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Kettlebell Building mass with kettlebells

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Jamesjones

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Can anyone give me some advice on building size with kettlebells.

What are the best methods for developing size? Especially in the chest area as I find that is a under developed area with kettlebells.

Name me the best excersises for each body area
 
Hope this isn’t too forward as this is my first post here but strong first is a training methodology. If you don’t like kettlebells for your chest then use your own body weight or a barbell. I’ve been doing s&s for a few years achieved simple at certain points but life gets in the way. However, because of this can one arm push-ups whenever i like so that would be my go to chest builder without buying any further equipment. That being said if you want to squat find yourself a squat rack.
 
You’ll find with Double overhead presses that your chest will respond very nicely.

in terms of exercises, well, very little difference to regular weight training

The big compound movements will always Trump any ‘fluff’-

presses and rows
Swings and squats
cleans and snatches

if all you ever did was those 6 exercises, consistently for the rest of your life, progressing in weight at a steady pace, you’ll have packed on a good deal of muscle and strength
 
There are a ton of effective bodybuilding type movements you can do with kettlebells. The aforementioned compound movements will get you the biggest return on investment but if you feel the need to work on any areas in particular I would recommend kettlebell flyes and floor/bench presses to build the chest (video).

These will be much harder than the same movement with dumbbells due to the offset centre of mass: You'll have to really fight at the bottom to get the kettlebells moving and you'll want to make a conscious effort to engage your pecs towards the top of the movement as the resistance will drop off due to the improved leverage in that position.

If you want to fill out your arms you can do curls with kettlebells (again, this is much harder than with dumbbells) and you can work both your chest and biceps simultaneously with 'crush curls': Perform a two arm curl while squeezing the body of the kettlebell between your hands (video).

As with all kettlebell exercises, choose a suitable training environment, make sure you have a solid grip on it and can get out of the way if you drop it.
 
Upper region of the chest is covered by overhead presses. What you could do for example, when Get ups are part of your routine. Floor press the bell with one hand. Ive kept my chest fairly in shape by doing that. Or you could basically use your kettlebells as you would heavy dumbells.

Ive been doing 2 sets of 10 of wide push ups followed by a few sets of low rep uneven push ups later in the day. Purely for aesthetics. You could try this aswell.
 
I think if chest is of ‘real concern’ then simply throw in some bodyweight movements like pushups and dips, and where appropriate, add weight / resistance.

Use implements like paralettes and gymnastic rings to help increase difficulty also.

My simple advice however would be to get strong on the major lifts with KBs and if there are still ‘gaps’ you want to fill, add some supplementary stuff in there
 
All of the above, and eat enough. Be sure not to neglect the pulling movements, even if seeking ‘chest development. Single arm rows, bent over rows, vary the hand position
 
wouldn't worry about body parts and just go with movement types. ie
-Upper Pull (Pick one of each Horizontal, Vertical. Chin ups and rows for example)
-Upper Push. (Pick one of each Horizontal, Vertical. Dips and overhead press for example)
-Squat (for hypertrophy with kettlebells just go nuts with front squats, although if you have a single heavy goblets are fun two)
-Hinge (work on double swings and cleans)
set rep ranges for your goal. Cluster sets or high reps close to technical failure are a good starting point for hypertrophy.
 
Ive seen people count the snatch as both hinge & upper body pull. From just KB work (1SW, SN, CL, GSQ--not Row), how much do you feel the upper body pull is covered adequately?
 
Presses for tri/shoulders
Chinups for bis/back
Pushups and one arm floor presses for chest
Double cleans for hamstrings and butt
Double front squats for legs overall

Snatches, jerks and swings for everything else. :)
 
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