Kettlebell Basics

As you probably know, I had a “cup of coffee” in the NFL in a previous life, with short stints on a couple of different teams.

Leading up to that point, I had been involved in competitive sports for over 15 years.

Long story short, my athletic career left me with my fair share of dings. I got off pretty good compared to a lot of guys I know, but I still feel it on a daily basis.

So, I’ve been doing a simple, five minute joint mobility routine nearly every morning for the last six months or so. This little thing has probably had more impact on my overall health and well being than anything else I have done this year. It’s been a HUGE help in reducing some of my chronic aches and pains.

Today, I have a SUPER simple joint mobility routine to get you started – so you can start enjoying the benefits of joint mobility training as well!

 

Simple Joint Mobility Routine

The simple definition of joint mobility training: Actively moving the joints through a full range of motion, with the intent of restoring or maintaining mobility.

Joint mobility training is important for several reasons:

• It improves performance by helping you learn how to properly engage each joint and muscle group in your movements.
• It increases the efficiency of your movement.
• It drastically decreases the chance of injury by elimiating incorrect movements along incorrect joints.

Exercises

-Do 10-20 reps of each exercise
-Make you you set yourself up with perfect posture BEFORE you start the routine.

• 3 way neck
• shoulder shrug
• arm circles
• hip circles
• knee circles
• ankle circles

Try this simple joint mobility routine today and see the difference for yourself!

Click HERE to see a video showing how to do all of the movements and to see my full “PreHab Warm Up” routine (includes foam rolling, dynamic stretch and more)

Thanks for reading, and talk soon -

Forest Vance
Master of Science, Human Movement
Certified Corrective Exercise Specialist

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No matter WHERE your fitness level is at …

You can always get better abs.

Thing is … traditional ab training … crunches, leg raises, sit ups, etc. … not only is it ineffective … it’s boring.

A fun and unique kettlebell exercise for abs is the kettlebell renegade row. And as an added benefit, when you do this move, not only will you work the heck out of those core muscles, you’ll hit almost every other muscle group in your body at the same time.

 

The Kettlebell Renegade Row

The way that your abs and your whole core (which includes your glutes, your midsection, your lower back and those muscles in the middle of your back) functions is as a stabilizer.

Say for example, if I’m doing a kettlebell swing or I’m doing a goblet squat, my abs are tightening up to stabilize my trunk during functional movements.

So here is an exercise called the renegade row. This is a unique exercise, you may have see it before, but it is a great total body ab movement.

Grab two kettlebells. The basic version has you practicing shifting your weight back and forth. Shift your full weight to one side while keeping your abs tightened like you are doing a push up.  This is SUPER helpful to get the proper weight distribution of the movement down.

Then you can go ahead and add a row to it.  The move should now be exactly the same, except you’re actually doing a row.

If you want to make it more difficult, you can add a push up between each row.

Also important to note, my abs are bracing really hard to stabilize as I shift my weight and do a row on one side.

This is a total body exercise with a strong emphasis on the abs. There’s the kettlebell renegade row – a great exercise for abs!

 

Here is a YouTube video on how to do the exercise:

 

Kettlebell Renegade Row Workout

Now you know how to properly perform the renegade row … here’s a quick workout you can do with it.

Set your timer. Do three Renegade Rows every 45 seconds. Do a push up after each row while you’re on the ‘bells – so you’ll end up doing six push ups and three rows each side.

Your rest is the remaining time in the 45 seconds you have AFTER you’ve done your reps. (The faster you go, the more rest you get.)

Do this a total of five to ten times – depending on fitness level, goal, etc.

 

Total Body Abdominal Annihilation

And also, to remind you … I just finished putting together a new program, called “Total Body Abdominal Annihilation”.

In it, you’ll find:

- More of my favorite total body kettlebell and body weight exercises – like Janda Sit Ups, Windmills, and TGUs
- Simple to do yet SUPER effective total body ab workouts like this one in this article
- And more ..

Right now you can get this program FREE.

How? Just click THIS LINK … check out all the details on my trusted friend Dennis’ Superhero Abs program (on sale this weekend), see if it is a good fit for you … and when you grab your copy, I’ll send you a free copy of MY new program, “Total Body Abdominal Annihilation”.

No need to forward your receipt or anything … Dennis is going to send me a list of folks who purchase the program through me and I’ll send you a copy of TBAA at the beginning of next week.

That’s it for today! Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend, and talk soon -

Forest Vance, MS, RKC

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