What Size Kettlebell Should You Buy First? (And Why Not a Set)

What Size Kettlebell Should You Buy First? (And Why Not a Set)

Start with one kettlebell. Most men should start at 16kg (35lb). Most women should start at 12kg (26lb). If you have never trained with weights before, go one rung down to 12kg (26lb) and 8kg (18lb). Pick a kettlebell made out of cast iron and with a wide flat handle.

Should I buy one kettlebell or a set?

Start with one kettlebell. Sets get sold in threes because three boxes cost more than one box. The argument for the set is that different movements want different weights. That is very true, but it doesn't matter yet. A volume cycle starts at 5 sets of 5 reps per side and climbs up to 20 x 5. That's 100 reps per side at a single weight, and each set gets added once per week. That's 4-5 months worth of training you have before becoming competent at that movement for that weight. The 20kg from the bundle sits gathering dust for all of it.

How do I know the weight is right?

The swing won't tell you. Anyone can swing a bell that is too heavy for them badly for a few reps. You'll feel fine. The clean test is 5 reps per side on the hardest thing you'll do with it. Early on, that is the press. Five is the number that the whole program is built on. If you can't get 5 honest presses on day one, the bell is too heavy and the math has nothing to work with. If you can press it 12 times cold, that is more like a warm-up weight. 16kg puts most men in that window, and 12kg puts most women there. Those are starting points, not a diagnosis.

Why are the jumps between kettlebells so big?

Kettlebells come in fixed rungs. From 8 to 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32 etc... 12kg to 16kg is a 33 percent increase. That type of jump in weight would never happen in structured barbell training. You can just slide a 2.5lb plate on each side and move on. With kettlebells there's no version of that, so the program has to earn the jump instead of easing into it. The capacity gets built up at one weight until the next weight is safe. That structure is the whole game of progression with fixed-weight implements. This is the real reason that the first bell matters more than the reviews make it out to sound. Go too heavy and every rung above it is out of reach for a long time.

When should I buy my second kettlebell?

Your second kettlebell purchase should come in time with when you finish your first volume cycle and want to run a new one on the next weight up. After each volume cycle reaches 100 reps total per side, you're able to graduate onto a heavier weight, a more complex movement, or increase the reps per set (density cycle: 20x5, then 16x6, 14x7, 12x8, 11x9, 10x10).

The part that size charts leave out

Your first bell will feel too light for swings and too heavy for presses. Both of those are correct. Swings are driven by the hips and presses are limited by the shoulder, so no single weight is right for both. You're buying the bell that makes the harder movement trainable and living with the easy swings for a while.

You'll also own it longer than you want to. Fixed-weight training punishes rushing. Adding volume slowly is deliberate as the body takes longer to adapt to movements that use traction (pulling the joints) as traction stresses the soft tissues as well as the muscles.

Doing the arithmetic

None of this is hard math. One set added at a time, counted honestly, every session, for every movement. It's also the part people quietly stop doing around week six. The system in this article is free to run with a notebook. Perside just never forgets and never rounds in your favor.

Your first session

One bell. Two-hand swings, 5 sets of 5, full stop and reset between sets, rest as long as you want. If it felt like nothing, you sized it right. Volume is the point, not effort. Next session you do 6 sets. The ladder decides the rest. When you want swings as their own program, the 10-minute swing program is built for exactly that.

Common questions

Is 16kg too heavy for a beginner?

For swings, usually not. For presses, sometimes. Five clean presses per side on day one is the check. Can't get five, drop to 12kg. Get twelve, go up.

Can I really start with just one kettlebell?

Yes, and you should. The program doesn't ask you to change anything until you've put 100 reps per side into that weight, which takes months.

What size kettlebell should I buy for swings specifically?

Swings tolerate more weight than presses, so a swing-only buyer can go a rung heavier. Most people aren't swing-only buyers, which is why the press sets the number.

Should I buy adjustable kettlebells instead?

They solve the wrong problem. The jumps aren't the difficulty. Surviving the jumps is. An adjustable bell also shifts its balance as the plates change, and the balance is part of the movement.

How long until I need the next kettlebell?

Until you finish 20 sets of 5 per side. At one added set per training week that's roughly four to five months. Then weight is one of three options, not the automatic one.

Perside programs volume and density cycles for kettlebells, clubs, and maces. See the full progression at The Path, or size your first bell at getperside.com/learn/start.