When most people think of a gym, they usually picture a room filled with heavy barbells, a range of dumbbells, and maybe a variety of machines. But, one iron jewel has been dug out of the past and has become increasingly popular over the last 20 years — the kettlebell.
This simple-looking “cannonball with a handle,” often made of cast iron, is a versatile and convenient training tool. It can be easily transported or stored in the corner of your home, and it can be the centerpiece for brutally effective workouts virtually anywhere, for any goal.
Because its center of gravity is away from the handle, this piece of equipment allows for unique exercises (such as kettlebell swings) and unconventional workouts that can’t always be replicated with dumbbells. Sure, you can execute some of the same exercises, but the cardiovascular work will be greater with a kettlebell, as the off-balanced design recruits more muscle mass. Kettlebell training can also help to improve balance, coordination, and core bracing.
Here are some of the best kettlebell workouts for all levels of lifters and a wide range of goals, be it size and strength, conditioning and endurance, or even fat loss.
Kettlebells appear to serve the same general purpose as dumbbells. They allow you to train for nearly anything, at any time, and anywhere. (1) But, with the center mass being different, a kettlebell is naturally less stable which provides a different training stimulus. Kettlebells will be slightly less efficient for building raw size because isolating muscles can be difficult due to the added stability challenge, but they are highly effective for building muscular balance and coordination. (2)
As such, kettlebells can provide more “functional” workouts and are particularly useful for athletes. Some kettlebell exercises, like the Turkish get-up, take advantage of this total-body benefit to further improve athletic qualities and conditioning. Because more overall muscle is recruited to stabilize the kettlebell, kettlebell training will also increase the demands on your cardiovascular system, making it a great choice for conditioning. (3)
The off-centered weight and distinctive handle shape allow for unique exercises requiring a swinging or arc motion. This provides even more choice in exercise selection and greater training possibilities. Kettlebells can also be used to perform the same exercises you’d otherwise do with dumbbells.
If your priority is building muscle mass, the kettlebell can be an amazing tool. (4) Focus on the most stable exercises, allowing you to use the heaviest weight to provide the best stimulus for muscle growth. A workout should start with big basic, compound (multi-joint) exercises that recruits the most muscle mass when you’re fresh, so that you can use the most weight while focusing on good form.
Then, you can follow with isolation, single-joint exercise to target a specific muscle or improve your mind-muscle connection. These exercises stimulate less overall muscle mass, but are very useful to focus on a single body part.
To progress, stay in the desired repetition range, performing “hard” sets. Improve over time, either by increasing the number of repetitions or, if available, the weight of the kettlebell. Start relatively light when you first try an exercise — allow time for your nervous system and body to master the technique required. Do not progress too heavy, too fast. Remember that muscle building is a marathon, not a sprint.
There are several ways to organize a workout or program, so we’ll detail several routines that you can use depending upon your preferences and schedule. The first one is a workout focusing on the muscles of the upper body and utilizes supersets to hit the muscles with a higher intensity in less time.
This lower body workout will combine bilateral (two-leg) and unilateral (single-leg) exercises to increase muscle mass while making sure both sides are trained symmetrically. This can also help improve balance and coordination.
The session starts with an explosive movement to really warm-up your knees and activate your nervous system to perform even better later in the workout.
The kettlebell can be a fantastic and efficient tool to shed as much body fat as possible. The compact weight allows you to quickly mobilize a lot of muscle mass and expend lots of energy. For fat loss training to be as effective as possible, you need to use “cyclic” exercises or movements that you can perform for a relatively longer duration, to sustain the energy expenditure.
As such, aim for each bout of effort to last for a significant amount of time. Don’t use too much weight or get too crazy on the pacing — the effort should not be “too hard” because you need it to be sustainable. With this workout, combined with a fat-loss focused diet, you should be able to shed fat while also improving your base cardio and endurance, as you’ll be working in the aerobic zone of cardiovascular conditioning.
This specific workout is a type of EMOM training — every minute on the minute — which implies that you need to set a timer and begin each exercise at the corresponding start of each minute, for a specific number of rounds. If your cardiovascular abilities are limited, start with four rounds of this circuit. Work your way up to six to eight rounds for maximal fat loss. Exercises will be performed “for time” instead of for specific repetitions.
If you want to become a lean, mean, non-stop machine and crank up your cardiovascular and endurance capacities, then these workouts are for you. Kettlebells allow you to work on different aspects of conditioning by providing either steady paced, sustainable exercises or high intensity, lactic-acid inducing burnout sessions.
If you’re a bit rusty, cardio-wise, then the fat loss workout will double as an effective base-building plan. When you feel capable of tackling a more challenging routine, you can replace it with one of these or combine them into your weekly program if you’re hungry for faster cardio gains.
Here we want to use a variety of exercises for intense bursts of work and incomplete rest — a form of high intensity interval training or HIIT. This stimulates higher oxygen utilization and addresses aerobic abilities of your muscles. Be sure to use a relatively high intensity to really stimulate the aerobic power, which is the functional capacity of the cardiorespiratory system. So make these periods of work count.
You do want the effort to remain sustainable and aerobic, hence the 1:1 work:rest ratio and the inclusion of exercises that you can perform for long duration sets. Perform 30 seconds of work with 30 seconds of rest on each exercise and repeat the circuit a total of four times to create one “block.” Rest two to three minutes between each block and perform two to three blocks per workout.
When the intensity is really high, your body will tap into the anaerobic system and use the phosphagen and glycolytic pathway to produce as much energy as possible. This type of training still uses the aerobic pathway for recovery and it will improve your aerobic base, but it primarily focuses on making you more resilient to intense, shorter bouts of exercise and lactic acid accumulation.
This approach is particularly useful for powerlifters, CrossFitters, and strongmen/strongwomen, as it can help you to sustain very hard work lasting in the 90 to 120-second range while improving glucose storage and utilization. You can use a wide variety of intense exercises, and kettlebells are perfectly fitted for such workouts. For this workout, you want to be pushing yourself hard — aim for 90% of your maximum output. Set a timer to start every four minutes and begin the exercises when it rings. Repeat the entire circuit five or six times.
If you’re new to kettlebell training, here’s a workout to ease you into the flow of using an unfamiliar piece of equipment. This basic full-body workout alternates kettlebell staples and more traditional exercises in a circuit to build complete size and strength as well as familiarity with the unique ‘bell. It’s also a great fit for any newer lifter that wants to improve their fitness.
Just because you’re using a “simple” piece of equipment doesn’t mean you can skip the warm-up. With any workout, a warm-up will prime and activate your body to perform better and minimize the risk of injuries. Your best course of action would be to start with a light cardiovascular activity for five minutes like jumping rope or cycling, then hop into this circuit of exercises.
Kettlebells are getting more and more popular for a reason. Practical, versatile, and functional, this lifting equipment can help you reach your goals of muscle size, strength, conditioning, or fat loss. Use these tailored workouts to master the flow of kettlebells and add this incredible, time-tested tool to your fitness kit.
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