Do the same kettlebell squats for long enough and you will get bored. Luckily, exercise science has shown us that the key for muscle growth is volume and effort, so your kettlebell squat choice can change weekly, as long as you still focus on progressively overloading each exercise.
This article will cover 9 different types of squats, some for muscle gain, some for hip mobility and one that will increase your leg endurance and also build muscle, but its definitely not for the faint hearted!
Let’s get into it!
Hack Squat
This type of kettlebell squat is great to build resilience into your knees. Allowing your knees to travel way out in front of your toes makes this a much more quad dominant exercise as compared with other types of kettlebell squats. If you want to avoid ACL tears, you need stronger quads, if you want to avoid valgus collapse (the knee tracking inwards) you need a stronger VMO (vastus medialis oblique, the muscle known as the tear drop), the hack squat is great for targeting these areas. To perform correctly, allow your heels to come up off the ground as you descend into your squat, and allow your knees to slide way forward. Try to stay upright and sit those hamstrings down onto your calfs. Your goal is to use the 32kg for sets of 10-15.
Bottom line – Great for muscle growth in quads and increased knee stability and injury prevention
1.5 Squat
First, a caveat – If you can’t squat below parallel you won’t get much out of this kettlebell squat. If thats you, keep working on your ankle mobility and you’ll eventually be able to do it. To perform this one correctly, go down below parallel come up about half way, go down again and then come all the way up to standing. This increases time under tension which will result in muscle growth with less weight. A great option if you don’t have heavy kettlebells or are training with an injury that prevent the use of heavy weights. Your goal – 5 reps with the 40kg
Bottom line – Excellent muscle builder that doesn’t require such heavy loads.
Tempo squat
The purpose of this kettlebell squat is to make your legs more aerobic and enduring, so its a great option for runners, cyclists or any athlete for that matter. You’re targeting the type 1 fibres so you’ll have to move slowly. Move fast and you’ll engage type 2 fibres and that defeats the purpose of what you’re doing. Read more about whether you should train slow fibres here. To perform correctly, hover your thighs around parallel to the ground, right at that most painful part of the movement, moving VERY slowly up and down. No bracing or holding the breath, just breathe normally nice and calmly. Your goal is to do one min on one min off for 3-5 sets. Working up to the 32kg over 12 weeks will not only put an inch or two on your quads, but you’ll have much improved endurance in any long distance event.
Bottom line – This squat will build muscle that is enduring.
Potato sack squat
The potato sack squat is great for beginners, similar to the goblet it helps the trainee find balance and its easy to get out of as you can simply let the weight fall to the ground. It might also be a great option for those that are training around shoulder injuries and can’t hold weights up high. This isn’t a kettlebell squat that you load heavy, use it for learning, warm ups, or light training.
Bottom line – Great for light training or beginners. Not really a muscle builder due to inability to use heavy loads
Offset Squat
If you don’t have pairs of kettlebells the same weight, and you’ve been avoiding double bell work, let me enlighten you! Using pairs of bells that are different weights carries huge benefit! Ideally use bells that have a 4kg difference between them, but experiment with bigger gaps also. The benefit here is how your entire body reacts to this offset load. Stabilising and torso muscle will fire up like crazy, all whilst receiving some heavy loading through some of your major muscle groups. The offset kettlebell squat is like combining core work with leg work. Its another great example of a “big bang for your buck” kettlebell exercise. It also a great way to increase your regular double bell kettlebell front squat, as it allows you to put up heavy bells one at a time.
Bottom line – Great for muscle growth, core strength, and progressing double bell squats
Single leg back squat
This is an awesome exercise to build quad mass, throw the biggest bell you can manage up onto your back and hold it there whilst you squat down to a bench or if your an absolute beast, don’t even use a bench! The beauty of the single leg squat is that not much weight is required, so if you don’t have access to heavy bells, this might be a good option for you. Your goal is 10 reps with the 32kg !
Bottom line – Excellent muscle builder without loading the spine too much
Sumo squat
A great warm up exercise and not one that you would progress in weight in until you have unlocked the flexibility that this exercise offers. Push those knees out and get deeper with every rep. Ideally you would get comfy going below parallel before you start to increase the load, but once you are there, absolutely you should. This exercise trains the adductors, which make up almost a third of your leg mass. They go relatively untouched in most peoples training, which is a huge shame. If you play sport you absolutely would want to train the adductors as they are often injured due to being weak. 3 sets of 10 before your workout seems to make a lot of sense! Your goal – 24k deep squats for sets of 10
Bottom line – Great for hip mobility and injury prevention
Cossack Squat
As above the Cossack is another type of squat that opens ups the hips and strengthens your adductors. These muscles make up a large portion of your entire leg musculature sitting between your hamstrings and quads. This kettlebell squat also puts emphasis onto your glutes as you push back up to standing. Generally I would program 3 sets of 5, only progressing to heavier loads once you have mastered full depth, aka hammies on calves. Point your pinkies (toes) up on the lengthening side whilst using glutes to push back up out of the squat on the other side.
Bottom line – Great for hip mobility and injury prevention
Somersault Squat
This is the somersault squat, popularised by Joe Daniels from KB Muscle. Its quite tricky, you have to grab your bell and hold it up into your groin and as you squat. Sometimes its referred to as the stripper squat or the twerk squat as you will be in a twerk sort of position. You might be impeded by your ankle mobility here and unable to get your hamstrings on your calfs, if thats the case, just work in the range that you have access too, and work on those tight ankles with some targeted mobility work. Be prepared to burn! Your goal – 32g for 25 reps!
Bottom line – Great for quad isolation and muscle growth
So there you have it, 9 different types of kettlebell squats. If you’re interested in other kettlebell exercises that build muscle, check out this recent blog post.
If you’re feeling un-motivated right now for exercise, consider coming to our kettlebell classes in Ashton park school where we do all of these awesome exercise in the beautiful surroundings of Ashton court and the hot air balloon’s going over head.
Wednesday evening 7-8pm is your opportunity to come and try it out for free. Grab your free class pass on this page.
I hope to see you there, until then keep training, keep moving and everything will be alright!
Pete
Owner Bristol Kettlebell club