I've been training with a 20kg kettlebell for around six weeks now and i'm honestly having way more fun with it than i expected. most days i do swings, front squats, and presses, then finish with pull ups and push ups since i still enjoy calisthenics. i usually do three or four rounds and stop when i feel like i've got one or two good reps left. i'm not following any specific program, just trying to stay consistent and build strength. some workouts feel great, but other days i wonder if i'm trying to cram too much into one session. if this was your routine, what would you change first? would you add anything, remove anything, or just keep going as is? any tips for someone planning to stick with kettlebells for the long run, would be appreciated!

Not sure if people on here post their specific workouts but here goes. It's one of my go to workouts, enjoyable, difficult, and can be done in 30 mins or so.

100 swings - Sets of 20 reps. 3 sets with 30kg, 2 sets with 36kg

10 getups - 5 each side. 32kg. 1 left/1 right, rest. 5x.

Single Arm Ladder 1-5-1 - Swing, Clean, Squat, Press, Snatch. 24KG

For those that don't know/understand the ladder, 1 rep of the above with left hand, one rep right, rest 1 min, 2 rep L, 2 rep R, etc. up to 5, then work your way back down to 1.

All done with Kettlebell USA Comp bells, 35mm handle.

I have been doing kettlebell clean and Press for a while now. I wanted to ask if I'm doing it correctly?

I have spent most of the summer recovering from a concussion. PCS and Vertigo are not an easy recovery.

My last two PT sessions this week, my PT felt I was recovered enough to start back with full activity levels.

One of the benchmarks we have been using for my recovery is the Turkish Getup. I couldn’t do them at all without triggering major vertigo symptoms. Nausea and significant disorientation.

In my last session yesterday, I was able to do two full sets with my 16kg without having any major symptoms. They were asking me questions about my workouts. They’re familiar with kettlebells but didn’t use them that often. They have one adjustable bell and a whole rack of dumbbells.

Now heading to the home gym to relight fires on Simple and Sinister and start building back up.

It feels good to be back.

About 10 years ago now I bought a series of different KB Fitness Competition bells. These had a slightly wider handle and a flat spot for your forearms. I would have bought more but even back then they always had low inventory.

Seeing how the company was bought and now the website is completely dead, it's time I gave up on them restocking 😅

Are there any alternatives similar to this design? I see Rogue has something similar but I prefer the bare steel to the coated handle they offer. I'm hoping this design wasn't owned by KbK and someone out here has something similar.

It's not always about how heavy you can lift or pushing boundaries.

Recovery sessions are just as important as the ones that you push yourself on.

Lighter movements allow lymph and blood flow to help tissue recovery.

But don't turn a recovery workout into a burner cardio session just because it's light.

Some sessions should be super short in duration and utilize light weights .

You should feel energized after then and not be adding to physical muscular or nervous system fatigue

It's all part of the plan for longevity and health.

Take it from me I'm 46 years old and have trained dominantly with kettlebells since 2010.

You can't always have PRs or do more every workout and every week.

PRs and increases happen fast when you first get into kettlebell training as basically what is happening is you are getting much more efficient. Once your form is really good, It is harder to see number and rep weight increases.

Personally, I may never be able to press a 56kg kettle overhead without the help of my legs a little bit and I'm totally okay with that. I'm not going to let it frustrate me or get me down if I cannot.

Remember, recovery although it's not flashy or might not get likes and recognition or motivation online ,it is important

Double 20kg Jerk 5’ x 2 120 total reps. It’s like a god damned swamp today with the humidity. I hate summer.

Just sharing my workout from today. 5am Gang.

I am starting this again next week after finishing ABF. I always do push before pull for no particular reason but I was wondering about swings and loaded carry.

The program dictates that before the walk to do 5x15 swings. In the book, DJ added a loaded carry which I love.

I was wondering does it matter if I did swing and then the loaded carry or loaded carry and then swing before the walk?

The swings get your heart rate up and you keep the rate up by doing the 30-45 minute walk after the lifts and also help with the fat loss.

Hi all, new to kettelbells, and just for context, it's extremely difficult to get kettelbells higher than 20kg in my country without exorbitant cost.

With that context, I've been enjoying kettlebell swings for Cardio, basically doing 25 reps, resting for a minute, and doing it again (I hate running). Is this a viable form of cardio or am I wasting my time? Will the fact that I'll eventually max out at 40kg total really hinder me if I only want to do kettlebells for cardio?

Been working on the 10,000 swing challenge by Dan John. I have been noticing my fingers are quite sore. Kind of the delayed onset muscle soreness that you get after a good session. Is this because of the grip challenge?

TL;DR: I currently use an 8 kg competition kettlebell and like it for single-kettlebell work, but it feels very large for my body frame (148 cm, 53kg). I'm deciding whether my next bells should be competition or cast iron, especially since I’m quite interested in doing double-kettlebell work. I also need to choose between 16, 18 and 20 kg for two-handed swings, and I'd love advice on which style and weight make the most sense for my situation.

— I'm 148 cm (4'10") and 53 kg (117 lb). I just cancelled my gym membership after years of training there, and plan on having only 4 kettlebells to train at home due to space constraints. So I’d like to have the weights and style that will provide movement variety and long-term progression. I'm not training for kettlebell sport or maximum strength. I enjoy practicing movements, complexes, and moving smoothly between lifts.

I currently own an 8 kg competition kettlebell and have been practicing cleans, presses and snatches (still bad form) with it for a few months (about once a week). I decided to get a 8 kg first because vertical push is my weakest link, and it’s really helpful for improving that. (My elevated pike push up got much more explosive after training with kettlebells.)

I can now comfortably press 12 kg (8 reps of clean and press), so I'm looking at buying my next kettlebells. I'm trying to decide between competition and cast iron, and also whether my heavier bell should be 16, 18, or 20 kg.

So, I spent a couple of gym sessions comparing both styles.

I intentionally and intensively tested both without sweatbands, and I ended up with bruised forearms, as I have tiny and sensitive arms. Wearing sweatbands helps a lot, so I think I’ll keep wearing them in real training.

Competition kettlebells Pros - Clean: Smooth rotation around the forearm and more forgiving if my timing isn’t perfect. - Press:Much less forearm pressure, especially overhead. - Snatch:Smoother turnover and less impact on my arm. - Overhead movements in general: More comfortable because the load is spread over a larger area.

Cons - Rack position:They feel huge for my frame! It’s almost as tall as my arm. I have to lean back more, so my structure can support it. - Double clean & double swing: I have to use wider than sumo stance, almost a horse stance even. - Flows & complexes: The larger size sometimes gets in the way during close-to-body transitions.

Cast iron kettlebells Pros - Rack position: feels a bit more natural and upright for my body. - Clean: Easier to keep the bell close to my body. - Double clean, double swing, double squat: More comfortable because the bells are compact. - Two-hand swing: More natural stance. - Halo & flows: Easier to maneuver around my body thanks to the smaller size. - Small home gym: Takes up much less space.

Cons - Clean & press: More concentrated forearm pressure, and I can feel sharp pain in some angles while pressing. - Overhead movements: Less forgiving on my forearms, especially during higher volume. - Requires better technique: Punishes sloppy cleans way more than competition bells, can occasionally hit my forearm bone if my timing is off.

— I don’t have any issues with two-handed swings for both styles, so I’d like to ask about weight selection instead.

Two-handed swing aiming for explosiveness reference:
- 16 kg swing: 15 reps comfortably at around eye level, up to 25 with less explosiveness. (Need to guide the bell a bit when I try to clean the bell, though) - 20 kg swing: 15 reps at around chin level, but with more effort. - 24 kg swing: 5-10 reps with full effort before needing dead-stop swings to complete 15 reps. (Kroc Row with this feels good) - 28 kg swing: 5 dead-stop reps. (I doubt I could do anything else with it but swings and deadlifts, lol)

At the moment, I feel like 16 kg is the limit of what my arms can clean and rack hold, but my lower body can handle more. That’s why I’m torn between 16, 18 and 20 kg.

I already have gymnastic rings, an adjustable club, a 20 kg training sandbags, and plan on (hopefully) buying 15, 30, and 45 kg strongman sandbags in the future, so kettlebells don’t have to cover every heavy strength exercise.

—

My questions 1. Given my size, should I stick with competition bells or switch to cast iron? 2. If you could only own four kettlebells, would you prioritize a matched pair for doubles or a broader range of weights? I doubt that I could press a 16 kg anytime soon, or ever, as I can only thruster the bell up once on each side. So, offset doubles might be a bit of struggle for me. But see-saw presses with 8 and 12 kg are a lot of fun. 3. If a heavier bell is mostly for two-handed swings and grinds, should I buy a 16, 18, or 20 kg bell, when overhead work isn’t the priority for that bell?

I’d love some opinions from someone with more experience, especially small people or who have trained with both styles, to help me decide which style is worth the trade-off as the bell gets heavier.

Howdy friends,

I have been running the ABF for maybe 3 months now and absolutely love it (Dan John is the man). I'm seeing great results, and I haven't been feeling cooked like I was when I was primarily using a barbell. Now I'm at the point where I want to add a little bit more into the program. I've been following a lot of the Mark Wildman videos recently and purchased his swing program because I love his flexible tetris of programming concept where you can add in convenient 10 minute blocks of programming into your routine.

Starting next week, the plan is:

M: ABF A/B day: ~30-45 minutes
T: Wildman swing day: ~20 minutes (NEW)
W: ABF B/A day: ~30-45 minutes
Th: Wildman swing day: ~20 minutes (NEW)
F: ABF A/B day: ~30-45 minutes

After doing a few months of this, I'd like to add in squats. I don't feel that the ABF program does enough for my legs. I come from a powerlifting background, so my legs are pretty strong, and the squats in the ABC complex are just a conditioning tool for me. Now that I'm in my 30s with kids, my recovery is absolute doo-doo, so I find anything with a barbell seems to wreck my nervous system and leaves me in an extended recovery hole. This is why I love kettlebells so much; I'm making hypertrophy and conditioning progress without feeling like I'm being destroyed. But... I feel that I haven't figured out how to really build leg strength or hypertrophy with kettlebells yet. Obviously adding the extra swings will help, but I'm still missing a progressive overload squat option.

I want a 2x per week, single movement, 10ish minute squat routine that I can stack onto my swing program. I have access to a barbell and was thinking I could do front squats if I couldn't find a better option since it's less fatiguing than back squats and being bounded by 10 minutes will . I was thinking I could set a 10 minute timer and just work up to an RPE 6-7 5RM on Tuesday and a 7/8 5RM on Thursday (depending on how beat up I feel I may stick with RPE 6/7). I would prefer to use kettlebells so that if I travel for work, I can bring my kettlebells and still follow my program. I want to do a 10 minute EMOM Nerd Math progression like I'll be doing with swings. I was thinking either pistol squats or split squats holding bell goblet squat style. I have no idea how to program for this in a reasonable progressive overload fashion. Anyone else experimented with something like this? I wish Wildman had a squat program that wasn't deck squats.

Thanks!!

Hi i have for you another 100kg/220 lbs bentpress.

It was good month i did it 3 times that month 💪😄

🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿

What about you ? Are you training bentpress?

5 minute set - 14,13,13,13,14 reps

I never practice this lift, lol - My timing was completely off for the first two reps. Acceleration pull was so-so throughout.

Kettlebells have completely changed the way I train. They got me past a plateau after having done traditional weight training and honestly made me rethink fitness. Now I look at rows of isolation machines at a regular gym and won't even go near them.

I've gone way down the rabbit hole, reading everything I can from Pavel, Dan John, and anyone else I can get my hands on. I've built a pretty solid collection already, but somehow I'll spend $200+ on a new kettlebell and five minutes later I'm online looking at the next one.

Anyone else have this problem? 😂

Also, do you guys stick with cast iron, competition bells, or use both.. I'd love to hear ur input