Why do many KB "Pro's" look like they don't workout?

The reason they look like they don't workout is not because they use kettlebells but because of the movements they perform and the way they perform the movements. They train themselves to perform the movements as efficient as possible and to reduce as much unnecessary tension as possible as opposed to hypertrophy/bodybuilding training in which you train your muscles to contract as much as possible for as long as possible. If you watch the olympic weightlifters from the 80's especially the record holders from Bulgaria they look like they don't workout either because they only performed squat, snatch and clean and jerk. Now we have the Chinese olympic lifters that look like bodybuilders and they only look like that because after training the snatch, clean and jerk, squats and pulls they usually do bodybuilding exercises and they also do a lot of bodyweight exercises such as dips, pushups, pullups, handstand pushups.

What boggles my mind is that people think you can only perform kettlebell exercises (snatch, clean and press/jerk) with kettlebells. Anything you can do with a dumbbell you can perform with a kettlebell. If you perform snatch and clean and jerk with a kettlebell then you are training as a girevoy sport athlete. If you want to look like you workout then you better train like a bodybuilder, eat like a bodybuilder and do cardio like a bodybuilder and do rows, bench press, flyes, shoulder press, lateral raises, upright rows, curls, pullovers, squats, deadlifts which can all be done with 2 kettlebells and a bench.

There are different kinds of training. Skill training, strength training, speed training, hypertrophy training, flexibility training etc etc. These people train for a particular sport, their main focus is probably skill training. The least important thing to them is probably hypertrophy training. Training for a specific sport and training to get bigger muscles are two very different things. Of course you can combine all kinds of training which is what most athletes do now.

/r/kettlebell Thread