Your Monday Blues Total-Body Kettlebell Workout

StrongLikeAMama-75

Your Monday Blues Total-Body Kettlebell Workout

 

It’s a MONDAY BLAST! ——> SCROLL! For a two part video;

  • 1min kettlebell swing switches
  • 1min traveling push-pull: Row, pushUp, lateral plank travel (don’t travel over KB unless you feel 💯percent stable
  • 1min alternating gorilla curl to Overhead squat press
  • 1min alternating swing switching high pulls
  • 1min alternating swing switching clean to Overhead press and rear lunge
  • 1min clean to joujitsu sit up to Overhead sit up

.

Continue this for 2 circuits – circuits are like rounds, consider one full rotation of the exercises above a round, then rest 2-3 minutes and replenish yourself fully before doing another round , for this workout all you need is 2 rounds

Rest between each exercise above: Keep it minimal (15-45sec) to no rest between each set

Kettlebell Swing Form, and Swing Switch Form:

 

KB Swing Switch How-To

Swing dos and don’ts
Don’t squat! If you squat during this motion, it will not be a posterior chain motion, therefore you won’t be focusing on the glutes and hamstrings—the very area this motion was created for! Remember—a squat is a squat and a hinge is a hinge!
Don’t lift the kettlebell with your arms! You can easily hurt yourself, plus this is not a lift or an arm exercise. The kettlebell should feel weightless in your arms the entire time.
Don’t keep your legs straight. The hinge required for a kettlebell swing has a mild bend at the knee and hip—it’s not a full extension.
Don’t backward bend. Remember that your butt muscles are supposed to
stop the motion of the bell at the top. If you let the kettlebell go past your shoulders and you do not engage the glutes, you risk hurting your back instead of strengthening your back, core, and butt muscles. So make sure to stop at shoulder level, and keep your glutes activated and protecting the back. Your butt muscles should not allow a backward bend.
rEMEMBEr: All of your swinging motions will come from this form, so practice this and try to execute each step as instructed. If you are not following the protocol, you are not doing a kettlebell swing, and you are not getting the benefit. So no squatting or arm lifts; use your hinge and the power generated by your hips as well as the stability of your core—nothing else!
ALWAYS switch at the TOP, not the bottom of the KB swing, first squeezing your glutes

WHy SWIng?
Do you remember in chapter 3 when I discussed the movement patterns we should all incorporate into our routines: push, pull, squat, hinge, and locomo- tion? Well, the swing is beloved for its hinge. I find that most people have tre- mendous difficulty with the hinge, and this is because they spend most of the day sitting. The inability to hinge is linked by our culture of sitting to the reason many of us suffer back pain, knee pain, and weakness. Not being able to hinge means not being able to properly engage the posterior chain of the body, par- ticularly the glutes. Without hinging, the same muscles that help you run and protect you from back weakness during many activities are now inactive. Instead, modern people and even some athletes are unintentionally using their knees and lower backs to do all the work their butt muscles are supposed to do. This leads to overuse and misuse of other areas of the body, and this leads to knee pain and eventual knee and ankle injury, as well as back pain, which can then lead to shoulder and neck injury.

More reasons to love the swing!
As we learned in our kettlebell anatomy, the swing is a ballistic motion. Not only does this posterior chain hinging motion help us complete a hinge in our training, and balance out our body, but it also teaches us to fire muscles and help us cor- rect muscle imbalances in our favorite sports and activities. The kettlebell swing is also an incredible and super safe metabolic conditioning tool. It can help burn triple the amount of calories burned in a more one-dimensional training regimen!

You might not get it right away, and that’s okay. I find that it can take students one to three class sessions or DVDs after initially being taught the swing to get it, so be patient with yourself. Remember that these are muscles and movement patterns that have not been worked in a while. Once they begin to work, you are now firing your glutes and hamstrings and reactivating them, or teaching them to work and pitch in during simple motions like walking, running, jumping, kicking, lunging, and squatting.

So, let’s swing!
As discussed, the swing is the basis of all kettlebell ballistic movements. It starts with a hinge, not a squat—this is very important. In a hinge, the bend in your hips comes before the bend in your knees. Hinging also means you should bend your knees to a lesser degree than that of your hips. Do not squat! You will be swinging the kettlebell from behind your knees, with your grip above your knees. Remember to bend more at your hips with a slight bend at your knees and a straight and strong back. You will be incorporating your posterior chain and momentum to generate the power of the movement. As a result, the kettlebell should feel almost weightless when it comes up to the terminal position of shoul- der height. Squeezing your glutes at the top of the motion, you should be stand- ing straight and upright with hips forward and knees straight (there should be no overarching of the back) at the end of the motion.
The kettlebell should swing between and behind your legs and up to shoulder height in a nonstop, repetitive motion.