About a decade ago, adjustable weight options started appearing on the shelves of workout, fitness, and nutrition stores. All the user had to do was select the amount of weight desired, and a certain number of metal discs would be engaged at either end of the dumbbell. He or she could then simply grasp the handle, and lift the weight out of its cradle, with the perfect amount of weight now being held. The new form of dumbbell revolutionized the way that equipment manufacturers thought about marketing their products, not to mention the way that personal fitness enthusiasts thought about the type of equipment they could buy and the number of options that would be available to them upon buying that equipment.
Around the same time, the kettlebell began to enter the personal fitness market. It began as a Russian training technique, a simple usually spherical piece of iron with a handle on the end of it. Proponents of this equipment as a workout device claim that it is the one piece of gym equipment you will ever need. The use varies depending on who you ask, but in its American variations there are several exercises related to the device.
The first and most popular is the kettlebell swing, popularized in crossfit gyms across the country. To perform the kettlebell swing, one simply holds the weight between one's legs and from a squat position, swings it forward until the weight is extended at a straight angle out from the chest. The weight can then be returned, and this motion is repeated for as long as one can manage.
A relatively simple motion, the kettlebell swing uses a huge variety of different muscle groups, including the lower back, the scapula (which is commonly referred to as the shoulder blade), the abdominal muscles and obliques, the forearm (which tenses as it holds on to the swinging weight), and all of the muscles usually employed in a squat position: the quads, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and calf muscles. Because all of these groups are worked in a single motion, this exercise (not to mention the device itself) has become incredibly popular.
Other common exercises for the kettlebell include the overhead press (where one holds the weight over one shoulder and simply raises it above the head, returning it back and repeating it for eight to ten times).
This is why the emergence of new kinds of adjustable kettlebells are such an exciting development in the world of fitness. Various aspects of the device make this the case, but here it's important to note that the ability to have any number of weight values on a single handle makes it a wonderfully cost effective option for the consumer. Before, the individual would have to buy multiple kettlebell weights. Now, one need only purchase one weight for multiple exercises.
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