Targeting the qudriceps with a kettlebell workout can be challenging as finding quad exercises for your workouts isn’t always evident. Each exercise in this list can be used to target your quads in your next workout.
Kettlebells are such a valuable tool to strengthen your entire body. But it can be a little less obvious how to target specific muscle groups than traditional weight machine based training, thankfully there are plenty of variations for anyone looking to strengthen their quads using a kettlebell, lets have a look at our favourite 5 variations.
These exercises are excellent for the general population looking to use resistance training to stay healthy. They are also great for runners and cyclists who don’t want to join a gym but want to use resistance training to improve performance and prevent injury.
Strengthening your quads can be particularly effective when trying to mitigate knee injuries, especially for runners and ever more so for trail runners. Kettlebell exercises can be used for both strength and gaining muscle mass (hypertrophy). These in turn can improve both health and performance.
Complete 3 rounds
These exercises are best added into a well balanced full body resistance training programme for both general population and sport specific individuals like runners and cyclists.
The weight selection really depends on the intent of your training, if your attempting to gain muscle, use moderate loads with high reps whereas for strength use higher weights with lower rep ranges. These are generalisations as both high reps and low reps will have an effect on strength and hypertrophy, but as general guidelines they are accurate. When training for strength, avoid exercises where the limiting factor could be the core, like the KB narrow stance squat)
Be sure to start with manageable training to make sure its both sustainable and progressive, this means start lighter with lower volume (total sets and reps completed). This will avoid creating too much fatigue in your quads and body in general as you ease into a new training plan.
Consistently doing the exercise in this list. However if you really want to create an effective hypertrophy routine you may want to try and use a variety of equipment.
No. They will activate the quads as the kettlebell swing is a full body movement but can by no means called a quad exercises.
Consistently doing 8-12 working sets of exercises that work the quads is the most effective way to grow this muscle group.
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This resource was written by Sean Klein. Sean Richard Klein has thousands of hours of coaching experience and a BSc in Sports Science with Management from Loughborough University. He owns a gym in Bayonne France, CrossFit Essor, which runs group classes and a Personal training studio.