YBELL Fitness Review

YBELL is a 4-in 1 piece of fitness equipment with endless workout possibilities, especially when it comes to functional training/movements. The special design/shape of these dumbbells allows you to perform kettlebell-training, regular dumbbell-work, double grip “med ball”-bouts, push-up stands and much more. The YBell was carefully designed by experts in fitness and industrial design to make it easy and accessible for every Body 😉 No matter if you’re “just” a “weekend-warrior” or a professional athlete, integrating these “cool tools” will add variation to your workouts, which inevitably will lead to more progression!
Learn more about these helpful “tools” for you “training-toolbox”…

This article will also be available in German, soon!

YBELL – Why would you choose’em?

YBEll, why would/should you choose them? (what a pun 😉 ) Well, as always, this question has to be answered with: “it depends”! It depends on what’s your goal right now.

For example: It depends whether you’re new to the world of fitness, respectively a novice lifter or, i.e. if you’re a world class elite athlete.

In both cases you might take benefit out of integrating YBELLs into your workout, but in different ways!

This results to the weights of the YBELLs which, in comparison to ordinary dumbbells, are rather light in weight (up to about 15kg).

So if you are e.g. looking for a “most bang for your buck” approach to equip you own house with a little “home gym”, but lack the space to stuff it with space consuming racks and/or machines, you should definitely consider investing in a set of YBELLs!

Especially in times like we experienced in 2020 where lots of people, due to special circumstances, did not have the chance to visit their regular gym! With a full set of YBELLs at home there is no time for excuses but a lot of access for results!

Having a set of these will give you literally a myriad of training possibilities, especially for metabolic-, respectively anaerobic conditioning work, plus functional movements.

Due to the shape of the YBELLs you can use them as regular dumbbells, as kettlebells and (with some restrictions) as “medicine balls”. The restriction results in the fact that, obviously, you should by all means  not throw them around like a true medicine ball.

Keeping that in mind you can still use them for functional medicine ball-movements, as they can be gripped two-handed and that in a much more convenient way than regular dumbbells!

From my professional perspective/expertise I’d say the YBELL plays its true strength in its versatility for functional movements.

Let me explain…

YBELL and the sagittal plane

Most of power, strength, speed and other weight-training is more or less performed in the sagittal plane. That means, you either move a weight up or lower it down. Rotational exercises are found surprisingly rare, even in top athletes’ training protocols.

Of course you should keep in mind that even if someone is considered to be a world class athlete this doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is also always performing a structured and sport specific training!

So, the big benefit of YBELLs is for sure the functional training aspect. Movements in which you rather train movement than (isolated) muscles.

If you’re not yet familiar with this training-nomenclature here’s a brief example:

Example 1:

An isolated exercise would be a seated dumbbell biceps curl. An exercise where you are sitting on a bench (with a dumbbell in each hand) and then curling the weight up (concentric phase) and afterwards lowering the weight (eccentric phase).

This would be considered to be an “open kinetic chain” and “open circuit” exercise, but we will leave this apart not to make things too complicated. As you can see, this exercise is intended to (depending on the way of gripping and rotating your wrist)  work different parts of your biceps muscles.

According to that it is, more or less, not training something else.

Example 2:

In this example we think of an exercise named: “Medicine Ball (MB) Pull-over to stand”. A rather complex exercise, that focuses on movement, rather than isolated muscle work!

Performing this exercise requires you to stand upright (with a YBELL) in front of your belly (arms bent approximately 90° in the elbows), after that you squat down to a full squat (“ass to grass” or deep enough to leave a stain on the floor 😉 ).

Having reached this position you will move your upper body backwards until it is lying on the floor, while simultaneously extending your arms over your head (keep arms straight).

Then you’re going to do the same movement as described above but just in reverse, performed in an explosive manner.

This is an exercise in which you train a complete movement, with extensions and flexions of almost all joints and by activating all primary movers in your body.

Too see the described excercise, “Medicine Ball (MB) Pull-over to stand”, please watch the video below.

As you can see, the YBELLs are designed not to be used for super heavy hypertrophy work, like traditional bodybuilding work as they eventually will become too light, nor for something like powerlifting.

YBELL – Form follows function

So, what’s so special about the YBELL? Of course, it’s the design, but it also resembles a function. When it comes to designing products there is a rule: “form follows function”.

That means that, first of all, the product must be usable to solve a certain “problem”. Afterwards you can give it a nice appearance (design).

The YBELL does both. It looks really nice and has a very good workmanship + offers a vast versatility for exercises (as you can use it as dumbbell, kettlebell and “medicine ball”) while simultaneously saving a lot of space.

YBELL describes the evolution of the YBELL’s product development as followes:

“The development of the YBell has been a labor of love for inventor and personal trainer Aaron Laurence. Over the last 15 years Aaron has trained thousands of people on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach.He was using traditional training tools, dumbbells, kettlebells and medicine balls, to create his own brand of High Intensity Resistance training. With his member numbers growing it became impossible to keep incorporating multiple pieces of equipment into his sessions. The solution to the problem was the YBell. One piece of equipment that did everything he was already doing and more!” (YBELL, 2020).

The YBELL’s name perfectly describes its appearance. It looks roughly like the letter Y with a triangle “around” it.

The YBELL-Family is available from XS up to XL and are sold individually.

They star with 9,5 lb which is approximately 4,3 kg and move up to 26,4 lb, which is about 12kg.

Of course the YBELLs increase in size and weight from extra small to extra large.

YBELL – Get a Grip

The cool thing about the YBELLs are the grips. You have four on each YBELL and it gives you quite a lot of grip options. Either for a double handed grip or a single handed one.

Moreover, you can grip “inside” the bar. That differs the YBELLs from traditional dumbbells where the weight equals the center of mass. Meaning, that while gripping an ordinary dumbbell you find the weights aligned with the grip.

When you use the inner grip of the YBELL, the weight distribution differs from those of normal dumbbells. Using a YBELL the weight is not aligned with the grip but “molded” around your hand!

This will result in a different weight distribution and a total different feeling while moving the weights around.

Is this “better”? This would consider a definition of the term “better” in our case here but I would say: Not better, but different!

Keep in mind that constant training variation is one of the keys to continuing progression. Therefore it’s not as important of HOW much progression you do but to ensure ongoing progression.

You should also keep in mind that it’s about proficiency and not perfection. If you try to do something perfect it will never be done.

To give you a better understanding of how you can use the grips of the YBELL please take a look at the images below:

YBELL Inner Grip:

Choosing where to grip is essential! By changing the grip positions you can change the center of mass. Meaning, it’s a difference for your joints/muscles e.g. if you perform a YBELL bench press movement with your hand IN the YBELL or ON the YBELL!

Having your hand ON the YBELL, the weight will drag your hand more to the outside, whereas keeping your grip IN the YBELL will keep the weight in a line with your arms, respectively your elbow and shoulder-line (depending on which part of the movement you’re looking at).

YBELLS outer grips (“medicine ball”)

When gripping two-handed you can use the YBELLs to simulate a kind of “medicine ball-training”, at least to point where you don’t have to throw the ball. Therefore it’s not a true ballistic movement, e.g. like pushing a MB away from you with maximal force output!

But, as I mentioned earlier in the text, you can use any other exercises that you could perform with a regular MB! This will give you a vast possibility of exercise performances in all three planes (sagittal, frontal, transversal).

Especially useful for metabolic conditioning (where you don’t need super heavy weights) and other functional oriented movements.

YBELL Kettlebell-stile grip

The triumvirate of usage will also give you the opportunity to use the YBELLs like a conventional kettlebell.

This will expand your exercise repertoire to exercises like kettlebell swings or even Olympic Weightlifting inspired ones, like i.e. single-arm YBELL snatches, from different positions (hang/from the ground).  

Again the outcome of the exercise will differ from your grip position (e.g. kettlebell style = on the top grip of the YBELL)!

In this video I give you a brief example of exercises that can be performed using different grip variation on the YBELLs. Some exercises are performed with a closed kinetic chain and closed circuit, or an open kinetic chain with open circuit.

YBELL – price vs. investment

Well, when it comes to fitness equipment it’s inevitable to talk about the costs, the price and if something is considered to be a true investment.

So, what does a full set (10 YBELLS) cost? A 10-piece kit will cost you 599,90$ exclusively packing & shipping. This is an approximate price of 60$ per YBELL.

If you’d like to have them stored in a SUPER COOL vertical rack (see photo)  for an extra of 315,99$.

You can either pick a YBELL Combo 10 Piece Kit + Rack or the Vertical Rack alone or each YBELL solely (not sold as pair).

Therefore you have plenty of options available suiting your demands, space and budget. I’ve being using the YBELLs quite some time now, very extensively with my own training and with clients and patients.

I consider the YBELLs as a very useful equipment. No matter if you have a professional facility in which you work with clients or if you want to equip your own home-gym.

Whether you’re working 1:1, alone or in groups, the YBELLs will give you a time and equipment-saving solution, the famous “most bang for your buck”!

I’m happy to have them in my gym!

YBELL Review Conclusion

So, what else can I say about the YBELLS that I haven’t said before? To be honest, quite a lot and one single article is surely not enough to show every possible usage, any kind of exercise or movement that can be applied with a set of YBELLs.

That’s not at all my intension nor my desire. This article is written to introduce you to this “cool tool”. To address you that there is more out there than the regular stuff.

Of course the fitness industry has the burden that almost every day something new “pops up”, but it is not necessarily useful! As my mentor Charles R. Poliquin, aka “Strength Sensei” (R.I.P.) once used to say:

“I could wear my underpants above my jeans, that would be new. But it would be useless” (Poliquin 2018).

You get the point. Just because it’s new does not mean it’ll apply any real benefit. In the case of the YBELLs that’s the opposite. They are new AND useful!

I like the approach YBELL uses, it’s according to the “pareto principle” or 80:20 rule. You search for the minimum effective dosage to achieve maximum output. In the case of the YBELLS that’s the same.

They offer you the possibility to have different equipment all “molded” together in one piece. According to that it’s economic in terms of budget and equipment!

YBELLs have a non-slippery surface, a non-rust neoprene coating, are ideal for training almost everywhere and will expand your “training tool-box”. As you know: if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

Bonus Option:

YBELL offers quite extensive options of workout and education! You can, e.g. book an online introduction workshop, use the YBELL Workout-APP and/or apply either to their Coaching- and Master Trainer Courses.

Additionally there are lots of YBELL-Events available, to be found all here: https://ybellfitness.com/workouts-education/training-calendar-events/

My Final Conclusion:

I strongly recommend you to invest in these special barbells!

© HP Bernd Stößlein, Master of Business Administration in Sportmanagement.

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Literature

YBELL about us, source: https://ybellfitness.com/about-us/, access: 5.8.20.