Why Every Mom Needs A Kettlebell At Home

Why Every Mom Needs A Kettlebell At Home

So you might be wondering why I have a huge cannonball with a handle on top of it in the middle of my living room. Well, it just so happens that a kettlebell (that’s the cannonball implement) is a key feature in our home. In fact, it’s one of the biggest reasons my wife and I met.

The picture featured here is the one my wife used as her profile picture when we met. I’m not going to get into all the details, but as is we met online while I was still far, far away in South Korea as a US military officer. I wasn’t into scouring the land of kimchi and soju, so I spent a lot of time online. Emails led to conversations, led to dating, and the rest is history.

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And while I was attracted to this picture because of its simplicity and elegance in particular, this told me that she was the real deal. Any woman with a kettlebell in her house is a winner for to me.

Your Fitness Tool of Choice

You see kettlebells are amazing and they’re such a great tool that you can do a full workout in the company of your own home in a matter of minutes with one simple instrument of destruction. Enter the kettlebell.

These little bells developed in Russia are the foundation for many strength training and conditioning programs. Why?

Because they’re so easy to use and you only need one to perform a full body workout that helps develop strength, explosiveness, cardiovascular conditioning, core strength, coordination and grip strength. All of which we know everyone needs.

Now I’m not saying that a single kettlebell is as good as a gym, but for a piece of equipment that you can have at home it’s simply the best alternative.

Treadmills take up too much space and they’re often tucked away deep in the basement to collect dust as we all know running or walking outside is way more awesome than doing anything on a treadmill.

Ellipticals again take up too much space and all you can use them for is an effective waste of time. Unless you do the type of conditioning we like at Hostyle, which is dragging an elliptical around the parking lot. Note – this will make for a great Youtube video in the future. Stay tuned!

Stationary bikes, well, these often double as an effective way hang your clothes to dry.

And last but not least the Bowflex, while being a very nice and simple way to train your muscles, is yet still a machine with way to many levers and spindles that makes it somewhat of an angry spider taking over a prominent section of your living room.

Why Strength Training with Kettlebells Rocks

Strength training with a kettlebell makes things efficient and simple. Once you’ve mastered a few of the basic moves you’ve got yourself a nice little home workout that you can do at home in as little as 30 minutes, heck you could even split it up into 15 minute shifts if you want, but that would be like calling it 7 minute Abs when we know abs take a lot more than 7 minutes to get.

This makes the kettlebell the perfect workout tool for the stay at home mom who often doesn’t have the opportunity to get away every day.

I know all moms are crazy busy running their kids around from this place and that place, and sometimes to different events going on during one weekend. I find this ludicrous and quite insane, but alas the kettlebell would still enable a busy mom to get a workout in regardless of their busy schedule surrounding work, kids, shopping, family, and other related activities.

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So What Do You Do With It

Well, you swing it of course. The kettlebell swing is THE foundational move of the kettlebell and it’s one of my signature favourites. It involves propelling the kettlebell on a circular path from between the thighs to a shoulder height position. Be advised there are several versions of this, so CrossFitters don’t hate on me, I just think the basic swing should only go to eye level in order to keep the focus on the glutes and hips! And who doesn’t want better glutes and thighs? Yeah, I thought so…

Check out this video to see how it’s done!

Oh, and let’s not forget another leg dominator for the kettlebell—the goblet squat. Another one of my favourites for burning up the leg muscles.

Not only does the goblet squat teach you proper squat technique, but it also stimulates all the major muscles of the thigh and legs. You simply grab the bell by the horns (those are the sides of the handles), hug the bell close to the chest with the elbows tucked in to support, throw the hips back and bend at the knees. The movement practically teaches itself! Check out the form here:

Now, you’re interested in some upper body movements to get rid of the nasty “tricep hang” and “tone” that upper body. What I mean by tone of course is build muscle and burn bodyfat, but you get the idea. Try the double arm kettlebell press to firm up those upper arms and reach overhead for any long lost article on the top of the kitchen shelves. Just make sure that you hold the bell in the rack position at the upper portion of the chest and extend the arm so that the bicep is aligned with the ear as shown here.

Sweet! Now you have a nice little one, two combo for how to handle the kettlebell, the most useful and dominating workout tool around. Way better than having an old treadmill that just lies around collecting dust and a stationary bike for a clothes hanger (even though the handles do have handy hangers).

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The kettlebell is an awesome piece of equipment and everyone should have one in their house. You never know when you might have a spare 20-30 minutes when the kids are napping to squeeze out a little workout.

-CPT SMASH @CPTSMash1267