One of the more recent new fitness sessions at my gym is based around the use of kettle bells, a piece of equipment that was not really in favour for many years yet now it seems to be making a comeback and this is now one of the most popular classes in the gym and was what prompted the other half and myself to buy a couple to also use in the home, we purchased a pair of kettles the 2.5kg and the 5kg, neither really are heavy enough for my hubby to use although he does use the 5kg occasionally however I do get a decent amount of use our of the pair. The pair cost £18.


The first thing I noticed about these is that the grip is a little bigger than the ones in the gym and not as comfortable either and I find that it is best to wear exercise gloves when using these as you get a better grip and they are more comfortable to use. There is a ridging effect on the underside of the grip but the fact that these are made from a smooth plastic menas that this alone is not enough grip in my opinion. When I use it I tend to replicate the exercises we have done in class, at first these can feel a bit strange and unwieldy to use however it did not take long for me to get the technique right while under supervision in a class. These do come with instruction and suggested exercises however I think the detail is somewhat lacking in these instructions and with these a bad technique could do you more harm than good.

The weight in these is well distributed and while I have not checked that the weight is accurate they feel no different to the ones at the gym in weight terms. With these you get what you pay for, they do not look the most stylish, the sleek matt balck ones in the gym look loads better than these pale greenish colour that is a bit insipid however as a functional cheap kettle for use in the home to do some extra exercise they are fine. Whether or not the claims that you burn more calories and use more muscles with a kettle compared with a hand weight I cannot say but they do give you more variety when exercising and that variety helps keep things interesting.

If they improved the grip then there would be little to really complain about however when working with weights grip is all important alongside technique so for me these get three stars.