I previously wrote about 10 kettle bell exercises for a fitter and stronger body and it seemed to go down quite well. (Thank you for that by the way.)
So I thought I’d look at more kettle bell based stuff seen as that seems to be of interest.
If you haven’t already read my previous post, please check it out https://www.rmfitness.net/post/top-10-kettle-bell-exercises
My previous post was more about essential exercises that you should doing such as swings, cleans etc.
If you want a fit and strong body, it is essential that those sort of compound exercises are in your routine.
But the beauty of kettle bells is that there’s so much you can do with them.
So what I aim to do this time, is to give you not exactly essential exercises but more interesting and fun (loosely fun) exercises that you can add in to spice up your kettle bell workout. And going to try and keep it to kettle bell exclusive exercises or at least it's done best with a kettle bell. Exercises like rows and presses can be done on anything so I'm trying to more creative with my exercise selection.
1) Windmills
Now yes I did have this in the previous list. However, it’s not a very common exercise. It’s not exactly advanced but it’s something you see the casual kettle bell user doing.
People tend to do exercises on kettle bells that they do on dumbbells too. Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But that’s why I’ve added windmills to the list as it’s an amazing exercise that will spice up your kettle bell routine.
This is a great exercise for strengthening your shoulders and improving your core strength. Similar benefits to the get up. But this is done standing.
Press the kettle bell overhead. Then step out slightly with the leg on the opposite side to the kettle bell. So if you have the kettle bell in your right hand, step out with your left leg.
While keeping your shoulder stable and arm straight, lean down towards your left leg. I like to put my hand on my leg and run my hand down my leg as much as I can.
Then once you’ve gone as low as you comfortably can, stand up straight.
This is a pretty demanding movement and would recommend starting with a light weight or even no weight to get used to the movement.
2) Hot Potatoes
Arguably the weirdest exercise name going, hot potatoes are a very simple exercise.
You simply pass the kettle bell from one hand to the other the same way you would with a hot potato, thus the name.
Now I know what you’re thinking, doesn’t exactly sound like the sort of exercise that’s gonna get you super jacked and fit doing. And to be honest you are right.
But what this is great for, is a filler exercise. So say you have a 7 or 8 exercise kettle bell routine were you flow from one to the other doing, say, 10 reps on each exercise.
Adding in some hot potatoes between exercises certainly makes things more interesting.
It kind of acts as a bit of an active recovery exercise but doing it over and over again while still doing your cleans and presses and rows etc, really gets you arms and shoulders even, burning.
3) Sling Shots
This is another quite unique kettle bell exercise. Definitely not a very common exercise.
So what is it then?
Difficult enough to describe but I’ll do my best.
With the kettle bell in one hand, come down like you are going to do a one armed swing. But instead of coming up and swinging it, pass it behind the opposite leg into your other hand.
So for example, if it’s in my right hand. I’m going to come down and pass it behind my left leg and into my left hand.
Then I’m going to come up and bring the kettle bell up so the kettle bell rest in the other hand ready for you to go down to go again. I added a picture of that last finish position as I understand it’s hard to describe.
I use this a bit like the hot potatoes only these are a lot tougher. I would be these between other exercises although you can add them in as their own exercise if you like. That lower into a bit of a squat/hinge movement can be tough. Especially as you get tired. Very easy to take it in your lower back. So as always with a movement like this, a tight core is very important.
4) High Ups
Again, this is one I touched on before. But like the windmills, it’s very uncommon exercise and due to the movement that’s involved, it is one of the few exercise that is exclusive to the kettle bell.
I don’t see how you could do this with a dumbbell and definitely couldn’t do it with a barbell.
So instead of doing exercises that you do all the time and use anything to do them on, try doing things that you can only do or are better do using a kettle bell.
This is essentially a single arm swing with a row at the top. So you get all the benefits of a swing but you also get the lat and upper back engagement with the row.
Do a single arm swing and when the kettle bell gets to should-head height, pull back with your elbow into a row. Straighten your arm out after the row so the kettle bell lowers the same way it would on a swing.
5) Swing and Catch
Now this one takes a bit of coordination and confidence. But it’s not as tricky as it looks. You just need to trust that the kettle bell isn’t going to go flying.
Simply do a kettle bell swing with both hands on and as you are swinging it up, let go of the handles and catch it at the round part of the kettle bell. The handle will probably be facing down then.
If done right, you should catch it in a bit of a front rack position. This makes it perfect to flow into other exercise. So you can do a goblet squat with it, overhead press, or you could transition to grabbing the handle and back into swings.
These are just some exercises that I thought would be cool for you to add to your routine.
As I touched on earlier, you can do squats and rows and overhead press with kettle bells, dumbbells and barbells.
So when you’re training using kettle bells, why not change it up a bit do something a bit different to the norm.
Yes there’s a reason that squats and presses etc and done no matter what type of weight you are using. They’re great exercises and should be in your routine. But it’s also good to change things up and add in exercises you don’t normally do or even couldn’t do if you were using dumbbells or a barbell.
Hope this helped and have fun adding these into your routine.