Source
r/kettlebell•
xev

Question about workout durations.

I'm new to kettlebells, and still learning the basic movements and reading about form and stuff before I start "for real".

Most workouts I've seen are between 5-20 min long. I'm used to workout for at least an hour (bodyweight exercises or weights) or do cardio for 45 min.

I understand kettlebells are much harder and the workouts are shorter but my question is:

Do you still get similar benefits to a "normal workout"? Could i substitute my 1h a day routine with 20min a day kettlebell exercises and get the samecalorie burn, soreness, etc? or should i do like 20 min kettlebells and then do some more cardio or lifting.

Or did I just misunderstand the whole thing? Thanks in advance.

Posted Aug 20, 2012, 9:47 AM UTC

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akpgunner•

As I understand, the intensity of a kettlebell workout (or any similarly high intensity training) will raise your metabolic state for the course of a day. So, while they aren't everything, the calories you burn throughout the course of a day will be more than if you went on a 45 minute jog.

That's just on the cardio side though - as for actual gains, kettlebells will make you stronger and your muscles will get bigger. Their biggest problem isn't that you wouldn't be able to get as strong with them as with normal weightlifting, it's that their price and general limited availability (meaning its unlikely to have a full range of kettlebells from 16 to 70 kg), as well as the cardio element of the exercises make it difficult to have a regimented program, especially if you're just training at home.

(Just by the way, the former is backed up by quite a bit of scientific study, which I will try to find when I have a bit more time, and the latter comes from my own personal experience of a year or so)

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[deleted]•

I got downvoted to hell for saying something similar in a fitness thread a while back as if what I was saying was completely wrong. Glad to see someone knows there stuff.

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MongoAbides•

Do you still get similar benefits to a "normal workout"?

Define "normal workout."

Kettlebells will never be as good at building muscle as a barbell, and they wont give you long distance endurance in the same way that running will. The big selling point for me is that a nice KB routine will have muscular and cardiovascular benefits for relatively brief work. That makes me think it's basically ideal for the average person who only needs to stay healthy. KB cardio is more comparable to sprinting, intense but brief effort. It's good for your heart and lungs but it isn't the same kind of thing as running. That said some Viking Warrior Conditioning (dumb name) is gonna be fine for endurance.

If you want to improve your endurance and cardio, go running. If you want to get bigger find a barbell and plates, but if you want to burn some calories and stay in shape with far greater convenience, stick to the KBs.

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MongoAbides•

To be put simply, the barbell is easier to lift.

A barbell allows for slightly greater stability and in things like a bench press, MUCH greater stability. It also allows the muscles to work against eachother strategically, which is advantageous to the lift.

Now if KB work is HARDER why is a barbell BETTER?

For what it's worth a dumbbell is harder still and an upside down KB is harder than that, the more you control the stability the harder the movement becomes but by the time we hit machines we hit the point of diminishing returns.

So anyway. A barbell bench press (to be consistent) allows us to lift far more weight. For whatever reason the human body seems to respond very well to the heaviest possible weights. So as long as we're controlling the weight through a natural motion it appears that the heaviest version will grant us the most raw strength and size gains. You can honestly feel the difference. It may be one thing to tire yourself out doing thrusters but if you did genuine barbell squats you would feel a completely different kind of exhaustion.

Now I don't have good statistics on hand but it's my impression (accurate or not) that a KB routine will burn plenty of calories, especially compared to amount of time spent in the routine.

KBs offer a slightly greater stability than dumbbells but also privde a more convenient opportunity for ballistic movement which makes them very convenient for conditioning. Bulgarian training bags are also an excellent option that people can add at a low cost, and I highly recommend them.

I'm not the type of person to bookmark a bunch of scientific studies, and I'm also a little too drunk to care about finding them but basically barbells are more efficient but the lack of efficiency is exactly what makes KBs beneficial in other ways.

EDIT: it's also a little difficult for the body to improve cardiovascular development and muscular development at the same time. KB routines often demand that which is very taxing on the body, this is beneficial for a basic health routine but if you're looking to improve your numbers in a time period a more focused approach is VERY likely to provide better results.

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Fatbaldman•

In my opinion kettlebells are great for GPP (General Physical Preparedness). Not all workouts are the same. You can get some great benefits from a short vigorous workout (think crossfit type stuff). You also can get great benefits from a long workout. No matter what you will get hypertrophy if you do any type of workout, especially if it is new.

You will get soreness if you try kettlebells. The movement will be new to your body. Calorie burn, that is a great question, my general answer would be, you burn more calories in an hour. But, Kettlebells are a great tool in your exercise tool belt. Adding them into your regular routine would be very beneficial to you.

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pokstad•

If you want all round fitness, you'll need to supplement kettlebells with other exercises. Kettlebells are great for endurance, but they won't make you run longer. They are great for strength, but most KB exercises generally develop the lower body. It's just one tool of several, but it's a very good tool. I've been using KB's along with the workouts in YAYOG (You Are Your Own Gym). Each YAYOG workout is about 30 minutes of bodywight exercises, and then I do about 20 minutes of kettlebells after. So about an hour a day and I get a full and challenging workout.

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NoontideDemon•

Actually I found that Kettlebells totally transformed my distance running. My range has gone way up.

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pokstad•

Sorry, I meant not by itself. You still need to run to get better at running, along with kettlebell training.

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specieshumanoid•

Work with kettlebells while running, now that's a workout. (for those of you who think I'm being serious, I'm not)

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[deleted]•

Same. I am faster as well.

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truthjusticeUSAway•

It's a different activity. If you lifted weights with the same intensity, volume, and pace as you lift kettlebells, you'd have to dramatically drop the weight and time. It's the idea of 'work' - mass moved over time. Some people take 25 minutes to bust out 5 sets of heavy squats, 5 reps each. If the squat is 230 pounds, that's 25 reps at 230lbs or 5750 total pounds moved. If you do 25 minutes of squats with a kettlebell, four minutes a round with a minute of rest and 50 reps each at 35 pounds, you get 8750 total pounds moved. In this very simple equation (which I admit is not mathematically sound, but if you were to break the work down into Joules you'd see a similar trend) you can see that with a little wiggle room, you are doing as much if not more work in 25 minutes of kettlebells versus 25 minutes of free, heavy weights.

Will you get gigantic because of this? No. But what you will get is in-the fuck-shape. As you get bigger kettlebells, you will add mass and increase your stamina and endurance, though you should never pretend you will end up looking like Ronnie Coleman from kettlebells. So, yes, you get the 'same' work out from kettlebells in that you will improve your fitness, get stronger, look better, and be really goddamn sore. But no, it's a different activity than weightlifting so your body will adapt differently and end up being shaped differently than if you were strictly an Oly lifter.

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jrich013•

I lift kettlebells between 1 and 2 hours a session. Trivially, you could do a 20 min long workout as 1 set and do multiple sets per session.

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[deleted]•

20minutes is more than enough for a kb workout. I am done after 10-15min. Kettlebels are tiring as hell.

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MrPhatBob•

It depends on the intensity of the work-out I guess, I do 3 x 7min with 3min rests in between (working on cutting the resting time at the moment), generally I am finished after that, maybe in a few months I'll get to 4 x 7mins but currently my shins are wet with sweat - and thats got to be a good thing yeah?

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2weeksfromeverywhere•

This article published a couple of years back summarizes the findings of the first university study on kettlebell results. It was sponsored by the American Council on Excercise. It explains why kb's burn more calories in shorter time. http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/Kettlebells012010.pdf

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xevOP•

Thanks for the article, 400 calories in 20 min sounds crazy. Thanks to everyone else for the responses

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awtr50•

What's the goal here?

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