The 1 Kettlebell in the Living Room Program

Sometimes, 1 kettlebell and a little space are all you need

Below is a sample MME (Muscle Made Easy ---> the title of a BIG book I'm finishing up) program with just 1 kettlebell and your bodyweight.

Let's discuss....

Sometimes, when hanging out at home, you want a workout but you've only got access to 1 kettlebell and some floor space. Or maybe, you just don't want to go to the garage because – oh, I don't know – you're watching TV with or without company, and you want to do a workout without leaving your living room.

Whatever the reason, I'm a huge fan of keeping a kettlebell or couple dumbbells inside in one of your most oft-frequented rooms (like a living room, for most people, or bedroom for those of you living with a bunch of random roommates -- I was that guy for a few years, by the way).

When conditions, motivation, or moods aren't optimal, leaving a kettlebell inside this main room encourages you to train without needing to leave your comfortable environment and without needing to lug in a bunch of equipment. 

Plus, it's great decoration for any room. That's a professional opinion!

Ideally, this kettlebell will be a moderate weight – one you can military press 5-6 times, lunge 10-15 times, row 8-15 times, and swing explosively 10-15 times.

Reps may be higher than usual (you'll notice, in the plan below, I write 3-5 sets x max reps for upper body. Some exercises may be difficult to get even 5 reps, while others may be easy to get 20+ depending on kettlebell weight. On leg days most exercises are 3-5 sets x 5-15 or 10-20 reps (per leg/side where applicable).

I err on the side of using higher volumes (3-5 instead of the usual 2-3) because we're inherently limited by weight in this program. So, we do more reps when able and accumulate the higher end of the volume range of what I usually recommend. 

If you've followed me for awhile, you probably notice most of my programs call for 2-3 sets per exercise, while I have some, specific, higher volume variations calling for as many sets as 4 or 5. Since this program involves just 1 kettlebell, you'll be doing 3, 4, or 5 sets per exercise depending on the time you have available to train. 

I'm not always a volume thumper, but, programs like this will be more productive if the volume is a bit higher. Feel free to also decrease rest periods (taking 45-90 seconds of rest instead of the usually recommended 2-3 minutes), to increase training density, making the workouts even more challenging.

Here's a simple, but useful, "Single Kettlebell MME Program."

In sticking with the MME (muscle made easy) program format, we will use an upper/lower split. Since the weight is lighter than what you usually will have access to in the home gym or commercial gym, you can train with more sets per exercise, more reps where capable, and more frequently – as much as 6 days per week if you're able to recover from it. The minimum workout frequency will be 3 sessions per week. As per usual, 3-4 days per week is likely ideal for most.

My thought is, most of the time, this single kettlebell upper/lower routine will act as a backup workout plan, that you may not plan to do regularly, but keep around for "oh shoot" days when you need to train but would rather "check the box" in your living room.

However, if your entire "gym" is 1 kettlebell, than this very well will work as your go-to, full-fledged, workout program. Eventually, you'll need to get a heavier kettlebell to continue to progress, or incorporate more equipment in order to optimize your gains, if that's something you're interested in.

Superset antagonist exercises if you'd like.

Warm up with a 1-2 sets of abs.

Upper Body 

Ex 1: clean & press-3-5x5-10 (or max reps)

Ex 2: pullups or single arm rows-3-5 x max reps

Ex 3: pushups or floor press-3-5 x max reps 

Ex 4: kettlebell curl (single arm, concentration curl, or horn curls)-3-5 x max reps

Ex 5: kettlebell skull crusher, overhead extensions, or close grip pushups on kettlebell-3-5 x max reps

Lower Body

Ex 1: Bulgarian split squat or single arm front squat-3-5x5-15

Ex 2: single leg or B stance RDL-3-5x5-15

Ex 3: reverse lunge or lateral squats or single leg box squats-3-5x5-15

Ex 4: kettlebell swing variation-3-5x10-20

Ex 5: calf raise/toe raise variation-3-5x10-20

Feel free to stick with that same weight until you're getting 15-20 reps on most lower body exercises. At that point, it's probably smart to head out to the garage gym and trade up your "living room kettlebell" for a heavier weight, or, you'll need to work some overtime at the day job so you can buy a bigger kettlebell for the living room.

The main takeaway here, though, is that every living room should have 1 moderate sized kettlebell present so you can do these living room, single kettlebell MME workouts when necessary or desired.

^That's a life hack, folks.