It's another Q&A edition of Optimal Health Daily, episode 1740, and I'm Dr. Neil Malick.

Hey there, happy Friday, and welcome to another Q&A edition of Optimal Health Daily,

where I answer your health questions related to fitness, diet and nutrition, and lots more.

You send in the questions, and I answer them for you.

Now, if you want to know more about me and my background and my credentials,

definitely check out the first Q&A episode from earlier this month.

Or tune in next week where I'll go into more details about all that.

But I'm going to keep this intro nice and short,

so let's hear today's audio question as we optimize your life.

I've been reading about the virtues of exercising with kettlebells.

Can you comment on whether they're really as good as it made out to be for fitness and weight loss?

Thank you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to send in your audio question, Richard. I agree with you.

Exercising with kettlebells does seem to be all the rage. Their popularity may have peaked a couple of years ago, but they are still very commonly used.

So your question is perfect. Is it worth incorporating them into our workouts? If we have a home gym, should we buy a few for ourselves? Let's dive in. First, to be clear, I want to start by describing what a kettlebell

actually is, since it does have a unique shape. When we think about a dumbbell, for example,

we know that it has two weights or bells

joined by a handle in the middle. So the weight distribution is basically the same on both sides.

A kettle bell, on the other hand, has a different shape altogether. A kettlebell actually resembles

one of those old-timey black iron kettles that were used for cooking.

So imagine a black iron kettle used to, say, heat water on a stove. It has a flat bottom,

which is placed on the stove, around kettle where the water would go, and a handle at the top.

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