Kettlebell Training Combined with Hiking is Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Kettlebell Training Combined with Hiking Kills A Lot of Birds with One Stone

Get outside the box, literally.

Benefits of Hiking

Hiking is a low-impact form of aerobic exercise that involves walking in natural environments such as forests, mountains, or trails. Here are some of the benefits of hiking:

  • Improves cardiovascular health: Hiking is an excellent way to get your heart rate up and improve your cardiovascular health. Regular hiking can lower your risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, and improve cholesterol levels.

  • Builds strength and endurance: Hiking involves walking uphill and downhill, which engages various muscle groups in the legs, core, and upper body. This helps to build endurance, strength, and balance.

  • Reduces stress and anxiety: Hiking in natural environments has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety levels. Exposure to nature can also improve your mood and overall sense of well-being.

  • Boosts creativity: Hiking can help to boost creativity by allowing you to disconnect from technology and engage with the natural environment. Studies have shown that spending time in nature can improve cognitive function and creativity.

Benefits of Kettlebell Training

Kettlebell training is a type of strength training that uses kettlebells, which are bell-shaped weights with handles. Kettlebell training involves dynamic movements such as swings, snatches, and cleans, which engage multiple muscle groups and improve overall strength and power. Here are some of the benefits of kettlebell training:

  • Builds strength and power: Kettlebell training is a full-body workout that engages multiple muscle groups simultaneously. This can help to build strength and power, especially in the core, hips, and legs.

  • Improves cardiovascular endurance: Kettlebell training can also improve cardiovascular endurance, as the dynamic movements require a high level of exertion and can elevate heart rate.

  • Increases flexibility and mobility: Kettlebell exercises involve movements that require flexibility and mobility, which can improve joint health and reduce the risk of injury.

  • Burns calories and fat: Kettlebell training is a high-intensity workout that can burn a significant amount of calories and fat, leading to weight loss and improved body composition.

The Benefits of Merging Hiking and Kettlebell Training

Merging hiking and kettlebell training can lead to even greater benefits than each activity alone. Here are some of the benefits of combining the two:

  • Increased calorie burn: Combining hiking with kettlebell exercises can increase the calorie burn of both activities, leading to greater weight loss and improved body composition.

  • Improved cardiovascular endurance: Both hiking and kettlebell training can improve cardiovascular endurance, and combining the two can create a more comprehensive cardiovascular workout.

  • Total body workout: Merging hiking with kettlebell exercises engages multiple muscle groups throughout the body, leading to improved overall strength and power.

  • Mental clarity: Hiking in natural environments can improve mental clarity and reduce stress and anxiety. Combining this with the mental focus required for kettlebell exercises can lead to improved cognitive function and overall well-being.

In conclusion, hiking and kettlebell training are two popular forms of exercise that offer unique benefits to the body and mind. Merging the two can create a comprehensive workout that combines cardiovascular endurance, strength training, and mental clarity. Whether you’re looking to lose weight, build strength, or improve your overall well-being, hiking and kettlebell training can be an effective way to achieve your fitness goals.

If you need a convenient way to hike your kettlebell to beautiful places to train, check out our kettlebell backpack!

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Goblet Bicep Curl

Who says you can’t train biceps in isolation with kettlebells!?

The Goblet Bicep Curl acts much in the same as a hammer curl with dumbbells. We’re not really sure what a dumbbell is, but we heard about them at one point in time and apparently they can also be used to get in shape???

Pick up a kettlebell, grab it by the horns, and curl that sucker until your biceps light up.

As always, start light, do it right, and progress from there.

1-Arm Rows

1-Arm Rows

This classic strength exercise becomes even more functional when done in a 3 point stance like in the video.

Keep the back flat, chest up, and elbow tight to the body while rowing the elbow high and pulling the shoulder blade to the midline of your body.

This is great exercise for developing the lats, rhomboids, rear delts, and biceps.

Hollow Holds

Hollow Holds

This is the cousin to the front plank. The hollow hold is a great core stability exercise and it’s a great teacher of how to activate the trunk. It’s also an easy exercise to progress, similar to the front plank, in that all you have to do to make it more challenging is to extend the levers.

Basic physics really 😉

In other words, you can begin hollow holds in a fetal like position (only you’re on your back) and as your trunk strength/stability improves, you can “open up” into a longer position (like in the video).

Give it a shot.

Body Saws

Body Saw

The body saw is an excellent progression from standard planking. Outside of just holding a plank longer, most people don’t progress that movement to get functionally better. Body saws are a great step up from the planks. The varying length of the level makes this exercise much more of a strength exercise, rather than just a stability exercise.

Start on your elbows first, as in the video, and another progression from there once the elbows get easy, is to go to a pushup position to the perform the body saws.

SLDL

SLDL

One of the best hamstring and glute builders is the single leg deadlift, otherwise known as the SLDL. Not only is this a great hamstring and glute strength builder, but it’s also a great way to gain strength at length in the hamstrings and reducing hamstring injuries.

This exercise feels more like a stretch than a strength exercise, but you’ll feel the soreness the next day if you’ve done these correctly and loaded them appropriately.

Med Ball Push-Ups

Med Ball Push-ups

This variety of push-ups offers a challenging blend of progression and stability. Due to the instability of the med ball, the upper body and trunk is required to stabilize the ball while performing the push-up.

Additionally, the pushup needs to be performed more like a close-grip pushup due to the hand positioning, which is more challenging variation of the regular push-up position.

Pull-Ups

Pull-Ups

There’s something very primitive about pull-ups. It’s almost as if it’s one of those exercises that if our ancestors couldn’t do, they probably didn’t get out alive.

Pull-ups are an exercise of frustration for many. Like most things, you may suck at them before becoming good at them. Remember, most people in America can’t do a single pull-up, so you’re not alone, but you may not want to be in that company.

Having a good body composition and have a relatively healthy weight is a good pre-requisite to being good at pull-ups. So the best advice to getting better at pull-ups is to get better at nutrition.

Getting good at pull-ups is like a skill. It takes consistent practice. It can start with eccentrics, or lowering yourself as slow as you can from the top down. Another thing you can do is use assistance bands to reduce the amount of weight (you) to have to pull-up.
In any case, the ability to do a few pull-ups is a great fitness goal to set if you can’t do any.

Trust us, you’ll feel so empowered when you can do them.

Kettlebell Backpack Forward Lunge

Take the load off of your spine and from your hands and train with the Kettlebell Backpack. This offers a tremendous lower body strength challenge and simulates many outdoor activities like hiking and hunting.

Kettlebell Backpack Squats

With the kettlebell backpack you can shift the load to your hips rather than your spine. You may need to lean forward a bit more than if you were doing kettlebell goblet squats, but this form of squatting is also quite functional and applicable to daily life. Strength your legs, hips, and low back with the kettlebell backpack squat.