Kettle Bells

We've been doing a little bit of stuff with kettle bells some weeks at my circuit class and I've been quite enjoying them so I thought I would have a look at getting some.  What I was thinking was of getting a DVD with some workouts (something like Kettlercise) along with getting one or two kettle bells.  It appears cheaper to buy the DVDs and kettle bells seperately rather than as a package! 

Has anyone used any of these DVDs as I need a bit of advice about what size kettle bell to get.  I've used an 8kg one at circuits for some of the lifting exercises, but I struggle with the weight of it and the size makes it really cumbersome as they are the huge ones.  I've used heavier ones for the swinging exercises though.  I was thinking of getting the smaller sized weights just for ease of chucking them about and that I'll have more confidence in chucking about something smaller, the big ones scare me a bit!

I have about £40 to spend, which is isn't huge as the kettle bells seem expensive,  so I don't want to end up getting the wrong weights especially as I'm not exactly sure what exercises will be on the DVDs or how long the sessions are!

Be careful what you do with them - its easy to injure yourself if you do things wrongly.

Hopefully you're OK from your classes though.

And I'd go lighter rather then heavier. The lighter ones still make great door stops.

We have really good instructors that make sure out technique is good and we'll sometimes spend 10 minutes at the start of a session just going through the kettle bell bits so I feel fairly confident with them, apart from the size issue! 

4 Hour Work Week / 4 Hour Body is really good, as is Kettlebell Union - they do a free weekly email of tips for 20 weeks.

Could you not get the DVD first and skip through it to check the exercises/format and then decide if you want to go heavier or lighter?

Personally, I'd always go heavier with kettlebells because I find it easier to cheat with lighter weights and I think its the cheating/poor form that leads to injury, but that is just my preference.

I have 3 kettlebells a 12 a 16 and 20 kg been training with them for a couple of years. They are excellent tools I would suggest caution with the heavier ones 

try a gym that has them like a trial at fitness first and try out the heavier ones

I got mine form http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/base-fitness?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Look up a guy on Youtube called Steve Cotter his form is great

I have two of these which you can adjust between 3 and 7kg.

Thanks everyone, I'll look into those programmes. I called the Kettlercise people and spoke to them about what's on their DVDs and there are three workouts; an 8 min abs workout, a 20 min general workout and a 50 min total body workout.  I definitely think the weight I could do an 8 minute work out with wouldn't be the same really as one I could do a 50 minute work out with!

Very interesting the adjustable one Nykie!  That's definitely worth considering and nicely within my budget   Plus would solve the problem of having several different weights.