This is in response to a question asked by @Litarider on Twitter.  Her question was why it is so hard to increase from one kettlebell weight to the next.  In her case form 12 kg to 16 kg.  This exposes one of the very few limitations of a kettlebell.

If you are using a standard kettlebell, you are limited by the fact that the weight is not adjustable like a barbell or a machine.  When I set my goals at the beginning of a power lifting cycle, I might only want to increase my weight by 10 percent.  If you are deadlifting 500 pounds, an increase of 10 percent would be 50 lbs.  Sounds like a lot but it’s only a 10% increase and it’s not a 10% increase all at once.  If I’m doing a 12 week cycle, that’s 12 weeks to go 50 lbs which means I only increasing the weight by a small percentage each week and not all at once. 

Going for 12kg to 16kg is in excess of 25% which is HUGE.  This my friends is one of the limitations of the standard kettleblell.  I use the term standard kettlebell because there are refillable kettlebells out there that let you put sand or lead shot in the hollow bell.  This gives you the advantage of being about to increase your weight in small increments.  The best I’ve found on the market today are Punch Kettlebells which incidentally are made in America. 

If you don’t have a kettlebell that is refillable, don’t worry, there are training methods that will allow you to jump to a heavier bell.  I’ve made a video in which I explain some of these techniques that you can start to employ right away.  Check it out below.

Yours in Health,

Dennis

P.S. – I have an article in which Tim Adereson, RKCII explains a primitive but effective method of adding a small amount of weight to your standard kettlebell.  Subscribers to my blog already received it so if you are interested, subscribe to my blog and send me an email and I’ll send you the article. 

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