I have heard this comment many times from prospects who are looking for some fitness activities but are turned off by the price of kettlebells.

But are they really expensive? Let’s analyse.

Buying the equipment or buying the benefits?

There are people who buy exercise machines like treadmills, stacked weight machines, Osim iGallop etc. Which cost a lot more than kettlebells. Why don’t they think these are expensive? Whether they work or not is another story. Some do, most don’t.

When you buy a piece of equipment, are you buying the equipment or are you buying the exercises that you can do with it and the benefits of doing those exercises?

A treadmill is just a machine made up of metal cogs, electrical wires and some other stuff. I don’t think you want to buy a treadmill for the sake of the material it is made up of. Some people won’t even bother what is the mechanism of the treadmill. You buy a treadmill because you want to run on it and you perceive that running on it is worth buying the equipment. When you buy a treadmill, you only buy running.

The perceived value of an equipment (or anything else for that matter) is what makes us purchase it. A fitness gadget may promise 10 kg weight loss in 2 weeks, it is this supposed value that leads people to buying the gadget. Of course, most fitness gadgets over-promise and under-deliver. Many people foolishly think that by buying a piece of expensive gadget, the gadget will do the work for them and allow them to achieve their physical goals easily. If you are one of them, don’t bother buying kettlebells, they will never work for you until you start taking charge of your own health and putting in some real effort to do so.

A kettlebell is just a ball of steel. When you buy a kettlebell, you buy the swing, clean, press, push press, jerk, snatch and many more exercises that you can do with it. A kettlebell only cost less than SGD$200, a lot cheaper than treadmills or other exercise machines. With the many exercises that you can do with it, ask yourself again, is it expensive? The benefits of using a kettlebell include fat loss, strength gain and better all-round conditioning. More often than not, exercise gadgets only promise aesthetics benefits (if they even work in the first place) but not functional benefits like strength, flexibility and endurance which are more important than mere physical appearance.

A lot of people like to compare kettlebells with dumbbells and say that with the same amount of money that can buy them a kettlebell, they can simply get an adjustable dumbbell. The unique design of the kettlebell is what makes it different from the dumbbell, as such swinging a kettlebell is different and much harder than swinging a dumbbell due to the off-centered weight. The ballistic movements (which are the essence of kettlebell training) accomplished with kettlebells just don’t feel natural with dumbbells.

Will you grow out of them?

If you think they are expensive because you will grow out of them someday, you are wrong. My first kettlebell is a 16kg. I have been training with kettlebells for 3+ years. Until now there are exercises that are challenging for me with the 16kg, like the bottom up press. Heck, there are exercises that are challenging for me with 8kg and 12kg, like juggling.

You will grow out of dumbbells but you don’t grow out of kettlebells. You can simply do more reps with a lighter kettlebell (can be somewhat compared to jogging but safer and less impact on your joints) as a light workout. The design of kettlebell lends itself ergonomically to high-rep lifting where the kettlebell can rest against the hand without gripping it tight like a dumbbell.

Check out Valery Fedorenko, Master of Sport in Kettlebell Lifting, doing 2006 reps of push press with a 16kg, a beginner’s weight.

Space saving

Which one takes up more space? A kettlebell or a universal gym machine?

Personally I will not want to have a spare room just to store fitness equipment.

Convenience and durability

A kettlebell is portable and most home fitness equipment do not offer portability. Examples would include gym machines and treadmills. In case that you want to go outdoors or bring your equipment elsewhere for training, a kettlebell is much easier to transport than a rack of dumbbells. Bringing that one kettlebell allows you to do all the exercises that you can do at home or at the beach, wherever you want!

A well-made kettlebell does not require any maintenance unlike machines. They last for years or even a lifetime! They do not break, there are people in Russia who juggles kettlebells. In fact, people in Eastern Europe pass on the kettlebells from generations to generations, simply because they are made to last.

Here at Singapore Kettlebells, we promise high-quality products and have zero complaints with the quality of our professional grade kettlebells.

Conclusion

The bottom line is kettlebells provide more value than most fitness equipment which are much more expensive. A two-month gym membership can get you a kettlebell which will last for years. But it actually takes effort (just like anything else in life) in using them for results to show. If you are looking for an easy way out, kettlebells are definitely not for you!