I don't even want to drive up this dudes traffic on his website, but this got me so heated that I had to write something. To make matters worse, the comments section is full of people defending his article as fact. Its like a political argument and who's right and who's wrong.
Here is the article: http://skinnybulkup.com/kettlebells-are-inferior-to-dumbbells/#comment-47348
Please don't spend a lot of time on there, because if you do, and you know the value of kettlebells, your head might explode.
His first claim that no successful athletes owe their success to kettlbells is way off base. MMA fighters use KB's a lot, as do many areas of the military. The Russian Special Forces train almost exclusively with KB's. Soldier, Be Strong!, the official Soviet armed forces strength training manual pronounced kettlebell drills to be "one of the most effective means of strength development."(http://tacticalathlete.com/qa_kettlebells_faq.php) Boom!! First hand account.
Of course Pro Bodybuilders don't owe their size to KB's. They do bodybuilding routines that focus on one major muscle group at a time. Really? You're gonna use that argument. I can do that too. A marathon runner doesn't owe their endurance to a body building routine. Duh!!! Different goals, different workouts, different training systems. Not one athlete has reached their peak exclusively through KB training? You could say that about anything. Not one athlete has reached their peak exclusively training with barbells either or dumbbells for that matter. There are so many training methods that go into making an athlete. A soccer player who needs speed and agility is not going to get on a hypertrophy program. They need conditioning and strength, but in a periodized program emphasizing one biological adaptation.
Besides that, how does the author KNOW that these athletes don't use kettlebells in their training? Has the author sat down and interviewed countless athletes at the height of physical and athletic perfection to see what training they do? I highly doubt it. He is making an assumption based on nothing.
I especially love the chart this author makes to prove his point in comparing KB and DB.
Grip Strength? Really? I wonder if you find Fat Gripz useless too seeing as how you find grip strength a hindrance. Fail!!!
Skill development leads to increased neurons in the brain therefore making one smarter as a result. Doing something because it takes time to develop a skill is a useless example of why not to do something. Golf is a skill sport, but I'm guessing we shouldn't do it because too much skill is involved. More flawed logic.
Lets keep going:
Repetitive stress injuries are rare with dumbbells? I would beg to differ as I have seen more tendonitis and tears through db training than i ever have with kettlbells. Lots of rotator cuff strains and tears and shoulder tendonitis through dumbbell chest presses or overhead presses or DB flys. Nope never seen that happen wtih KB's though cause ya know, KBs develop full body power, strength and endurance. Just a reminder, the body moves as one unit, not muscle by muscle, body part by body part.
Next: KB's are overpriced. WRONG they're about the same as DB's
Ah now my favorite. You cant use KBs to develop power..Hold on while I get this research article up. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22207261. "swing peak and mean power was greater than back squat power, and largely
comparable with jump squat power" or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22580981. "results show that 6 weeks of biweekly KB training increase both maximum and explosive strength" Claim knocked down.
Where I realize this author has no clue is that its impossible to lock out a swing overhead. Swings aren't done overhead. They stop at shoulder height. He needed to research a kettlebell swing that is not a "crossfit swing" before analyzing it. That's just irresponsible writing and careless research.
Then he claims that "stretching of the shoulders, elbows and wrist joints is unnecessary and dangerous and that tendons and ligaments aren't made for that abuse." Really? Then what is the basis of stretching? And how do explain an Olympic power lifter doing cleans and snatches stretching out their shoulders and wrists? Have you seen the wrist position after a clean? Makes me think this guy has no basis in training at all, never the less taken any sort of kiniseology course.
This article is sure to influence people on never doing kettlebells because he lists "facts" that are just pure opinion. This article builds on the hype that kettlebells hurt peoples backs when there is evidence to say that it actually reduces back pain due to posterior shear forces on the spine(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21997449).
He tries to position himself to say KBs are all about hype when in fact all his ranting about how much they are overrated is hype itself.
I just cited 3 studies showing how kettlebells are useful. I'm going to post an entire site with about 15 research studies on it to further prove my point just because.
http://www.kettlebellscience.com/scientific-kettlebell-articles.html
If you intend on knocking something, do a little research first otherwise you look like a fool.
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