Kettlebells and Olympic Lifting
August 15, 2014
Do you want to improve your Olympic Lifts? Well, you could do more Olympic Lifting or you could just train with Kettlebells instead!
According to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, they found that there was a documented translation effect from kettlebell training on strength, power, and endurance for both Olympic Lifting and Body Weight exercises. What exactly does that mean? It means that by NOT doing Olympic Lifting or Body Weight exercises for ten weeks the subjects got better at both by using Kettlebells instead.
I distinctly remember having several heated conversations with a number of CrossFit coaches and even a couple Olympic Lifters on the applicability of Kettlebell training. They were adamant that there was no crossover effect and I was confident and able to prove them wrong. I guess science wins in the end... but will this positively affect the CrossFit community? Probably not. The CrossFit view of Kettlebells has been so slewed and maligned that it will most likely never be accepted as a viable training option. Too bad for them...