“Covering all your fitness bases” with kettlebell workouts?
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- Опубліковано 24 лис 2024
- Learn the Clean + Jerk. Join that 1% here
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Minimal focus, maximum results with the Kettlebell Snatch
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Power, Maximum Strength, Power-endurance, and Strength-endurance - building the capacity of a wrestler, and feel next to invincible for example.
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One of the toughest things I’ve noticed that people have with embracing kettlebell training is the concept that, when programmed correctly, the KB (or KBs) are truly a “one-stop-shop” for Joe or Jane Average.
And look, I get it - no one likes to think of themselves as “average.”
So, by the very fact that you’re even using KBs no longer means you fall into that average category.
When I was coming up, we always split our strength work and our conditioning work.
I trained my upper body with weights for wrestling - bodybuilding style, and I had my legs and more importantly - my wind - covered from running.
Later, after incorporating Squats and Deadlifts and direct leg work in general, “cardio” was always done on “off” days.
And for many of us, that mindset has carried over to KB training.
In fact, I just got an email the other day, from someone who was seeing his arms, shoulders and legs grow, and the fat around his waist melt, from doing one of my KB complex programs.
Even though he was getting great results, he still felt the need to ask if he should “do cardio on his off days.”
Look, if you’re single, or you don’t have kiddos, or they’ve left the nest and you have the time, energy, and the ability to recover from “extra cardio,” then by all means, do a little extra, especially now that Zone 2 cardio is all the rage.
Or you could take FULL ADVANTAGE of the Power of the Kettlebell (kinda like the “Power of Greyskull” from the 1980s “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” cartoon - but I digress)...
And “bake in” your cardio… Your muscle-building… And your strength training into the same program - the same workout session even.
Again, it’s all how you set it up.
That’s the beauty of kettlebell training.
It’s wonderfully flexible.
Take the Clean + Jerk for example.
(Or Push Press if you don’t have the mobility to perform the Jerk.)
Using this one “simple” exercise, you can train to:
[+] Become more powerful / explosive
[+] Build strength in your shoulders, arms, upper back, upper chest, hips, hamstrings, grip, and abs
[+] Improve your conditioning (a.k.a. “Get your cardio in”)
[+] Strip off body fat
All you have to do is manipulate your sets, reps, and rest periods.
Especially if you use a pair of kettlebells.
In fact, if you want to go from the “above average” to “near elite” - that 1%, the Double KB Clean & Jerk is a “mountain worth conquering.”
Or, there’s the Tsar of Kettlebell lifts - the Snatch.
This “Emperor of Exercises” has proven itself over the last 2 decades in the West (as well a the former Soviet Union back in the 1980s) as:
[+] A superior total body conditioner
[+] An increaser of Pull Ups (without ever doing Pull Ups)
[+] A liquidator of body fat, without extreme dieting
[+] A forger of iron-like lower backs
Many people are shocked at how a “minimal focus” on “just” this lift can transform their bodies.
Of course, you don’t have to train or focus on “just” one KB lift.
For many, that idea sounds preposterously boring.
You can combine different lifts into the same program, and focus on training for different outcomes SIMULTANEOUSLY.
For example:
Power, Maximum Strength, Power-endurance, and Strength-endurance - building the capacity of a wrestler, and feel next to invincible for example.
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(And stripping off body fat as a “side effect.”)
The point is, there are so many things - so many outcomes that you do and achieve with “just kettlebells” that you’re only limited by your education and imagination.
Kettlebells truly do “cover all the bases” so you no longer have to limit yourself to the traditional fitness methods and paradigms again.
Simply use them in your back yard, your porch, your basement, your office, your bedroom, your deck, or toss them in your car/truck and take them out to a field for some fun and watch your body transform.
I leave links in the description for 3 different “Do It All” programs if you’re interested.
Hope this helps.
Stay Strong,
Geoff
This man knows what he speaks. His Kettlebell Muscle book is a classic which I purchased years ago. Would love to see this classic offered on Kindle.
I miss watching He-man Saturdays at 9 am with my mom and brother :(
I'm giving Maximorum an honest go starting this week. I believe it will be exactly what I need.
At 53, been doing kettlebell programs (yours Geoff) for nearly 10 months now. Feeling better, feeling stronger and feeling more 'athletic'. Can still get in the pool and swim a decent 50m freestyle or lace up the running shoes and do a 5k without any specialist running training. Imo truly is the all-round fitness tool if done correctly.
Nice video!
KBs pretty much changed my outlook on fitness, and improved almost every aspect of my fitness & health!
Gorilla cleans and clean & jerks be doin the damn thang 💯👍🏿
I didn't touch a barbell for almost two years while heavily focusing on kettlebells. My deadlift and Zercher squat, which I was expecting to be weaker, actually went up. I have always done things like hill sprints, burpees, etc every day so nothing changed with my conditioning but I will say that as someone who has heavily emphasized conditioning for decades, the kettlebell is as good of a tool as any and better than most.
IFrom my study, the main cardiovascular improvements come from zone 2 and zone 5. The latter improves VO2 max if done in certain ways. One protocol is 4 mins on, 4 mins off repeated 4 times. Heart rate in zone 5 for 4 minutes is no joke at all. I have yet to attempt this with kettlebells but I imagine the snatch especially would work. Now VO2 max might sound a bit technical, why bother. Well, as far as I know there is no other marker so correlated with longevity. Good as muscle mass and strength is in this regard, VO2 max beats it hands down.
I think Geoff has a strong case, perhaps one factor does not quite fir, subjective ideas about fun. Easy to dismiss, but when we are talking about a lifelong activity, enjoyment might be a big factor. Still, between kbell c+p, snatch, squat, swings, there is a lot to work with, throw in pull-ups and dips and even more so.