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Why Are Kettlebells So Popular?

When we move throughout the day either to walk, work, or any activity of daily life, we perform numerous movements involving all muscle groups of our body, so it is essential to find the right way to strengthen them is using kettlebells.

The kettlebell is a traditional weight consisting of a cast-iron ball, similar to a cannonball, with a handle. We can find models of kettlebells of any material, shape, and sizes steel, rubber-coated, filled with soft sand, adjustable kettlebells, plastic, among others.

The philosophy of kettlebell training is to seek a body that is a coordinated and powerful machine, not muscle exclusively. So the central hypothesis of kettlebell training is to learn to involve as many muscles as possible to perform a wide variety of exercises. As a result, our whole body knows how to work as a team and not in isolation as we do in many classic gym exercises.

Many people think that these weights are modern, but this is not so, there are accounts of the use of the kettlebell for training in Russian dictionaries since 1704, which were initially weights from market scales used as iron balls for demonstrations of strength, endurance, and coordination, which later began to be used in the physical preparation of the Russian army.

Working the body as a whole is much more natural, helping to strengthen the stabilizing muscles and constantly activate the core muscles (hip-pelvis-lumbar, thoracic and cervical spine), which is very important to give the body excellent symmetry, correct body posture, and improve mobility and balance.

The most crucial feature of kettlebells is that due to their shape, their center of gravity is external to our hand and is displaced concerning the grip; this does not happen with the traditional dumbbell. This makes our stabilizer muscles work more intensely than with dumbbells or the barbell.

Being a more aerobic exercise favors the cardiovascular system, something that many people, who are dedicated exclusively to perform weights, wholly overlooked. This makes it an activity that expends more calories than classic gym exercises.

The kettlebell has become a popular exercise tool in several countries around the world. Many trainers claim that its use has beneficial effects on strength and flexibility.

Suppose we refer to the classic weight exercises. Many of them isolate the movements, working the body by parts, however with kettlebells, more functional training is performed. The body is operated as a whole without separating parts of the body.

Depending on the use, we can find different sizes, especially in fitness centers and training centers, ranging from two to 32 kilograms. In addition, some modern models are characterized by having adjustable kettlebells weights.

Kettlebell workouts increase strength, endurance, agility, and balance by challenging both muscular strength and the cardiovascular system and generate a higher caloric expenditure than even running at a good pace for the same amount of time.

Proper training with kettlebells adds endurance and recovery capacity and maintains an elevated heart rate throughout the workout. However, it is essential to emphasize that the way it is constructed forces us to continually keep the stability of the weight. It follows that we should not start with high weights, and be moderate. On the other hand, unlike localized type movements performed with dumbbells or guided weight machines, in this case, it will be essential to have good mobility. Otherwise, we run the risk of injury.

Therefore, the most important thing is the quality and technique of execution, and little by little, with experience, you can increase the volume and intensity. Learn the correct method, so you will need to practice constantly before placing yourself in the middle of a metabolic circuit.

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