Kettlebell DeadLift plus Variations – Exercise Tutorials

Hi everyone,

Today I am STILL suffering from my Extreme Leg Burn Workout, it must have been all the plyometric exercises – oh and the Kettlebell Class later that night LOL!

This post will run through the important teaching points of the Kettlebell Deadlift. In the first video, I go over a few various ways to do the deadlift depending on the Kettlebells you have available. In the second video, I go through the Single-Leg Deadlift.

The Kettlebell Deadlift is a great compound exercise, using many muscles together to perform a task, this also qualifies it as a functional exercise. When planning a workout, that includes the deadlift, it is wise to put it first on the list, as you don’t want to be fatigued already. You can surprise yourself with this excellent strength exercise as you can handle a lot more weight when using this technique.

The Deadlift exercise in general, without necessarily using a kettlebell, is a great way to lift things properly. All “deadlift” means is lifting a load from static or dead position. You can use a barbell, a sandbag, even dumbbells. However for the purposes of my site, I will of course be focusing on the variations used with Kettlebells.

Key Pointers:

• Bend at the hips.
• Keep your back straight and head in line with the spine
• The power for the lift comes from the glutes, hamstrings and hips, not the back.
• When you’re lifting the kettlebell, keep it close to the legs as this will reduce the chances of you rounding the back.
• Keep your arms straight at all times.
• Straighten at the top by pulling the shoulders back and down.
• Be careful not to hyper-extend the back at the top of the movement.

Now for the teaching points for the Deadlift

1. Stand close to the Kettlebell, no matter which position you are lifting it from.
2. Keeping your back straight, head in line with the spine and shoulders back and down, bend at the hips then the knees and reach down for the kettlebell.
3. Once you are confident you have a firm grip and stable base by creating a tension in the body and squeeze the glutes, powering up to a standing position, keeping the arms straight and the KB close to the front of the legs.
4. At the top maintain the tension and keep the shoulders back and down.
5. To lower, reverse the movement, maintaining the tension and keeping the KB close to the front of the legs.

If you feel discomfort in your lower back, you may need to activate the glutes more, or you may have some tightness in the lower back, affecting your flexibility.  You can start the exercise off by having the kettlebell on a small platform to prevent you bending as much.

If you have only one Kettlebell and it is too light to get any benefit from the standard deadlift, you can perform the Single Leg Deadlift, which will obviously focus the load on one leg. The added benefits of the single leg deadlift are the elements of balance required which will help strengthen those smaller muscles around the ankles, knees and hip, this variation will also activate the core and the glutes more.

You can play around with the positioning of the kettlebell too, placing it in front with 2 hands will help with balance, and is more suitable for those starting out. Make it more challenging by holding the single KB on the same side as the leg you’re using, or the opposite.  You can also use 2 KBs for this exercise, which I forgot to mention in the video.

Remember if you are picking the Kettlebell up from the ground, to concentrate on creating that tension and stability within the core, back and glutes to prevent injury when adding the load to an already unstable base.

As always I hope this tutorial has covered enough pointers to help you perform this exercise at home.  If you have any further queries, just leave me a wee comment below and I’ll try my best to help.

Cheers

Marianne