The Best Kettlebell Strength Workouts to Build Muscle

Why Do Them: This is a classic bodybuilding exercise you will sometimes see people at the gym doing with weight plates. It’s a nice way to feel your “yoke” and drive blood through your shoulders. It’s not a major lift, and can be used more as a warm-up or a finisher.

How To Do Them: 

1. Hold the kettlebell with both hands in the “goblet” position.
2. Raise the kettlebell to be in front of your face.
3. Going clockwise, and not hitting yourself in the face, make a circle around your head with the weight.
4. Repeat going counter-clockwise.

Why Do Them: For training the lower body, nothing beats squats. The front loading of the goblet squat puts a lot of pressure on your core strength, so much so that it might feel more like an ab exercise if you are used to squatting with a more bent over posture (like with a low bar squat).

For our workout, we’re going to use the pause squat variation to focus on maximal power and increase time under tension.

How To Do Them: 

1. Hold the kettlebell with both hands and place it just under your chin.
2. Place your feet under your shoulders, with toes slightly turned out.
3. Push the hips back slightly, then bend the knees to drop straight down into a squat.
4. Instead of rebounding out of the hole, sit down in it for a 3-count.
5. Make sure to maintain posture and the lower back angle.
6. Explode out of the hole into a standing position.

Why Do Them: Ostensibly for the shoulders and triceps, this single-arm version of an overhead press works the whole body. In my opinion, working the overhead press hard helps create a physique that silhouettes well in clothing way more than the bench press does.

When you add in a little leg drive to convert a strict press to a push press, you even get to add in a little bit of lower-body training. “Cheating” in this way can also be used to knock out enough reps to get your heart rate up.

How To Do Them: 

1. Hold the kettlebell in your right hand in the front rack position.
2. Engage your abs and glutes by bracing your core.
3. Put your left hand out to the side for balance.
4. Press the weight straight overhead to lockout.

Lower with control to the starting position.

Why Do Them: The undisputed champion of the full-body kettlebell workout, the kettlebell swing works everything from your hamstrings to your lats to your grip strength. If you never did anything but a kettlebell swing, you would probably still be doing alright in life.

How To Do Them: 

1. Start with the kettlebell on the ground.
2. Stand over the kettlebell with feet shoulder-width apart.
3. Push your hips back and bend your knees slightly to pick up the kettlebell, standing erect with the bell at hip-height.
4. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge forward at the hips and allow the kettlebell to go between your legs.
5. With momentum, straighten your legs and push your hips forward, allowing the kettlebell to “swing” upward to eye level.
6. Allow the kettlebell to “swing” back down between your legs, moving with control.
7. Repeat.

Why Do Them: This doesn’t differ as much from the dumbbell variation as some of the other kettlebell exercises. Kettlebells can have a slightly fatter handle, and the “weight on the bottom” design won’t allow the weight to roll out of your hand (like with a dumbbell).

RELATED: The Best Dumbbells for Your Home Gym

Single-arm bent-over rows are among the best lat exercises around. They also force the posterior chain to activate in an isometric hold. Due to these factors, the bent over row is one of the best assistance exercises for the deadlift.

How To Do Them: 

1. Hold the kettlebell in your right hand.
2. Place your feet about hip-width and with your left foot staggered forward.
3. Bend your torso down to a 45-degree angle.
4. Squeeze your shoulder blades tight and draw the weight up to your torso.
5. Control the weight back down to the starting position.

RELATED: The Best Bent-Over Row Alternatives

Why Do Them: Reverse lunges can be the most significant way to train explosively with a low-impact exercise. Rather than moving slowly through space (which usually happens on walking lunges), these give us a chance to really see the benefits of standing up with some speed³. We can use kettlebells to load the movement and put even more demand on the hamstrings and glutes.

How To Do Them: 

1. Hold the kettlebell in the front rack position with your right hand.
2. Staying tall, extend your left leg behind you and bend the right knee to lower into a lunge.
3. You can put your left hand out to the side like a tight-rope walker for balance.
4. When your right leg is at around a 90-degree angle, explosively straighten it and bring your left leg back underneath you.

RELATED: The Best  Lunge Exercises 

Why Do Them: This can simulate a full clean and press without actually doing a clean. The kettlebell thruster is a lift you can do with one arm or with two kettlebells, one in each arm. Here, we will describe the single-armed version for simplicity’s sake in our kettlebell workout.

How To Do Them: 

1. Starting in a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Hold the kettlebell in your right hand in the rack position.
3. Drop straight down into the deepest squat you can without your lower back rounding over.
4. Rebound immediately out of the hole as quickly as possible.
5. Come straight up through to your standing position and use the momentum to extend the kettlebell overhead.
6. Smoothly return the kettlebell to the rack position and use that momentum to drop down again.

Why Do Them: You’re tired of kettlebell swings, but still want to throw some weight around, so you graduate to the kettlebell clean and press. This movement combines the lat and trap activation of a high pull (plus the force absorption of the catch) with the full power pressing power of a push push or single-arm jerk.

We’re going to use our legs to turn this into a push press. People who have mostly done strict bodybuild work can sometimes feel like this is “cheating,” but remember, we’re working the whole body with this (and strength comes from muscle unity, not isolation).

How To Do Them: 

1. Start in a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Hold the kettlebell in your right hand in front of you.
3. Unlock your knees slightly and dip to create momentum.
4. Straighten your legs and use the momentum to pull the kettlebell straight up your body.
5. When the kettlebell is about at shoulder height, flip it into the front rack position.
6. Stand straight, then unlock the knees again to create momentum to push the kettlebell overhead.
7. Catch it with your elbow fully locked out and hold for a beat.
8. Gently return to your starting position.

Round 1: 

1 minute: Max reps kettlebell clean- RIGHT

1 minute: Max reps overhead press- RIGHT

1 minute: Max reps kettlebell clean- LEFT

1 minute: Max reps overhead press- LEFT

1 minute: Max reps bent over row- RIGHT

1 minute: Max reps bent over row- LEFT

1 minute: rest

30 seconds: Max reps overhead press- RIGHT

30 seconds: Max reps kettlebell clean- LEFT

30 seconds: Max reps overhead press- LEFT

30 seconds: Max reps bent over row- RIGHT

30 seconds: Max reps bent over row- LEFT

30 seconds: rest

15 seconds: Max reps overhead press- RIGHT

15 seconds: Max reps kettlebell clean- LEFT

15 seconds: Max reps overhead press- LEFT

15 seconds: Max reps bent over row- RIGHT

15 seconds: Max reps bent over row- LEFT

3 minutes rest 

Round 2:

1 minute: Max reps thrusters– RIGHT

1 minute: Max reps thrusters- LEFT

1 minute: kettlebell swing

1 minute: Max reps alternating front rack thrusters

1 minute: Max reps goblet squats with 2 second pause

1 minute: Rest

30 seconds: Max reps thrusters- RIGHT

30 seconds: Max reps thrusters- LEFT

30 seconds- kettlebell swing

30 seconds: Max reps alternating front rack thrusters

30 seconds: Max reps goblet squats with 2 second pause

30 seconds: Rest

15 seconds: Max reps thrusters- RIGHT

15 seconds: Max reps thrusters- LEFT

15 seconds: kettlebell swing

15 seconds: Max reps alternating front rack thrusters

No time limit- Max reps goblet squats with 2 second pause

Have fun!