workout

Kettlebell Training For Beginners

Kettlebell Training

In my 4 year training hiatus away from traditional gyms, I have learned a lot about strength and conditioning.

I’ve learned that fancy equipment is NOT a necessity, and that a small investment in large ROI (return on investment) tools like the kettlebell are well worth the money spent.

I was introduced to kettlebells through the internet.  Honestly, the first time that I ever witnessed a person swinging a kettlebell was on YouTube while in Detroit, MI.  I have to admit that I was stubborn in my training philosophy then, so I hated them.

“Another exercise fad! That’s insane and dangerous!”

I believe that to be my initial reaction that after watching the video clip.

Kettlebells weren’t a thought in my mind until a year after watching that clip.  What a mistake.

Perform Better and Gray Cook…

While attending a Perform Better conference in Chicago, I decided to listen in on Gray Cook’s seminar as he raved about the kettlebell’s versatility when it came to rehab, strength and power development.  Gray isn’t known for being a fat loss guru, but he made a point to touch on the effectiveness of kettlebell training for burning fat.

One point that Gray made was an experience that he had working with the Indianapolis Colts, having 260-320lb NFL athletes try and walk 50 yards with a 53lb (24kg) kettlebell held in full extension over their head.

Not one guy could do it.

Pound for pound, we are talking about some of the strongest athletes in the world.  Many of these guys can probably press 100+ pounds vertically, yet not one could overhead carry load half of that (53lb) for 50 yards?!?!

No shoulder stability.  Many of these guys were ticking time bombs for injury.  Very interesting.

After Gray’s seminar, I ventured over to the product display table where they had a 20kg kettlebell out for trainers to play around with.  As soon as I picked it up, I felt like I hadn’t trained in years.  The feel of it was so unique.

One short, awkward, off-balance kettlebell workout later that night in the hotel room and I  knew that there was something incredibly valuable about the kettlebell.  The rest is history.

Here are some reasons to love KB’s…

Kettlebell Design…

The weight of a kettlebell is off-center that of the handle, unlike a dumbbell where the weight is evenly distributed on either side of your hand grip.  First impressions after picking up the 20kg bell at the convention told me that I needed to give it a shot.  I purchased a 20kg kettlebell and my introduction to alternative training methods began.

Most of the kettlebells that I recommend purchasing as made of a cast iron mold.  Lifeline and Dragon Door are the two major players, with companies like Perform Better and Art of Strength having a market presence also.

You are going to find two different styles of kettlebell on the market today.

1)  The first is the competition kettlebell and looks like this:

2)  The second (and more common) kettlebell that you will often see is what is known as the “hardstyle” kettlebell.  This kettlebell design was used by the Russian’s to condition their military for years.  Pavel Psatsouline pioneered the kettlebell craze in the Western world in the early 2000’s, and his methods have since grown like wild-fire in popularity.

Here is what the “hardstyle” kettlebell looks like:

Flow…

The flow of kettelbell training is what makes it so addicting.  Virtually every movement in a kettlebell workout is completed in standing position, so transitioning from a 2-handed swing to a 1-handed swing to a 1-arm clean into a vertical press… is actually quite simple.  It’s all about grace and flow while maintaining enough muscular tension to move the bell through space.

Ground based training with constant transitions from movement to movement is total body in nature, and extremely fatiguing.  The indirect core training that occurs as a result of a vertically standing posture is one of the many perks of ground based training.  Muscles are called upon to contribute as they would in a real world situation.

This is functional training.  No gimmicks, just amazing real world carryover from the workout to life.

Relaxed-Tension…

Kettlebell training is a skill and an art.  Creating tension where it is needed yet remaining relaxed is something the is so non-traditional compared to traditional strength training methods.  Sure, you can perform the grunt lifts, but the balance of “relaxed-tension” is something to be marveled at with a kettlebell workout.  Martial artists have known the value of relaxed-tension for hundreds of years.

Relaxed-tension demonstrated in the Bottom’s Up Turkish Get Up

Basic movements, huge training effect…

Simplicity will trump everything with kettlebell training.  A steady diet of kettlebell swings, cleans, snatches, vertical presses, bent rows, reverse lunges, turkish get ups and carrying variations will keep you progressing for months both aesthetically and athletically.

Forget about fancy moves from the get go.  Train the foundational movement patterns listed above and you’ll develop strength while consistently decreasing your waist circumference.

A lot of people struggle with sticking to a training regimen because they get paralysis by analysis.  Men’s Health and their trivial information sends people in 10 different directions, which often times causes the tiring spinning effect in a training

Stick to the basics.

 

Stay tuned as I load this blog up with more videos and demonstrations.

Time to move more and sit less people.

Here is a two movement basic kettlebell workout that I still use to this day…

90 Days of Kettlebell Complex Workouts

15 minute Workouts

Kettlebell complex workouts accomplish a lot (strength, muscle endurance, work capacity, afterburn training effect, etc) considering the time investment (15 minutes or less).

I’ve got an extensive background using complexes on training days where time is tight and when I want to lean out quickly.  

Complex training is not a miracle, but for me and many others, they do pack a MASSIVE punch.  

Essentially for 90 days, I used the same catalog of exercise, weight, reps, sets and rest periods to observe the adapations and see what would happe.  

Calorie intake (and the quality of those calories, protein intake, etc) remained as consistent as possible.  

To be fair, there was probably some slight variance with calorie intake over the 90 days, but it was controlled and kept as consisent day-to-day as possible.

Complex workouts, particularly using kettlebells, are my go-to modality for quick and powerful combination of resistance training and conditioning.  Some refer to this as metabolic conditioning, fine.  

No matter what you choose to call it, complexes deliver an awesome training effect in a really short amount of time.  

Here’s the 20,000 foot view of my personal experiment using a kettlebell complex:

  • Duration: 90 days
  • Complex workouts per week: 3 (sprinkling in airbike session on the weekends)
  • Rounds per workout: 5
  • Reps per movement: 6 (except for kettlebell swings and pushups… 15 reps for those)
  • Equipment: 53lb (24kg) kettlebells x2
  • Rest: No rest between movements, 60 seconds of rest after each round
 

The Kettlebell Complex Workout

Double Kettlebell Clean x6

Double Kettlebell Front Squat x6

Double Kettlebell Overhead Press x6

Alternating Gorilla Rows x6 r/l

Double Kettlebell Deadlift x6

2-Hand Kettlebell Swing x15

Bodyweight Push Ups x15

 

After the last rep of push-ups, rest for 60 seconds before starting the next round.

Again, one full pass through each of these exercises from beginning to end  = 1 round.  

Complete 5 total rounds.

Make sense?

The combination of 7 different exercises to stress the entire body, movement tempo, no rest between exercises and incomplete rest after each round makes complex training extremely challenging.  

In 15 minutes or less, you trained the entire body, addressing strength and conditioning in one workout.  

Complexes are generally made up of 4-8 exercises, mixing ballistic, upper and lower body resistance training, bodyweight and even ground based conditioning exercises like crawling, etc.

Results

Lean and efficient.

If I wasn’t such a dipshit, I would’ve documented exactly what happened with, before and after pictures, saving the chit chat. 🙄 Now you all think I’m liar.

My bodyfat percentage dropped below previous lows (my college hockey playing days).  I can’t say this didn’t come at the expense of losing some muscle and raw strength, but I leaned out pretty aggressively.  

Nutrition.  The 90 day experiment was a reminder of the power nutritional consistency (calorie management, protein intake, hydration, etc) and how much impact it has on fat loss.  

But I also have to tip my cap to impact of exercise.  Exercise matters.  It adds muscle, strength, burns calories and has a plethora of health benefits.  I hate it when people ONLY preach nutrition or exercise for aesthetic gains.    

Execute both and maximize your results.  

Complex workouts can add lean muscle (resistance training) while accelerating fat loss.  

Work capacity improved dramatically.  How do I know?  After roughly 6 weeks, I could’ve dropped the rest periods to 45 seconds and added another round.  Specific adaptations to imposed demands.  My body acclimated to the stress and I became efficient at crushing the workouts.

In the last few weeks of the experiment, I added a 6th round, then a 7th and closed it out with 8 rounds.  

The negatives of adding more rounds was the increase in time it took to complete the workout, and a general feeling of diminishing return.  

More volume isn’t always the answer, and in this case, I felt it was probably overboard.  

Progressive loading.  The purists will tar and feather me for not increasing the loading, but AGAIN, I deliberately avoided progressive loading. I wanted to see what zero change looked like after 90 days. 

Strength gains plateaued quickly, but this was also expected bI never increased the weight of the kettlebells.  Again, SAID Principle at work.

Without progressive increases in weight using the exact same exercises, strength stalls.

The goal was engage in a little experiment.   3 months of the exact same complex workout.  No change, no deviation, just consistency.

Cautions

Know the exercises beforehand.  

Don’t “learn” how to control the kettlebells while under fatigue.  

Practice and develop familiarity with each of the exercises in ISOLATION FIRST.  

 Complex workouts are great for helping the fat loss process along.  But this type of exercise is much different than aerobic steady state cardio.  The fatigue hits hard.  

This type of training is also very different than a traditional approach to lifting weights, where you’re performing reps and then taking full rest before the next work set.  

Complexes are purposefully designed with incomplete rest periods.  In the later rounds, you’re going to cringe at picking up the kettlebells to start again.  

The key is find the right balance of weight used and rest periods.  You want the session to be difficult but not impossible, yet not so easy that you walk away feeling like you could have done another 4 rounds.  

5 rounds should be a bear 🐻 

Lastly, whenever weights are being used to create a conditioning type training effect (metabolic conditioning) the user runs the risk of mishandling the equipment, losing body position and tension, etc… resulting in tweaks, strains and injury.  

USE COMMON SENSE.

If you don’t have access to a pair of same weight kettlebells, this workout could be adjusted to use dumbbells aor a barbell instead.  

Note:  It’ll be difficult to include swings if you use a subsitute.  

Progress slowly and adjust the training variables incrementally…  Start with light weight, decrease the reps, add rest periods between each exercise, increase the rest after each round.  

Over time, do the exact opposite of the previous suggestions to keep the workouts challenging.  Increase weight, increase reps, reduce or remove rest periods between each exercise or shave off time after each round.   

Let exercise technique be your guide.  If you feel technique deteriorating, rest.  Simle as that.  

The goal is to control every movement, rep, set and stay the hell away from injury.  

Closing

Complex training is perfect for people who are looking to get a TON of work done in a short amount of time.  

In this busy world (career, kids, social life, hobbies, daily duties, etc) not every workout can last 90 minutes.  

When you’re short on time and have the drive to get a sweat in, complexes are extremely valuable, without giving up much. 

Plus, complex workout generally require very little space and equipment, so they are great for at-home workouts.  

For people who are regularly lifting weights and doing cardio, I highly recommend adding in a complex day (two) throughout the training week.  Mixing it up here and there can provide a refreshing break from your normal exercise regimen.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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