Have you ever wondered what would happen when certain pieces of lifting equipment hit the ground? Some things in the gym are meant to be dropped like bumper plates and rubber sided dumbbells. But metal equipment, now, that’s another story.
We’ve written an article before on nine crazy equipment drop tests, which feature companies and athletes putting their gear to the test, but none of them were really true accidents. Plus, none of them included kettlebells. Rory Mckernan from CrossFit HQ, recently put up a video highlighting what happens when a 150 lb kettlebell makes contact with concrete.
Check out the video below where Mckernan’s kettlebell swing with an additional flip goes wrong.
If you guessed that the handle breaks off, then you’re dead on the money. I mean at least he could use it for, uhm, a tiny stone? We’re actually not sure how one could use a 150 lb kettlebell with no handle for training, so if you have any ideas of how you’d use it, let us know in the comments below.
Kettlebells aren’t very expensive, but they’re also not incredibly cheap, especially when they get to weights like 150 lbs. The average 150 lb kettlebell from Rogue Fitness costs around $168.00, and doing a quick internet search, then you’ll see they’re even more expensive from other companies (some get up to $350.00).
This video got me thinking, “How many times have people had their kettlebell handles break off?” Well, thanks to Instagram and the hashtag #kettlebellfail, I found another video of a kettlebell breaking.
Check out this video from @immortal.strength.power on Instagram that features a kettlebell swing and throw over a bar gone incredibly wrong.
To be honest, I was a little let down by Instagram’s results for providing me with broken kettlebell goodness. This led me to search YouTube, and boy was I let down again.
I found only one pretty good video featuring a kettlebell break. Check out the video below from Marcus Martinez’ YouTube channel that shows us what happens when you drop two kettlebells at the same time. John Wild Buckley was bringing two kettlebells down after a press, and then you can probably guess what happens next.
I spent a fair amount of time searching for kettlebell breaks, probably too much time, but don’t tell my boss that. And I couldn’t find much. Maybe this doesn’t happen as often as I first presumed, or maybe people forget to film during mishaps.
Regardless, broken equipment is never a great thing on the wallet, and can be a pain to replace. Moral of the story, kettlebells plus concrete and metal are never a good thing.
Feature image screenshot from @rorymckernan Instagram page.