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Kettlebell Different Types And Sizes Of Kettle Bells

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ShawnM

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So I have a small dilemma. Monday through Friday I have an excellent gym on base that has decent kettle bells to include up to 32kgs in both cast iron and competion style. I am usually there at 0445 until about 0545 when I finish S&S or whatever else I might be working on.

On weekends that gym is closed so I have to use either the other base gym which has bells in pairs up to 20kgs and one random 22kg. I can easily get the S&S standard in five minutes with a 24 and have used the 22 on weekends for as many sets as 20 with little issue. The only base gym in the area with kettle bells is on a small USMC base. The kettle bells go up to 100lbs but are an odd assortment of brands. One brand, Power Systems, has a stupid thick amout of very smooth paint on the 50's through 80's. The 90's seem pretty good but I could only use them for two hand swings for now.

So I am not sure which to use, the 90 for 2 hand swings in the S&S style to start using and getting used to heavier weight or go to the smaller gym and do a ton of sets with the smaller bells, possibly doing snatches on the weekend with the smaller bells instead of swings.

Any input would be appreciated. As well thanks to all that have been pointing me in the right direction since I have been posting here, it is much appreciated.
 
While either would do, the 2-H swings would give you a good excuse to expose your hips to some heavier load. You may find low rep/high set workouts and power-style swings help your snatch and 1-H swing power.
 
Personally speaking (VERY personally speaking), talking in terms of bell size in increments of 0.5 pood or 8 kg (sorry, I really mess everything up when I venture into the imperial system), to my experience switching from one hand to two hands swings for progression purposes only works if you jump to a kettlebell of more than one size bigger (or heavier) for three main reasons:
  • grip: you can already one arm swing the 24 kg bell, I bet you'll have no probelm grasping the 32 kg one, with two hands. It may fatigue your grip faster depending on the shape of the handle, but it won't test it strength wise;
  • shoulder packing: same as before, working with both the shoulders packed will casue two "problems", the first is it will not force you enough to engage the lats, the second and probably most important is that i will completly take the anti-rotation aspect out of the picture;
  • mental: it is really just a combination of the two above, and you will feel much more "safe" swinging two handed, this will lead to a bigger power out put by the posterior chain that will be limited when swinging one armed.
I have a number of limitation with kettlebell training, one of which is bell selection. I train at home and currently have two 16 and 24 kg bells and a 32 kg one. I jumped from one size to the next performing one armed swings only, adding sets of both left and right sides when the previous set was feeling solid. I reached the Simple standard in swings just yeaterday and during this time I found this system to work for me.
To me, if you want to get used to the weight, there are better options available: progressing from kettlebell deadlifts, to dead stop hike, to dead stop swings to regular swing, standing planks for time holding the weight and alternating sides and even rack holds for time. All this drills performed with one hand will really get you used to the weight, swinging heavier but with two hands, to me, never did too much good.
As I said in a previous post, for restriction I cannot change my S&S practice differs from the one described in the book not a lot but enough, so I always, always advice to think carefully if my consideration might or might not apply to your personal experience.
 
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