Competition Kettlebell: What It Is, Sizes, Colours and Who Needs One

A competition kettlebell is a steel kettlebell made to one fixed size, so every weight from 8kg to 32kg (and beyond) has the same height, the same body diameter and the same handle, usually around 33mm thick. Heavier bells simply have less empty space inside their hollow shell. That uniform shape exists for kettlebell sport, where lifters do hundreds of reps and need the bell to sit in the same spot on the forearm whatever it weighs. For most home lifters it's a nice-to-have; for anyone who wants to snatch, jerk or train high reps, it's the better tool.

What makes a kettlebell a "competition" kettlebell

Walk into a UK retailer's kettlebell section and the competition bells are easy to spot: a row of identical-looking steel balls, each painted a different colour. Size is the defining feature. A standard cast iron kettlebell grows as it gets heavier, so a 32kg cast bell is noticeably bigger than an 8kg one, with a thicker handle and a wider window. A competition bell stays the same, roughly 28cm tall with a body about 21cm across (exact figures vary a little by brand).

The other defining traits follow from that:

• Steel shell, hollow core. Competition bells are made from a steel shell. Light weights are mostly air inside, while heavier ones are filled or have thicker walls. Some cheaper models use a cast iron core with a steel exterior, but the outside dimensions still match the standard.
• A slimmer, uniform handle. Around 33mm is the norm, with 35mm as a common alternative. On cast iron bells the handle often gets thicker as the weight goes up.
• Flat, wide base and flat sides. The body is less round than a cast iron bell, so it rests more evenly on your forearm in the rack position and lands with less of a thump during snatches.
• Smooth, lightly textured paint on the handle. Sport lifters chalk up and need the handle to let the hand rotate freely over hundreds of reps, which is why you won't find thick powder coat or rubber here.

If you're more interested in how cast iron bells are made, and how the different coatings compare, our sister piece on the cast iron kettlebell covers that side in detail.

Colour coding by weight

Uniform size creates an obvious problem: you can't tell a 20kg bell from a 24kg one at a glance. Manufacturers fix this with colour. The heavier weights tend to follow a shared scheme, which is handy if you train in a gym with mixed brands:

Weight	Common colour
16kg	Yellow
20kg	Purple
24kg	Green
28kg	Orange
32kg	Red

Below 16kg the colours vary more between makers (pink is a common choice for 8kg, but not universal), and the half-step weights such as 14kg, 18kg and 22kg are a free-for-all. Always check the chart on the product page if you're buying a matching set from more than one brand. Most competition bells also have the weight stamped or printed on the side.

Kettlebell sport (girevoy) in brief

Competition kettlebells came out of girevoy sport, a discipline with its roots in Russia that's now governed internationally and contested in the UK too. The classic events are simple to describe and brutal to do: the jerk, the snatch and the long cycle (a clean and jerk repeated), each performed for as many reps as possible in 10 minutes without putting the bell down. Biathlon combines the jerk and the snatch. Men typically compete with 24kg or 32kg bells; women commonly use 16kg up to 24kg.

That 10-minute, never-put-it-down format explains every design choice. If a 24kg bell sat differently on your forearm than the 16kg you trained with, your technique would fall apart at rep 150. A study of 16 elite Italian kettlebell sport athletes found high muscle quality markers and largely symmetrical grip strength and upper-body composition between sides, which fits a sport where you switch hands throughout (Stagi et al., 2023, Biology). It's a small sample, so treat it as a description of trained athletes rather than proof of cause.

The wider kettlebell research base is thinner than the marketing suggests. A scoping review of 99 publications found that most kettlebell training studies used hardstyle technique, only four investigated kettlebell sport, and the effects reported were typically trivial to small with low confidence in the evidence (Meigh et al., 2019, BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation). Kettlebells are useful, but nobody should buy a competition bell expecting it to be scientifically superior.

Competition vs cast iron kettlebell

This is the comparison most buyers are really searching for, so here it is side by side.

	Competition kettlebell	Cast iron kettlebell
Size	Same at every weight	Grows with weight
Material	Steel shell, hollow core	Solid cast iron
Handle	Around 33mm, uniform	Often 30mm to 40mm, thicker on heavy bells
Handle window	Narrow, suits one hand	Usually wider, fits two hands
Shape	Flatter sides, wide base	Rounder body
Price per kg	Higher, especially light bells	Lower
Best for	Snatches, jerks, long cycle, high reps	Swings, goblet squats, general strength

The case for a competition bell

The biggest advantage is that technique transfers as you get stronger. When you move from 16kg to 20kg, the bell lands in the same place on your forearm, the handle sits in the same groove of your palm and the arc of the kettlebell snatch doesn't change. With cast iron, a heavier bell is also a bigger bell, which shifts the rack position and can make overhead work feel unfamiliar for a few weeks.

The flat sides matter more than you'd think. In the rack position, a competition bell rests on the forearm across a wider, flatter area, and during snatches it rolls over the wrist rather than crashing into it. People who've bruised their forearms learning snatches with round cast bells usually notice the difference quickly.

Storage is tidier too. A row of identical bells takes the same footprint per weight, which suits a small home gym shelf.

The case against

At light weights a competition bell is bulky. An 8kg competition kettlebell is the same size as a 32kg one, which makes it awkward for some movements and a bit silly-looking on the floor. Smaller lifters can find the large body pushes into the forearm and hip during cleans.

Price is the second drawback. Building a steel shell to an exact size costs more, and the light bells cost nearly as much as the heavy ones, so price per kilo at the light end can be double or more what you'd pay for cast iron.

The third is the handle. A 33mm handle in a narrow window is great for one hand and cramped for two. If your training is mostly two-handed kettlebell swings, goblet squats and halos, a cast iron bell with a wider, slightly thicker handle is usually more comfortable.

Who should buy which

Pick a competition kettlebell if you:

• Want to learn or train kettlebell sport events, or plan to enter a competition
• Do a lot of single-arm ballistic work such as snatches, jerks and long cycle
• Expect to buy several weights over time and want them to feel identical

Pick cast iron if most of your work is two-handed swings, squats and general strength circuits, or if budget matters more than consistency. Cast iron is still the default recommendation in our best kettlebells UK guide for that reason.

An adjustable kettlebell makes sense if space is the main constraint and you want a range of weights in one footprint. Some adjustable models are built to competition dimensions (Bells of Steel sells a steel-shell, internally loaded version), which gets you closer to the competition feel without buying five separate bells, though they're rarely as smooth for high-rep sport sets.

If you're unsure where to start on load, our guide on what weight kettlebell you should use breaks it down by exercise and experience.

UK prices: what to expect

Prices at UK retailers and on Amazon fall into fairly clear bands at the time of writing:

• Budget competition-style bells: roughly £40 to £60 for 8kg to 12kg, rising to around £70 to £130 for 20kg to 32kg.
• Specialist sport brands: often £80 to £150 or more per bell, with tighter tolerances on size and handle finish.
• Cast iron for comparison: usually far cheaper per kilo, especially at light weights.

On Amazon, the Modern Fitness competition-style range was around £45 for the 10kg bell when we checked, which is a sensible entry point if you want to try the format before committing to a full set.

Check price on Amazon

What to check before you buy

A few details separate a decent competition bell from a poor one:

1. Handle diameter. Confirm whether it's 33mm or 35mm. Smaller hands usually prefer 33mm.
2. Handle finish. You want smooth, thin paint or bare steel that takes chalk, not a grippy coating that tears skin on long sets.
3. Weight accuracy. Good brands quote a tolerance; cheap bells can be off by a few hundred grams, which matters if you're training for a competition.
4. True standard size. Some "competition style" bells are only roughly uniform. If consistency is the reason you're buying, check that the listed dimensions match across the whole range.
5. Base. A flat, wide base stops the bell rolling and makes it safer to set down between sets.

NORTHERN also sells a competition kettlebell on Amazon with a standardised size and a non-slip handle, priced around £80 when we checked; compare it against the Modern Fitness range once you know which weight you need.

Check price on Amazon

For the rest of your setup, our home gym hub covers racks, dumbbells and flooring that pair well with a kettlebell collection.

Recommended reads

• Best kettlebells UK
• Adjustable kettlebell: is one worth buying?
• What weight kettlebell should I use?
• How to do the kettlebell snatch
• Kettlebell swing guide