Kettlebell Workout

When I got to the gym the other morning, I saw this sign by the front desk and was immediately excited. I've always wanted to know more about kettlebells and what better way than with a free class!

Going into the class, I knew a few kettlebell exercises but wasn't sure on proper technique and form. The firefighters I train also have kettlebells in their gym at the station but I never really wanted to incorporate them into any of the workouts since I didn't have any real knowledge or training. I figured this free class would benefit me as well as the guys I work with.

The class started at 5:30 AM and was led by one of the personal trainers who is also certified for kettlebells. He spent the first 15 minutes going over form and technique and then having us demonstrate the movements without the kettlebell. I thought this was great because then we knew what we were supposed to do before adding in the weight and making it more difficult to keep good form. Once we got down the basic exercises, we did a little circuit with upper body, lower body, and core. We did kettlebell swings (I had done this before but apparently my form had been off), front squats, single arm overhead press, upright rows, single arm bent over rows, windmills, and plank pose.

Kettlebell Swing

Once we went through the circuit, we took a couple minutes of rest and then finished with a ladder workout. We did 12 reps of 3 exercises (kettlebell swing, front squat, and overhead press) and then did 11 reps of each, 10 reps of each, etc. until we finished with 1 rep of each exercise. I used a 20 lbs kettlebell for the swings & squats and a 15 lb kettlebell for the overhead press. Let me tell you, this was a lot harder than it sounds! It probably took almost 10 minutes to complete and I was dripping in sweat afterwards. The kettlebell swings are a lot more cardio based than you'd think and my heart was pounding when I was done. I was worried that going to the free class wouldn't really be much of a workout but I'm glad I was proven wrong. I woke up the next morning and my entire back (upper & lower) and hamstrings were sore! It was a good kinda sore though and I'm definitely going to start incorporating more of these exercises into my workouts.