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Kettlebell Kettlebell training and body physique

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Blackhat1984

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If you only do kettlebell training, what kind of physique do you develop, I know your abs become tighter and stronger, but want a better understanding on the advantages.
 
Kettlebells should do a good job building you upper body. Presses, rows, swings, cleans and snatches all involve a lot of muscles in your arms, shoulder girdle and upper back. Once you have built up to a 32kg KB and above you should have built a decent amount of muscle mass. Add some bodyweight exercises like push ups, chins and dips and you are set.

The lower body is probably a lot harder to build up to impressive levels given how much stronger those muscles are and how difficult it is to use really heavy weights using KBs.

Here you can see the basic exercises used in the StrongFirst curriculum.
 
Hello,

Here is a link with a few pictures:

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Hello,

@Blackhat1984
What @Alexander Halford says cannot be more true
Kettlebell is a tool, what's developing your physique is your training method and your nutrition choices. Kettlebells are used in too much protocols to proclaim any typical effect on physiques.

You can use a routine which relies only on kettlebell to get strength without almost no hypertrophy (basically 1 - 5 reps with a lot of rest between). But you can also use kb for mostly hypertrophy (a "traditional" 4 x 8-12 reps). Then you also have protocols which increase both strength and trigger hypertrophy, assuming you also eat slightly more (RoP for example).

The same logic applies for bodyweight exercises or barbell exercises.

What is your goal ?

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Then there's Levi.... Pretty good advertisement for GS-style kettlebell training (he also did lots of hardstyle training) and bodyweight training... Results not typical, but are definitely real:

 
Kettlebell training will absolutely build up a physique. Is it the only way, no. Is it the "best" way, probably not. But here's the thing, if I'm doing certain movements with a barbell my shoulders begin to ache due to years of abuse in my youth. However I can train with kettlebells so I don't go without training.

Also I love the guys who trash those of us who use kettlebells. They say things like they're only good for some conditioning....I then either see them or read about them doing overhead presses with 60 pound dumbbells. I guess the guys using 32 kg kettlebells and higher don't count. The reality is that I can train with kettlebells as opposed to skipping strength work with barbells because I'm older and have dings and dents and pressing them gives me a more natural pressing groove.

I'll switch to decaf now.....
 
Then there's Levi.... Pretty good advertisement for GS-style kettlebell training (he also did lots of hardstyle training) and bodyweight training... Results not typical, but are definitely real:


He looks a lot leaner in this photo than previously, right?

I´m a bit surprised by the development of his pecs, I would not expect that from kettlebell training.
 
What @Alexander Halford says cannot be more true
Merci, Pet.
I agree as well about the time spent on the training, just little refinement - active time. One can do 6-8 sets of heavy 5s in 45 minutes, one can have 200 swings with respective weight in 20 minutes.

Just to strengthen the point about positive probability of physiques development, I'm training now exclusively with kettlebells for 10 months, and I definitely like what I see in the mirror.
 
He looks a lot leaner in this photo than previously, right?

I´m a bit surprised by the development of his pecs, I would not expect that from kettlebell training.

Yes, I'd say somewhat leaner than a few years ago. Volume of training, nutrition...

As for pecs, he does a lot of burpees and push-ups. So it's not all kettlebells, but it's not barbell.
 
Another overlooked thing....some people just have natural leanness and muscular definition. Just doing some morning push ups gets them looking great. I hate them! (Just kidding of course, my mother raised me not to hate).......Also not fond of the ones who eat anything they want, drink gallons of Pepsi, have ice cream, plenty of Jimmy Beam and they stay slim. I love all that crap and my clothes get tighter just thinking about them!
 
Before KBs I’d categorize my body type as skinny-fat. Like... Wearing a size medium but still have love handles, ya know. Now after some S and S and ROP my lats and arms have definitely gotten bigger and the extra chub went way down. Waist size went down almost 2 sizes as well.

I attribute a lot of my results to their diet though. You’d almost have to take a relatively not-strong person with like 15% body fat and put them on a KB only program and see what they look like in a year to really tell. Even then, individuals really vary. And some KB work seems like it definitely makes people stronger without adding on much size.

I guarantee if I didn’t change my diet up I’d just look like a stronger skinny-fat guy at this point.
 
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