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Kettlebell Is it just me...

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have you ever noticed that every cover of Men's Fitness is basically the same? bulging biceps, chiseled abs, and cannonball shoulders sell to a certain market, this guy's making them happy. Maybe somebody'll get a kettlebell for their guns and later on learn how to swing it.
 
Actually Pavel wrote about this subject as well. if you look up his first t-nation interview you should find it. probably also in beyond bodybuilding.

And never forget: Curls for the girls. ;-)
 
Not mad at all. Just making an observation in response to OP's question about "the point." It looks like a decent article for anyone who wants a bodybuilding approach to big bi's, and I think that's a lot of people.
 
I'm in no way against hypertrophy oriented aesthetic oriented isolation exercises. I just think that devoting an entire article to the advantages of kettlebells for curls was a little pointless. Any of those exercises could be done with dumbbells (which might actually have an advantage due to the smaller jumps in weight).

The kettle bell aspect of the article could be summed up in one sentence.
"You might want to try kettlebells with his exercises because the off center load may have some advantages in maintaining tension even at the lock out."
 
jhpowers said:
I'm in no way against hypertrophy oriented aesthetic oriented isolation exercises. I just think that devoting an entire article to the advantages of kettlebells for curls was a little pointless. Any of those exercises could be done with dumbbells (which might actually have an advantage due to the smaller jumps in weight).

The kettle bell aspect of the article could be summed up in one sentence.
"You might want to try kettlebells with his exercises because the off center load may have some advantages in maintaining tension even at the lock out."
Click to expand...

Yes, but did you see his credentials at the bottom of the article? He has a PhD, and is a "neuromuscular expert and performance specialist who works with athletes to improve muscle function and movement mechanics."

He cannot be so simple in his explanation....he must expound and talk far too much to make the same statement....
 
jhpowers said:
The kettle bell aspect of the article could be summed up in one sentence.
"You might want to try kettlebells with his exercises because the off center load may have some advantages in maintaining tension even at the lock out."
Click to expand...

But that is not long enough to be an article ;)

A couple of puzzling things from this article...
  • The author describes himself as "is a neuromuscular expert and performance specialist who works with athletes to improve muscle function and movement mechanics" yet choses the devote an article for 6 biceps exercises... I can't imagine Gray Cook posting something like this...
  • Allot of scientific language. Fiber recruitment, innervation, motor units, etc. All for curls. Very PhD from him. I'm all for scientific approach to training, but from some reason neither Pavel nor Don John (nor others) need to throw around fancy words to make their point...
 
Shahaf Levin said:
But that is not long enough to be an article ;)
Click to expand...
Oh come on, that's completely relative. I recently showed a friend of mine that Karen Smith article on Hanging Leg Raises, with the 5+ progressions and accessory work, and my friend was like "dude it's just a hanging leg raise. Just do them". While I thought the article was comprehensive and I appreciate it, for him it was almost like it was unnecessarily long just to become an article.

T-nation has been releasing a free article every work day, for about the past 15 years. That's around 3900 articles total, not including their "Tips" section recently added. The point is not to make each article the most relevant thing for the most amount of people (like SF might) but to appeal to the wide variety of interests in the lifting world. And while I 100% agree sometimes the articles are overly technical unnecessarily, I realize there's a small niche audience that was JUST NOW looking to spice up their curl work, and wanted to learn a bit more about the variations.

If you're looking for more "practical" articles, then just look into Christian Thibedeau's or Shugart's articles. Or heck, even Dan John's ones (since he's featured from time to time as well).

Anyways, not their greatest article, I agree.
 
305pelusa said:
Oh come on, that's completely relative. I recently showed a friend of mine that Karen Smith article on Hanging Leg Raises, with the 5+ progressions and accessory work, and my friend was like "dude it's just a hanging leg raise. Just do them". While I thought the article was comprehensive and I appreciate it, for him it was almost like it was unnecessarily long just to become an article.
Click to expand...

Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult. - Carl von Clausewitz
 
Hello,

Maybe MensFitness and "hypertrophy" industries are more profitable (from a financial point of view) than the kettlebells' or pure strength / powerlifting, etc...

I live in France and I do the same conclusion about crossfit. There is almost nothing about it.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
@305pelusa, the blog to which you're referring is how we teach the HLR. It's a progression - if someone can "just do them," that's great, but we are teachers, and we're interested in helping people who haven't a clue how to do a HLR get started and continue to progress smoothly to their first HLR.

No article is going to be on target for every person - that article is for people who have never attempted a HLR. I do realize you were passing along a friend's comments but I did want to address them.

-S-
 
I recently discovered another curl variation, besides crush curls, not mentioned in the article.

One bell, towel through the handle, curling with either one or both hands.
 
I don't do curls as they aren't anything in the Strongfirst system, but if someone wants to do them with kettlebells, why not? Also we know kettlebells are excellent exercise tools due to their eccentric weight distribution, so why not take advantage of this for curls too?
 
I find all I had to do was a program focused on lots of KB Front Squats (Wolf from More Kettlebell Muscle or KB Strong using FSQ) with 2 bells and your guns will grow. When you are holding that rack for reps on front squats your bicep is working pretty hard. I had very noticeable increase in bicep size after that.
 
Kettlebell hammer curls are great. The rest of the variations are nonsense.

John Brookfield has some good curl variations for grip, wrist, lower arm, and upper arm.

Anyone who has had hand, wrist, elbow, or bicep tendon issues realizes how functional bicep training is. I think of direct arm work as Prehab and rehab. If you mixed grip deadlift or lift odd objects I would advise you to do curls.
 
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Shahaf Levin said:
Allot of scientific language. Fiber recruitment, innervation, motor units, etc. All for curls. Very PhD from him. I'm all for scientific approach to training, but from some reason neither Pavel nor Don John (nor others) need to throw around fancy words to make their point...
Click to expand...

I agree. While I realize that there are limitations with exercise science and that sometimes anecdotal evidence can be just as valid, I am all for approaching exercise from a scientific perspective. Science is the antidote to fitness fads and hucksters. But yeah, let's write up recommendations that are practical and can be easily applied. Also, Seedman's articles on squatting some to contradict previous research, so I question his credibility.

As for the article, if the only thing you're doing with kettlebells is curls, you've missed the point. If you add curls to a program that already focuses on the basic compound lifts, no problem.
 
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