The other day I got a question from a jiu-jitsu practioner/competitor regarding kettle bells. Apparently he had read an article where some guy proclaimed that the best training for an MMA athlete was kettle bells. In all fairness, I don’t know who this person is — I believe he said he was a personal trainer or strength coach.

So, he asked me what my thoughts were…

Anyone that claims that any one thing is the best thing for training is probably one of the biggest indicators that they have no clue. The kettle bell is just a tool. It’s a good one, but there’s no tool that’s best all the time. You have to know which tool to pull out of your so-called tool box. There are not many situations where I’d choose a kettle bell over traditional barbell or dumbbell. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not telling you to toss your kettle bells in the trash there are some situations where kettle bells are excellent (just pointing that out for the slow ones out there).

Some of my long time readers are probably expecting this but the devil is in the details. There are more important criteria to consider in a training session than just the exercises. Consider the following: correct exercise form, rep ranges, sets, rest intervals, exercise order, pairings, progressions and the goal. These are the details. Someone that doesn’t train people for a living probably wouldn’t think to consider this level of detail.

Yesterday I had a few jiu-jitsu students train at the USI and every one of them claimed that the workout below was the hardest training session they’d ever performed. Although I’m flattered that they felt this way and I appreciate the feedback, this doesn’t mean much to me. A monkey could make a hard workout. Again, the devil is in the details. If the training has no specificity or progression it’s just a hard workout. Every training session and every exercise chosen should have a reason behind it.

In my opinion, one reason why people make claims like the kettle bell example, is they get to caught up in whats the current trend. Many try to get to creative, making up exercises simply to be different. Results should be the most important aspect to training people, not entertainment. Unless someone actually trains people for a living and can show me the evidence that their training produces results, their two cents means nothing to me.