Kettlebells and Arm Wrestling

Kettlebells and Arm Wrestling

 

Kettlebells can be used to significantly increase hand and arm strength/power through various exercises.

 

Firstly just swinging and flipping a thick handled kettlebell is a superb hand trainer. If you’re feeling more adventurous or don’t have a thick handled kettlebell then get a strip of carpet about 10cm wide and wrap it around the handle of the kettlebell. If you don’t find this a real challenge then you must be Magnus Samuelson.

 

Bottoms up pressing is a great way of increasing arm/shoulder/hand strength and co-ordination in one go. Start off light and work upto the biggest bells you can get hold of.

 

Kettlebells can also be used for curling. Again start of light and work up. You’ll find the sticking point is much harder to overcome in the mid stage due to the weight placement of the kettlebell. I also like to use a version of the barbell power curl but with kettlebells. Take hold of 2 KB’s and anchor your elbows into your hips. As in the Power Curl slightly at the knees, lean forward and power curl the bells up. Take as much time as possible to lower them back down to make full use of the eccentric phase.

 

Single hand double kettlebell swing is a great movement for increasing your hand strength and power. Check out my old post on this if you want to see how it’s done. http://vietnamsportnews.blogspot.com/2008/06/80kg-kettlebell-swings.html

 

Finally, and probably the Daddy of all exercises for Kettlebells and Arm Wrestling is the Kettlebell Hammer Curl. For this exercise pick the kettlebell up off the floor but don’t let it swing back down and hit your arm grip really tightly onto the handle and curl up with the bell extended out and away from you.

Here’s a great video of this exercise http://www.strengthmill.com/viewvideo/126/Kettlebell_Cheat_Hammer_Curls

 

And finally a great way to do plyometrics for your arms is to take a dumbbell (not a kettlebell!!!!) and take it to your shoulder and throw the dumbbell upwards just like a shoulder press but release at the top then catch again on it’s way down. This is a great way to shock your arms into new found strength. Let’s call it arm plyometrics. But be careful with this one as it can be very dangerous.

 

Rob

 

kettlebells and arm wrestling