Luckily, I received a 36 pound kettlebell for Christmas. I have used them before but only about three times.
My question is how often should I train with them? Every other day, or every two days? Also what would be a good beginners type workout for about two or three weeks? I've been told to do sets of swings and snatches for high reps. This sound right?
Thanks
Well, the answer to your question is actually quite complex, so you’ll have to provide some more details:
What is your goal - fat loss, strength, maintenance or just trying something different?
Do you want to train with kbells solely for a while or do you want to integrate them with your current training?
How much experience do you have with the various so-called kbell lifts? Can you do bent presses and windmills? How about snatches and clean and presses?
In order for anyone on the forum to really help you out you will need to let us in on some more info about you and what your goals are. You will most likely get get replys like “I use my k-bell…” but those will be specific to that person. More info=better advice.
good luck.
Pavel’s instructions from the Russian Kettlebell Challenge video are this:
1. Train 2-7 days a week
2. Do tougher lifts in the beginning (side presses, windmills)
3. Workouts should last 45 min or less
4. Vary workout lengths each time
5. All lifts can be done each workout, but pick one or two different lifts to focus on for each individual workout and switch these up from workout to workout.
6. Add bodyweight exercises as you desire, but all the above guidelines still apply.
If you want to train solely with kettlebells, I have some other suggestions as well as if you want to mix them in with your current workout.
You’re going to have to get Pavel’s video or attend Mike Mike Mahler’s workshop if you want to know how to set up your kettlebell routines. The reason is, there are a lot of excercises to choose from. If you only know a few, you’ll only be doing those and you’re workouts will be really boring. Now, if there are excercises you know how to do, here’s some advice. For the hard lifts (like the windmill, bent press, or militaty press), keep your range somewhere within 5 sets of 5 reps. For excercizes such as the snatch, swing, cleans, and clean and jerks, do anywhere from 1 to 100 reps.
Sorry for not giving more info. I want to use only kb for a while. Maybe a month or two. I would like to do workouts for strength as well as conditioning.
I can properly perform snatches, cleans and presses, bent presses, swings. I've also performed Turkish get-ups, one legged SLD's, and figure-eights with kb.
Someone please explain windmills to me? I think I have an idea of what they are, I'm not for sure though.
Hopefully this info helps. Thanks for the help everyone.
Well, it sounds as if you have enough exercises under your belt. Not to mention any exercise that you can do with a dumbell, can also be done with a kettlebell.
A windmill involves getting the weight overhead and then bending at the hips, while you bend to the side and touch the ground and then come back up. The key to doing a good windmill is to turn your toes slightly in the opposite direction of the hand that is holding the weight overhead. See Coach Davies' Real Abs article in issue 205 for a picture.