A kettlebell is like a cannonball with handles. It has a long history as exercise equipment. Kettlebells are relatively inexpensive, do not need much space, and can be done at home. All muscles of the body are involved during a kettlebell swing.
That’s why kettlebells are time and space-efficient.
The journal Experimental Gerontology has published Effects of 8-week kettlebell training on body composition, muscle strength, pulmonary function, and chronic low-grade inflammation in elderly women with sarcopenia.
In that study, they recruited 33 older women with sarcopenia (aged 65-75 years). Sarcopenia is a loss of muscle mass that comes with old age due to genetics and inactivity. Loss of muscle is a significant contributor to chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and frailty.
In general, the more frail, the more at risk for falls, poor hospital outcomes, and higher mortality.
Intervention: The participants are randomly assigned to two groups. The kettlebell training (KT) group did twice a week kettlebell exercises and the control group (CON).
The control group continued with their usual lifestyle without any additional exercises.
Measurements: The study aims to measure muscle mass, body composition, muscle strength, breathing function, and chronic low-grade inflammatory markers in the form of C-reactive protein (CRP).
The measurements were done in several periods.
- Before training (Week 0, W0),
- After eight weeks of training (at Week 8, W8),
- After four weeks of detraining (at Week 12, W12), detraining means no exercise.
Kettlebell Training: Kettlebell weights were at 60%–70% of 1 repetition maximum (RM). A repetition maximum is a maximum weight a person can carry for one time only. They were conducted under expert supervision for 60 minutes twice a week for eight weeks.
Unfortunately, the whole study was not available, but I suppose that the exercise was the two-handed kettlebell swing. A video is available below.
Kettlebell swings are usually done in a set. A set is ten repetitions. The duration of the set can be from 10 – 15 seconds. The participant then stops to rest until they can speak in a short sentence without stopping for air. Then the next set is done. The rest time is unique for each person. It can be as short as one minute or as long as five minutes.
The ideal number of sets is 10 per training period. Each set is ten swings for a total of 100 repetitions. Let’s get to the results of the study.
Results:
Kettlebell Training group
- The muscles mass of the upper and lower limbs measured at W8 and W12 were significantly higher than those at W0.
- The measured left and right handgrip strength, back strength, and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were significantly higher in the KT group than the CON group at W8 and W12.
- The C-reactive protein levels were significantly lower in the KT group at W8 and W12.
Control group results
- In the CON group, the skeletal muscle mass levels measured at W8 and W12 were significantly lower than at W0, and the muscle mass measured at W8 was markedly lower than those at W0. That is quite surprising. You only need eight weeks of no exercise to lose muscle mass.
- The left and right handgrip strength levels and lung functions measured at W8 and W12 were significantly lower than those at W0.
- The CRP levels were higher at W8 compared to W0.
Bottom line:
The kettlebell group who exercised twice a week for eight weeks had more muscles, greater handgrip strength, and lower levels of inflammation. These changes persisted even after four weeks of no training.
In contrast, the non-exercise group had a smaller muscle mass, weaker handgrip, and higher levels of inflammation after eight weeks compared to their initial results.
If kettlebells can do that in 65-75-year-old females, imagine what they can do to younger females and the male sex. Bigger, faster, stronger, better.
Kettlebell Training
Kettlebell training should be done with the proper technique, or else injuries can happen. Free instruction is available from Pavel Tsatsouline, the man who brought kettlebell training to the US from Russia.
A more detailed instructional is available here.
According to Pavel’s book Kettlebell Simple and Sinister, these are the weights you will need.
- Average strength lady can get a set of 18,26,36, 44 lbs
- Strong lady 26,35,44, 53 lbs
- Average strength gentleman 35, 53, 70 lbs
- Strong gentleman 53, 70, 88 lbs
Get supervised training, start with low weights, and don’t forget the chalk. I avoid the ones coated with vinyl since I don’t know what is inside.
Stay current by subscribing. Feel free to share and like.
Don’t Get Sick!
Related:
- Physical Activity Correlates with Life Span
- How Does Exercise Prolong Life?
- The Benefits of Resistance Training
- The Surprising Benefits of Sweating
- The Good and Faithful Servant
- Effect of Short Term Exercise on Mortality
- What are Exerkines?
- Humanin, Longer Life Span and How to Have More of Both
- Myokines: An Introduction
- How to Perform High-Intensity Interval Training
- How to Get Physically Active
Reference: Chen HT, Wu HJ, Chen YJ, Ho SY, Chung YC. Effects of 8-week kettlebell training on body composition, muscle strength, pulmonary function, and chronic low-grade inflammation in elderly women with sarcopenia. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Oct 2;112:112-118. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.09.015. Epub 2018 Sep 20. PMID: 30243898.
Image Credit: By GiryaGirl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16248280
By GiryaGirl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16248280