kettlebells that are too big

Dec 3

" Walking is not a lost art, one must by some means, get to the car garage."

Evan Eskr.

WOD

6 rounds

200 meter run

12 reps 75# full clean and jerk

Time 18:15

Bigger is not always better when it comes to Kettlebells. That is to say there is some limitations as far as I can see in terms of how heavy a kettlebell can be used effectively. Unlike dumbbells what get a little longer as the weight increased, the diameter of a kettlebell increases also as the weight increases. There becomes a point when you can't get the range of motion for that lift due to loss of mechanical effectiveness of your body. When you clean and a kettlebell to the rack position, and then press, the larger the diameter, the shorter the range of motion as the start of the press is a greater distance from the shoulder.

In the case of deadlifting, you quickly run out of bell weight even unilateral. Therefore I will warm up or on light days deadlift for speed-strength and use a barbell on heavy days. Pressing is the same thing. I use DB for heavy floor presses as I have limited my kettlebell effective sizing to 40 Kg. and I can use at times over a 100lbs for floor pressing.

I have seen very heavy kettlebells used in the past, but in order to lift such large diameter objects, put one out of normal lifting range and it just looks like you are having a bad day. The picture shows a lifter in the 1920's lifting a heavy kettlebell. As you can see he is only lifting it a few inches off the floor at full range of motion. It looks impressive as hell, but its not.