“Best Kettlebell Exercises” for those people involved in “Work From Home”

Are you one of those who “work from home”? Are you interested in learning some exercises which will help in reducing your waistline, improving your posture, strengthening your core and lower back muscles, improving your hip mobility and thoracic spine mobility, improving your overall stability, mobility and flexibility? Then this post is for you. Even if you are not engaged in work from home, still you will gain much from it.

When the lockdown started and most gyms were closed in India and in other countries, a lot of people overseas in particular, purchased kettlebells for their homes to meet their fitness needs. The Kettlebell has been hailed as the “Lockdown Hero” or “Lockdown Fitness Trend” by the fitness enthusiasts stuck in their homes in lockdown.

Kettlebells came to my rescue when I too was in lockdown and I still use them everyday. I have written about this extensively in my earlier blog post. That post also talks about what a kettlebell is, it’s history and how I have become stronger using kettlebells regularly. Please read it here.

I highly recommend people to invest in kettlebells to workout at their homes. Also, I would highly recommend people and even Fitness Trainers to learn the proper and safe way to use Kettlebells by investing in learning the StrongFirst System. I don’t say it because I am a “StrongFirst Certified Kettlebell Instructor” but because before learning the StrongFirst System, my techniques were not upto the mark which I will honestly admit. Also, I have seen most trainers in India and abroad not doing kettlebell exercises properly. These Trainers will hugely benefit by learning the StrongFirst System and then practicing it and then passing it further to their Clients.

Let’s get to the main Kettlebell exercises which will benefit you hugely:

First exercise in this list is the

Goblet Squats

Goblet Squats was popularised by a well known Strength Coach, author and lecture, Dan John, who wanted to teach the proper squat technique to athletes (for original article on Dan John’s website, click here).

Also, checkout the following YouTube video of Dan John talking about the history of Goblet Squats and the demonstration of the technique and what equipments you can use to perform a Goblet Squat.

Benefits: Goblet Squats is a great exercise which not only teaches the proper Squat technique but works the entire body. Goblet Squats are great for improving the Hip Mobility. If you sit for long hours, chances are that you will have tight hips. Pavel recommends doing Prying Goblet Squats as a warm-up exercise before starting his Minimalist Kettlebell Program, “Simple & Sinister”, which is well-known around the World.

In the photo above, you see me demonstrating the Goblet Squat in front of the group of attendees in a StrongFirst Kettlebell Course in Chennai in 2019. This Kettlebell course was conducted by StrongFirst Certified Kettlebell Master Instructor, Shaun Cairns. Many of the times, with myself and my PT clients, we do Goblet Squats first followed by Kettlebell Swings. The Swings done this way feels so much powerful and better.

Turkish Get-up

Kettlebell Turkish Get-up is one of my favourite kettlebell exercise and I have written about it in detail in my recent blog post. In the photo above, you can see me demonstrating Kettlebell Turkish Get-up in front of the group in the StrongFirst Kettlebell Course in Chennai last year 2019. This Kettlebell course was conducted by StrongFirst Certified Kettlebell Master Instructor, Shaun Cairns.

Benefits:

Why is Turkish Get-up so beneficial? Here is a list of reasons taken from a very well Known Naturpoath, Dr. Mercola’s website, who himself is a big fan of this exercise:

1. Promotes cross lateralization (getting right brain to work with left side).

2. Promotes upper body stability.

3. Promotes lower body stability.

4. Promotes reflexive stability of the trunk and extremities.

5. Ties the right arm to the left leg, and left arm to the right leg.

6. Gets the upper extremities working reciprocally (legs, too).

7. Stimulates the vestibular system (one of three senses that contributes to balance).

8. Stimulates the visual system (second of three senses that contributes to balance).

9. Stimulates the proprioception system (third sense that contributes to balance).

10. Promotes spatial awareness.

11. Develops a front/back weight shift.

12. Develops upper body strength, trunks strength, and hip strength.

13. Promotes closed and open chain shoulder stability.

14. Promotes Thoracic extension and rotation.

15. Promotes Hip and leg mobility and active flexibility.

16. Promotes both rotary and linear stability.

17. Promotes Stability in two different leg patterns – lunge stance and squat stance.

18. Promotes Single leg hip stability during the initial roll to press and during the bridge.

(Source: https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/11/27/turkish-get-ups.aspx)

As you can see from above, there are a huge number of benefits of this exercise and you don’t need to go really heavy to attain these. Start practicing this exercise without any weights or with a shoe placed on the top of your fist and then with a light kettlebell, you will be amazed to see improvement in all aspects of your fitness.

The last kettlebell exercise in this series is everyone’s favourite,the “Kettlebell Swings”

Swings

The Kettlebell Hardstyle Swing is a very important exercise in the StrongFirst circle. I looks easy but there are so many aspects involved in doing a correct Swing that’s why I highly recommend that you learn it under the guidance of a StrongFirst Certified Kettlebell Instructor.

There are mainly 2 types of exercises in Kettlebell system – Grind and Ballistics (explosive). Swings falls under the Ballistics.

Benefits:

If you practice Kettlebell Swings daily, you will notice a huge improvement in the following:

1. Running faster.
2. Running longer.
3. Jumping higher.
4. Improvement in Cardiovascular capacity.
5. Deadlifting heavier.
6. Posterior or back muscles getting stronger.
7. Reduction in inches around the midsection.

(Source: https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/the-what-the-hell-effect-how-the-swing-improves-everything)

I remember once I did a “100 Kettlebell Swings a day” Challenge with my Clients, and most of them achieved most of the above benefits.

A very important benefit which needs special focus is “back pain”. A lot of us suffer from or have suffered from back pain. Dr. Patrick Roth, author of “The End of Back Pain”, is a big advocate of kettlebells Swings. He writes in his blog and I quote:

“The kettlebell is the ideal antidote to excessive sitting in the office. Instead of simply getting up hourly for a stretch and a brief walk, how about doing one minute of kettlebell swings in addition?”

“We are advised to get up, stretch, and walk around to counter the excess sitting while at work. While this is sound advice, I think that swinging a kettlebell is a better alternative.”

“The swing is an ideal exercise to counter the back dysfunction attributed to excessive sitting. The swing simultaneously strengthens the gluteal muscles and the abdominal muscles while stretching the tightened iliopsoas and other hip-flexor muscles. It is the antidote to sitting.”

(Source: https://medium.com/thrive-global/sit-too-much-at-work-think-kettlebells-902aa1d0ac02)

Conclusion: This has been a long post but I hope that you have certainly gained much from it. These exercises should best be learnt and practiced under the guidance of a Certified Kettlebell Instructor otherwise, you can end up with injury. As there are a lot of details in teaching these exercises, I have limited myself mainly to discussion of the benefits with a brief intro on these. Please leave your comments below and do share this post with others. Thanks.