Kettlebell Workouts
Fortunately we live in an area with four seasons. Unfortunately, there’s so much variability in weather here that you need inside options. Some mornings it rains, some afternoons the humidity is so high you can hardly breathe, sometimes a cold wind blows nonstop for weeks at a time without giving any snow. Our winters are particularly drab with cloudy days and temps in the forties that seem to last about three months straight (I did find our area is as bad as the Pacific Northwest in terms of cloudy days). If you don’t have a heated garage you’ll need space in the basement. Luckily, we do, but not a ton of it. We get the most bang for our buck though through careful planning.
Finding ways to workout at home requires creativity when you don’t have much space and don’t want to invest a ton of money in workout equipment (not that you can find much anyway given the pandemic). However, if you do some research there is a phenomenal opportunity to exercise using very little in terms of added equipment. Cardio can obviously be accomplished by simply running outside or doing an exercise video. Strength training can be accomplished fairly easily using body weight. But if you want more you don’t need to run out and buy a bunch of gym equipment. Here’s what I found.
First and foremost, I wanted to establish weight lifting back into my routine but in a cross training way that added to my triathlon performance. I don’t have much experience in this honestly. Most of my workout routines were gym based and consisted of heavy equipment. I loved “the pump” as Arnold Schwarzenegger called it, which is the feeling of euphoria you get when lifting. I used to spend a lot of time at the gym, including Friday nights and Saturday mornings and one or two other nights a week. It is just what I did as a bachelor. In retrospect, I wish I would’ve learned more about lifting properly because I did get injured a few times, particularly in my right shoulder that took a few years to heal (I really should have seen a doctor but I was stubborn). This time though I wanted to put a lot of research into doing it right.
What I found led me to the kettlebell. Evidently kettlebell exercises was developed by the Soviet military as a cost effective way to produce explosive strength. By combining lifting, twisting, swinging, and lunging, you quickly build up a strong inner core and body. Luckily you can still find kettlebells in stores, in opposition to hand and plate weights which have disappeared from pandemic related supply chain issues. You can also find plenty of videos to teach you about how to properly. I would suggest first and foremost to research videos by Pavel Tsatsouline. He seems to be the foremost expert on the technique. I watched one called on Amazon Prime by him that taught me how to properly squat. I did not realize there was much of a technique to it, but if you stand face first next to a wall, pick up a kettlebell, and stand back up without touching it you are doing it correctly. I’ve found that doing exercises correctly is always more difficult than the opposite, but I’m really trying to focus on injury prevention.
Secondly I would suggest getting some kind of printout of kettlebell workouts that you can easily reference and produce a routine on. I found one on Amazon and I’m going to hang it up in our exercise room. Not all kettlebell workouts are as straight forward as lifting a barbell, so having a learning aid is helpful. I’d suggest mixing in kettlebell workouts in with jumping rope, resistance bands, and body weight exercises. The exercises I like best on the kettlebell don’t involve much core work, but I’m going to change that up soon.
