What usually comes to your mind when someone mentions building muscles? Gyms and weights? What if someone asked you about losing weight, would you think of weights too, or would you start recommending cardio workouts?
While this is legit, you’d be surprised how one simple tool can help build muscles, lose weight, and gain strength all at the same time!
No, it’s not a magical potion, rather, it’s the awesome invention known as kettlebells.
Kettlebells for Fitness
Knowing how to swing your kettlebells can only be described as badass. Not only is swinging them cool, but kettlebells can be used to give comprehensive full-body workouts – if you know how to do that. Choosing your kettlebell is also extremely important. Once you do your research and look through different reviews for the best kettlebell sets for both men and women, you’ll realize how having different sets of weights and materials can help you achieve different fitness goals. Getting one kettlebell for all of your moves just won’t cut it. For every move, preference, and workout style, you’ll find a kettlebell set that fits your needs perfectly, if you know where to look.
Which gets us to our next point, how can you use kettlebells to build muscle and lose weight at the same time?
Before we get into the different kettlebell exercises you can do to maximize your gains, it’s important to know how different training methods can affect your results in different ways.
Losing Weight
We all know that doing cardio helps us lose weight. The same concept can be used with kettlebell training. To train for losing weight with kettlebells, you’ll need to do more supersets and compound sets, with almost no rest in between. For example, instead of doing 8 reps, pausing, then doing 8 more, you’ll go for the range between 12-16 reps per exercise. If need be, you can rest briefly for 10-20 seconds before starting the next exercise until you get better at it. However, a superset is a set where you work two opposing muscles using two consecutive exercises with no rest in between. A compound set follows the same concept, but focuses on same-group muscles.
Building Muscles
To use your kettlebells for building muscles, your exercises will fall in the range of 8-12 reps. Unlike with weight loss where you’ll go for lighter weights, you’ll use heavier weights that stress your muscles enough to the point of failure in this range. Your rest periods will also be longer here, where you can take 45 to 60 seconds of rest between each exercise.
Kettlebell Workout Program for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain
Now that you understand how different techniques in using kettlebells can make all the difference in the world, it’s time to unlock the top kettlebell exercises. Remember, keeping good form is always critical in every move!
1. Swing
Starting in a squat position, you hold the kettlebell between your legs. Keeping your back in a neutral position and your core engaged, you swing the kettlebell backward between your feet, then forward as your body weight balances you.
2. Clean and Jerk
With clean and jerk, you squat down with kettlebells, then lift them up as you stand up. As the kettlebells approach your neck, you use momentum to “jerk” them over your head.
3. Clean and Press
Clean and press are very similar to clean and jerk, with the main difference being the lack of momentum you use. When you stand up, you utilize your body muscles to lift the kettlebells overhead instead of using momentum.
Kettlebells can also be used as a substitute for every other dumbbell workout. You can practice using them in squats, deadlifts, and rows, with all of their variations.
Craft Your New Body Using Kettlebells
Kettlebells are great workout buddies because depending on their technique of utilization, they can give you a wide range of results. Moreover, they are amazing tools to use for full-body workouts. You can tweak your workouts depending on your fitness goals. And once you’ve defined a clear workout routine, you can use them in building muscles, burning down fats and getting ripped, and gaining a great deal of strength.