An Awesome Kettlebell Workout

You’ve heard about kettlebells; a great alternative to dumbbells and barbells, and provides you with a challenging workout that you can’t mimic with any other piece of equipment. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of exercises that you can do with this one piece of equipment. Rest assured, however, that you can learn just a few exercises with the kettlebell and tailor a challenging yet enjoyable working to your liking. By the end of this article, you will be able to understand a few basic kettlebell exercises, how to do them, what muscles they work, and how to integrate them into your own kettlebell workout routine.

When it comes to a kettlebell workout, the two handed kettlebell swing is the holy grail. It works everything; you are squatting with your quads, hamstrings, a glutes, while you swing the kettlebell with your shoulders and your back. The squatting motion also works the lower back, which in turns makes your abdominals stabilize against the movement of the lower back.

Good new for the ladies: it has been shown that those that are in search of the “perfect posterior” will find themselves doing this exercise for quite some time; for anywhere from forty five seconds to several minutes, building up the duration over time. This exercise would be a great way to fill your active rest portion of the your kettlebell workout circuit.

When it comes to the upper body, many people think about push ups, bench press, or chest flyes. Enter the kettle bell snatch press; an exercise that’s working all the muscles from the waist up. Start with your kettle bell at your side; then swing your kettle bell so that your kettle bell is near your shoulder, keeping your elbow tucked in close to your side. From this position, press the kettle bell up like you would for an overhead dumbbell press. Lower the kettlebell, switch your grip and bring it back down by your side. Repeat this exercise for at least one minute.

Everyone does squats; they’re the best exercise for your legs. Let’s change things up and give our body something different, such as the kettlebell squat. By holding the kettle bell in front of you when you squat down, you are focusing more on the part of your leg that is closer to the kneecap. If you feel as though this is too easy, you can always add a two handed overhead press with the kettlebell either when your legs are parallel with the ground or when you are completely standing. Once again, repeat this exercise for at least a minute.

To work your core (your abdominals and muscles that interact with your abdominals), try rotating side to side with your kettlebell. By doing this, you are working your abdominals, obliques, intercostals, as well as stabilizing with your lower back. This will help you develop not only your abs, but also the sides, resulting in better definition when you start dieting for the summer.

For the kettlebell deadlift, you want to bend over and pick your kettlebell up off the ground, keeping your back straight and your head up. At the top, squeeze your lower back muscles ever so slightly. During this exercise, you’re working your lower back, as well as stabilizing with your abdominals. To make this exercise more difficult, you can add a kettlebell squat after the kettlebell deadlift, or even a kettlebell press.

When using kettlebells, take some time to experiment; your only limit is your own imagination. You can always take standard isolation exercises and do them with the kettlebell. Bent over rows, bicep curls, triceps extension, pushups, burpees; these are all exercises that you can incorporate the use of the kettlebell into.

The use of the kettlebell isn’t limited to just resistance exercises, either. You can easily incorporate the kettlebell into your cardiovascular exercises. Switch to a lighter weight and you can do exercises like the single or double handed kettlebell swing, snatch press to lunges, pushups, and even burpees (squat thrusts).

As an overarching piece of exercise equipment, the kettlebell is most likely the most versatile and fun piece of equipment you can workout with. Weather your goal is to build muscle, burn fat, increase or endurance or simply to have fun while working out, the kettlebell does a great job of helping you reach each of these goals. Take the time, experiment with the kettlebell to figure out what exercises work best for you, and enjoy your new kettlebell workout.