The Kettlebell Swing is taught a variety of ways, but there are two main “variations” – the Russian swing and the American swing.
I personally only ever use the Russian style, hip hinge swing ending no higher than chest height. So below I’m going to go over form for that hip hinge movement instead of the American style overhead swing.
The Kettlebell Swing can be a great glute exercise to help you improve your power and your strength. It can also be a great conditioning exercise that is lower impact.
And of course, it also is great to build grip strength!
It is even thought by many to be one of the best, if not the best, explosive glute exercise!
Below learn how to do the basic Kettlebell Swing as well as some fun variations!
And if you’d like to learn more about Kettlebell training in general, scroll to the end of the post to watch my Science Behind Kettlebells Training Video!
The sandbag is a great functional tool to get in a full-body workout. It is also a great tool to help you build core strength and stability while strengthening the big muscles of your body.
With the sandbag you can work your entire core – everything from your shoulders to your knees. And because of the awkwardness of the weight, your core has to work super hard to stabilize.
Plus, unlike crunches, these movements work the big muscles of your body in different planes of motion. That means you get more bang for your buck – more calories burned and more muscle built with fewer exercises and less time in the gym.
Try these 5 Sandbag Core Exercises to get in a great full body workout and build your core strength and stability!
The Hip Thruster and variations of the movement recruit more muscle fibers than almost any standing lift, including one of our favorite moves of all time, the deadlift. It creates a burn in the glutes that very few other moves out there are able to accomplish.
However, beginners may want to start with a glute bridge variation before progressing to the Hip Thruster to make sure their low backs don’t take over when doing the movement.
It is very important with the Hip Thruster that you consciously focus on squeezing your glutes and fully extending your hips without hyperextending your low back.
Here’s how to do The Hip Thruster (potentially the single best glute exercise out there) and variations!
If you don’t have time to make it to the gym often or you find yourself traveling a lot, you may want to invest in a Suspension Trainer like the Jungle Gym XT, CoreX or TRX.
The Suspension Trainer is a great home workout and travel tool because it is easy portable and can be stored almost anywhere. Plus it is easy to use and can be a great workout for anyone from the beginner to the advanced lifter.
And while you can get a great full-body workout done on the Suspension Trainer, it is also a great way to isolate and work our big muscle groups like the glutes.
If you are looking to get in a great glute workout, but don’t have access to any weights, try these 5 Suspension Trainer Glute Exercises.
Often people think they can’t workout their legs when they have knee pain.
And while you don’t just want to jump into a lower body strength routine if you aren’t sure what is going on with your knees, there are knee-friendly lower body exercises you can do once you’ve identified the problem and are doing the proper rehab to take care of them.
The exercises below put little to no strain on the knees and also strengthen common areas of weakness that contribute to knee pain….Aka WEAK GLUTES and EXTERNAL ROTATORS!
Using these exercises (along with a proper prehab/rehab routine that includes foam rolling and stretching) you can prevent knee pain from ever returning!
