Kettlebell Training Guide: Knowledge & Resources

You have kettlebells and you’re ready to start training. The great thing about kettlebells is that you don’t need to know a ton of different exercises to start.

The first thing you should learn is the kettlebell swing. This is a good base for doing cardio and strengthening your legs. Once you’ve gotten that down, there’s a large and accessible world of knowledge to expand your workouts.

Keith Weber

Keith Weber makes great instructional videos, including some free instructional videos on YouTube for how to get started with basic exercises.

His workout DVDs are also great. Anyone can start with “The Extreme Kettlebell Cardio Workout”  which is a full body workout video. It consists of short routines that you can pick and choose from. As you build your strength and conditioning, you can try doing the full video.

Onnit Academy

Onnit’s knowledge page offers tons of resources for people who want to get start with kettlebells. Their library is always changing, but they have content tailored for strength, conditioning, and muscle growth, so you can pick based on your goals.

Onnit also currently sells a comprehensive 6-week kettlebell training program called Onnit 6 for $50. The program was created by one of their head coaches who works with athletes all over the country.

Onnit is particularly great at creating content that suits both men and women, so if you’re a lady looking for fitness gains, they’re a great company to check out.

Pavel Tsatsouline

Pavel Tsatsouline is a famous strength and conditioning coach and was one of the early proponents of the kettlebell in the U.S. He has written several books on kettlebell training.

Simple and Sinister outlines a training program consisting of nothing but swings and turkish get-ups. The program is highly structured and highly quantifiable, so you can easily track your progress, which feels nice in the early days of training.

Enter the Kettlebell is a more comprehensive guide to training with kettlebells, covering forms for more exercises and various other training programs. Enter the Kettlebell and Simple and Sinister have a significant amount of overlapping material, but I’ve read both and have found interesting nuggets of information in each.

Other Equipment: Arm Guards

You’re going to bang up your forearms a little bit when you start, so you might want to consider arm guards. They are essentially sweat bands with hard plastic strips inside. You can pick some up on Amazon for $20.