So you’ve (hopefully) done a little research, and you’re ready to purchase a kb or two and get started. But what size to start with? Good question – I’ll try to help you out by telling a little about my own personal experience and that I’ve had with my clients.
The first thing to think about is what exercises you’ll be doing with the kbells. Seems obvious, but for some reason most people don’t seem to give this a lot of thought. Most people – men and women included – could probably handle the Beast (the 106 pounder) for deadlifts. On the other hand, if you’re doing turkish get ups, you’ll probably need a little lighter weight. That being said, the first exercises I always teach my clients and force them to master before moving on to more advanced drills are the swing, the get-up, and the goblet squat.
For those exercises, an average woman would be well served with a 12k (26 pounds) for swings and squats and an 8k (18 pounds) for get ups. Squats could be done with either weight. Most women can progress fairly quickly to the 16k (35 pounds) for swings.
An average strength man will use a 16k for swings and a 12k for get ups to start, and either weight for squats. Most men can progress quickly to the 20k or 24k for swings.
These numbers are guidelines, obviously: you could start higher if you’ve got a solid background in strength training and athletics, or lower if you’re new to working out or just getting back into it.
Like I’ve mentioned before, my personal favorite brand of kettlebells is Dragon Door; if you’d like to know the reasons why check out this post. Above all else, find a quality brand of kettlebells; you’ll be happy you made the little extra investment.
Another thing you might want to check out is the starter kits available from Dragon Door – they give you an instructional book, DVD, and a single kettlebell. This is actually probably exactly what I would buy if I was starting all over again with kettlebell training – Pavel is the man when it comes to kb instruction. And learning to do things right from the start is so important. Click on the banner below to find out more about these packages:
So, use this info to figure out what size kettlebell would work best for you and your goals. Most importantly, pick one up and get started! And remember, if you’d like to receive free email updates from kettlebellbasics.net, be sure to subscribe by entering your email in the box in sidebar!
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