These unique kettlebell exercises from 6x CrossFit Games athlete Marcus Filly will help you to improve your full body strength, movement and mobility. For more exercises and training plans, check out his website.
They are divided into the following sections to allow you to focus on the areas that you wish to improve.
KETTLEBELL EXERCISES
- Overhead strength and mobility
- Posterior chain development
- Leg strength and mobility
- Extras (including core)
SECTION 1 – OVERHEAD STRENGTH AND MOBILITY
Kettlebell exercises are a great way to enhance overhead movements, which are vital for all CrossFit Athletes. Add the following movements into your training.
DUAL BOTTOMS UP KETTLEBELL OVERHEAD CARRY
“The bottoms up KB carry, regardless of position, is a great tool to implement in training as the position of the KB pointed up towards the ceiling will put a greater demand on the grip and keep the scapular stabilized to hold good positions.
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The dual KB overhead carry is a great way to get the upper back and scapular stabilizers firing and activated prior to an upper body training day. This is a great warm up movement.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/By0UkDuF6rD/
TALL KNEELING FILLY PRESS
Today’s tall kneeling variation is one of the more challenging Filly Press variations. The tall kneeling position really limits how well the athlete can use their legs to stabilize, placing a higher demand on the glutes and trunk muscles to do this.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxcvtQml5xN/
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL OVERHEAD SPLIT STANCE HALF SQUAT ISOMETRIC
“Improving your mobility doesn’t always have to look like static stretching or rolling on something. It can look like active movement. The keys to improved movement through active range of motion work is to move slowly, control all portions of the range, hold tension in the entire body, and only move so far as you can maintain good body positions.
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This isometric hold is a great way to engage the hip flexors and strength them while under tension.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/By3GbIllAZY/
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL Z PRESS
“Thoracic extension is often overlooked as a key to mobility issues that start to express in the shoulders. Ensuring your thoracic spine still has a bit of extension (despite a predominance of flexion) is important to ward off shoulder issues.
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The Z press demands this position and therefore is one of the strength exercises that can actively help improve range of motion”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxlp-ImF-Uv/
DUAL KETTLEBELL STRICT PRESS
“Pressing progression for you. Check out FBB Ex Select Upper Pushing for a full list of 30 movement progressions.”
- Half Kneeling Landmine Press
- Seated Single Arm DB Press
- Seated Alternating KB Press
- Standing Single Arm DB Press
- Standing Alternating KB Press
- Standing Dual KB Strict Press
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxEKrFXlxpz/
POSTERIOR CHAIN DEVELOPMENT
A strong posterior chain is essential for building good movement patterns, solid strength and bodily support in CrossFit.
Some of the muscles that make up the posterior chain
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL SPLIT SNATCH
“The combination of a KB Snatch and an Overhead Lunge makes this a double dose of posterior chain recruitment. It is important that the athlete have a strong command of loaded lunging before attempting this. This is a great variation on the KB Snatch that brings coordination into play considerably. It works very well as a set up drill for Single Arm KB Complexes and Flow. It becomes easy to transition to different movement patterns from here.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx_TQ4QFVH9/
SINGLE LEG KETTLEBELL ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
“The single leg RDL demands balance, strength, and coordination. The most common fault with this exercise is seeing clients load too much too fast. So much so that they are no longer performing a hip hinge but instead are just flexing their spine with their hips locked. Make sure you are pushing your hips back and actually hinging at the hip of the planted leg. Lighten up the load if you cannot do this correctly and possibly grab a dowel to help you balance if needed.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzHe1hkF2Pg/
DEFICIT DUAL KETTLEBELL DEADLIFT
The kettlebell suitcase deadlift is a terrific overall strength builder. Not only for the posterior chain, but the quads and the upper back get a great dose as well. The addition of the deficit shown here is to simply extend the range of motion and work slightly higher up on the hamstrings and low back for the athlete. Be aware that this added deficit can put some athletes in a compromised position and therefore should only be used in certain cases by athletes with adequate mobility.
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByrIt4Elx4M/
WEIGHT PLATE GOOD MORNINGS
“By altering the type of load you use in weighted exercises you will start to experience subtle differences in how your muscles are worked. Simply taking a weight plate instead of a barbell will distribute weight differently. Changing load type is a useful tool in the design of training to keep the stimulus changing while honoring the same motor patterns that have classically worked. Often times a new stimulus is needed to keep the brain engaged and to keep athletes from pushing themselves too far in a typical loading pattern.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvvFasIlRWy/
WEIGHT PLATE GOOD MORNING HOLD
“Isometric contractions are a big part of the FBB methodology and finding new ways to use positions and holds in warm ups is something we are constantly looking to develop. The Good Morning Isometric is a perfect way to prep the posterior chain and also work on bending endurance.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvxjEglFRCq/
LEG STRENGTH AND MOBILITY
Without strong legs you will fail as a CrossFit athlete.
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL FRONT RACK BOX SQUATS
“The Box Squat is a great tool in training design for a few reasons.
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1. Help athletes learn how to properly use their posterior chain. Use your quads too much in your squat? The box can be a great kinesthtic tool to get you to use your glutes and hamstrings more by sitting back.
2. Have knee pain in deep flexion? Use the box to limit range of motion and still work hip, glute, and quad strength to support your recovery from injury, or avoid it all together.
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✔️Try out various loading positions like the SA KB Rack to get some unilateral stimulus out of this double leg variation of the squat.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/By1YCtklxq8/
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL THRUSTER
Perform an unbroken set of 10 repetitions on each arm with the prescribed weight below. This is a unilateral test similar to the bilateral Goblet Squat Test (20 reps at 48/32kg)
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Male Weight = 32kg
Female Weight = 24kg
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByiiyZCl8m0/
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL FRONT RACK CURTSY SQUAT
“Building a great single leg strength foundation is vital. The reason being is that with great single leg strength we can help our clients with the following.
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1. Avoid injury lower extremity injuries by supported movement mechanics with strong HIPS
2. Create balance from left to right in the hips which can be important for trunk stability and low back health
3. Build up hip and leg stability so that when moving into double leg patterns, clients can express more power and strength.
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? This variation of the curtsy squat delivers great rotational strength benefits too with the unilateral loading pattern.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx7vteMFePE/
SINGLE ARM KETTLEBELL RACK STEP UPS
“Proper execution of the step up entails using the forward leg as the predominant driving force when standing. Too often the mistake of pushing off the back leg is made. Keep the back leg completely straight during the step up portion of the exercise to ensure minimal contribution from the back leg.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxiBRfpF71i/
SINGLE ARM OVERHEAD BOTTOMS UP KETTLEBELL REVERSE LUNGE
LOADING POSITION! – Movements in strength training really haven’t changed much over the years. Why? Because the body was designed to move in certain ways and humans have been exploring this for a long time already. There aren’t new movement patterns to unlock.
Instead, we can start to experiment with how we load those movement patterns and apply different stimulus to them in order to either enhance or simply alter the effects slightly. A bottom up single arm KB loading position does just that for a reverse lunge. Added grip strength, shoulder stability, and demand for high precision in the lower body movement. Give it a SHOT!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvW47EKlK8w/
EXTRAS
These extra movements will provide fun and variety for your training.
BANDED RUSSIAN KETTLEBELL SWINGS
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw5vHj3l2Tr/
HALF KNEELING KETTLEBELL WINDMILL
- Feeling better connected in training from head to toe.
- Added lateral stability
- Increased unilateral strength
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwudNWWF3mj/
SINGLE ARM SINGLE LEG PLANK ON KETTLEBELL
“This contralateral balanced plank on a kettlebell is a great way to work on your anti rotational strength. Anti rotational core strength is a stimulus that comes from having balance points or loading patterns that make the body want to rotate with gravity. You must fight that force and maintain balance. Try this as part of your warm up to get you brain, temp, and rotational muscles to AWAKEN.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwmiZNTFJ28/
KETTLEBELL EXERCISES – SINGLE ARM TURKISH SIT UP
“This anterior core exercise is turned slightly rotational by only loading one arm at a time. The added shoulder stability demands along with shoulder positional strength makes it a very potent exercise. That the shoulder has to stabilize through 90 degrees of range of motion is one of the reasons it serves as a great mobility drill and core strengthener.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BymAyWaltt7/
KETTLEBELL EXERCISES – BURPEE GOBLET SQUAT
Simple and effective. Take two movements that cover a wide range of movement patterns and put them together into a complex like this to get the entire body moving.
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Burpee – upper pushing, hinging
Goblet Squat – Upper back, squatting
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Warm Up
10 Burpee Goblet Squats
30sec Active Bar Hang
200m Run
x 3-4 Rounds
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx8v7iblZhG/
Have fun with these kettlebell exercises!
