Hello friends! I am a big fan of home-based workouts that require a minimal amount of equipment. These types of workouts allow you to exercise at your convenience, which I know busy people appreciate. Kettlebells are great pieces to invest in as they take up a minimal amount of space but allow for a huge variety of exercises. So today, I’ve got a lower body kettlebell workout for you!
Now, I’ve mentioned before that kettlebells aren’t strictly necessary for these workouts. Basically, you are looking for something that has an unbalanced weight distribution and that you can swing around. If you already own dumbbells, you can sub those and just hold one by one of the weighted ends. Or you can make your own kettlebell.
So now that we’ve talked equipment, why lower body? A couple of reasons actually. First, the upper/lower split is a really common one for strength training. And there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Second, the lower body muscles work together to create motion in pretty unique ways so it makes sense to train them together. Lastly, kettlebell movements especially take advantage of how the lower body is set up, so it is really easy to get a super effective workout.
This workout, as most of the ones I post, is designed for beginners. The more form tricky motions are practiced without weight first, and you can always keep them just body weight if you feel more confident that way. This workout is focused on squat and hinge motions, which are important for daily activities, especially as we age.
I’ve also included a good variety of single leg and lateral motions. These are two things that many forget in lower body exercises but are clutch. We typically ask our legs to do different things at the same time (i.e. walking) so we should strength train with that in mind. And maintaining lateral strength in the lower body is important for the power generation necessary to keep up safe (i.e. avoiding falls).
Exercises Demonstrated:
Warm Up – seated deadlifts and unweighted swings
Split Squats
One Leg Romanian Deadlifts
Goblet Squats
KB Swings
Lateral Lunges
Push play and swing away!
