Kettlebell weight for one handed exercises

Question

I am am a 28 year old male and the owner of a 16kg kettlebell which I have been using for a while now. I find this weight to be fine for most two handed exercises but when I try to do exercises with one hand like 'military press' I find that it feels too heavy and I am not confident doing the exercises.

My question is should I buy a lighter bell (or bells) or should I just push myself a bit to handle the one I have?

Also, if I do go for a lighter bell is there a rule of thumb for how much smaller I should go based on being fine with the 16kg?

Answer 1

Go smaller. Don't risk injury. And I suspect, although, I have no proof, that a one-handed 8kg bell will be harder to do than a two-handed 16kg bell.

Answer 2

Can you lift that 16Kg-kb at least once? Then you should get a 12 Kg bell, it's going to feel a lot lighter.

Assuming you can lift it once, you could also just push yourself with 16 Kg. Working your way up from sets of 1 rep each is perfectly possible, but it will take longer. Safety comes from concentration, tension and proper breathing. You should be able to lift a bell safely even if you can do it only once, but learning proper technique first with a lighter bell is still a good idea.

Answer 3

You can use a 1 rep max calculator to help you figure out how much weight you'd need in order to make 1 or 2 reps with 16kg. So if you do 1 rep with 16, you should do 10 reps with 12. That way you can make a training choice between high weight, low rep and low weight, high rep.

Remember, form is critical in strength training and a rep only counts if it is done with good form. Sloppy exerices don't benefit you and could cause injury.