The gorilla row builds strength through the middle and upper back, lats, and shoulders while also enhancing scapular mobility, plus thoracic and abdominal stability.
An advanced version of a standard lunge, this should only be attempted after a proper warm up and by those that can comfortably perform a kettlebell clean and press. By incorporating the overhead element, this exercise also targets the shoulders, triceps and lower back.
This exercise is to help set your shoulder blade and give a bit of a balancing challenge. The stabiliser muscles of the shoulder have to kick in to keep your shoulder blade and humerus bone in place. A great warm up protocol for when working with shoulders!
Dead lifts are considered to be one of – if not THE BEST exercises. The basic premise is that you are lifting a dead weight from the floor. It has many variations and can be mixed up to co-inside with your workout requirements. Using a kettle bell allows to mix up the positioning of the weight to be more central to your mass.
The silent stealthy killer! Pulse n Stands seem pretty good at first – not so much by the end! Just like sitting down in a chair, the Pulse n Stand is about engaging those glutes and hamstrings to control your descent and using your quad engagement at the correct part of the movement.
It is important to ensure that your knees don’t collapse inwards while doing this exercise and don’t forget to squeeze and engage your glutes otherwise your back will try and engage!
Kettlebell swings are a fantastic exercise to get those glutes firing. Surprisingly you don’t need to do a great deal with this exercise though lots of people make it harder than what it needs to be. The secret to this exercise is to only use your hips. Your arms are like rope and your hands are like hooks. There is no effort from your shoulders. The momentum you build comes from you thrusting your hips forward as quick as you can!
I love how many people LOVE to hate this exercise.. even though they know how effective it is for hip stabilisation! It’s important that you keep your back nice and straight and that you don’t fish for the ground by compromising your neutral spine in order to reach for the ground. If you do this side on to a mirror, ensure that your working leg is closest to the mirror. That way, if you see your non working glute in the mirror, it means you have lost form. Hide that glute and keep your hips square!
The Goblet squat is a great variation of the standard squat. By holding a weight in front of you, it changes the weight distribution of the lift and puts a more frontal weight distribution which can definitely get the quads burning!