Excellent Kettlebell Exercises

Article by Georgette Adanas

So you’ve discovered kettlebells have you? Well you are on a good path. Kettlebells are an extremely versatile piece of workout equipment and lend themselves to a ton of different fantastic exercises. For whatever reason they appear to only have been widely discovered in North America very currently, however, they’ve been a staple of Russian muscle building for rather some time.

Anyway, enough about that… you require some kettlebell exercises to do. Well right here are three superb kettlebell exercises which will get multiple muscle groups working in unison ( normally a good thing as that’s how things work in the real world).

Kettlebell Excercise #1 – Squat Thrusts

This is an incredible full body exercise, which can be turned into an endurance as well as muscle building exercise if your kettlebell (kettlebell) isn’t too heavy.

Start in a full squat, will your butt slightly below your knees, and keep your back flat (not straight up and down… you need to be leaning forwards a little at this point… but it should be flat, i.e. not arched). The kettlebell should be resting on the floor beside one of your feet, with the handle in one hand.

Now as you stand up, pull the kettlebell up as you would in a bicep curl. When your legs are practically fully straight you must push the kettlebell up over your head, as in a shoulder press. Your entire body ought to now be straight down and up using your hand extended above you holding the kettlebell (elbow locked, or close to it). Now reverse the motion back into a squat, and repeat. When you go back into your squat the kettlebell does not have to touch the floor (you can do so if you like nonetheless… it’ll make the exercise slightly more hard). Once finished with one arm, repeat with other arm.

Do this for speed for a little bit more of an endurance exercise (still keep good form though!), or more slowly and controlled to make it tougher on your muscles. This is a fantastic exercise to work a lot of muscles in your upper body, your core, and your legs (a part of the body lots of people ignore!).

Kettlebell Excercise #2 – Squat Lifts

This exercise is absolutely similar to the 1st, nonetheless it’ll work the back and the front of the shoulder a little bit more. Start again in a full squat, this time the kettlebell between your legs, holding the handle with both hands (you need to be bent forward at the hips slightly more in this exercise than in the prior one… still keep your back straight though!).

As you stand up, swing the kettlebell upwards in front of you… as you reach the end of your squat (legs fully extended), the kettlebell should just be reaching its peak, arms fully ended over your head. When I say “swing” the kettlebell, I don’t mean do a floppy swing and just fling it up there… good form is key! As you swing, keep your body rigid, and be sure to keep your back straight, just bending at the hips.

At the bottom of your motion, the kettlebell should not be touching the floor again… go down until it is maybe about a foot off the ground. Again do this for speed for endurance, or slower to work your muscles more.

Kettlebell Excercise #3 – Turkish Getups

Turkish getups are an amazing core exercise very few individuals know about. With a heavier kettlebell, they take some remarkable core strength to pull off, and they surely aren’t as tiresome as situps or crunches.

As it is very a complex move, instead of trying to properly describe the Turkish getup I’m just going to suggest you search “Turkish getup” on YouTube to see how a correct Turkish getup is done. Locate a video which explains the move slowly, and follow the stages exactly. Do not do it if your kettlebell is too heavy for you as you will just be straining the wrong aspects of your body, and you could injure yourself.

So there you have it… 3 awesome full body kettlebell exercises to add to your workout arsenal!