Kettlebell resistance training examples...

MouseMan01

Been working out with the 20kg kettlebell since lockdown.

One of the reasons I'm unhappy with results is because I end up doing the same 6-9 exercises over and over.

Tried google but can't find good examples of a list of single kettlebell exercises to mix things up and get better results.

Does anyone know of such a list?

Black Sheep

If you're just looking for exercise variations...

Upper body

Shoulder press
Seated shoulder press
Z press with kettlebell
Kneeling press
Bottoms up shoulder press
Bent press
Push press
Push jerk

KB floor press
KB single arm bench
Pushup variations (Close grip, wide grip, Feet elevated, deficit, one arm etc)

Vertical and horizontal pulling movements are always harder, as I've said before you really need a pull-up bar or a TRX or similar to train the back effectively-

KB row
Renegade row
After that I would suggest pull-ups variations, fat man rows / inverted rows etc

KB curl (Two hands if necessary)
KB crush curl
Curl in bottom of squat position

Overhead tricep extension
Seated tricep extension
Lying tricep extension

KB front raise
Windmills
Halos

Bands might generally be better for a lot of the accessory work, especially for training the upper back.

Lower body-

Goblet squat
Goblet squat with curls or press outs
Reverse lunges
Walking lunges
Skater squats
Single leg box squats
Split squats
Bulgarian split squats
Rack position squats

Swings two handed
Swings one handed
American swings
Banded swings

Clean
Snatch
Hang clean
Hang snatch
Clean and press

RDL
Single leg RDL

Other stuff / whole body

Russian twists
KB side bends

Turkish get up
1/2 get up

Suitcase carry
Overhead carry / waiter walk
Rack carry

Complexes... Clean, press, one sided squat, swing (change hands), repeat etc.

Then you can also do the above in the context of doing them pre-exhausted... Or doing ladders... Or supersetting it with something else... Or with pauses Etc

There are obviously many exercise variations you can do even with just one piece of equipment. But just doing a mish-mash of exercises to keep things varied is not really the point, the question is what is the overall programming.

- Upper / lower split?
- Whole body training?
- High volume will likely be required on some exercises, or else increase the difficulty of the variation you're choosing by using pauses and pre-exhaustion if the 20kg is far too light for you
- Do you want to do density training where you're hitting a certain number of swings or snatches in a time period, the way a lot of classic kettlebell programming involves?
- How many days a week do you want to train?
- Do you want to add in a day of hard running, and a day of easy running?

Worth looking at kettlebell programmes by Pavel Tsatsouline, Dan John, Jeff Martone and others.

If nothing else it's worth making sure you really know how to swing and snatch correctly. I like the russian "hard style" taught by Pavel. It is one thing to let a kettlebell float around when swinging it, but a totally different beast to explode it from the bottom and then to engage your lats to dramatically halt it at the top of the swing and send it hurtling back down to begin the process again. When you learn how to swing "hard style" it genuinely becomes a different exercise.

Mellor

I don’t think changing from one press to another press is going to suddenly kickstart progress.
20kg is fairly light. For strength/hypertrophy you prob need to go heavier.

But if you want good feedback on your current program. You could post the exercises, reps, etc

the baby bull elephant

Dan John's 10k swing challenge may be worth a perusal.

CIARAN_BOYLE

the baby bull elephant wrote: »

Dan John's 10k swing challenge may be worth a perusal.

Trying this. With the 28kg bell instead of the recommended 24kg for men.

Am going with the 15-35-15-35 cluster as opposed to the 10-15-25-50 cluster a lot of older versions fo the program will reccoemnd.

It seems difficult but good to get a challenge.

If you are going to do a very high rep program like that make sure you have a mirror or get someone video you for a while to make sure your form is right.

MouseMan01

All I can get my hands on is a 20kg kettlebell. Kinda light.

I try to lift to failure over those 12 reps by keeping form, doing negatives and doing mostly compound sets with some supersets. No breaks.

This routine allows me to train with only a 20kg kettlebell.

Appreciate the comprehensive post reply in this thread. But I was hoping to locate a link to pics of kettlebell exercises as opposed to just exercise names.

I record my workouts but haven't evolved past my own resistance exercise nomenclature. I label my exercises 'lap curl', 'knee curl' etc...

I've always done this. It's probably not ideal.

I'm generally not happy with my results from 18 months training in this exercise iteration. Haven't built enough muscle. However I'm 42M.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Would you be interested in videos of workouts.

When I started using a kettlebell I used to cycle through 5 or 6 people doing video workouts on YouTube. I'd study their technique etc for form.

Alf Veedersane

MouseMan01 wrote: »

Appreciate the comprehensive post reply in this thread. But I was hoping to locate a link to pics of kettlebell exercises as opposed to just exercise names.

Just Google them or look up on YouTube.

MouseMan01

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Just Google them or look up on YouTube.

Tried google unsuccessfully. Will try YT. Thanks.