101 Kettlebell Workouts: And For my next trick, Workout # Five!

Today's Workout will start with Alternating Kettlebell Military Press. This is a favorite of mine. Mainly because it's unconventional, like the floor press. You just don't see it getting done very often. Another reason why the Alternating Kettlebell Military Press is a favorite of mine is because it's effective. Not only as a shoulder exercise but as a whole body exercise. Another name for this drill is called the See-Saw Press. The trick here is to lower one side while pressing the other. When I say "lower one side," keep in mind that you want to act as if you are pulling the weight down. Use your lats for this. While you're at it, you get to put your hips into it by kicking your hip out to the pressing side while lowering the other side to your shoulder. Another finer point is to create a solid base for yourself. Feet planted, knees locked and quads and glutes flexed.

This might be a good time to answer the question, "Why the Kettlebell? Why not Dumbbells?" Well, you can use dumbbells for this, but look at a Kettlebell like this; Kettlebells have no real center of gravity. In addition to lifting it up and lowering it down, you have to constantly keep it stabilized, so more muscles get involved. The Kettlebell is a superior tool for functional strength.

If you'd like to do a little experiment go ahead and do a set of 5 reps on the dumbbell bench press with a weight you can handle well. Pick a weight that you can do for 5 but not 8. Now load that same amount of weight onto an Olympic bar for a set of 5 traditional bench presses and see if it's not easier. Complete the experiment on a Smith Machine and notice a major difference. Why? Stability. Kettlebells have even less stability than dumbbells. This way you can do more with less. These are one of the many gems I have learned from Pavel Tsatsouline over the years and why Kettlebells have become my drug of choice.

Now, on with the drills for today. The Alternating Kettlebell Row is back for some more action. I am going to focus on creating as much tension through out my body as possible while doing this drill. It call for 3 sets and last time I felt like I just got through the 3 sets and didn't really own the 3 sets. I think I'll have more success with this drill if I slow it down and really pull with one side while virtually pushing with the other, all the while creating a lot of core tension from the ground up. What do I mean by that? Well we'll start with gripping the ground with my toes. Sitting back and loading the hams, bracing my abs as if someone's swinging a lead pipe at my gut and keeping a long spine. Now row from there and see where that gets ya!

Following the Rows will be a recap of Double Kettlebell Front Squats. Long spine and neck will be on the to-do list for this one while I continue to perfect pulling myself down. Stop me if you've heard this one before but this is actually a great "Ab" exercise as well. Gotta keep 'em tight.

Windmills will be a welcome treat to see if the Get Ups from the last two workouts helped with adding additional stability and flexibility to the Windmills.

Close out this session with some Double Swings and call myself smoked!

By the way, if you lack development in your Calves and are looking for a few ways to increase the density down there, I highly recommend the double kettlebell swing as long as your technique with the single Kettlebell swing is up to par. It seems that heavy swings in general are good for the calves.

As always, thanks for following along and feel free to chime in with questions and comments.

In the next section, I'll tell you all how it went...

Well it went pretty darn good if I do say so myself. In fact, I'm rather pleased at my progress so far. I feel my strength returning and I'm also suffering a mild case if Snatch Withdrawal. In David Whitley's 101 Kettlebell Workouts that I got from his website, IronTamer.com the first 12 workouts he titled "Kettlebell Workouts for General Conditioning" Generally, I'm getting pretty conditioned over here. However, none of these beginning 12 workouts include the snatch, which is a drill that I highly enjoy. So I'm missing the snatch. For the Bevis and Buttheads in the audience, you may have your giggle moment now...

Ok, back to the workout! I had mentioned that I feel my strength returning because my training hasn't been as consistent as I'd like due to some neck and shoulder overuse injuries I incurred from my day job which is a whole other blog in itself. (Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the spell checker underlines the word "blog"?) That being said, these 12 Workouts, whether done in order or mixed up are ideal for building a solid foundation for any beginning kettlebeller or rehabbing kettlebeller. Me? I'm using two 24kg Kettlebells, but that's me. These workouts will work with any size bell lighter or heavier depending on your strength and skill level.

Today's See-Saw Presses felt really good. I like getting into the rhythm on the movement and feeling where to create tension and where to relax a bit. In addition, this drill can be a real bear while not being a hindrance on the joints.

The Alternating Rows are interesting to me. There's this part of me that wants to make it a fluid movement. I guess if I was using much lighter kettlebells or dumbbells or doing some type of Crossfit routine it would make since to be more fluid with the movement, but this drill should be firm, well planted lowerbody, tight mid section and arms working like slow oil drilling pistons. Flex the triceps and lats at the bottom, squeeze at the top.

Moving on to the Double Kettlebell Front Squat. Definitely becoming a favorite of mine for the power it can generate. Very important to pause at the bottom and grind all the way to the top and then squeeze them glutes. Were crackin' wallnuts over here!

Windmills as always were a joy. I got to the top of the movement by snatching the bell, which I think was the catalyst for the withdrawal symptoms.  And we did have more flexibility and stability!

At this point, I realized that I had moved through this much of the workout rather quickly and was not feeling terribly "worked out" I felt I owed myself a little smoking. For those unfamiliar with the term "smoke" in the Russian Kettlebell Challenge world, the term "smoke" or "smoked" means to drive yourself or be driven to near total exhaustion. So I had to do 3 sets of 15 Double Kettlebell Swings. I got my MP3 Player ready. Let's run through the song list... Oh, here we go, "In the End" by Linkn Park is 3 minutes and 36 seconds. Ok, get all 3 sets done before the song ends. No problem. So the song starts and I do the little jumping and shaking shadow boxing dance, set up over the pair and start to swinging. 15 reps later, I'm feeling good, but not quite smoked, so we repeat the jumping and shaking shadow boxing dance and hit it again for another 15. Now we're breathin' hard. One more druken' pants off dance off impression and the songs getting close to closing out and I don't quite have my breath back but Larry the Cable Guy is out shouting Linkn Park in my head and I take a quick second to remember the Introduction to 101 Kettlebell workouts where Dave says, "Push yourself, but don't be stupid." So I make sure I'm about to just push myself and not be stupid and close out the last 15 reps before Linkn Park finishes.

This was a 3 minute microwave smoking. 106 pounds of iron swinging between your legs with minimal rest can take a lot out of you real fast. 40 minutes on a stair master is nothing compared to 3 minutes of Double Kettlebell Swings! Don't believe me? Try it.

Tomorrow will be a bit of a back off as it only calls for 1 Bell and I will report on that routine in my next segment. Thanks for following along! Let me know if you have any questions!

www.irontamer.com for your copy of 101 Kettlebell Workouts.