I’m not sure if you ever experienced this in the early days of your strength training, but we had no choice but to hit our muscles from ALL angles.
Usually, that’s why you had a few exercises per muscle group, like this:
CHEST:
Bench Press - for the pecs ( central pecs?)
Incline Bench (Dumbbells or Barbell) - for the upper pecs
Decline Bench - for the lower chest
Incline Flies - isolation work for the pecs, no triceps
BACK:
Bent Rows - for trapezius, rhomboids and lats (barbell or DB)
Pull Ups - for your lats
Straight Arm Pulldown - also for your lats, but no biceps involvement
QUADS:
Squats - full leg
Leg Press - mainly quadriceps
Leg Extension - solely quad isolation
… And on and on we can go with each body part…
(Bent Over Lateral Fly’s for shoulders anyone?)
And this mindset - multiple exercises from multiple angles for each body part is why so many of us struggle with KBs.
“Which KB exercise works your rear delts?”
Presses.
No seriously, if you do them right, Presses.
Military.
And Bent.
But I digress…
But here’s the deal:
Many KB workout programs - especially mine -
Still have you put in a lot of effort.
A great deal.
OF WORK .
See, if you try a program like ‘THE GIANT’, you’ll most likely be doing between 30 and 100 reps per session per session. (That’s Clean AND Press - so really - 2X those numbers - because we count the C+P as ONE lift when it’s really TWO exercises .)
But often times, that work is spread out across your body in other areas -
At least if you’re doing click here the exercises right .
For example, I got an email from Allen about how many sets of C+P he should be doing in 30 minutes using ‘THE GIANT.’
One of his comments?
“I'm usually sore in other sections than my shoulders.”
Which, of course, sounds surprising if you come from a traditional bodybuilding background, right?
Because “Press” = “Shoulder Press” = “Working on my shoulders” = “So my shoulder should be sore the next day”...
Right?
A properly executed KB Press should use the:
Feet
Quads
Abs
Glutes
Lats
Pecs
Forearms
Triceps
And of course, the shoulders.
If you’re not feeling more than your shoulders when, after you Press, chances are high that you’re leaving A LOT of ‘GAINZ’ on the proverbial table.
Including strength gains and muscle size.
Strangely enough, for some, even fat loss.
(From the extra energy used during a properly performed Press.)
And because most guys don’t know that specialized techniques exist to do this with their KB lifts, they often get a raging case of FOMO -
Fear Of Missing Out.
“What about my biceps?”
“What about my chesticles?”
“What about my peroneous longus?”
And so, one of two things happen:
[1] They try to add extra exercises to their KB workouts
… And end up fatigued , sore, and sometimes injured.
[2] They are mentally torn about KBs actually being able to “get them in shape” - whatever that means to them
… And end up stopping and starting and stopping and starting the “Workout Merry-go-round” and waste years, if not decades of their lives due to indecision and ignorance.
So look, it pays dividends to take your time and learn proper kettlebell technique.
When you do, you will not need to ask, “What muscle does that work ?” ever again .
Because you’ll have your solution :
ALL OF THEM .
Stay Resilient ,
Geoff Neupert.