The Kettlebell Exercises

The Most Important Kettlebell Exercises.

Below are arguably the most important kettlebell exercises. Integrate them into your weekly workouts and reap the rewards.

1. The kettlebell swing

The kettlebell swing is THE core kettlebell exercise. Do it often (but do it right) and you will feel the benefits.

2. The Turkish Getup

The Turkish getup promotes shoulder stability and flexibility as well as working the core. An old school strong man exercise, this is one of the best total body exercises ever.

3. The Clean and Press

A terrific upper body exercise that involves a “pull” and a “push”. A true test of strength that works most of the body.

4. The goblet squat

This is one of Dan John’s favourite exercises. (If you don’t know who Dan John is - then search and find out.) Due to the kettlebell’s shape, the goblet squat enables the trainer to work the squat movement in a different way to the barbell squat and will improve flexibility and strength very very quickly.

5. The KB Deadlift

The KB Deadlift is an excellent exercise. Whilst you will never get the weights you need to go anywhere close to a rep max, the exercise will strengthen your whole body. It is also easier to learn the movement when compared with the barbell version of the exercise.

6. The snatch

A full body exercise that will improve your hip snap, strengthen shoulders and work all of your stabilizers. Do low reps for strength, and high reps with a smaller bell for conditioning. Gireviks snatch a KB for 10 minutes only changing hands once!

7. The Jerk

Another excellent full-body exercise with huge benefits to your athletic performance. Again you can go heavy or higher reps - Girevik Style. Perform singles or doubles.

8. The pull-up.

Whilst this isn’t a KB exercise it’s the perfect exercise to complement all of the above. It’s been a main stay in strength and power endurance training for years.

This is not a list of all the kettlebell exercises. I haven’t even mentioned windmills/jerks/pistols and you can always use the double variations. These are the less exotic ones (which seem to appear on KB DVDs out there) but these ARE the ones that work. Think of them as the foundations. The additional exercises will deliver a lot of benefit - but they complement the exercises above - they should not replace them.