Kettlebell Course to LOSE Wt. INCREASE Mobility & Strength

These are the daily some of our HACKS we prescribe to all our athletes. Whether they are high level professional athletes or a 65 year old walker. Everyone that walks into our facility or comes to a workshop will learn these hacks and add them into their daily routine.

The goal of these hacks are to increase mobility in the joint and allow full range of motion. The greater amount of range of motion one can incorporate into a movement greater chance the movement will done correctly effectively, efficiently as well reduce the chance of injury. Going further, these hacks will assist in your daily activity such as walking, daily choirs, playing with your family and so.

These hacks were introduced to more importantly help you move, sit, sleep, and be human without pain.

Teaching Points:

Keep the feet shoulder width apart and hips still. Rotate the Kettlebell (KB) around the body first in one direction and then in the other. Pass the KB from one hand to the other in front of the hips and directly behind the hips. Practice keeping everything nice and tight (core, abs, glutes) and motionless other than your arms.

The Slingshot is one of the easiest KB exercises to perform and great as an initial warm up. I often use the slingshot as a general warm-up for a class or to introduce beginners to the weight of the KB.

One great use for the Slingshot is as a form of active recovery. Lets imagine that you are performing a more strenuous exercise like the KB Swing and then you need to rest for 30 seconds, rather than putting the KB down you can perform the Slingshot while you catch your breath and compose yourself ready for the next round.

The Kettlebell Halo is a great warm up exercise for the shoulder girdle. You can use the Halo as a simple warm up exercise before starting your Kettlebell Workout or as part of your workout as active recovery.

Teaching Points:

Keep the elbows tucked in and nice and close to the body all the way around the head. Also ensure that the Kettlebell stays as close to the base of the neck as possible. The closer you can keep the Kettlebell to your neck the more you will work on improving your shoulder mobility.

The Kettlebell Deadlift activates most muscles in the body and relies on the posterior chain consisting of the Glutes, Hamstrings and Back Extensors. The sole reason for practicing this exercise before the Kettlebell Swing is because motor control, mobility and correct muscle activation must all work together in order to maximize effective movement and minimalize the risk of injury.

The Kettlebell Good Morning / RDL exercise is great for warming up prior to your workout or as a mobility exercise / active recovery exercise during your workout.

The Kettlebell Good Morning / RDL predominantly works the Hamstrings that are responsible for hip extension and hip hinging.

I like to use the Good Morning / RDL as a warm up exercise but also as a way of teaching my athletes how to correctly hinge at the hips without bending at the lower spine. If you watch the video you will notice how the lower back is kept perfectly flat. Keeping a flat back is vital in this position especially if you are going to load the lower back.

The Kettlebell Arm Bar helps to improve the mobility and stability of the shoulder. This can be either used as a mobility / warm-up exercise or an upper body exercise to get the shoulder ready for some violent shoulder action.

The Kettlebell Windmill exercise is an excellent warm up and great for developing mobility in the shoulders and hips as well as developing shoulder stabilisation. The Kettlebell Windmill will not put on muscle but they will “bomb proof” your shoulders so that you can press your kettlebells off a solid base -- as well teach your body to rotate and bend under load. Not to forget, if done perfectly you'll oblique muscles will be screaming.

Along with the Kettlebell Swing the TGU delivers huge results. The Turkish Get Up is very different from the Swing in that it works on your small stabilizing muscles as opposed to your big prime mover muscles. You will not gain muscle or burn much fat with the TGU but what you will do is “Bomb Proof” your body for all future exercises.

If you cannot perform a TGU with a kettlebell then you are not ready to go overhead with that kettlebell. Use the TGU as a guide to what weight to lift. Try pressing a heavier bell than you can perform a TGU with and you risk injury because your stabilising muscles are weaker than your large prime mover muscles.

The Kettlebell Swing is one, if not, the most important of all the kettlebell exercises and the one that most people struggle to master. The kettlebell swing is based on the Deadlift Movement pattern and hits almost every muscle in the body. If you only had time to do one kettlebell exercise then Kettlebell Swings would get you the most -- Bang for your Buck

The Kettlebell Swing should be thought of as a pulling movement. It targets the posterior chain and essentially you are loading and de-loading the back of the body as you accelerate and decelerate the kettlebell. Be warned the eccentric or deceleration part of the kettlebell swing is what causes muscle soreness so you could be walking like a penguin for a few days following a good set of kettlebell swings.

The kettlebell swing is a dynamic movement. As the kettlebell descends from the top part of the movement gravity takes its toll and the overall weight of the bell increases, so a 16kg kettlebell will feel much heavier at the bottom of the kettlebell swing. Also at the bottom of the kettlebell swing you are decelerating its load and forcing the muscles to absorb and then reverse the swings momentum. It is for this reason that you can get some truly amazing results without having to use a really heavy kettlebell for the Swing.

The Kettlebell Goblet is great exercise to help build strength to perform the front squat. With the weight placed in front with hands together forces your shoulders to fire to assist in keeping you upright. I use this exercise a lot both as warm-up and to build the strength in the adbomial, lower back, glutues and thighs.

Along with the Swing, the squat is another huge exercise for hitting all those large muscle groups. Hitting these large muscle groups means a greater hormonal response along with metabolic effect. In other words, great for fat loss and strength building. The Squat can be categorized as a pushing exercise, and so can be paired with the Swing for a dramatic effect.

Most people do not Squat well. The ability to squat requires adequate stability, mobility and patterning. Taking time out to work on these aspects can pay huge dividends to your Squatting and ultimately results.

The Kettlebell Bob and Weave enables you to get some lateral or sideways movement into your kettlebell training. The lateral movement of this exercise will target different muscles from the standard forward and reverse lunge. You will also find that it helps to improve your hip mobility.

During the movement you will want to make sure that you keep your lower back flat and move from the hips rather than the lower back -- you may limited movement in the shoulder but nothing from the back. Failure to hold the kettlebell high on the chest will result in a forward pulling movement that will put extra load on the back so beware! If your flexibility allows try to go down as deep as possible as this will work the buttocks and thighs a lot more intensely as well as putting a greater demand on your cardiovascular system.

Ensure that you keep the kettlebell high on the chest either in the standard holding position, as demonstrated in the video, or by holding the kettlebell in the Goblet position.

The Lunge is another of the big exercises that should never be avoided. The lunge mimics our natural walking and running gait and develops one-legged strength to a certain degree. It's always odd to see runners that can't lunge. If you can't lunge then what the heck is going on when you run, an even more advanced movement pattern. Don't run before you can walk, Don't run before you can lunge.

The lunge uses the core in a very different way from the Swing and the Squat so be prepared to have to work on some stabilization as you may be a bit wobbly at first -- keeping the core tight and firm during the movement will help against the wobble.

There are many varieties of Lunge but they can basically be divided into Forwards, Backwards and Side Lunge. Backwards is the easiest, the Forward lunge requires more eccentric loading so will produce more muscle soreness, finally the side lunge requires more mobility but will really target the Gluteus muscles.

This is a great exercise to progress from the Kettlebell lunge. It is the same movement but you are adding a simple rotation at the end of the lunge. This is increase the stability in your lower body joints as well make you thighs and core work overtime.

This can be used a warm-up or a complete set by its self, either way this a great workout overall.

Tough strength based kettlebell exercise that will also improve your hip flexibility. Be careful to warm up well before going to deep with this movement.

The Kettlebell Side Lunge will add an extra dimension to your training. Lunging laterally will place larger demands on your buttocks, quads and also your mobility.

Challenge the lunge movement pattern by passing the kettlebell between your legs during each step. Make sure you keep your core engaged and back flat throughout the movement.

The difficultly of the exercise is increased because the lunge has to be held isometrically while the kettlebell is passed through the legs. There is also a larger element of concentration and mental focus required during the movement.

The exercise is performed exactly the same as a regular Reverse Lunge except the Kettlebell is held with a locked arm overhead. It is very important to lock out the arm or the arm will fatigue very quickly. If you cannot lock out the arm then you may want to work on some shoulder and thoracic mobility work as well as the Kettlebell Arm Bar.

This exercise is just like the Single Bell High Pull but with two. Now this movement has a great amount intensity compared to the Single Bell High Pull.

This is a more advanced movement and a progression to the single bell high pull. If done correctly you will feel an increased heart rate, and the upper back will feel the biggest contraction.

This exercise is very similar to the KB Clean Press, but you keep the weights in a racked positions and use your lower body to assist in the movement. Since the lower body is helping this movement you can use heavier weight then you would for a strict press.

This a great exercise to add to increase shoulder strength both in the positive movement (concentric contraction) as well as the negative movement (eccentric contraction).

This exercise is also great to increase motor skills and as a full body exercise.

This movement is similar to the push press but there is ZERO movement of the lower body. This is used with less weight and a lot more challenge to complete.

It is a great exercise to isolate the shoulders and arms.

This is a great explosive movement the builds coordination, motor skills, hip power, and shoulder strength. This can be done with low weight and high reps or high weight and low reps. Either way this is a great exercise to add to any program.

THE SNATCH CHALLENGE

5 minutes - do as many as you can in perfect form

The Kettlebell Row is great exercise to develop power and strength through the hips and shoulders. I highly recommend this movement to everyone that enjoys a challenge as well a great exercise.

The Kettlebell Clean is a huge neuromuscular movement with lots going on so it's excellent for fat burning as well as conditioning.

Many people regard the Kettlebell Clean as just a movement to take the kettlebell from the floor to the Racked position. Thinking that the Kettlebell Clean is not an exercise in itself would be a huge mistake.

Try this routine and ask yourself if this movement is not a heart pounding exercise:

Get a heavy Kettlebell; Cleans it for 1 minute with one arm, rest 30 seconds then repeat with the other arm. ENJOY!

When pressing a kettlebell overhead the hardest part is getting the kettlebell from the racked position and on its way up into the 2nd half of the press. This section, that is the hardest, is often referred to as the hole.

In order to help get the kettlebell out of the hole you can use your legs to help add a little momentum to the bell.

So after you have nicely cleaned the kettlebell up and into the racked position, bend the knees slightly and push the hips backwards as if performing a quarter squat. Next, drive the hips forwards and straighten the legs. If you perform this movement vigorously enough the kettlebell will pop up out of the racked position and with a little pressing help enable you to achieve the first part of the press. The rest can then be achieved with shoulder power!

Kettlebell Swings using one hand is the natural progression on from the double handed swing. Swinging with one arm rather than 2 puts extra demands on the shoulder and also attempts to pull the body into rotation. Kettlebell Swings with one arm will develop your core muscles more intensely as well as developing your shoulder stabiliser muscles as the shoulder is pulled out of joint.

Once you are comfortable with the One Arm Kettlebell Swing then the next progression is to learn how to change hands during the top part of the swing. Having the ability to change hands during the swing ensures that you can keep the flow moving throughout your workout.

This is a great progression to the Kettlebell Swing. This exercises uses a lot more stability and motor skills then a normal swing. The biggest difference is this movement requires more skill while the traditional KB swing uses more hip power.

This exercise is another progressive exercise that builds on from the Swing and Row. If the Swing and Row would have a baby this is what you would get it.

The High Pull is fast and very dynamic and probably the most Cardiovascular of all the Kettlebell exercises so look out!

The Kettlebell Straight Arm Sit is a tough kettlebell exercise for your core and shoulder strength.

This challenge is very straight forward, DO NOT STOP!

Goal is to complete 50 HEADCUTTERS in 5 minutes.

Movements in the HeadCutter

• Squat Row
• Goblet Squat
• Press

In this challenge you must complete 34 or more reps in 5 minutes or less.

MEN - 56lb Kettlebell

WOMEN - 36b Kettlebell