Full Body Kettlebell Workout

Introduction

Some people seem to religiously believe in the effectiveness of lifting heavy barbells and dumbbells.

And while both are your best choice for building strength and mass, it is highly recommended that you switch between the different types of equipment and diversify your training every now and then.

What that will do is simply engage different zones of the musculature in different ways and under different angles.

Ultimately, that will help you develop a better overall physique, that is not only good looking, but functional as well.

Workout Priorities

For this article, we have prepared for you a full-body kettlebell workout, that will give a good run for the entire musculature.

This workout is good for you if:

• You are a beginner who is looking to kickstart their physical development and lay the fundamentals, by improving their basic physical properties. Those are strength, strength endurance, explosiveness, muscle synchronization.
• You are an intermediate or a more advanced trainee, that is looking to diversify their training and achieve a de-adapting effect.
• You do not have any specific goals, but are more so trying to maintain a good level of performance and fitness.

If the latter is true, then your best bet would be doing full body workouts 3 times a week, in combination with other types of training, such as regular cardio, sprints, rope jumping, etc.

The Workout

Exercise Map

Kettlebell One Arm Floor Press

Execution

• Lie down on the ground with the kettlebell right next to you
• Pick up the kettlebell without doing any twists in your shoulders
• Let your arm go down, until your upper arm is parallel to the ground
• Push up explosively, without letting the arm rest too long at the bottom
• Do not lock out the elbow at the top

Kettlebell One Arm Row

Execution

• Place the kettlebell on the ground in front of you
• Take a step forward and lunge down slightly
• Bend over with your back straight and grab the kettlebell
• Row the kettlebell up, so that the elbow goes beyond the back line
• Hold the back contraction briefly and let the kettlebell down slowly
• Keep the tension on the back

Kettlebell Arnold Press

Execution

• Stand up straight and grab the kettlebell
• Keep the kettle with your palm facing you, as illustrated
• Push the kettle up, while rotating the wrist outwards (Supinating)
• After contracting the shoulder, let the kettle down slowly
• After doing one side, proceed to the opposite side

Kettlebell Goblet Squat

Execution

• Grab the kettlebell by both sides of its handle and keep it in front of your chest
• Place feet at about shoulder width, with toes slightly pointing out
• Keep back straight and knees slightly bent, out of a lockout
• Look forward, then squat down slowly, until your legs are parallel to the ground
• Squat up explosively, without locking out the knees at the top of the movement

Dumbbell Standing Bicep Curls

Now of course, this is a kettlebell focused workout, but for the sake of optimality, we decided to throw in some dumbbells and cables for the last 2 exercises that target the arms.

Execution

• Grab a pair of dumbbells of an appropriate weight
• Stand up straight and stably
• Keep the dumbbells by your sides
• Curl both dumbbells up simultaneously, rotating your wrist outwards (supinating it)
• Let the dumbbells down slowly, after holding the contraction up top briefly

Cable Rope Pushdowns

The last movement for this workout targets the biceps’ antagonist, namely the triceps.

Execution

• Set up the pulley machine with an appropriate weight and attach the cable extension
• Stand in front of the rope and grab it, standing stably on your feet
• Slightly bend over and bend your knees out of a lock out
• Push the rope down, opening it at the bottom and contracting the triceps
• Hold the contraction briefly and then, let the rope return up slowly
• Avoid having the forearm go past the 90-degree angle, as that may put excessive stress on the triceps tendons

Workout tips

Warm-up

This one might be obvious, but especially as a beginner, you have to make sure you are preparing your biological machine for what’s to come. The body doesn’t like sudden stress, which is exactly why we need to properly prepare it for the upcoming mechanical tension.

Now, the workout engages the muscular system of the body, as well as the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Knowing this, we can conclude that a proper warm-up would consist of:

• Light cardio, short in duration – Slow jogging or biking for example. Note that extensive cardio may deplete your glycogen reserves, which will lead to sub-optimal performance during the workout. Light cardio is done to prepare the cardiovascular and respiratory systems
• Contraction & stretching of the musculature – This can either be done by doing the exercises with a couple of warm-up, light weight sets, or, you can literally flex your muscles under no mechanical tension.

Mindset

This is a beginner workout and we know for a fact that many beginners find it hard to even get their butt off the chair and go to the gym. For this reason, we recommend you to do mental practices, such as meditations and affirmations.

Ultimately, the healthy lifestyle will become a part of your daily routine and soon enough, not doing it will feel like something is off.

We need to note here that forming a new habit, especially a healthy one, takes about 15-21 days. Bear with it.

Recovery

We can’t stress this enough. It is not just about doing hard ass workouts. The period of recovery afterwards is one of the main factors that will determine whether you progress optimally or not.

Proper recovery consists of the following:

• An abundant nutrition plans

We all have different energy needs daily, meaning that we should be consuming a sufficient amount of food, to boost the recovery processes after a heavy workout.

Make sure to bring diversity in your nutrition and consume protein, fats and carbs in a balanced ratio, without reaching extremes like the ketogenic diet.

• Stress management

Lifestyle nowadays imposes us to a TON of stress. Whether you know it or not, the stress response SHUTS OFF the body’s growth and immune systems.

Your boss is being an a*#wipe? Don’t engage yourself emotionally – That will LITERALLY hinder your gains.

The more often you get yourself in a relaxed state of mind, the better your day-to-day recovery and mentality will get.

• Sleep

This is probably the most important aspect of recovery. When we go to bed, we go through 5 phases of sleep, in a couple of cycles.

It is namely phase number 3 & 4 that get us in that deep, restorative sleep that helps us recover.

That is to say that ultimately, you have to sleep AT THE VERY LEAST, 7 hours, if you are an active trainee.

Note that the principle of diminishing returns applies to sleep, meaning that if you oversleep, you might wake up feeling like you have been beaten with a bat.

Conclusion

This workout was designed for beginner and intermediate athletes, who are looking to improve their baseline levels of strength and strength endurance.

On top of that, the workout and its corresponding exercises, allow you to learn the execution of some more complex movements. Keep in mind that the sets and repetitions given are not a must.

What this means for you is that if the given volume is just too much, you can feel free to reduce the numbers of sets and repetitions accordingly.