Kettlebells are an excellent way to condition your body, build muscle, and lose weight. Here are the essential kettlebell exercises beginners should start with on their way to kettlebell awesomeness.
Kettlebell training is among the best forms of resistance training around.
It’s dynamic, high-intensity, and involves heavy weights—everything necessary to get fit, lose weight, and build serious muscle.
I’m a huge proponent of kettlebell-based exercises, which is why of course I want to write an entire article dedicated to talking about the best kettlebell exercises for beginners.
Whether you’re new to kettlebells or to the gym altogether, these exercises I’ll share with you below will help you take your fitness, strength-building, and fat-burning efforts to the next level.
- Why You Should Train with a Kettlebell
- Best Kettlebell Exercises for Beginners
- Sample Full-Body Kettlebell Workout
- Kettlebell Exercises for Beginners – FAQs and Fun Facts
They will take some work to master—you’ve got to nail the posture and form for safety’s sake—but put in the work and you will see some awesome results in the mirror.
Let’s get to swinging!
Why You Should Train with a Kettlebell
What makes kettlebell training worth the time and effort?
How is it any more effective for you than training with a barbell, dumbbell, cable machines, or resistance bands?
That’s what we’ll find out right now, as we talk about the primary benefits unique to kettlebell training:
Full-Body Training
Don’t get me wrong, you can use kettlebells to work out just one muscle or muscle group at a time. For example, one-arm kettlebell curls or overhead shoulder presses.
However, the best kettlebell exercises are the ones that engage your entire body.
Take kettlebell swings as the perfect example. With this one exercise, you work every muscle from your shoulders down to your calves.
Kettlebells make it much easier to do full-body training, leading to more functional, versatile fitness overall.
High Intensity
Kettlebell workouts tend to engage multiple muscles at once, which means your body uses a lot more energy.
Plus, because they involve bigger, more dynamic movements, your cardiovascular system has to work extra-hard to keep up with the demands placed on your body.
This leads to better fat-burning and greater energy consumption in each exercise, as well as better conditioning for your cardiovascular system as well as your muscles.
Fun Fact: Kettlebells have been around as long as 1704, when a Russian dictionary first made mention of a cast iron counterweight known as girya. They were originally used to help measure the weight of farm goods.
Works Through Full Range of Motion
I love exercises that encourage you to move more. With the amount of time many of us spend in sedentary activities (for example, sitting down in my chair to write this article), it’s easy to lose range of motion and grow stiff.
Exercises that increase movement and push your body through a full range of motion are always better for your mobility, and can help to encourage flexibility.
See also: 5 Best Competition Kettlebells
And that’s exactly what kettlebell exercises do. These full-body, high-intensity, dynamic exercises force you to move from start to finish, so you end up conditioning your joints along with your muscles. As a result, you’re far more mobile and less likely to suffer stiffness and inflexibility in your joints.
Improves Balance, Posture, Form, and Coordination
Every dynamic movement involving kettlebells will engage your core, force you to maintain your balance, test your posture and form, and challenge your coordination.
Kettlebell exercises will be tough at first, but the more you do them, the more you’ll see improvement in every aspect of your balance, posture, form, and coordination.
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons to love kettlebell exercises! Time to dive in and find out which are the “best” you should be incorporating into your workouts.
Best Kettlebell Exercises for Beginners
#1: Kettlebell Swings
Big surprise, right? Is there really any other exercise could take top place in a list of kettlebell exercises?
There are so many benefits of kettlebell swings—increased mobility, improved cardiovascular conditioning, stronger posterior chain muscles, better adaptation to high-intensity and dynamic movement, and the list goes on.
Really, they’re one of the best full-body exercises you can do, and will improve your muscular endurance, strength, cardiovascular endurance, and mobility. That’s all four pillars of fitness!
The muscles worked with kettlebell swings include your shoulders, forearms, triceps, biceps, upper back, lower back, hips, glutes, hamstrings, calves, abs, and even your obliques.
The only muscle that doesn’t get worked, in fact, is your chest. Doing this exercise is an amazing way to tone/strengthen your entire body in one kickass explosion of effort.
To perform this exercise:
- Stand with your feet planted just beyond shoulder width apart. Keep your toes pointed straight ahead, or you can let them shift slightly outward to engage your hip muscles.
- Set the kettlebell on the ground between your feet. Bend at the knees, lower into a squat, and grip the kettlebell firmly in both hands.
- As you lift the kettlebell, swing it slightly backward. Make sure to keep your shoulder blades down and your neck relaxed throughout this movement. Inhale on the swing-back.
- Forcefully exhale and contract your glute muscles to thrust your hips forward and begin the forward swing.
- Swing the kettlebell up in front of you, straightening your legs to stand upright. DO NOT lock out your knees—that will lead to injury. Also, make sure your elbows remain soft throughout the movement.
- Avoid rounding your back, but keep a straight spine as you swing the kettlebell up to chest level. Maintain that straight spine as you allow the weight to swing downward.
- Squat as the weight drops so the kettlebell swings between your legs and behind you. Try to keep the weight close to your groin (safely!), as lowering too far toward the floor can cause you to round in your back.
- Repeat as desired.
#2: Kettlebell Slingshot
This is an awesome exercise to help improve your core strength, your balance and stability, and your grip power.
It’s also a newbie-friendly exercise that will prepare you for the more advanced movements. Because you’re passing the kettlebell from hand to hand, your forearm muscles get a short break to let oxygen and energy flow back in between contractions.
However, the dynamic swinging part of the exercise forces your muscles to contract extra-hard to hang onto the kettlebell. As a result, you improve grip strength like a boss!
To perform this exercise:
- Stand with your feet in a comfortable stance, roughly shoulder width apart, with your head up and spine straight.
- Grip a kettlebell in your left hand. Swing the kettlebell around in front of you, swinging it toward your right hand.
- Grasp the kettlebell in your right hand, release it with your left hand, and swing it out and around behind you.
- Grab the kettlebell with your left hand behind your back, release it with your right hand, and swing it out and around in front of you.
- Keep a straight back and upright posture throughout. Try to avoid moving your core, hips, or torso. Let your arms do all the work.
- Repeat for 15 clockwise circles, then repeat counter clockwise for another 15.
#3: Kettlebell Single-Arm Deadlift
The deadlift is a staple of bodybuilding, one of the best exercises to train your upper back, lower back, shoulders, arms, forearms, glutes, and hamstrings. It’s not quite a full-body exercise, but focuses amazingly on your posterior chain muscles.
Rather than using a barbell and doing it two-handed, you can switch to a kettlebell for a one-armed deadlift that will create instability and engage your core in a far more oblique manner.
You’ll find it still does an amazing job of training all the other muscles mentioned above, but because it’s a unilateral (one-sided) exercise, it will improve your balance, posture, and coordination.
To perform this exercise:
- Stand with your feet spread shoulder width apart, spine straight, head up.
- Place a kettlebell on the ground between your feet. Bend your legs slightly as you hinge forward at the hips, reach down, and grip the kettlebell in your right hand.
- Inhale, then exhale forcefully as you straighten to a standing position, lifting the weight using only the power in your back and legs. Your arm will work to grip the weight, but it shouldn’t assist in the lifting.
- Thrust your hips forward at the top of the exercise, when you’re standing fully upright. This engages your glutes more effectively.
- Lower slowly and under control to touch the weight gently against the floor.
- Repeat as desired with your right hand, then switch to your left.
Fun Fact: Kettlebell swings and lifting were made the national sport of the USSR in 1948.
#4: Kettlebell Squat Thrusters
Squat thrusters combine a squat (focused on your lower body) with an overhead press (focused on your shoulders and triceps), and engage your core throughout the entire exercise.
It’s an excellent multi-joint compound movement that will torch serious fat and help you to work your glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves, lower back, abs, triceps, shoulders, and forearms.
Do a few sets of this bad boy, and you’ll be breathing hard and unleashing a waterfall of sweat off your forehead.
To perform this exercise:
- Grasp a kettlebell in each hand. Let the bell rest against the back of your forearms, and bring your arms up directly in front of you, so the weights are roughly level with your chin.
- Start in your standard squat position: feet spread slightly more than shoulder width apart, toes pointed straight ahead, spine straight and head up.
- Start off by squatting. Hinge backward at the hips and keep your back straight as you descend toward the floor. Lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
- Contract your glutes and quads to stand back up. As you are rising, press the kettlebells above your head, extending your arms fully (but NOT locking out your elbows).
- Lower the weights to your shoulders once more as you descend into the squat.
- Repeat as desired.
#5: Kettlebell Halos
This exercise is very focused on your shoulder muscles, helping you to build powerful traps and deltoids. You’ll also get some training for your core, as you have to remain standing straight while moving the weight around your head.
Whether you work it into Shoulder Day or as part of your full-body workout, it’s a game-changer.
To perform this exercise:
- Stand with your feet spread a comfortable width apart, head up, and back straight.
- Grasp a kettlebell with both hands. Bring it up to hang behind your head. Raise both elbows to point upward.
- Swing the weight around your head to the right, raising your left elbow and lowering your right elbow to allow it to circle around the right side of your head.
- Lead the weight keep circling around in front of your face, then around the left side of your head to continue on backward. Keep the motion smooth and controlled as you circle your head.
- Repeat for 10 circles to the right, then switch directions for another 10 circles.
#6: Kettlebell Bent Over Row
The bent over row engages your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings to keep you stable while forcing your upper back, shoulders, biceps, and forearms to do the work of rowing (pulling) the weight upward.
You can perform this one-handed for a unilateral exercise that focuses on improving your balance and posture, or use two kettlebells to maximize strength training without pushing your core too hard (ideal if you’re recovering from an injury).
However you do it, it’s an amazing Pull exercise that deserves a place in your workout!
To perform this exercise:
- Stand with your feet spread shoulder-width apart, with two kettlebells placed on the ground outside your feet.
- Hinge your hips backward and bend forward at the waist to reach down and grab the kettlebells. Soften your knees a little to let your glutes, hamstrings, and quads help to support your lower back.
- Exhale as you row the kettlebells up toward your abdomen. Pull until your elbow extends behind your back, or until you feel the handle just grazing your ribs.
- Lower slowly and under control, inhaling as you do so.
- Repeat as desired.
Sample Full-Body Kettlebell Workout
Time to put together these six newbie-friendly exercises into one glorious full-body workout you can knock out in just over 20 minutes!
- Kettlebell Swings: 3 sets of 10-15 swings, with 30 seconds of rest between each set
- Kettlebell Squat Thrusters: 3 sets of 8-12 reps, with 30 seconds of rest between each set
- Kettlebell Bent Over Rows: 3 sets of 8-12 reps, with 30 seconds of rest between each set
- Kettlebell Single Arm Deadlifts: 3 sets of 8-12 reps, with 30 seconds of rest between each set
- Kettlebell Halos: 2 sets of 8-12 reps, with 30 seconds of rest between each set
- Kettlebell Slingshot: 2 sets of 8-12 reps, with 30 seconds of rest between each set
Kettlebell Exercises for Beginners – FAQs and Fun Facts
Can you get ripped just doing kettlebell exercises?
You absolutely can! Most exercises that can be done using dumbbells can also be performed with kettlebells, meaning you can curl, kickback, press, and carry kettlebells to help you build serious muscle.
The main thing to remember is time under tension. The longer the muscle works, generally speaking, the more muscle activation and resulting growth.
When doing lifts (presses, for example) with kettlebells, remember to lift with control to achieve hypertrophy.
Is a 20-minute kettlebell workout enough?
A 20-minute HIIT workout will always be enough to improve your fitness, regardless of whether you use kettlebells, bodyweight, cables, or resistance bands.
That being said, if your goal is to build strength, specifically, it’s a good idea to allow more time for your workout so you have more time to rest between sets.
A 60 to 120-second rest will help to restore energy between sets and enable you to lift much heavier weights for more reps than if you only rested for 30 seconds, as you do with HIIT training.
What kind of physique will kettlebells give you?
Whatever kind of physique you want! Typically, the explosive, dynamic exercises that use kettlebells will be more focused on high-intensity and fat-burning, so you’ll slim down and build lean muscle.
However, if you want to bulk up, you can always lift heavier and lower the intensity of the exercises. Kettlebells, ultimately, are functional in the sense that you will build a more athletic physique by training with them.
The Bottom Line
Kettlebell training is one of my favorite modes of training for both beginners and advanced lifters and athletes alike.
There are plenty of exercises you can incorporate into your workout routine even on Day One at the gym.
What matters most is that you take time to master the form and give your body time to adapt.
You don’t have to push too hard right out of the gate, but once you learn to do the exercises right, you will see serious progress in no time thanks to the unique training stimuls and full-body activation of the exercises listed above.
More Kettlebell Resources and Guides
Kettlebells vs Dumbbells: Pros, Cons, and Differences. Kettlebells and dumbbells are two of the most popular tools for resistance training. But which is best for you? In this guide, we’ll look at the key differences between kettlebells and dumbbells so you can choose the right tool for your training.
What Size Kettlebell Should I Buy? In the market for a kettlebell but don’t know what size or weight to start with? Here’s a complete guide to kettlebell sizing, including colors, types of kettlebells, and more.
5 Best Adjustable Kettlebells for Killer Home Workouts. Curious about adjustable kettlebells? Here’s a detailed look at the best adjustable kettlebells for every kind of budget and athlete.
