How to Get the Most Out of Your Kettlebells and Bodyweight Training
Today I want to share how you can get the most out of your bodyweight and kettlebell selection. One of the more common problems keeps rearing its ugly little head these days is lack of equipment to workout with. Home workout equipment is more in demand than toilet paper at the moment and there are many parts of the world where the gym has been shut down due to the pandemic leaving many of us to improvise with what we have.
Fear not, you can still keep the gain train rolling! You do want to keep the gain train rolling don't you?
Good! Let's get moving then.
Perhaps the biggest challenge with bodyweight and kettlebell (especially if you only have one or two bells) training is the fixed load. If you're consistent with your training you will find that your sessions will become easier and easier. One of the major traps that people fall into with bodyweight and kettlebell training is being one dimensional with progressing the exercise. In non-fitness nerd speak, people think the only way to progress an exercise is by adding weight or increasing load.
Not so.
There are tons of other ways to get more from calisthenics and kettlebells than just adding more weight or reps.
Let's take the pull-up for example.
IF you want to get more from your pull-ups without adding weight OR reps focus on these three methods of progressing
Play with your rep tempo. You can dramatically increase the difficulty of the pull-up by slowing your reps down on both the concentric (up) portion of the exercise AND the eccentric (down) portion of the exercise. The benefit here is that you will find (and eliminate) any weak links in your range of motion allowing you to progress faster.
Change your grip width or hand position. You can make the pull-up harder or easier based on how wide you place your hands on the bar or whether you are performing them pronated (palms facing away) or supinated (palms facing towards you aka chin-up). These slight variations will surprise you with how much more challenging they make your pull-ups
Add in pauses. This one kind of goes in line with tempo training but, you can add in a 3-5 second pause when your elbows reach 90 degrees. Isometric holds build strength at plus or minus 15 degrees of a specific joint angle so you can focus on building up strength at a specific portion of your pull-up by pausing and holding there for some time every rep. The trick is to pause as long as possible without letting gravity get the best of you. Remember pull-ups DO NOT respond well when taken to failure.
Well there you have it, those three methods can actually be used with just about any exercise bodyweight or kettlebell or even barbell. If you have limited equipment I suggest you start adding in those methods to your training. You will not only make your workouts harder, your joints will thank you because you're not crushing them under more tonnage than absolutely necessary.
When it comes to staying healthy, getting stronger, and living longer, the trick is to make light weights FEEL HEAVY so that heavy weights "feel light". Having limited equipment can be a blessing in disguise because if forces you to really spend time mastering the weight you DO have.