By using a single kettlebell or your just body's weight, you can create muscle-building, muscular endurance and aerobic workouts. Depending on the amount of weight you use and the intensity at which you perform your work, you can vary your exercises to challenge different physiological processes. No matter what your goal, warm up, exercise, cool down and stretch each time you work out.
Muscle-Building Workouts
To build muscle efficiently, you'll want to use the heaviest weight you can lift. The amount of weight you can lift one time before failure is your max -- if you can do several reps without stopping, you're not at your max. Because you may not be able to reach your max with bodyweight exercises, you may need to perform more reps of exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups and squats.
Use a heavy kettlebell to perform three to five reps of an exercise. Take a two-minute break, then repeat another set of the same exercise. Perform three to five sets, depending on how much weight you are using and how many times you will work out during the week. Perform bodyweight exercises slowly, pausing several seconds between down and up movements. Use muscular effort going up and down -- for example, don't drop back down after you go up during a crunch, sit-up, pull-up or chin-up.
Muscular Endurance
To improve your ability to use your muscles over a period of time, decrease the load and pick up the intensity. This will help prepare your muscles for sports. Use a kettlebell that's 40 to 70 percent of your max to create a circuit training workout. Do 10 to 12 reps of one exercise, take a one-minute break, then move on to the next exercise. Keep this pace for 30 minutes or longer. For a bodyweight circuit, perform your reps quicker and don't pause between up-and-down movements, because your goal is not to build muscle, but to challenge it.
Aerobic Workouts
Use a light enough kettlebell or kettlebells and quick enough bodyweight reps that you can continue to work for 15 minutes or more without stopping. The American Heart Association recommends cardio workouts of 20 to 30 minutes, several times each week, for heart health, and 60 minutes or longer for weight loss. Work at a pace that has you sweating, but able to talk. Kettlebell swinging is an effective exercise for cardio workouts because it uses the momentum of the kettlebell, decreasing muscular resistance and fatigue. To swing, raise the kettlebell above your shoulders with one or both hands, then let it drop between your legs and behind you. Swing it back up, and keep this rhythm going.
Member Comments