Old Forum Swings/Ballistics with heavy Kettlebells

[hardstyler]

I do a lot of swings with my 32 kg and I feel it could be time to upgrade to the next level. So I'm thinking about buying a 40kg kettlebell but I wonder if it makes sense to do swings with such heavy kettlebells. Are swings supposed to be kind of cardio excercises using less weight and doing more reps? And are the heavy kettlebell sizes like 40 kg or 48 kg better suited for grinds/Get Ups?

 

[Mike Lindner]

HS - Yes

I quote Maser SFG Dave Whitley when I say "Swings rock, heavy swings rock more"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFEfm6oFwOw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUfJL9E7Ka3aZwysawDW4H5g

 

[Mike Lindner]

double post and bad embed

 

[Mike Lindner]

I love how some days I just can not for the life of me get a video to embed right.....

 

Look at video #5 in that playlist "Taking Godzilla for a ride"

 

[Bill Been]

Hardstyler the answer to your question is "yes", do heavy swings, because the swing is not a strength or endurance or conditioning or fat loss exercise, it's an "all of the above" exercise.  So load it. But first consider if your kettlebell collection is best served by a 40 or by making a pair of some smaller size. One factor in this is whether or not you're already doing one-handed swings with your 32. If not, you can prolong its life as your "heavy" bell for a good while by doing so. Meanwhile, a second 20 or 24 kilo for example allows you to do double swings with 40 or 48 in a very challenging format plus quite a few other double bell exercises. Just a couple $$-saving considerations.

 

[Iron Tamer]

How many swings is "a lot" of swings wight the 32? Are they one handed or two? are they in short sets of 5-10 or long sets of 20-30+?

 

[Steve B.]

There are many ways to make work with the 32kg harder.Look at the questions above ^from Iron Tamer.It is what your intent is with what your doing that determines wether your doing "cardio"or something else.Powerlifters might do  heavier swings as an assistance movement for a main lift.So again you can make it whatever you want it to be.A heavier KB for grinds like front squats and presses is fun but must be mastered with the lower weights before moving up.As for the get up i was taught it is not really intended to be a maximum strength movement although people do it as such.

 

[hardstyler]

Hi, thank you for your responses. I am using 32kg kettlebells for two handed swings and I'm using a Tabata like scheme 2*(20 sec reps, 10sec rest for 4 minutes then 4 minutes rest). I also do one-handed swings using 24 kg. So I could increase the two handed swings 'Tabatas'  in reps or stay with that scheme and move up to 40kg. I'm not into weightlifting and my goal is a good mixture between strength and cardio fitness (and being well conditioned for Krav Maga training).

 

[hardstyler]

Oh, by the way this video is really impressive- I've never seen such an evil beast of a kettlebell.