Why You Should Perform Kettlebell Exercises In a Circuit
The third training principle in Pavel’s classic Russian Kettlebell Challenge is “Perform your exercises in a circuit.” Just prior to that, Pavel advices the practitioner to perform as few or as many exercises per session as one wishes, but to “not work equally hard on every one of them.” The reason, then, for doing exercises circuit-style (that is, hoping from one exercise to another) is to get more overall work accomplished in the same amount of time. In other words, circuit-training is a means of increasing density, since it allows one to handle a greater training volume because they are switching between various movement patterns (and muscle groups) and aren’t so delayed by recovery demands as when working through straight sets of a single exercise.
However, Pavel emphasizes that one need not, not shouldn’t generally, “rush” between exercises. This is strength practice, after all, and rushing can lead to sloppiness, and sloppiness to inefficiency, and inefficiency to hatred, evil, and… well, you know how the story ends. People getting cut up with lightsabers. The point is to accumulate as much quality practice as possible, not to mimic Crossfit. Thus, the recommendation is to allow up to two minutes from one exercise to another and not to put yourself in a race against the clock.
Notice that a circuit needn’t be monstrous, either; it could be something as brief as two exercises. Do a set of presses (ladder 1 – 5), and then do a set of cleans or double cleans (5 or so). Or, do a set of swings (10) and then a set of LIGHT, SLOW goblet squats (2). Or maybe you would like to experiment with three exercises. If so, try pull ups (5 or so), snatches (10 or so), and then a 2-minute jog. Repeat that sequence until Mother calls you to dinner.
Strong ON!
– Pat
PS – Another possibility for strength training via kettlebell circuits is to take some general conditioning complex (two examples below), increase the weight, and then space out the exercises to put the emphasis on strength.