A Tip for Kettlebell Lifters Trying to Build Muscle

Ignore this if you're a lifter of kettlebells with zero goals of muscle gain.

However, if you enjoy lifting kettlebells and you want more muscle, listen up...

Stop following the fool-hardy mainstream kettlebell "muscle building" programs. They're terrible!

Seriously. They focus on 1-2 exercises only. They use high sets or cluster sets but low reps.

Muscle building principles are simple to understand.

People have long figured out the keys to building muscle. It's not an easy process, but it's anything but complicated (which the kettlebell industry tries to make it seem).

These kettlebell program creators act like nobody's figured out how to build muscle and the secret – that only they (the big gate keepers of kettlebell training) know – is to do some silly minimalist exercise protocol with low reps, or using complexes, and ignoring the majority of the body parts.

Wrong. 

Building Muscle with kettlebells is no different than building muscles with machines, barbells, or dumbbells. The process is nearly identical to building muscle with dumbbells because both are unilateral and somewhat limited by load and stability compared to machines or barbells. That's not a problem though.

Here's the keys:

1. Pick 1-2 exercises that directly target each muscle group. That means do 1-2 exercises for horizontal press AND vertical press. Not just one or the other. Same goes for vertical pull AND horizontal pull, squat patterns and hinge patterns.

2. Use moderate to higher sets. Anywhere from 2-5 sets per exercise is great. Aim for around 8-15 sets per muscle group per week. If doing 2 sets per exercise, ensure effort is high – ie, train close to failure. 

3. Focus on progressively overloading. Add reps over time within a challenging moderate rep range, then increase weight and rebuild reps. 

4. Use a basic, moderate rep range. None of this 10 sets of 1-5 reps or cluster reps or ladders, chains, etc. All that stuff is a distraction and leads to junk volume (work that doesn't really do anything to stimulate muscle gains, but it does suck up time and energy). Again, do 2-5 sets per exercise and use a time-tested, effective rep range. 6-12 reps per set has worked forever. Use that range for starters. Then adjust a little up or down from there as you see fit. 

5. Train close to failure each set. You don't have to go all the way to failure, but get within 0-3 reps of failure each set. If you're someone that likes judging rate of perceived exertion, that will come out to a 7-10 out of 10 effort on every set. The fewer sets you do, the closer to failure you should go.

Bonus Tip

If you're able (aka, if you have access to do so) use a combination of dumbbells and kettlebells during your routine. Certain exercises feel better with dumbbells while others feel better with kettlebells. The bells don't have to be enemies. They are actually great alliances when used together within a program.

Double Bonus Tip

Kettlebells (and dumbbells) are somewhat limited by weight. Rather than banging your head on a wall trying to figure out how to grow more muscle with goblet squats, deadlifts, or kettlebell front squats, progress to doing single leg work.

Single Leg RDLs are a fantastic hamstring and glute builder that can be progressively overloaded for many years with kettlebells and dumbbells.

Single leg box squats or pistol squats to a box (same exercise, different names) are a great quad builder and for many people, just your bodyweight for 6-12 reps will be a major challenge the first few weeks. 

Bulgarian split squats are the squat variation of choice for kettlebell and dumbbell lifters that are serious about maximizing lower body hypertrophy.

Reverse lunges and walking lunges are lower body blasters that will blow up your quads, glutes, and hamstrings without needing fancy machines or heavy barbell work. Just grab a bell or 2 and get to lunging. 

Step-ups and standard split squats are other great quad builders. 

Cossack (or lateral) squats are great. 

Single Leg hip thrusts or glute bridges add another fine hinging exercise that'll pack on mass.

I'm rambling now. The point is simple: Embrace unilateral training if using kettlebells!

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