Kettlebell Workouts for Beginners (and the Broken)

I’m pretty new to kettlebell training but I’m slowly seeing why kettlebell workouts are so popular.

You see, I’m a bit old school. A bit resistant to change, I like to do things my way and when I find something I like, I stick to it.

It took me a while to realise, but once I got a taste for them, Kettlebell workouts became some of my favourite workouts.

In Kettlebells: Fab or fad? A beginner’s guide, I provided a brief introduction to kettlebells and their rise to popularity in recent times. In this article I want to share a few of my favourite kettlebell workouts for beginners and why I think just about anybody can give them a go.

What I like about kettlebells

There’s a couple of the things I really like about kettlebells.

1. They are versatile and
2. They are highly accessible.

Versatility

There’s just so much you can do with a kettlebell. The advantage a kettlebell has over a barbell or machine weight exercise is that it really adapts to you.

No matter what your size, exercise experience or fitness level, there is a suitable starting point for anybody.

Even if recovering from injury, or needing a break from your usual workout routine, there is likely a way to integrate kettlebells into your training to meet your particular requirements.

Accessibility

Most gyms now include kettlebells as part of their standard kit.

However, kettlebells are also easily accessible and affordable for those who prefer to workout at home, at work, or at the park. And, because they are easily transported you really can take them anywhere.

Furthermore, enough space is never a problem. As long as there’s enough room above your head, and around your body, you’re good to go.

Why I started using kettlebells

The reason I started using kettlebells may surprise you.

You see, I’m actually pretty broken!

Curse of the gym athlete

As a perfectly healthy and extremely active kid growing up I moved with ease. I played lots of sports. Athletics, soccer, basketball, swimming and even trampolining and kickboxing.

As time went by, I began to specialise. I moved away from organised sport and became what I’d call a gym athlete.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had slowly moved away from varied and abundant exercise in to more structured, more predictable and less balanced workouts.

Not less balanced, in the sense of only taking care of the mirror muscles. Or forgetting about leg day, or passionately cursing out cardio for all those lost gains – Lord, have mercy.

No, I kept a pretty good gauge on working my muscles equally no matter which side of the body they lived.

But something was missing.

Straight lines: the most direct route from point A to point (B)roken

Creating a balanced workout routine, wasn’t an issue for me.

If there was a push, there was a pull.

Worked the front, then so too the back.

Every leg day must also have an arm day.

You get the drift.

What I had started doing however, was limiting the ways in which I moved.

Being a “gym athlete” I only moved in one way. Straight lines.

For the majority of exercises I did in the gym I’d move forward and backward, up and down, or side to side.

And that was it.

Now, this is not such an issue normally. In fact, there’s an argument for this linear approach being the safest and most effective way to load a muscle.

There’s a reason trainers are forever telling clients, “knees in line with toes”, “eyes straight ahead”, “back straight“, “push straight up”, “pull straight down”.

We’re trying to avoid our clients hurting themselves by loading themselves up whilst in compromised body positions.

However, there is more to a balanced workout than working opposites. And, as I got older, the more I noticed how limited my everyday movements had become.

Cue the kettlebell

One way in which I began to counteract my own physical limitations, was to introduce a few basic kettlebell movements into my regular exercise routine.

Nothing major, I started with about 10mins of swings and squat variations. However, within a couple of weeks, I noticed my body freeing up and some of my long-term aches and pains starting to dissipate – especially in my knees and lower back.

Now I cannot hand on heart say whether it was purely the inclusion of kettlebells into my routine that was responsible for the sudden physical improvements that I felt.

But whether it was coincidental or not, I did experience a mind shift.

I became more open to expanding my exercise repertoire beyond the linear plane. I felt more comfortable to be once again moving, in a way that had quite frankly become pretty foreign. And, I started to enjoy my exercise again. It hurt less, I could do more, I was seeing changes in my appearance and fitness. And, because I was having fun, I kept going back to it.

Sample kettlebell workouts

As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this article is to provide a few simple examples of kettlebell workouts for a beginner.

That’s not to say you should stop whatever training you currently do and only focus on kettlebells from now on.

Rather, I wanted to provide some kettlebell workout variations that might be integrated into a current workout regime to add variety and enjoyment, without compromising any performance objectives you’re already working towards.

The following workouts are designed to target specific training objectives. They are all aimed at beginner exercisers who may be just starting to integrate kettlebells into their own workouts.

As these are only sample workouts, it may be necessary to modify the prescription to suit. I wanted these workouts to help a beginner get started and to have an idea of how they might piece together a basic kettlebell workout.

In saying that, I have also included guidance on how to progress these workouts to be more challenging if needed.

As you gain experience you may find yourself with the knowledge and confidence to design your own workouts. The possibilities are pretty endless. I hope this is a good starting point.

Workout #1: Kettlebell mobility plus

This workout is great for loosening up your joints and also makes for a useful warmup sequence prior to more challenging kettlebell or other conditioning activities.

I found this set of exercises helpful in identifying areas of tightness, particularly unilateral imbalances and functional weakness.

But most of all, I liked how this workout stretched my lower back and left me feeling better aligned especially after a day at my desk.

The workout itself is based on circular movements and a top-down approach.

Here are the exercises I use:

Reps

Do 10 reps of each exercise in both directions. Rest if you need to and repeat until you are feeling fresh and loose.

Choosing the right weight kettlebell

Before moving on to the next workout – a quick note on choosing a suitable weight.

Start light, see how you feel, only progress when you can do the reps without any real niggles or significant fatigue.  Consider progressing the easiest exercise one load step. Then the next on a latter workout.

Some may never move, which is fine, as long as you are feeling loosey goosey at the end – the routine has done its job.

Workout #2: Kettlebell starter pack

This workout is based on the initial kettlebell workout I used when first finding my feet.

I used it as an add-on to my 20mins of jogging. The aim of the routine was to free up my joints and re-establish some mobility in my hips and shoulders.

The workout is really simple. I took 4 exercises (focused on swinging and squat patterns) and completed a basic circuit.

Each exercise is completed immediately following the previous without rest. Once you’ve completed the full round of exercises take a short break of 30 – 60 sec and repeat.

Here’s the exercises I used:

Reps

Again, aim for 10 reps here. I’d do 10 reps for the two handed exercises, then split the single hand exercises up by doing 5 reps on each side.

Workout #3: Kettlebell calorie burner

This workout is designed to get your heart rate up and provides a full body workout.

I like this one as I feel I’m getting a bit more bang for buck as both my legs and shoulders are working hard. And there’s also the coordination challenge when switching hands during the hand to hand swing which is quite fun.

The workout is based on an approximate 1:1 work to rest ratio. So, your rounds will last about 1min and then you can rest for 1min before repeating as many additional rounds as you like.

Although nearly any combination of movements could work here, the exercises I‘ve suggested this time are:

Reps

Start each round with 30 kettlebell swings, then drop down to 10 reps each for the goblet squat, and goblet press. You’ll likely need the full 60sec rest to start with but will get by with less as you get fitter.

Workout #4: Kettlebell power play

This workout is the most dynamic of the examples provided here. I’d suggest this kettlebell workout for those who are looking for more of a coordination challenge and perhaps moving out of the beginner ranks.

As such, only try this workout if you have learnt how to safely clean (or rack) the kettlebell first.

This workout provides a full body challenge and is focused on unilateral movements. That is to say, you will need to repeat each exercise with your other hand also to keep the workout balanced.

This will also likely expose any areas of dominance or weakness between sides or regions.

For myself, the first challenge was finding the coordination to do the exercises with my non-dominant hand. Then, it became about addressing any unnatural weaknesses so that I could become as evenly matched on both sides as possible – this is still a work in progress.

Here are the exercises:

Reps

Being single-handed again here,  I like to go for 5 reps per side. You can increase this to suit your own fitness and strength requirements. Enjoy that rest between rounds 😉

Avoid playing catch up

If you find you have quite a big difference in strength between sides, it is best to wait for the non-dominant side to catch up before increasing load. Get even, before you get heavy.

Progressions

The way you progress each of these workouts is very similar across the board.

As with any exercise programme, you will eventually need to find ways to make each workout slightly more challenging. Typically, we can do this in the following ways:

• Increasing the duration
• Increasing the intensity
• Progressing to more complex exercises

So, in relation to the kettlebell workouts above you may choose to progress your workouts in the following ways.

Intensity

As you get fitter progress the intensity of your workouts by:

• Increasing the weight of the kettlebell used.
• Reducing the rest interval you use. For example,if you started with 60sec rest, slowly reduce this by 5 secs each time until you can complete the full workout with just 30sec rest between sets.

Duration

You can increase the duration of your workouts by:

• Adding more reps per exercise (adding 1 rep each time until you hit 20 reps is a good challenge).
• Increase the number of rounds you are aiming to complete within the workout.

Exercise complexity

You can challenge yourself to complete more technically difficult exercises as your strength, fitness and co-ordination improves.

You can do this by progressing from:

• Two handed, to single handed versions of the exercises.
• Single handed versions to having one kettlebell in each hand as you do the exercises with both arms simultaneously.
• Simple linear movements (squats and presses) to more complex arced movements (swings, cleans and snatches) or to circular movements (halo etc) or to multiplanar balance movements such as the Russian get up.

If you are planning to adventure into the more advanced movements and want a strong grounding in the base movements, then study Personal Training with us! Our Kettlebell Fundamentals course, an elective in our Personal Training programme covers the base (and some advanced) movements in detail.

Summing it up

As you can see, it’s pretty easy to start integrating kettlebells into any exercise programme.

Most people will have no trouble getting their hands on a set of kettlebells and no matter their fitness, there will always be a suitable starting point.

With a few basic exercises to get started, and knowledge of how to progress a workout even further, you can be assured that you won’t run out of new ways to piece together your own kettlebell workouts.

Whether it’s to improve fitness, help alleviate some aches, balance up sides, or just add some fun and variety to your workouts – Kettlebell training has got you covered.

I was a bit late to the party, but it’s never too late to try something new. Even if you’re a bit old school like me. Who knows, you might enjoy kettlebell workouts too.