So are kettlebells a meme

Is this the dude which is like 4 feet and chases a guy out from a store with a blunt weapon?

kettlebells are weight

hard to microload, though

think of it like a half way stepp between bodyweight training and proper barbell training.

there are numerous memeworthy videos

Kettlebells are:

- god tier for conditioning
- great for building power
- good for building endurance
- so-so for hypertrophy, mainly as an analogue to dumbbells
- not that great for strength, unless you get the fuckoff big ones. The largest one at my gym is a Rogue that is 203lb.
- piss poor for incremental loading once you get into the preposterous weights (> 56kg) or if you are using the Russian as fuck ones that come in weight increments called "poods"

Movements that kettlebells are good for:

- snatches. Holy shit, kettlebell snatches.
- clean and press
- farmer's walks
- curls for the girls
- ohp
- kettlebell bench press
- turkish getups
- swings
- farmer's walks
- waiter's walks (try them bottoms up)
- turkroach get-ups

Things that you'd be better off with a barbell for

- squats (except goblet squats)
- deadlifts (especially if you want to do more than 203 lb sumo)

Bottom line:
- kettlebells are all but a MUST if you want to develop serious athletic ability (power, endurance)
- kettlebells are a "nice to have" for conditioning or GPP
- kettlebells are okay for upper body aesthetics, I guess, and meh for lower body aesthetics
- kettlebells are not the best tool for strength

Imo (though there is some research to back this up) really heavy kettlebell swings are just as good as deadlifts for most people. For some populations and certain athletes, they may even be better.

But, like you said, loading weight variation are an issue with Kettlebells.

I agree with your point but with some caveats: yes, you can get analogous muscle activation levels with a really heavy (>50kg) kettlebell swing as you can with a deadlift, and with good form can be safer on your lumbar than a deadlift for people with long femurs.

However, the caveat is that the kettlebell swing is by its very nature an explosive, all-or-nothing fiber activation. A deadlift can, and in many ways is expected, to be a grind at high %1RM. I don't think this can be trained with even the 203lb monsters, though you can probably hack something together with bands or a similarly weighted cable pull through.

Super heavy KB swings, however, are great accessories to olympic movements. My gym caters to strongman, powerlifting and oly competitors, and I notice that a KB swing, clean, and snatch has similar posterior activation to oly clean and snatch movements. Boom! One-and-done. No grinds.

I do strongman so I need some explosivity, mainly for log press and triple-ex on the Atlas, or for medley sprints, so I do KB snatches as an accessory.

>Very good for Farmer's Walk
No

FUCK OFF FAGGOT NIGGER! FAT BELLS MASTER RACE

Source please, for that ab workout

Boys boys please.

Fat bells
> better for snatches
> better for dumbbell style movements (rows, curls, presses)
> better for movements that involve crossing multiple planes (e.g., wood chopping movements)
> unless you are careful a swing will clock you in the junk

kettlebells:
> better for swings
> bottoms up for stability
> snatches can donk you on the forearm

There is not a single reason to get kettlebells. Every single think you could do with a kettlebell is done better with a dumbbell or barbell.

That said, they are heavy. If you have them already, they will help you get strong. Just don't buy any.

Barbell training doesnt help for shit with fight training. Lets see how useful you're powerlifting/bodybuilding training is when you go up against who's a fighter and never lifting a weight in his life.

they help a lot with grip strength

Yes also as said he staged the coup in turkey but has gone on the run at the moment.

I would but if you say his name he will find you so it's best not to talk about him. I've already said too much good luck.

Yes and yes. He is too alpha for the Turkish government.

This guy gets it.

The snatches are brutal as hell.
You all should check out the tactical strength challenge. It involves 1 rep max diddly lift, max set of strict firm pull ups and a 5 minute kettle Bell snatches test.

Kettle bells are great but I think they are best used to supplement your barbell training.

You can get top shelf results out of any modality if you enjoy it, adhere to it, and use it with vigor. The man makes the tool worthwhile, not the other way around.

Like anything else, kettlebells have more of an affinity towards developing certain aspects of athletic ability moreso than others (power/stamina vs. strength), but keep in mind the difference between efficacy vs efficiency. Kettlebells probably aren't going to be the most efficient means of raising your strength, but you have to take a step back and realize that someone swinging 200+ for 30 reps needs quite a bit of strength to do that. Same way a guy doing barbell training isn't going to maximize returns on his stamina overnight, yet a 700 lb deadlift will give him the ability to stamina the shit out of 315 assuming his weight isn't too out of whack. Both modalities essentially add to the same bucket, just in different proportions. In the long run, they'll both fill it up quite nicely. Figure out what tool is best for your own goals.

They're literally just a dumbbell with an offset center of gravity. They're redundant