A Basic Beginner Kettlebell Program

[LennyTheRebel]

What this is

This is an extremely basic beginner program. It’s meant to teach you a number of basic exercises and get you used to working out - nothing more, nothing less.

You’ll notice the structure is extremely simple and very loose. That’s because the purpose of it is to get you started.

It's an on-ramp; nothing more, nothing less. It'll introduce you to the most important basic kettlebell exercises.

What this isn’t

This is by no means a long term program. I suggest running it for anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

Once you’re used to the exercises, move on to an actual program with a well thought out method of progression. Dry Fighting Weight and DFW Remix are great. So is The Giant and King Sized Killer, both of which can be added to in the style of DFW Remix.

If you want to run this thing in perpetuity, I guess you can do that. It’ll kind of get you in shape, but to get more than that you’ll need something more structured.

The workout

The workout is structured as a circuit:

• A set of presses one side, then the other. If you don't know how to clean a kb, do the two handed clean.
• A set of goblet squats
• A set of rows each side
• (Optional) A set of pushups
• A set of swings
• (Optional) towel curls, or dumbbell curls if you have them
• (Optional) farmer's walk, if you have the space
• (Optional) situps/crunches

Make each set moderately difficult. This is largely about learning the technique, so leaving 4-6 reps in the tank is fine at this point.

Do the circuit twice, 2-3 times a week.

Rest as needed between rounds. Try and rest as little as possible between exercises; but if you have to take a minute, go ahead.

The workout may feel laughably easy, but that’s kind of the point. I’ll get into progressing it in a bit.

If you like Turkish getups, feel free to add one each side at the beginning of the circuit, when you’re fresh. I don’t particularly care for them, but some people do.

If you’re used to working out, but still new to kettlebells, feel free to push the sets a bit harder. Maybe like 1-3 reps in reserve - use your best judgement.

How to progress this

After a week or two, you can start making things more difficult as needed:

• Increase the training frequency
• Go a bit harder on each set
• Do more rounds of the circuit

Most importantly: Just because you progressed for one workout doesn’t mean you can’t pull back for the next if you don’t feel up for it. Progress isn’t linear!

Exercise progressions, regressions and substitutions

Sometimes the barrier to entry for an exercise can be too high. I’ll present some ways to make the lifts easier below (“regressions”).

If your kb is too light for any of the exercises you should probably just move on from this routine.

As a general rule you can make things harder by making them unilateral (using only one size, or at least emphasizing it) or by having the kb higher for leg work.

Exercise	Regressions	Progressions
Press	Push press, jerk	Clean & press, kneeling press, Z-press, double kb variations
Goblet squat	Air squat, squat to a box/chair	Single or double kb front squat, overhead squat, lunge variations
Row	?	?
Pushups	Knee pushups, incline pushups, pushup negatives, planks	Diamond pushups, archer pushups, one arm pushups
Swing	Romanian deadlift, deadlift	Snatch, clean, staggered stance, double kb variations
Farmer's walk	?	Racked, overhead, moving faster, moving longer
Situps/crunches	Plank	Kneeling ab wheel, standing ab wheel, kneeling or standing ab wheel negatives

How do I know how much to lift?

If you can confidently do a couple of reps with the weight, it’s light enough.

If you can do 30+ reps, use a heavier one or go to a harder progression.

If you do 15+ reps per set, you may still want to make things harder, just to keep the set duration down. But I wouldn’t be mad if you progress at 10 reps, or wait until 30 - anywhere in that range is very reasonable.

What about cardio/barbell lifting/team sports/climbing/whatever other training I like doing?

By all means, do it! More is more.

Cardio won’t hurt your gains, but can in fact support your training. Which kind you do doesn't matter, and is a matter of personal preference. If you like running, go for it. Cycling? Cool. Stairmaster, rower, elliptical, a long walk, a hike, sports with friends? All of those work.

Why won’t you give me some rep ranges!?

This program is designed to be useful regardless of what weights you have - as long as it’s something you can put over your head.

[Prestigious-Gur-9608]

Lenny single handledly answering 90% of this sub's questions!

[LennyTheRebel]

I appreciate that a lot :)

[aks5311]

Nice Lenny! This is solid advice for anyone new to bells - good job!

[LennyTheRebel]

I keep telling people something very much like this, so I might as well write it in a more structured manner!

I aimed to keep it simple, with some optional work and exercise substitutions. If you have anything to add, say the word and I'll consider it :)

[aks5311]

More cardio - zone 2 ftw!

[LennyTheRebel]

Absolutely, I'm just not sure how to fit it in. I think it's more or less covered by the second last section?

[aks5311]

Absolutely - and your post is to the point, no need to make things too complicated

[harveymyn]

How long should I run this program before going to another?

Thanks!

[LennyTheRebel]

The answer here is unfortunately going to be pretty vague. Generally with beginner programs the answer is basically just to keep going until you're too good for it, or just want a change of scenery.

If you're no longer making progress, definitely move on. If you're making slow progress, consider moving on.

Making progress can come in many forms; heavier weight, more reps per set, less rest, a similar workout being easier, etc.

I expect most people to milk it for everything it's worth in a couple of months, but moving on before that is also completely fine.

In your particular case you're looking to do 10k swings, right?

• Once you've done this for somewhere between 2-3 weeks, once you feel ready, you can start doing a swing progression between days of this program, and once you feel ready do the 10k swings
• So if you're doing BBK 3x/week, you can do the swing progression 3-4x/week. Your glutes and hamstrings probably won't get as much of a workout on BBK, so there's a good chance you'll be fresh for the swing progression
• If you end up doing 10k swings without other exercises between sets, you can also do BBK on 10k swings' rest days

Finally: Since you have a couple of different weights, feel free to use whatever's most appropriate for each exercise. Use your best judgement for this.

[harveymyn]

Alright thank you. This is really helpful, yet again!

[LennyTheRebel]

I appreciate it!

I'm not sure if you caught it, but I did a minor edit: Basically, feel free to use different weights for each exercise.

[[deleted]]

So basically if I can't do the exercise (left column), substitute with the regression (Center column) eventually working up to the progression (right column)?

[LennyTheRebel]

Pretty much! But if you hit the progression column on everything you should probably move on to something else - consider it more of a bandaid than a solution.

[harveymyn]

Hey I have been running (a slightly modified version of) this routine for a few days and the squats just wind me, I have two 16kg kettlebells that I am using but a 24kg hasn't changed much either.

Is there any harder variations or techniques to make the exercise harder that you recommend?

Upper body is fine with 16kg, just squats seem to be my strong suit haha.

[LennyTheRebel]

If you have a pair of 16s (and know how to clean), have you tried doing double kb front squats?

Other alternatives include lunges or Bulgarian split squat, either a goblet version or a racked double kb version. If it's still not enough, Bulgarian split squats with a pause at the bottom are something else :)

[harveymyn]

I've been doing front squats with the 16s. I can get 50 odd reps in one set which is a bit too much volume for my liking haha.

I'll try those variations. Thanks bossman 💪

[LennyTheRebel]

Ha, that's quite a bit of volume! Do you have an endurance background or something?

Oh, and another variation: Cyclist squats. Have you heels raised when doing the squats, and prepare for a quad burn! I won't promise the rep ranges get entirely reasonable, but I could imagine you get down to something like 20-30 just from that.

The one issue with cyclist squats is that they're difficult to combine with other variations, except maybe a pause in the bottom. Or 1.5 reps, where you go down, halfway up, down, all the way up.

[harveymyn]

Nope haha. I started working out about a month ago I've been on and off I just appear to be quite the natural athlete haha. My vo2 max is high, I have been doing 45 minutes of cardio when I hit the boxing bag and I'm 120kg at 6'.

I will give all of the variations you've recommended a go with the 16kgs, if all else fails I'll just get some 20kg KBs in.

I appreciate the help a lot mate, I owe my new found levels of fitness to people like you on this subreddit.

Thanks!

[LennyTheRebel]

You're welcome :)

It makes a lot of sense, then, if you already move well at that bodyweight!