59 replies to this topic

[WalkerFit]

I posted this as a response to a topic earlier but I felt it may be relevant here and give people the opportunity to add their own experiences/thought about kettlebells available.
Kettlebells: A minefield of design flaws and potential problems.

There are a lot of bells out there that are reasonably priced however, when you begin to develop your skills and move beyond basic swings you will need a good clearance between the underside of the handle and the top of the bell.

Too little clearance will result in the bell "sitting" on the back of the wrist during the rack position of cleans and the top position of the snatch. This is uncomfortable and the natural response is for the wrist to bend backwards to allow the bell to "sit" on the forearm as is more comfortable.

As you can imagine, this wrist contraindication when coupled with high intensity and high reps is a recipe for disaster- all stemming really from bad design and lack of clearance. In my opinion a review of bells available in the UK is as follows.

Intense Fitness: Official UKKettlebell Association competition bells. 10/10 Standard all others measure up to.
Wolverson Fitness: Best Competition Grade Hollow Steel Bells available in the UK. 10/10 Ideal for Girevoy Sport and tuition because of the large surface area. Very competitively priced with great after sales service. 10/10
Elieko: Available from Pullum Sports. 9.5/10 Very well made.
London Kettlebell. I have used these and are well made with sufficient clearance for high rep work. 9/10
Powerhouse Fitness: Cast- improving but still some clearance issues: 6.5/10 Rubber 0/10 AVOID
Jordan: Cast- Very little clearance- ok for swings only 5/10. Rubber 0/10 AVOID
Marcy: As Jordan.
Golds: OK for swings. slightly more clearance than others but very rough finish requires sanding. 6/10
Newitts (XLR8): Ok for swings- rough finish, insufficient clearance. 4.5/10

Obviously the price reflects the quality and grades given above. If you want a selection for swings only then cheaper bells may well be suitable. However you may well find yourself looking for a new bell if you encounter the problems I mentioned earlier and want to expand your repertoire of Kettlebell exercises. A classic case of buy cheap, pay twice.

Look at the more expensive bells as an investment that will stand you in good stead for years.

Before you ask; I have a selection of various. I use Wolverson and Intense fitness for competition prep and high rep snatches, cleans etc and with small groups for kettlebell instruction, particularly Wolverson for novices. I have some Powerhouse for my clients who are doing swings only or if we are running a few persons through a workout requiring just swings such as CF "Helen".

[Chet]

Quality. Cheers dude.

Sticked

[Jet]

Not being funny mate,i've only ever used my newitts bells and they're fine.
They sit nice against my forearm(with a nice straight wrist),and the finish,although a little rough is fine for me(let's face it,your hands will take a pounding using bells),and i'm working them pretty hard at the moment(with more than just swings).
And,to be frank about it,i'm refuse to pay through the nose for what is very simple piece of steel.Why the hell should they be so over-priced?

don't get me wrong,i'm not any sort of expert on kettlebells,but it seems to me that a training tool with the sort of,almost primal roots as the kettlebell,needn't be as complicated a design as is made out to be.

Anyway,i'm sticking up for the xlr8 ones from newitts.There is bugger all wrong with them,and i'm a bit bored with the kettlebell elitist nonsense.Your average joe trainer doesnt need the absolute dogs bollox,nor can usually afford to invest in absolute tip-top girevoy sport grade equipment.

[Matt M]

Thanks for posting this. Very very useful. I own two small XLR8 'bells and noticed today while trying to clean / rack them that there is barely any clearance in the handle which does make it quite hard for me to manipulate.

Looks like London KB is going to get an order for a 24 in about 5 minutes time....

[Matt M]

24kg ordered from LKB.

[Matt M]

They sit nice against my forearm(with a nice straight wrist),and the finish,although a little rough is fine for me(let's face it,your hands will take a pounding using bells),and i'm working them pretty hard at the moment(with more than just swings).

I can barely fit 3 fingers between the handle and the body which makes it hard to clean them smoothly and I noticed my wrist is at a bad angle when I'm racked. Poor form, maybe - but there's no denying that there just isn't sufficient clearance on my 12kg and 16kg 'bells.

[Jet]

I can barely fit 3 fingers between the handle and the body which makes it hard to clean them smoothly and I noticed my wrist is at a bad angle when I'm racked. Poor form, maybe - but there's no denying that there just isn't sufficient clearance on my 12kg and 16kg 'bells.

I went and tried my 16,24 and 32 out right after reading the review and i find there's enough "clearance" for me.The bell sits nice on my forearm just below the wrist.Maybe i've just got wee girly hands

[WalkerFit]

I'm not trying to be a "Kettlebell Snob" or anything and personal preference will largely be decided by your own physical dimensions- and I agree, massively high expense Girevoy sport bells are probably not required by the vast majority of recreational trainers.

However, I do think that, like anything, you should try before you buy and "clearance" is what you want to be looking for. If the "clearance" is sufficient for yourself on Newitts/Jordan/whoever then that is fine- but if others are using the bells- in your gym or a group of friends, sports team then the manufacturers with the greatest "clearance" should be prioritised to minimise risk of contraindicated technique and promote good form.

On an interesting note; when the bell has plenty of "clearance" it is actually very difficult to contraindicate the wrist and bend it back when in a "rack" position or top of the snatch. Thus promoting correct technique subconsciously and kinetically.

The grades/ratings I give are all personal opinion. Like I said, please feel free to add your own findings/experiences to this thread. I am always open to suggestion and correction if anyone has some good info.

[Matt M]

On an interesting note; when the bell has plenty of "clearance" it is actually very difficult to contraindicate the wrist and bend it back when in a "rack" position or top of the snatch. Thus promoting correct technique subconsciously and kinetically.

That's precisely the problem I have in a rack. My wrist tends to bend back dramatically and I find it very hard to correct because I can't get my knuckles through the gap cleanly when the 'bell is in motion.

[WalkerFit]

"That's precisely the problem I have in a rack. My wrist tends to bend back dramatically and I find it very hard to correct because I can't get my knuckles through the gap cleanly when the 'bell is in motion."


Matt, this is not uncommon. Don't want to sound presumptious but it may be a good move to invest in a good quality 16KG bell and revisit all the basics:

Worst Case Scenario: It refreshes all your basic skills and promotes better form and is more comfortable for you.

Best case scenario: You have a major breakthrough in terms of form and comfort and see huge increases in reps and quality making it easier making the half pood weight jumps.

Feel free to email me if I can offer any help with specifics.

[Matt M]

Cheers mate. I ordered a decent 24kb. If that looks good, I might order a decent 16kg.

Looking at the Newitts KBs: the 12kg has good clearance but the 16 doesn't because the body is larger but it looks to be the same handle welded on.

[WalkerFit]

Looking at the Newitts KBs: the 12kg has good clearance but the 16 doesn't because the body is larger but it looks to be the same handle welded on.

Very common with manufacturers trying to keep costs down, particularly some chinese imports. But now you know about it you can recognise it and make an informed decision yourself, which it sounds like you have. Good Work and best of luck with the bells.

I'll try and get a photo comparison on here tomorrow and ask Chet to keep it at the top of the thread.

[Davie]

ive got a few KB's - loads of Newitts, 2 from Powerseekers that are competition grade and also had a borrow of one of Stan Pikes

As Ben says Stans are by far the best, but im happy with my Newitts ones for most of my workouts. If Im doing and double KB stuff I always use the Powerseekers as I find them more comfortable

[Jet]

Very common with manufacturers trying to keep costs down, particularly some chinese imports. But now you know about it you can recognise it and make an informed decision yourself, which it sounds like you have. Good Work and best of luck with the bells.

I'll try and get a photo comparison on here tomorrow and ask Chet to keep it at the top of the thread.

Nah.my newitts ones definitly have different size handles.I do think that the bigger ones have slightly thicker handles though.

[Matt M]

My 24kg KB turned up today and what a difference! There is so much more clearance and I cleaned it nicely without a bent wrist without even thinking about it.

The newitts handles are all virtually the same size on my 12kg and 16kg and they're flat which makes it hard to manipulate.



Here's a quick snap of a clean with a 16kg and the 24kg. I wasn't overly thinking about form. I just grabbed it and swung it for a clean.



As you can see, the black one (24) sits much better against my forearm with a virtually straight wrist.

[Davie]

just tested my 16kg newitts and if you wrist is bent when you clean it...then it your clean that is at fault and not the bell as there is plenty of clearance. Obviously the bigger clearance on the new bell will make a difference and the new one looks good

[Jet]

The newitts clean pic looks more like a form issue than the actual kettlebells fault.I'm sure you could actually straighten your wrist.....
And your wrist isn't locked right in the second pic anyway.
The 24 does look pretty though.if i've ever got a s***load of cash i might upgrade to the pretty ones.But for now the newitts ones are fine.Tbh though there's not a lot of size difference between the 12 and the 16k.I've a 16,24,32 and 40 in the newitts ones and there is a definite difference in size of the handle.i see where you're coming from though.The handles on the 12 and 16 do look pretty much the same size.And yeah,as they're flat my grip does tend to drift into the corner of the handle when slippy and sweaty with them being straight rather than curved.
Still though,my form is sterling on my k.b. lifts.The bells seem fine to me.

[Matt M]

Davie, thanks for the feedback. Yeah, that's not where they end up when I clean them as such. That's where they ended up after cleaning and spending a few mins faffing around trying to get a pic.

Still, loads of room for improvement in form.

[Tetsu]

Hey Guys,

Just registered.

I own Eleiko, Intensefitness,and DD kettlebells. And I have to say I agree totally with Tyneside. Stan's are the bench mark when it comes to KB's. Although I currently love my Eleikos

Jet for a start those newitts ones aren't steel they are cheap cast iron which in a commercial environment will chip. For me a kettlebell should be for life and our boxers like to drop ours onto stone floors. Now the dragondoor have chipped (slightly), but the ones from stan and Eleiko are like new even after all these years. We had two newitts ones and the handle on one of them got completely broke off so any money spent on them was wasted IMO. If you're enjoying them for home use though more power to you.

Exercise equipment is something i'm always happy to buy the best of and with KB's intense fitness & Eleiko do the best.

[Chet]

Hi and welcome to FK.UK mate - cheers for the review