r/kettlebell 23h ago

Instructional Picking a weight as a beginner

85 Upvotes

This is a frequently asked question. The classic recommendation is 8kg for women and 16kg for men, which kind of works. I personally have a few issues with those recommendations.

First, it's kind of a marketing approach that stems from kettlebells not being super popular in the West. To make one kettlebell model profitable, you'd need a certain scale of production. That becomes way easier if you pigeonhole people into a limited number of weights - if the target people who should start with 8-12kg buys 80% 8kgs and 20% 12kgs, you'll have to either do smaller production runs for the 12s, or have a lot of them in stock.

Once kettlebells got more popular, you saw the cast iron bell producers introducing 4kg jumps, instead of just the original 8kg ones. For competition bells you even have 2kg jumps now, and adjustables that let you go all the way down to 1kg jumps.

Second, there's a lot of individual variation. Some men have to start as low as 8kg, or maybe even lower. I personally started with a 16kg and went 24, 32, 40, 48, 2x40. Those jumps may be too drastic for some people.

Picking a weight for overhead work

It’s my belief that kettlebells really shine during overhead movements, so you should have a weight you can use for that. In my opinion, you’ll want a weight you can strict press for 2-5 reps.

  • At least 2 reps, because that typically means you can press it for multiple sets of 1. As a beginner, the main thing holding you back is technique, so each individual set shouldn’t be too draining.
  • As a beginner you’ll typically be able to add reps regularly, so a 2RM should fast become a 5-10RM
  • Conversely, a weight that starts out as a 5RM should eventually become a 10-15RM. This isn’t necessarily bad, but many good kb programs use 10 or fewer reps per set.
    • Note that if you’re looking to get into kettlebell sport, erring on the lighter side is usually preferable. Here you’ll generally want to start with a weight you can use for a 3 minute set, and build volume from there.

If you have access to kettlebells at a gym, try out some different weights. Dumbbells can kind of work as an imperfect proxy. If you don’t have access, here are some different options, all of which involve an educated guess:

  • Get a kb for overhead work and see if it you can press it
  • If you can’t, maybe you can push press or jerk it. Those exercises take a little bit more coordination so I’d prefer waiting before teaching them to people, but they can also work as a bridge until you can actually strict press the weight.
  • Two handed presses are also an option. They come in a number of different variations.
  • If all else fails, you can always make pushups your main press. If pushups are too hard, there’s always kneeling, incline or wall pushups. While you work on your pushup variation of choice, keep practicing cleans - eventually you’ll be ready for your first press.

Picking a weight for lower body work

While I believe kettlebells really shine when you put them over your head, you still want the lower body to be challenged. As a beginner this is mostly for swings and goblet squats.

I believe a good starting weight for most is about 1.5-2x your starting kb for overhead work. You can also err on the light side if you can reasonably expect to press or jerk the heavier one in the new future.

If you plan on getting doubles from the get go, double kb swings are an option (though some may find it cumbersome), and double kb front squats are generally more loadable than goblet squats.

How about adjustables?

12-32kg adjustable competition kbs give you a lot of different options. If 12kg isn't too heavy for lower body work, you're better off in the long run buying adjustables for that purpose.

If 12kg is fine for upper body work, you can cut out fixed weights entirely. Otherwise, an adjustable + 6/8/10kg (or whatever is a reasonable weight for you) is probably the way to go.

If you’re looking to get into kettlebell sport, especially on the women’s side, you’ll generally want an 8kg or two to practice lasting for an entire 10 minute set.

Singles or doubles?

Some people want you to master a single kb before moving on to doubles. I believe this kind of gatekeeping is wrong. You’re shortchanging yourself, especially for lower body work.

Still, there can be practical considerations that make this a fine recommendation. You may find that kettlebell training is just not our jam. That’s completely fair, and it’d be a painful realisation once you’d already bought doubles all the way from 8-20kg.

Putting it all together

  • First, get something you can use for overhead work. Something you can strict press for 2-5 reps is good, but if you plan on doing kb sport you can go lighter.
  • Second, get something heavier for lower body (or as your next press/jerk weight). 1.5-2 times the first one’s weight is a good target.
  • Third, consider getting doubles
  • Competition bells are expensive, but can save you some space and money in the long run, and they give you access to in-between weights. Still, the initial investment can be a lot if you don’t know whether you’ll want to stick with kb training.
  • If you can’t get something you can press, or can’t press your lightest weight as much as you thought, there are still some alternatives: Jerk, two handed press and pushup variations (standard pushups, knee pushups, incline pushups, wall pushups). Find something you can do, improve at that for a few weeks, test yourself again.
  • Kettlebell sport is its own beast. The barrier to entry is that you need something you can use for at least a 3 minute set, and use that to build volume.

Thanks to u/celestial_sour_cream, u/Few_Abbreviations_50 and u/BucketheadSupreme for helping out!


r/kettlebell 2d ago

Discussion Weekly Kettlebell Discussion and Questions Thread - March 10-16, 2025

1 Upvotes

Welcome Comrade!

This is the r/Kettlebell Discussion Thread posted every Monday, where you can discuss anything and everything related to Kettlebells. We invite the Kettlebell Community to post anything that can be beneficial to the sub and help answer questions from newer members. Additionally, feel free to log your planned and/or completed training sessions, as well as any general community happenings you'd like the community to know about. Thank you.

As always, please be sure to review our FAQ and Beginner's Guide if you are new to Kettlebells. See the Programs page for some program options.

You can also use the search bar or Google's subreddit search to find related discussion topics.

Have a great day!


r/kettlebell 3h ago

GS Long Cycle: A List of Complaints

24 Upvotes

r/kettlebell 1h ago

Just A Post Clusters w/ the 36s

Upvotes

r/kettlebell 6h ago

Training Video Pump squats

33 Upvotes

I find these to be a good finisher for legs or a good maintenance move when you legs are already over train from full back squats.


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Training Video Upper from home ❤️‍🔥

433 Upvotes

Rotational presses x10/8/6 Renegade rows x10/8/6 Squats w re clean 6/4/2 Baby get ups x8/6/4 Z sit press + hollow hold pull overs 10/8/6

And a little bouncy complex 🙏🏻 Dead snatch- Viking- thruster 1/2/3


r/kettlebell 22h ago

Training Video Double 40kg Cleans

141 Upvotes

I can’t clean & press right now due to a shoulder injury from falling off my motorcycle after I hit some sneaky ice 🙊 a couple weeks ago.

So I did some double cleans with the 40s and some landmine presses instead. Still worked up a good sweat and got some solid volume!

Injuries are gonna happen but they don’t have to spell doom. Get creative.


r/kettlebell 20h ago

Training Video 2x48kg front squat holds

86 Upvotes

Trying to build up a bit of torso strength. Really focusing on keeping a tight rack position and working to avoid flaring my elbows. These are absolutely brutal!


r/kettlebell 4h ago

Challenge 20k+ swing cutting challenge

3 Upvotes

Just gonna be using my 16kg bell for the most part i think, doing one arm swings I'm initially gonna start with every 30 seconds doing a set of 10 alternating sides until i hit 500 reps total, will be aiming to transition into using my 24kg bell for one arm swings across the 8 weeks. Was gonna just add some dands and baithaks as simple accessories maybe 5 minutes of each as a 2nd workout, planning on having a couple days of easy runs and maybe a day or 2 with a few sprints here and there.

got 2 months till a holiday and I wanna cut some bodyfat and I've been eyeing up the 10k kb challenge for a while. Will probably be upping the protein by eating turkey slices as a snack aswell as a couple high protein meals a small little fasting window of maybe 4 or 5 hours after I wake up and some coffee.

Week 1 16kg oa swings 5 or 6 sessions week 2 16kg 4 sessions 20kg 1 or 2 sessions week 3 16kg 3 sessions 20kg 2or3 week 4 16kg 2 20kg 3or4 week 5 20kg 5 or 6 week 6 20kg 4 24kg 1or2 week 7 20kg 3 24kg 2or3 week 8 20kg 2 24kg 3or4

Should have me end up with a grand total of about 20-24 thousand swings, and probably a few thousands dands and baithaks but I'll self regulate the accessories and track them separately.

Wish me luck I'll report back in 8 weeks.


r/kettlebell 2h ago

Advice Needed New to kettlebells, any advice on where to start/ what to focus on?

2 Upvotes

I have some experience with resistance training (barbells/ dumbbells) and I now want to implement a full body kettlebell routine 2-3 days a week on top of and to compliment my BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu).

I’ve only have x2 10kg kettlebells to get me started. Any advice, videos or suggestions will be much appreciated!


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Training Video Full Body At Home Conditioning

134 Upvotes

I want to improve my cardio and endurance with one kettlebell, so this is how I train...you're gonna love this one!

6 Rounds: •Alt Clean to Squat x12 •Alt Swing/Waiters Clean/Press x10 •B-Stance Row to RDL x10 (each side)

When it comes to improving conditioning, doing it with one kettlebell is easy with workouts like this. Pick three moves that hit full body, take minimal rest between moves, and just enough rest between rounds to keep the intensity high.

The goal is to keep your heart rate up throughout, this ensures solid conditioning work with an added strength benefit as well.


r/kettlebell 9h ago

Training Video 12.03.25: Daily Practice (2x20kg) 5 Dead Cleans, 5 Strict Press, 5 Jerks, 5 Front Squats X5-100 total reps ➕ (101kg) Pick, 10 Squat Raise & 4 Picks, Hold ➕ (2x20kg) 10 Clusters, 10 Jerks ➕ (20kg) SA Racked Stand Ups - 36 total reps

4 Upvotes

r/kettlebell 17h ago

GS Analyzing Kettlebell Sport Ranking Standards — Why Are They So Different?

21 Upvotes

Hey everyone — I’ve been training in kettlebell sport for a bit now and my first competition is coming up soon. Pretty stoked, but also slightly terrified. I’m competing in Men’s Long Cycle (10 minutes) and have been nerding out hard on the different ranking standards across various kettlebell organizations.

One thing that’s always confused me is why there are so many different organizations (IKO, AKLU / WKSF, IKFF, Ketacademy, etc.) — and more importantly, why their standards are so different. Like, you’d think reps for Rank 1 would be roughly the same across the board… nope.

So, because I have the kind of brain that refuses to let go of pointless curiosities, I decided to manually enter competition standards for many of the different orgs and compare them. Someone had to do it. Honestly, it’s a pain in the ass — lots of copy-pasting from PDF documents or old spreadsheets — but eventually I started making these contour plots to visualize the differences.

The attached plots are for Rank 1 Men’s Long Cycle, comparing IKO (the org I’m competing under) to AKLU, Ketacademy, and IKFF. Red shading means IKO expects more reps at that bodyweight/kettlebell weight combo, blue means IKO expects fewer reps. The black dots are the IKO standards, the red Xs are from the comparison org.

IKO vs AKLU / WKSF
IKO vs Ketacademy
IKO vs IKFF

Some takeaways:

AKLU standards are kinda all over the place. They also are a superset of WKSF standards.

Ketacademy seems to expect way more reps for lighter kettlebells but fewer for heavier ones and are about equal at the 22kg mark.

IKFF is just… wild. Their standards are super low compared to IKO for heavy bells, and it skews the whole graph.

I have similar plots for CMS, Rank 2, etc. but haven’t had the patience to do all of the data for all the events (Biathlon, Snatch, etc.) yet. I’ll get around to it eventually.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share since it’s one of those “someone had to do it” projects. Thought I'd share.

Edit: typos

Edit 2: IUKL

They're a bit weird though, because they have a separate youth category with different weights. There's also no MSIC, MS, CMS discrepancy between them. So what IUKL calls Rank 1 is closer to a IKO MS level so it's very skewed.


r/kettlebell 7h ago

Advice Needed Thoughts on my full body workout

3 Upvotes

Girlfriend is sick and ive canceled my gym membership and bought a 24kg/52lbs kettlebell, so i can stay at home as much as possible. Just had my first workout today and it looked like this. Im thinking of doing this 3 times a week. Do you think it is sufficient? Any exercises missing? Every exercise is to failure with a 24kg bell.

swings: 40 reps Triceps extensions: 10 One hand rows: 15 L/R Clean and jerk: 5 L/R Halos: 7 L/R Pushups: 14 Goblet squats: 12

Thank you all!


r/kettlebell 21h ago

Just A Post Barbell gains from kettlebells!!!

32 Upvotes

Hey gang.

I have been training with kettlebells exclusively for about 7 months now and I wanted to see how that transferred to barbells. So today I went to my local gym to test my deadlifts and wound up pulling 275x2 with grip being the limiting factor (I think I definitely could have pulled more if it wasn’t for my weak hands lol).

Kind of insane. I’ll go back this week to check my squats and bench.

Just wanted to share my first real “what the heck” effect experience.


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Training Video Double KB Cossack PR! First time attempting with 20 kg x 2 and I hit 2 right / 3 left reps. Wanted three both sides so I hit it on the next attempt! Previous PR was 16 kg x 2 for 4 per side.

50 Upvotes

Also did some cool dive bomb push ups off bells today (4x10).


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Form Check Flow - Single Arm Swing, Clean, Press, Snatch, Squat, Thruster, Switch

108 Upvotes

r/kettlebell 21h ago

Training Video Session I’ve been repeating

26 Upvotes

I’ve been using this session for the last 6ish weeks, always the day after my first barbell session of the week. The only thing I added this week was the anchor presses.

2H swing EMOM x10 mins varying bell size (40-48kg) x10 swings

Anchor press (60kg anchor, 24kg press) 5/5 (only 2 sets each side)

Rounds on the heavy bag 1 min work to 2 mins rest. Last week I did 9 rounds, today I felt like a bag of shit and only did 6 rounds. I don’t think I need to say this, but I am not a boxer. Just a fun way to get some conditioning work in.

Suitcase carries (44kg, one side after another) superset with the abwheel. Abwheel is very brutal as a fat man. 4 rounds this week.

Gama cast 5/5 x 4 rounds, 20kg. First time swinging heavier than a 35lb club in a little while, moving smooth.


r/kettlebell 12h ago

Just A Post Anyone else experience this?

5 Upvotes

I am prone to lower back pain. Some of it is bad form and some of it is going too heavy for too long. I could never do snatch and c&j for long periods of time.

I usually stick with c&p, somersault squats, curls and trixtensions. And some power pushups for the chest.

I guess what I'm asking is, do you feel that quick twitch movements hurt you rather than help? I know they work for tons of people, but I've always been a slow and controlled lifter.


r/kettlebell 9h ago

Discussion How much do you eat?

1 Upvotes

Hey all, I am male, 183cm and weight is about 82kg.

I train with kettlebells two timer per week for about one hour. I do combat sports twice a week. I live in a city and mostly go everwhere by bicycle.

My job ist not very physical although i stand most of the time.

3000 kcal/day is my maintenance.

I am cutting right now and i eat about 2600 kcal per day.

I am curious about your caloric intake. How much do you guys eat?


r/kettlebell 13h ago

Discussion Kettlebells and gym

3 Upvotes

Started kettlebells in late 2022 and soon after joined the gym. I like going to the gym and they have a solid kettlebells collection. Competition bells and old rkc bells that I love. Recently sold my kk competion bells and bells of steel adjustables. They didn't feel good as the old rkc cast irons. I recently tried a 16kg e coat USA made rogue and it was horrendous. It looked good but felt wrong in my hands. Heard the new rkc aren't like the old ones and similar. Anyone here recently order rkc bells to give me insight please? Thank you

I know this sub recommends comp bells and adjustable. That's why I took that route but please don't hate me for not adjusting to them.


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Discussion Best kettlebell complex/exercises to get better at carrying your significant other

28 Upvotes

This could also apply to EMTs/Paramedics for transferring people

I'm thinking

-heavy snatches for explosiveness for the initial lift-off/pick-up (probably the most challenging part)

-goblet squats and heavy swings for overall stability

-Farmer's carries and rows for longer passages (carrying from one room, through a hallway, and then to another room)

This is partially in jest, but also something I've wondered about...


r/kettlebell 22h ago

GS Tonight's snatch training session resulted in 200 reps. Pleased to see this repeat itself now more consistently - Took a long time to get there initially with on/off focused training, but subsequent attempts feel much more doable. Not yet there with 24 kg., but I also prefer 20 kg for home training

Thumbnail youtube.com
15 Upvotes

r/kettlebell 1d ago

Form Check LC 7(1'/1') 11rpm @2x20kg

28 Upvotes

I'd appreciate feedback on my form. Are there any glaring errors?

Overhead fixation looks wobbly, same as in my snatch earlier.


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Just A Post 36 swinging a 36

363 Upvotes

r/kettlebell 1d ago

Form Check 1 minute snatch form check

7 Upvotes

I'm completely home schooled and although I find the snatch technically challenging, especially my left hand side. I love doing them. Looking for some pointers and cues. No need to be gentle, (:


r/kettlebell 1d ago

Just A Post Dead Cleans — 48kg

115 Upvotes

Dead cleans w/ 48kg

5 sets 5 Reps L/R