Kettlebells and Muscle Building

Remember what they tell you, friends: "kettlebells don't build muscle."

This is such a nonsense myth. 

Do the normie, traditional-lifting, commercial gym bros really believe that the laws of physics differ when lifting a kettlebell as opposed to a barbell, using machines, or any other resistance?

Kettlebells are just as good for building muscle as most other pieces of equipment.

Now, it is true that the application can be skewed to be less or more favorable for muscle-building pursuits. 

But this is true for any training implement.

For example, if you prioritize low rep ballistics or super high rep ballistics along with mobility drills and kettlebell flows, you'll build less muscle than if you prioritize moderate rep grinds — pushes, pulls, squats, and lunges — close to failure. 

The same is true for barbells. If you prioritize Olympic lifts and neglect basic, compound and isolation exercises, you'll build less muscle because you're training for speed and power instead of strength and hypertrophy.

The specific implement has nothing to do with building (or not building) muscle. The application of that implement has everything to do with whether you build muscle or not.

If you want to build muscle with kettlebells, continue to do swings, snatches, and cleans. But prioritize pressing variations, rows, pullups, squats, lunges, hinges, split squats, and remember to do some isolation exercises for your arms (unless you're one of the rare breeds that develops arms easily from pulls and pushes. In my 10 years as a personal trainer, I've found these people exist but are few and far between).

In the picture below I'm doing clean & front squats. Combining grind exercises with a ballistic can be a fun way to train while prioritizing muscle along with swinging iron around.