If you are a casual weekend warrior you are probably better off to buy a couple of kettlebells than dumbbells. If you are in the real pursuit of strength use all possible tools available to you.

 

 

 

 

The most important thing for exercise selection for your routines is that you are focused on the goals you want to achieve. Most of the times this is easier said than done. Many beginners want everything and nothing: 

 

 

These are just some examples of goal sets of beginners. It is completely normal to be timid or unsure about what you want to achieve and can achieve. It always helps to prioritize first what is important to you. The fields usually are: 

 

 

You can categorize it in a million different ways, but to keep it simple prioritize these five for yourself. 

 

Looks are all about what you see in movies, on Instagram and the magazine covers. While these are highly artificial, fabricated images of people, their impact on social life is very real. If you look for fame or financial success based on your looks you can achieve this, just be aware that the choices you will make to get there are not necessarily healthy, make you enduring, strong or well-performing in sports. Eating disorders and steroids might provide an outstanding look, but don’t help you to be strong or have healthy sperm. 

 

If your main focus is health you will mainly choose moderate diets and exercise regimen. You won’t go crazy on diets or schedules as this means too much stress. This will keep you healthy but probably never get you to the pinnacles is endurance, strength, looks or endurance. But that is ok as long as you are fertile and happy. 

 

Performance is usually sports-related. This means that endurance and strength training is still important, but play a secondary role to skill practice in the relevant sport you pursue. It is of not of a lot of use to be strong like a bull but not being able to skate if you play ice hockey. The good news about sports is that looks don’t matter that much. If you are a blob that can lift a fire truck in a very truck lifting competition, nobody cares that you are not ripped or have shining white teeth. Even though that might help to attract sponsors. 

 

If you are mainly into strength you can park all efforts and time on endurance and skill practice. You can fully focus on lifting barbells, stones, and other heavy objects. You might even toss them in the general direction of people in the gym who get on your nerves. 

 

If you are mainly about endurance you can spent your time on your long runs, swims and cycles around the country and maybe never look at a rack. Yes, you might not be the strongest or most buff, but who cares when you cycle the Ardennes with a smile. 

 

Prioritizing these five areas for yourself will help to make it a lot clearer to you, your GP and your personal trainer which exercises to pick and at which intensity to perform. This will determine which rack is the best for you or whether you need one at all. 

 

 

 

Bicep curls with dumbbells are the embodiment of the self-absorbed gym bro. A dumbbell is a short piece of metal with weights attached which you use with one hand to get stronger. As they are widely distributed and don’t cost a lot they are often the start of a home gym. One dumbbell can cost anything from $5 to $500 depending on how much weight you get. Dumbbells are popular in circuit training and for bodybuilders, as they don’t take up a lot of space and can is lite very specific muscle groups.

 

 

Dumbbells are very space-efficient. Compared to kettlebells they can almost do all of the exercises that a kettlebell provides to you except the kettlebell swings and the Turkish get up. 

 

 

Dumbbell training is not directly transferable to the sports of powerlifting and weightlifting. There is no Olympic sport yet which Involves lifting dumbbells. Most dumbbells are of rubber. the weight can not be adjusted. Compare to kettlebells you can not swing them or hold on the dumbbells with both hands as easily as the handles are smaller. 

 

 

Kettlebells originate in Russia. They are a great tool to develop explosive strength as they are other to swing and juggle than barbells. It started with playing around with cannonballs. This is also the reason why they are measured in poods rather than kg or pounds. As their popularity grows you see them less and less with the old labels and more with kg and lbs. There is an entire sport around keeping kettlebells in the air as long as possible while flourishing them around. In the states, Pavel Tsatsoulin contributed a great deal to make kettlebells popular and fashionable. 

 

 

They are dynamic and versatile. Some describe it as the most compact and cheap full body gym in one tool. While many gimmicks make this claim, the kettlebell is one of the more likely contestants to claim the spot. They are fun to use and the swing works the core and your grip. This can not be said about a lot of weights. 

 

 

If you want to go very heavy, kettlebells can become rather expensive and cumbersome. The handle gets very small compared to the weight you are moving. They are also harder to store than dumbbells as it is almost impossible to stack them in a corner. 

 

 

Overall I would say no. In fact, I think if you are starting a home gym with the three different weight denominations you are better of buying kettlebells than dumbbells to start. Elite athletes will use dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells and other tools to get optimal results.