Kettlebells have taken on alot of publicity in Singapore. In fact I have people who come into our gym for a consultation for personal training and ask “do you all teach kettle bells”…

As a personal trainer and sports performance coach, I am often asked “so what do you think of kettlebells”…

First, what is a kettlebell? To a person who has never see one, I say its a cannon ball with a handle.

Here is a picture of my 54 year old mom swinging a 16kg Kettle bell with great technique during one of our “Lean Body” Fitness Bootcamps. (Yeah I’m proud of my mom! And she is 3 inches from a full man-style chinup too! Give her 3 weeks and she will get it! If my mom can do it, im sure anybody can too!)

Kettle bells are very old school. In fact they are one of the oldest kind of strength training tools.

They do have their uses, and there are entire sports devoted to lifting Kettlebells for as many reps as you can.

But sometimes things go too far. There are some people who think kettlebells are some magical fitness device that can easily give you the body of your dreams, or the strength to move a mountain.

They are not. They are weights with the handle in a different position. No more no less. They are tools we can use to vary workouts. They are good for training strength endurance. But they are not magic!

In fact dumbells in my opinion are more versatile, and If I were setting up a gym at home and had a limited budget, I would get a set of adjustable dumbells before getting any kettlebells.

Sure, our gym, the Genesis performance center has kettle bells from 4kg to 48kg… but honestly, they are not used as much as our dumbells and barbells are.

One thing that is good about kettlebells and kettlebell instructors worldwide, is that they tend to do total body, non-stupid training. They do stuff like swings, cleans, jerks, and snatches. These programs will get results.

But it is not the magic of the kettlebell! It is simply a good program. It could be done with dumbells, barbells or heavy rocks from a granite quarry. It doesn’t matter that much.

So in conclusion, Kettlebells are good tools. But if anybody tries to start a cult because of them, that is not a balanced viewpoint. We need all kinds of tools to give the body variation to ensure progress in training.

That is what we provide for all our clients in our fitness bootcamps, personal training and atheltic development programs.