Kettlebells vs Dumbbells

Kettlebells and dumbbells are both excellent pieces of equipment to help build muscle. But how can you know which one is right for you? Despite both working your muscles, the weights work entirely differently on your body.

Kettlebells

Kettlebells are good at increasing your strength and endurance, these dynamic exercises exercise your whole body and so not only target your muscle but works with endurance. Working out with kettlebells is a cardio workout; it challenges your centre of gravity with the strange off-balance design of the equipment. Using kettlebells works on various muscles, not just targeting one group; instead, it targets multiple major muscle groups working them all at the same time. This can mean that you get significant gains using the kettlebell as you work your whole body; however, by not focusing on one area it could take longer to work one area that you want to tone/grow. Common kettlebell exercises are perfect for working your body; with the fast-paced and high intensity of the workouts, your heart rate spikes providing cardiovascular benefits. The most common exercise being the kettlebell swing is fantastic at working your glutes and hamstrings as well as your arms. If you're looking to push yourself, why not grab a kettlebell and try a kettlebell HIIT workout; these exercises will test you and push your workout to the next level.  

Dumbbells

Dumbbells are seen as being a lot easier than kettlebells; they are balanced as opposed to the strange shape of kettlebells making your exercises easier to do. Dumbbells are better for basic movements and people who are starting to show an interest in learning to work with free weights; with the basic movements it's quicker for beginners to understand how they work, but they can increase in weight to help increase the difficulty. In your workouts, dumbells are perfect for targeting a little bit of everything! You can use them on the mats to help give your mat workouts a bit more weight if you need to increase the difficulty. The goal of using dumbbells is to strengthen up generally and improve your overall fitness levels in contrast to kettlebells. Dumbbells are excellent when targeting specific muscle groups, for example, your arm muscles; and with more basic exercises such as chest presses, shoulder presses, squats etc. So if you're looking for something simple to use in the gym, dumbbells are a great place to start!   As kettlebells are harder to grasp, why not head to a Kettlecise class and get to know the equipment before trying it out in the gym or at home! There isn't necessarily a better free weight when comparing kettlebells and dumbbells; they target different muscle groups and can be used for various workouts both at the gym and at home.