Your first kettlebells: which weights to buy

Buy two kettlebells, not one. The weight that makes a swing worthwhile is too heavy to press overhead for most beginners, and the weight you can press will be too light for swings within a fortnight. Once you accept that, picking the numbers is fairly simple.

Swings and presses use different muscles and different weights

A swing is a hip hinge. The bell is driven by your glutes and hamstrings, and your arms mostly guide it. A press, a get-up or a single-arm row relies on the shoulder and upper back, which are much weaker. The gap between the two is usually one or two sizes, about 4 to 8 kg.

Get-ups and goblet squats sit in between. Goblet squats tend to match your swing bell after a few weeks; get-ups match your press bell, or start one size below it.

Starting weights by experience

A traditional shorthand you will hear is 8 and 12 kg (18 and 26 lb) for most women and 12 and 16 kg (26 and 35 lb) for most men starting out. It holds up reasonably well. The table above simply swaps sex for size and training history, which predicts it better.

If you are torn between two sizes, go lighter for presses and heavier for swings. A press bell that is slightly light still gets you volume and practice. A swing bell that is too light encourages you to lift it with your arms, which is the habit you are trying to avoid.

Cast iron or competition

Cast iron

The bell gets bigger as it gets heavier, and the handle thickness often changes with it. That is fine for most training. They are cheaper and they last decades. Our Cast Iron Kettlebell starts at $29 for 4 kg and runs up to 32 kg (71 lb). The 16 kg (35 lb) works out at $55.40.

Competition

Every bell has the same outer size and handle regardless of weight, from 8 kg up to 32 kg (71 lb). The steel shell is hollowed out more on the light ones. The point is consistency: your rack position, hand placement and the way the bell sits on your forearm stay the same as you move up. That matters if you do a lot of high-rep snatches, jerks and cleans. The Competition Kettlebell starts at $69 for 8 kg; a 16 kg (35 lb) is $93. The flat base also makes it steadier for renegade rows.

For general strength and conditioning at home, cast iron is the sensible first buy. Move to competition bells if you start training for high-rep sets or find the changing bell size keeps throwing your technique off.

Common mistakes

• Buying one middle weight. A single 12 kg (26 lb) bell ends up too heavy for presses and too light for swings within a month.
• Choosing vinyl or soft bells for swings. They are fine for light floor work, but the wider body and handle change the swing path.
• Skipping the floor. A dropped bell will mark tiles and wooden floors. A rubber mat under the swing area is cheap insurance.
• Judging the handle with dry hands. A light layer of chalk changes how a cast iron handle feels in a set of 20 swings.

A costed first purchase

Take someone with some gym experience who wants to swing, press, goblet squat and do get-ups at home, three times a week. Using the table, that points to a 12 kg (26 lb) press bell and a 16 kg (35 lb) swing bell, plus a lighter one for get-up practice and warm-up sets.

Bought one by one in cast iron, 8, 12 and 16 kg (18, 26 and 35 lb) comes to $139.80. The Kettlebell Trio 8 / 12 / 16 kg (top bell 35 lb) is the same three weights for $99, currently down from $119. The next bell to add, usually after three to six months of regular swings, is a 20 kg (44 lb) or a 24 kg (53 lb), depending on how quickly the 16 kg (35 lb) starts to feel easy for sets of 15.

Track one number to decide: when you can do ten sets of ten swings with the heaviest bell, inside about 15 minutes, with clean form, it is time to buy the next one.