Often times when I blog I’m writing about some aspect of my own Kettlebell training origins, or the early days of my training progressions. Mainly because I’m writing with the goal of inspiring my reader with words to encourage you to really integrate Kettlebell training into your entire lifestyle, more than just into your exercise practice. When I first got into weightlifting and kettlebell exercise, I didn’t have a lot of guidance or personal training attention to what I was doing or how I was doing it. Instead, I relied on a few simple benchmarks within my progress that let me know that what I was doing was working.
As a kettlebell lifter, I had the obvious indicator of whether or not my strength and ability were improving because I was starting with a 35 pound kettlebell and working up to being able to move up to the 50 pound kettlebell. If my work with the 50 pound kettlebell was getting more comfortable and manageable then I knew that I must be doing the right things. I was measuring my progress, and increasing my confidence, by looking at my level of comfort with the next weight up. I focused most of the attention of my exercise program on decreasing the fear and apprehension that came with lifting heavier kettlebells. I kept my rep counts and set schemes low and simple, I stayed consistent, and I practiced all of my lifts with the lighter kettlebell, with the specific purpose of learning to use the heavier kettlebell with more confidence.
Here are a few tips to help you make sure that you know when your kb program is progressing in the right direction.
First, pick simple movements to practice during each training session, these will work to indicate success and improvement over time. With kettlebell exercises, I suggest going for a press variation, a squat variation, and a deadlift variation. My early choice was to use kettlebell push press, the bottoms up kettlebell goblet squat, and the single leg kettlebell deadlift. If I was able to perform these with my 50 pound kettlebell, after practicing for a while with my 35 pound kettlebell, then I knew that I was making the progress I was looking for. If you’re looking for simple indicators to know if your kettlebell workout program is having a progressive effect then try using these 3 lifts.
Next, during whatever Kettlebell lift that you are doing, always make sure that you’re focusing on engaging your glutei (your butt muscles). I know that it sounds simple but this is really the deepest secret to any serious kettlebell training progression. Imagine with every kettlebell flow that you perform, you are actively squeezing a coin between your butt muscles. Try it now, stand up with your feet about shoulder width apart and relax your body, poke around at your thighs and hamstrings to notice that those muscles are all fairly relaxed or loose, then imagine squeezing that coin between your butt muscles. While you do this, poke around your thighs and hamstrings again to notice the difference in muscle engagement. Then do it again, relax, notice your thighs and hamstrings, “then squeeze the coin” and notice the difference. This foundation of engagement of you glutei, quads, and hamstrings will most likely immediately lead to gains in your beginner and advanced kettlebell lifts, as well as an overall sense of increased power.
Another tip that I always give to my personal training clients, and kettlebell group classes, is to keep kettlebell workout rep schemes and sets numbers manageable. Think about it as if all of your training and workout sessions are for you to practice each movement as a skill, then only practice perfect movements. If your movements start to break down at a certain point, say 10 reps in, or if at any point your body starts to have the response that you can’t do one more rep, bring down your rep count to a number that feels like you can perform at least 3 more reps and stop there. The notion here is less reps more sets, so instead of doing 15 reps where the 15th rep feels very hard or sluggish, or even sloppy, then look at doing 3 sets of 5 reps where you rest and recover after each set. The result will probably be that you feel like you could do even more sets, so that the “15th rep” feels like you’re just getting started, or it feels very strong, or it’s even the best rep that you’ve ever done. Then, approach all of your sets in the same way. Focus on each set feeling better and more precise than the one before it and stop while that is still the case. Keep everything feeling great and stop while everything still feels great.
Lastly, how do you know when to use a heavier kettlebell? If you feel like you can do 8-12 solid reps, or if it seems like you could do endless sets at a certain weight then you can most likely do 1-3 solid reps of that same movement with the next weight up. Remember, no matter where we are on our lifting journey, we are using the current weight kettlebell to learn how to use the next weight up. So, if I feel comfortable using a 35 pound kettlebell, the goal is to use it to get comfortable using the 50 pound kettlebell, and so on and so forth.
One way to approach it is, if you can always do 8-12 reps of kettlebell presses with a 35 pound kettlebell, then do a set of 6 reps at 35 pounds followed by a set of 1-3 reps at 50 pounds. This allows us to apply everything that we are learning to a greater challenge, and to solidify our progress, or indicate what we still need to work on. Simply put, do 1 set of 6 reps of a Kettlebell exercise with a 35 pound kettlebell followed by 1 set of 2 reps of the same kettlebell exercise using a 50 pound kettlebell, then do that coupled set 3-5 times.
With these 4 simple kettlebell lifting tips kept in mind while you train, your progressions are pretty much guaranteed to go smoothly. An analogy that I like to use is to look at my kettlebell progress as if I were taking a long road trip. As long as I consistently monitor my speed, brake at the right times and with the right pressure, and follow all the necessary road safety checks, then I can just enjoy the drive and get where I’m going without any problems. Translating this to a kettlebell training program, as long as I do all of the things that keep my practice on track, and I am paying attention to my increasing comfort, then I will make the progress that I am looking for and my kettlebell workouts will get easier to perform.
Let me know if you have any questions, enjoy!
