Kettlebell Workouts
The Secret To Better Kettlebell Workouts
Jul
Supplementing with creatine can take your kettlebell workouts to the next level. Over 500 scientific studies, and millions of users, show that it increases your ability to workout harder, longer. As a result, it makes it possible for you to swing, press, and squat heavier kettlebells for reps and surpass all of your personal records. It doesn’t work as a pre-workout supplement like caffeine. You have to take it daily, for at least a week to get results.
How much better will creatine help your kettlebell training? It depends on how and how hard you train for the most part. Since it’s shown to work for about 70% of the people who take it, it’s likely to work for you too.
To show you how it can help, I’m going to share with you my experiences and what the research finds to give you an idea of what’s possible.
My Personal Experience
I’ve been doing kettlebell workouts for about 15 years. In that time I’ve done them with and without creatine.
I’ve found, and my training logs show, that my performance is significantly better when I’m taking it. How much better? A lot.
Within a week I notice that my recovery between sets improves. I’m also able to do more reps per, even on the last set of an exercise where my muscles should be tapping out. I’ve done 100 consecutive swings with a 70 pound kettlebell after taking creatine. Without it that doesn’t happen.
I recently started taking creatine again after not training consistently for about 6 months due to an injury. In spite of this, my strength came back fast. I know there are other reasons for this but I know creatine helped me do so faster.
After 3 weeks I went from doing kettlebell split squats with 70 to 150 pounds. I also increased my strength in double kettlebell swings significantly. Here I increased the weight I used from 50 for 5 reps to 100 pounds for 10 sets of 10.
I know these aren’t world class numbers but they’re good for me. Especially since I am just getting back into the swing of things, so to speak. I really feel it can help you too. Maybe even more.
Let’s get into how creatine makes these and other benefits possible.
Here’s How Creatine Helps Kettlebell Workouts
Below are 5 ways that taking creatine can help you get the most from kettlebell training. Each benefit is supported by clinical research and people’s real world results.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any studies testing creatine with kettlebell workouts. That’s a bummer but is okay in this case. Lifting weights, whether it’s with kettlebells or barbells and doing sprint intervals affect our bodies in the same ways. You get stronger, build muscle, and become fitter.
What I’m saying is that if creatine is shown to help you get stronger at barbell squats, it’ll help you use more weight and get stronger at kettlebell front squats. The same goes for the other benefits I write about.
Okay, enough explaining, let’s get down to how taking creatine can improve your kettlebell workouts
- 1. Creatine Gives Your Muscles More Explosive Power
Many kettlebell exercises, especially swings, cleans, and snatches require you to use a lot of muscular power. Think about how you forcefully move your hips when you do them. That takes muscular power.
When your body can generate more power, you’ll be able to lift heavier weights faster. This doesn’t just help your kettlebell training but carries over to the real world, helping you sprint faster, throw farther, and jump higher.
Taking creatine will help you build a more powerful body fast. In less than a week.
Check out these results from a study done with elite handball players. They took either a placebo supplement or creatine every day for 5 days.
The placebo group made no improvements. On the other hand, the guys taking creatine did.
Here’s how much they improved.
- Their vertical jump increased by 5%.
- Their bench press power went up by 17%.
- Power in the barbell squat went up by 20%.
Imagine being 20% more powerful in 5 days just by taking creatine. I’ll take it and think most people would.
2. Creatine Makes You Stronger
Creatine doesn’t just help you generate more muscular power. It also makes you a lot stronger. Super fast too. Often in just a matter of days or weeks.
How much stronger can creatine make you? Take a look at these results.
- One group of guys increased their bench press by as much as 45%. So, if you can bench 150 pounds you’d be able to do almost 220 pounds.
- After 12 weeks of taking creatine, another group of guys increased their barbell squat strength by 32%. That’s huge! Imagine going from 150 to almost 200 pounds just by taking creatine.
Everyone in these studies had significant experience lifting weights. This is important. It means they’re less likely to have large jumps in strength than a beginner who’ll make gains just because they started to exercise.
This increase in strength will be noticed in kettlebell presses, rows, and squats, and get ups. Movements that require you to move as heavy a ‘bell as possible for 3-10 reps.
3. Your Strength-Endurance Will Improve Too
Kettlebell workouts can really tax your strength endurance. If you’re not familiar with this term, it’s how long you can exercise at a high intensity.
An example of strength endurance is doing sets of 10 kettlebell swings with the heaviest weight possible every minute for 10 sets. Another is seeing how many swings you can do in 1-3 minutes. HIIT, EMOM, and AMRAP workouts also require a lot of strength endurance.
One way to improve your strength endurance is to do the workouts mentioned above a few times a week. Creatine is another.
Just like your muscular power and strength, it improves strength-endurance fast. Again, in as little as 5 days.
The way it works here is by giving your muscles more fuel to be used for energy during an intense set of swings or squats. This additional fuel gives your muscles what they need to do more reps and sets instead of tapping out.
Here are a few examples to give you an idea of what’s possible.
- Elite rowers taking creatine we’re able to go all out 12 seconds longer .
- Guys did 14% more reps in the bench press than before taking creatine.
- Taking creatine improves performance in the last few sets of all-out sprints.
- Female college soccer players recovered and ran faster during the later stages of a sprint and agility test after taking Creatine.
4. Creatine Builds Muscle
If you’re using kettlebells to build muscle, creatine can help you do it faster.
When taken correctly, creatine can help you add 4 pounds of muscle in a matter of weeks. Guys tend to add more muscle and body weight than the ladies after using creatine.
This doesn’t mean if you’re a women that you won’t build muscle when you take creatine. It just means that you may take a little longer.
One thing to keep in mind is that the more effort and consistency you put into your workouts, the more effective creatine is at building muscle. I guess that’s obvious. I just don’t want you to think that all you need to do is take creatine and your muscles will grow.
“Creatine is the only supplement that has well-established benefits for directly building muscle,” Brad wrote. “There are over 1,000 published studies supporting its effectiveness.” Brad Schoenfeld, PhD
Twitter
5. Creatine Helps You And Your Muscles Recover Faster
When you take creatine, one of the first benefits you’ll notice is that you’re recovering faster between sets (research link). What I mean is that you won’t be so out of breath and will be ready to go again in less time.
The big benefit here is that your performance won’t go down as much as your workout progresses. If at all.
This isn’t just related to catching your breath. Your strength will recover faster too.
Here’s a great example. Sports scientists find that even when you do exercises that cause a lot of muscle damage, like kettlebell front squats, your strength comes back faster after loading your muscles with creatine.
This study also finds muscle damage and inflammation is less post-workout if you take creatine. This has yet to be definitively proven but is a great bonus if so.
What does this means for you, me and our kettlebell workouts? Well, for one thing we’re likely to feel less beat up after a workout of heavy Turkish get ups and squats.
Another is that supplementing with creatine may also give us the ability to workout more often, which is kinda cool too. Especially if like me, you enjoy doing some sort of kettlebell workout every day.
In particular, evidence suggests that those participating in heavy resistance training while supplementing with 20 to 30 grams of creatine per day can maintain higher intensity training, increase fat-free mass, and increase endurance strength. Dr. Rhonda Patrick
Foundmyfitness.com
Getting The Best Results From Creatine
You can take creatine 2 ways. The difference between each is how quickly you’ll benefit.
If you want to see them as fast as possible, do what’s called a loading phase. Here you’ll take 10-20 grams a day in 4-5 evenly divided servings. This will quickly fill your muscles up. You’ll notice that your stronger, can train harder, etc. in as few as 3 days.
If you’re a bit more chill when it comes to getting results, just take 1 scoop (5 grams) a day. You’ll have to wait 14-28 days to see noticeable results in this case. This is also a great way to take creatine if you want to avoid gaining weight and just want its performance enhancing benefits.
You can mix your creatine in water, protein shakes, or any other drink you like. It doesn’t matter when you take it, just that you do so consistently.
Which Type Of Creatine Is Best?
Since you want the best results, creatine monohydrate is the way to go. You may here that other types of creatine work better. But it’s not true. Creatine monohydrate powder is what’s been shown to work in hundreds of clinical studies. The other kinds, liquid, creatine ethyl ester, etc. have not.
Conclusion
Okay, now you know how creatine can help you get more from your kettlebell workouts. You also know the best ways to take and which type to use. All that’s left is for you to give it a try. I think you’ll be stoked you did.
Sources
Chwalbiñska-Moneta J. Effect of creatine supplementation on aerobic performance and anaerobic capacity in elite rowers in the course of endurance training. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2003 Jun;13(2):173-83.
Izquierdo M, Ibañez J, González-Badillo JJ, Gorostiaga EM. Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle power, endurance, and sprint performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Feb;34(2):332-43.
Kreider RB. Effects of creatine supplementation on performance and training adaptations. Mol Cell Biochem. 2003 Feb;244(1-2):89-94.
Lanhers C, Pereira B, Naughton G, Trousselard M, Lesage FX, Dutheil F. Creatine Supplementation and Lower Limb Strength Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. Sports Med. 2015 Sep;45(9):1285-1294.
Warber JP, Tharion WJ, Patton JF, Champagne CM, Mitotti P, Lieberman HR. The effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation on obstacle course and multiple bench press performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2002 Nov;16(4):500-8.
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