Double Kettlebell Exercises - The 12 Week Muscle Building Kettlebell Master Plan
Geoff Neupert presents the best of 12-week muscle building kettlebell master plan. Find each weekly exercises in the following:
Weeks 1–4: Mechanical Tension Focus
Start the program with a pair of matching kettlebells you can press approximately 4–6 times. You’ll use them through the entire program. By the end, they’ll feel like toys.
You should be comfortable swinging these at least to waist height. If you’re at all unsure or uncertain about your capability, drop back to swinging one kettlebell. You can use either the two-handed swing or the one-hand swing. More important than which variety you choose is that you focus on making each rep as explosive as possible, like I explained in my article “Kettlebell Explosion: Harness the Power of the Kettlebell Swing.”
Workout A: Presses And Squats
Set your timer for 30 minutes. Your goal is to do as many sets of each exercise, with perfect form, as you can in that time. In terms of rest, don’t rush it. Use as much as you need.
To perform the workout, clean the kettlebells to the rack position, then perform a set of military presses. Put the kettlebells down and rest momentarily. Then, when you’re ready, clean the kettlebells back into the rack position and perform a set of front squats.
Workout 1: Alternate between sets of 1 and 2 reps
Workout 2: Sets of 2
Workout 3: Ladders* of 1,2,3 reps
Workout 4: Sets of 3
Workout 5: Ladders. 1,2,3,4
Workout 6: Alternate between sets of 3 and 4. If you feel weak, stick with sets of 3.
*Ladders: Do a set of 1, then rest. Set of 2, then rest. Set of 3, then rest. Start over again at 1 rep.
Workout B: Swings
Set your timer for 20 minutes. Your goal is to do as many sets of swings as you can, with perfect form, in that time. Again, with rest, don’t rush it. Use as much as you need. On workouts 4 through 6, you’re repeating workouts 1 through 3 so aim for more explosive swings or more total sets.
Workout 1: Sets of 4
Workout 2: Sets of 5
Workout 3: Sets of 6
Workout 4: Sets of 4
Workout 5: Sets of 5
Workout 6: Sets of 6
Weeks 5–8: Muscular Damage Focus
To start this phase, determine your rep max (RM) with both the military press and the front squat using your two trusty kettlebells. A rep max is a set where you do as many reps as possible using perfect form. When your form falters at all, terminate the set.
From now on, you are going to work off of percentages of your RM. For example, if your military press RM is 10 and you see “50 percent RM” in the program, you’ll do 5 reps. Always round down the number of reps if you hit a decimal point in your math. This will keep you from overtraining, and allow you to keep your force production high.
Finally, don’t rush your reps. Your lowering phase (eccentric) should be 2–3 times slower than your lifting (concentric) phase.
Workout A: Presses And Squats
Set your timer for 30 minutes. Your goal is to do as many sets of each exercise, with perfect form, as you can in that time. But note that there’s more specific rest parameters here.
Clean the kettlebells to the rack position, then perform a set of military presses. Put the kettlebells down, and rest 60–90 seconds. Clean the kettlebells back into the rack position, and perform a set of front squats. Rest another 60–90 seconds before pressing again.
Workout 1: 60% RM
Workout 2: 70% RM
Workout 3: 80% RM
Workout 4: 60% RM
Workout 5: 70% RM
Workout 6: 80% RM
Workout B
Do an RM test with your pair of kettlebells for the swing. If you’re at 10 or over, then use the following program. If not, use these weeks to keep practicing with the one-handed swing, trying to build up to 20 reps per hand, each at chest height.
Set your timer for 20 minutes. Your goal is to do as many sets of swings as you can, with perfect form, in that time. During this phase, rest 90 seconds between sets. On workouts 4 through 6, you’re repeating workouts 1 through 3 so aim for more explosive swings, or more total sets if you struggled to keep up the first time around.
Workout 1: 60% RM
Workout 2: 70% RM
Workout 3: 80% RM
Workout 4: 60% RM
Workout 5: 70% RM
Workout 6: 80% RM
Weeks 9–12: Metabolic Stress Focus
Once again, find your RM for the military press and the front squat. You’ll do this to measure your progress. Even a small increase in your RM numbers means an increase in strength, so I’d like you to test at the very end of the program as well, after taking a week off.
Workout A: Presses And Squats
There’s one big difference in these workouts: You’ll clean the kettlebells to the rack position and perform a set of military presses, followed immediately by one set of front squats. Then, put the kettlebells down and rest. When your rest time is over, clean the kettlebells back into the rack position and repeat.
This slight variation may not seem like much, but it increases the time under tension you experience and triggers metabolic stress. This is due to the increased time in the rack position and the increased demand on your accessory respiratory muscles.
Furthermore, combined with this month’s set up, you’ll be challenged to your max capacity each and every set.
Workout 1: 5 RM* sets. Rest 3 min. between sets.
Workout 2: 4 RM sets. Rest 2.5 min. between sets.
Workout 3: 3 RM sets. Rest 2 min. between sets.
Workout 4: 5 RM sets. Rest 3 min. between sets.
Workout 5: 4 RM sets. Rest 2.5 min. between sets.
Workout 6: 3 RM sets. Rest 2 min. between sets.
*Your RM will drop due to fatigue as the sets progress. That’s perfectly normal. Your first RM may also decrease between workouts. It does not mean you’re getting weaker! It means there is fatigue in your system.
On workouts 4–6, you’ll be repeating workouts 1–3, so aim for more total reps per RM set the second time through.
Workout B: Swings
By this point, you should be able to comfortably swing a pair of kettlebells. Do an RM test with your pair of kettlebells for the swing. If you’re at 10 or over, then use the following program. If not, keep on practicing with the one-handed swing, working up to 20 reps per hand, each at chest height.
To perform this workout, set your timer for 20 minutes, and try to reach the targeted minimum number of sets in that time. Your goal is to perform 10 sets of 10 reps. A systematic way to approach this is on a 2-minute cycle: 20–30 seconds of work, followed by 90 seconds of rest.
Workout 1: 5–7 sets of 10 reps
Workout 2: 6–8 sets of 10 reps
Workout 3: 7–9 sets of 10 reps
Workout 4: 6–8 sets of 10 reps
Workout 5: 7–9 sets of 10 reps
Workout 6: 8–10 sets of 10 reps
