connected to kettlebell training. Fair enough. John’s response
to Maxwell is that his hip problems stem from being born with a
deformity called “pistol grip hips.” He said in one video, “The
day I was born, according to my doctor, I was going to have to get a
total hip replacement.” Let’s pause and rewind.

I seriously doubt any
doctor would tell John (or his parents) that he was destined for hip
replacement surgery, which was approved by the FDA about 12 years
after John was born. I say this because many individuals diagnosed
with pistol grip hips are asymptomatic. And I assume that those with
pistol hips who have no symptoms typically do not ask doctors to
X-ray their hips, so their condition would not be recorded in any
medical databases. Thus, it’s possible that something other than a
poor hip structure caused John to go under the knife.

The big issue here is
that the medical challenges these elite kettlebell instructors faced
don’t align with the brand’s message. Sorry, but in the fitness
world, when it comes to a battle between emotion and logic, emotion
often wins. How else do you explain the popularity of the Shake
Weight™ and the ThighMaster™?

There’s no doubt that
kettlebells can provide a training benefit that enhances overall
physical fitness, and some people enjoy performing kettlebell
exercises. If kettlebells motivate someone to exercise who might not
otherwise, that’s a win. However, the fact remains that kettlebell
training has many drawbacks, and the evidence is clear that the
barbell remains the best tool for building strength, muscle mass, and
power.

References