I’ve been training with kettlebells for years. They have been incredibly beneficial for training power, conditioning, core, shoulder strength and grip strength.
And yes, you can use kettlebells to get stronger. But how to build muscle with kettlebells was still somewhat of a mystery.
I’ve long been a fan of Geoff Neupert, the former Director of Education at StrongFirst, Strength and Conditioning coach at Rutgers and co-creator of Original Strength Systems. I recently purchased a copy of his book Kettlebell Muscle as this has been out of print for more than a decade. The book did not disappoint.
This post is not an attempt to summarize Kettlebell Muscle or Geoff’s work. I’m simply hoping to bust the myth that you can’t build muscle with kettlebells.
Over the last decade, I’ve watched people get stronger using kettlebells. Geoff breaks down the specific training methods that produce hypertrophy and my goal is to pass that along.
How To Build Muscle
The ultimate engine for building muscle is mechanical tension. Of course your muscles just know they’re loaded and it doesn’t necessarily matter if it’s from a barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell.
We’ve learned that muscle damage is not the goal. Additionally, the burn and the pump associated with hard training isn’t the goal either.
Not every rep will build muscle. The reps that count are called “stimulating reps” by researchers. You don’t need to train every set to failure to produce stimulating reps. Studies have shown that taking sets to failure produce more fatigue and muscle damage but not more muscle growth.
Through the use of intelligently designed double kettlebell complexes and chains, Geoff has found optimal ways to produce stimulating reps. In fact, his methods produce significantly more stimulating reps for building muscle in a shorter period of time than traditional hypertrophy training. Through complexes and chains, you can increase the speed of loading, the duration of loading, and the density of loading to build muscle.
This is fantastic information for busy professionals with limited time available for their training.
The multitude of factors that yield this sweet spot of stimulating reps is beyond the scope of this post. If that’s a rabbit hole you’d like to go down, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Kettlebell Muscle.
What Is A Kettlebell Complex
A kettlebell complex is a series of exercises performed with the same weight in a sequence without rest. All the reps for a given exercise would be completed before moving to the next exercise in the sequence.
An example would be a double kettlebell clean, double kettlebell military press and a double kettlebell front squat. Let’s say you’re doing 5 reps of each exercise in this complex. You would complete all 5 reps of double kettlebell cleans, then all 5 reps of the military press, followed by all 5 reps of the front squat.
Kettlebell complexes maximize intramuscular tension and are generally speaking the better choice for building muscle (compated to chains). However, kettlebell complexes will produce more local fatigue than kettlebell chains.
Exercise ordering is a significant consideration with complexes. In the above example with double kettlebell cleans, military presses, and front squats, changing the order would change the level of difficulty. Placing the military presses at the beginning of the complex would be much easier than placing them at the end of the complex.
What Is A Kettlebell Chain
A kettlebell chain is a series of exercises performed sequentially with the same weight without rest. One rep of each exercise would be completed in order to complete a full rep of the sequence.
Let’s use the same example of 5 reps of double kettlebell cleans, military presses and front squats. You would complete one double kettlebell clean, one double kettlebell military, followed by one double kettlebell front squat. Then you would complete the sequence 4 more times through in that same order.
Using kettlebell chains provide partial rest to certain muscles during the sequence. Kettlebell chains will produce more systemic fatigue due to their design.
Putting It All Together
There is a sweet spot with the design of kettlebell complexes and chains for building muscle.
A chain or complex with 4 to 6 exercises with around 5 reps each will produce the maximum amount of stimulating reps. Exercise order will have a significant impact on the level of difficulty. That being said, double kettlebell complexes and chains are inherently hard training applications.
If there is a press in the chain or complex, the weight selection for this exercise is typically the limiting factor. Finding a pair of kettlebells that are your 10 Rep Max for the press would yield the most benefit.
If you’re new to these, you’ll want to keep your work to rest ratio around 1:4 or 1:5. More advanced and conditioned lifters could use a 1:3 or even a 1:2 work to rest ratio
If you’d like some additional guidance on designing a program with kettlebell complexes and chains, contact us to schedule a free consultation.
