The long awaited arrival of 18kg and 22kg Pro Grade Kettlebells in Australia marks the beginning of some very exciting times (and accelerated progress) for kettlebell enthusiasts.
It wasn't that long ago 10kg and 14kg kettlebells were introduced to the Pro Grade range and this has made a huge difference to the rate of progression of many of my clients and kettlebell sport athletes (I really wish they'd been around when I'd started training with kettlebells). The addition of 18kg and 22kg bells now means from 8kg to 24kg you can move up in weight in 2kg, rather than 4kg, increments.
Not only do the 2kg increments make for faster progressions in kettlebell training, they also make for safer ones. Hands, forearms and elbows are usually the last parts of the body to adapt to a particular weight in kettlblebell training (especially for ballistic lifts such as cleans, jerks and snatches).
With a 4kg increment between weights you often have to build up a lot of volume with one weight before moving up to the next, and even then moving up to the next weight can be a bit of a shock to the system. The 2kg increments give the connective tissue and smaller muscles in your hands and arms a much gentler increase in load, reducing the risk of problems such as tendinitis in the elbow or pain on the back of the forearm where the kettlebell rests. (There is a blog post on smart progressions in kettlebell training here if you want to read more about this).
From personal experience, I have found that the 4kg jump can be too much and an invitation for injury if you're not very careful, particularly when you're getting close to your upper weight limits (you can read more about that here).
The Russians have access to kettlebells that go up in 1kg increments, and the ability to progress so smoothly from one weight to the next, and to move between a greater variety of weights, certainly hasn't hurt their training:
I bought my 18kg last week and can already feel that it's going to make an immense difference in my training, especially snatch training. Plus, it's going to enable me to vary the microcycles of my training more effectively (and alleviate a bit of the boredom of working with the same one or two weights all the time in preparation for competition). I'm also hoping these smaller weight increments will make kettlebell sport training seem a little less daunting to people and encourage more people to give it a shot. Fingers crossed!
So for anyone who trains regularly with kettlebells, or trainers who use kettlebells with their clients, I highly recommend having these intermediate weights for safer progressions, variety and faster advances in training.