The barbell is the most effective tool for improving athletic fitness – just ask Mark Rippetoe! With nearly a half-century of strength coaching experience, Coach Rippetoe will assure you that to get stronger and more powerful, barbells can’t be beat. Unfortunately, many coaches who promote kettlebell training didn’t get the memo.

I’m not saying kettlebells are worthless. They are durable, have no moving parts, and their handles allow for quick release, making them useful for throwers in track and field. I’ve read many articles from the 1970s by European track and field coaches that illustrated outdoor throwing exercises using kettlebells. That was then. Now, medicine balls have become more popular with these athletes because they don’t damage the turf and can be thrown indoors.

Kettlebells can also add variety to a workout, making training more enjoyable for some. And hey, the swinging and catching exercises (yes, catching) you can do with them look really cool. That’s fine, and pretty much any exercise is better than no exercise. But the hype doesn’t stop there.

---

I’ve watched many videos by fitness influencers who claim that kettlebell workouts are “functional,” evidence-based, and a better way to improve athletic and physical fitness. Sure, and the sky is blue because it reflects the ocean.

Seriously, if you’re interested in adding kettlebells to your exercise toolbox, consider these eight potential downsides:

1. Excessive Stress on the Wrists. Charles Poliquin was one of the most accomplished strength coaches in the world. He trained 78 athletes at the 1992 Olympics, five who won medals, among his many other accomplishments. I was Poliquin’s primary editor for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen a workout he wrote that included kettlebell exercises. Success leaves clues.

One reason Poliquin disliked kettlebell exercises was that their handles didn’t rotate. Non-rotating handles put excessive stress on the wrists when flipping the bell. Likewise, because they don’t rotate easily (and are too stiff), weightlifters don’t use powerlifting bars. There’s more.

About 20 years ago, the exercise equipment company I worked for considered selling thick-handled, non-rotating barbells to enhance grip strength. One reason we decided not to sell them was due to the backlash from athletes complaining about wrist and elbow pain. It wasn’t the thickness of the bars that was the problem, but rather that the plates loaded on the bar didn’t rotate.

The occasional use of kettlebells may not be a major concern for the general population. Not so for many athletes, particularly those in sports such as baseball and tennis, where the risks of wrist and elbow injuries may outweigh the benefits.

2. Insufficient Strength Training Stimulus. Chris Beardsley is a leading expert on muscle physiology and strength training. In his books and video presentations, Beardsley explains that mechanical tension is a primary factor in building strength.

Depending on the exercise, many kettlebell workouts demand high levels of stability and coordination. This challenge decreases the amount of mechanical loading and, therefore, the mechanical tension a muscle can produce. Case in point: The goblet squat.

A variation of the Zercher squat (where the barbell is held at the crook of the elbows), the Goblet squat is a fundamental exercise in many kettlebell workouts. Sure, it works the same muscles as a back squat. However, according to Poliquin, the amount of weight you can lift is limited by the strength of your biceps, rhomboids, and anterior deltoids.

The website Strength Level has formulas that convert your barbell back squat into a goblet squat. Here are a few of these calculations for males (in pounds):

Back Squat	Goblet Squat
141	30
287	93
381	140
483	192

Although the percentages increase slightly as the weight increases with these standards, the bottom line is that you will use less than half the weight in a goblet squat than you can in a back squat. The preferred term is “progressive resistance,” not “regressive resistance.”

Next, many kettlebell exercises, out of necessity, involve very high repetitions, which further decrease mechanical loading. You wouldn’t do a kettlebell swing for five sets of two reps, as you need to perform several repetitions each set to build momentum with this exercise.

Beardsley also says that high-speed movements, which would include kettlebell swings, don't produce enough mechanical tension to build strength effectively. (His explanation is quite complex and involves the detachment rates of actin-myosin crossbridges, but just go with it.)

The need for high levels of mechanical tension also explains why weightlifters need to squat. The best female weightlifter in the US is 2024 Olympic champion and 2x World Champion Olivia Reeves. She broke world records in two bodyweight divisions and squatted 500 pounds, exceeding triple bodyweight. Success leaves clues.

3. Expensive. Kettlebells are expensive, and the urethane- and rubber-coated versions are even pricier. For example, the company one kettlebell advocate represents sells a cast-iron 22-pound (10 kilos) kettlebell for $76.99 and a 70-pound (32 kilos) kettlebell for $232.99 — $232.99 can get you a pretty good barbell. Of course, a gym can’t just have one kettlebell, and investing in a full set is a hefty investment.

Another issue is that heavier kettlebells often have thicker handles, making them harder to use, especially for women. In 1997, the International Weightlifting Federation introduced a smaller diameter grip barbell for women because of their smaller hands. If they had stuck with the men’s barbell, the records would likely be lower, as grip strength would become a bigger limitation.

4. Places Potentially Harmful Stress on the Spine. Many kettlebell advocates claim that back pain expert Dr. Stuart McGill endorses kettlebell training and that kettlebell swings can prevent back pain. Not exactly.

In one of his over 250 peer-reviewed scientific journal papers, McGill said, “Some unique loading patterns discovered during the kettlebell swing included the posterior shear of the L4 vertebra on L5, which is opposite in polarity to a traditional lift.” As such, he says kettlebell swings might improve lower back health for some individuals but cause it in others.

I asked Dr. McGill to explain how a single exercise can cause two opposite outcomes. He replied, "Exercises are tools to achieve a specific goal. As a spine specialist, I must know the goal, the person's injury and disabling pain history, their current fitness, and the state of their spine and all related tissues to guide the training volume. This information helps me determine the best exercises and appropriate programming progressions or regressions. What’s the best exercise? The answer is always, ‘It depends!’"

5. Lack of Transfer to Weightlifting Movements. The kettlebell swing bears little resemblance to the biomechanics of the pull in the snatch, clean, or other weightlifting exercises.

The movement pattern of a kettlebell swing follows an arc, whereas the pull in weightlifting follows a more vertical path (often, with a slight S shape). This horizontal displacement is inefficient and reduces the contribution of the quads.

Carl Miller was the head coach for the 1978 US Weightlifting Team at the World Championships. Miller discussed this difference in a classic 1974 article on pulling technique, published in International Olympic Lifter magazine. “The second pull is started by an acceleration of the straightening of the legs and hips, NOT an extension of the back.”

Another reason for the lack of transfer to weightlifting is that the kettlebell swing is performed flat-footed. Therefore, it does not effectively recruit the elastic properties of the powerful Achilles tendon, which functions as a biological spring that amplifies the power of the quads.  

6. No Transfer to Sprinting Speed. “Sprinting ability is essential to many sports,” says Captain Obvious. And numerous studies have shown that barbell exercises, particularly power cleans, can improve short sprint performance. Kettlebell exercises…well, not so much.

A study at Slippery Rock University investigated this topic with 20 college-aged women. None of the participants had previous experience with kettlebell training or had participated in sprint or resistance training in the six months prior to the study.

The training included twice-weekly sessions, with a total of 15,850 kettlebell swings, over two months. The sprint test covered 30 meters. Two students couldn’t finish the study; one suffered an ankle injury, and the other needed an appendectomy (hey, it happens). The results?

The researchers concluded that kettlebell swing training “may not provide a sufficient stimulus to improve sprint performance in recreationally active females even with a focus on movement and velocity specificity.” They suggested that one reason for the lack of sprinting improvement could be the “low exercise volume” of the workout. Fair enough – I’m looking forward to seeing the results of a two-month study involving 25,000 kettlebell swings. 

7. High Learning Curve. Apparently, attending an in-person event is necessary to perform kettlebell training safely, as Internet influencers on YouTube often criticize those performing kettlebell exercises. Case in point: Jillian Michaels, of “The Biggest Loser” fame.

Michaels created a kettlebell training video, and because of her popularity, she introduced a large portion of the general public to this type of training. You would think the kettlebell community would have been thrilled. However, many Internet influencers publicly criticized her swinging technique, claiming it could cause back pain.

I suppose the takeaway here is not to purchase a set of kettlebells at Walmart, watch an exercise video, and start swinging. Instead, you apparently need to attend an in-person seminar and learn how to use optimal technique or risk becoming a cripple. Likewise, gym owners who don’t have on-site personal trainers to correct dangerous kettlebell lifting techniques should avoid stocking their gyms with kettlebells, as such negligence could put them at risk of legal jeopardy.

8. Injured Kettlebell Instructors. The Internet has featured many heated debates between those obsessed with kettlebells and those who think kettlebell training represents a new level of stupid. One of the most vocal critics is former kettlebell instructor Steve Maxwell.

Academically and athletically, Maxwell has “Walked the Talk.” He holds a master’s degree in Exercise Science and is a Black Belt Senior World Champion in Jiu-Jitsu. Maxwell has since changed his opinion on kettlebells, stating that he “doesn’t see any reason to use kettlebells at all.”

In one interview, Maxwell called out three champions of kettlebell training: Pavel Tsatsouline, Brett Jones, and Dan John. All three have written extensively on kettlebell training and have conducted workshops. (Rippetoe, you may recall, did an eight-part interview with John many years ago, which you can find on YouTube.)

Maxwell claimed that Tsatsouline and Jones suffered multiple injuries, with Jones requiring numerous surgeries, and John undergoing hip replacement surgery. And with condolences to his family, Steve Cotter, another major player in promoting kettlebells who promoted himself as a “Longevity Coach,” died of a heart attack at age 54.

Jones responded to Maxwell, stating that the injuries he and Tsatsouline sustained were not connected to kettlebell training. Fair enough. John’s response to Maxwell is that his hip problems stem from being born with a deformity called “pistol grip hips.” He said in one video, “The day I was born, according to my doctor, I was going to have to get a total hip replacement.” Let’s pause and rewind.

I would like to know why any doctor would tell John (or his parents) that he was destined for hip replacement surgery, which was approved by the FDA about 12 years after John was born. I say this because many individuals diagnosed with pistol grip hips are asymptomatic. And I assume that those with pistol hips who have no symptoms typically do not ask doctors to X-ray their hips, so their condition would not be recorded in any medical databases. Thus, it’s possible that something other than a poor hip structure caused John to go under the knife.

The big issue here is that the medical challenges these elite kettlebell instructors faced don’t align with the brand’s message. Sorry, but in the fitness world, when it comes to a battle between emotion and logic, emotion often wins. How else do you explain the popularity of the Shake Weight™ and the ThighMaster™?

There’s no doubt that kettlebells can provide a training benefit that enhances overall physical fitness, and some people enjoy performing kettlebell exercises. If kettlebells motivate someone to exercise who might not otherwise, that’s a win. However, the fact remains that kettlebell training has many drawbacks, and the evidence is clear that the barbell remains the best tool for building strength, muscle mass, and power.

---

References

Discuss in Forums