Looking for Kettlebell AND Calisthenics program

khohanguc

New member
Hello everyone

I am posting this both in the bodyweightfitness and kettlebell subreddit.

I am a fitness enthusiast and particularly love Calisthenics and Kettlebell training.

I love that they both allow me to train wherever I want (just toss a pair of rings and a kettlebell in the car and I could do a road trip around the world and train the exact same as at home), the wide variety of exercises, the functional strength, the skills and straight arm exercises in Calisthenics, all the upper body ring exercises which are awesome, weighted bodyweight, the explosive moves in kettlebell like swing, clean, snatch that have high level of transferability to sports and athletics, the TGU (yes I love that one haha) etc. I also train martial arts, this year it's boxing, and kettlebells are a great way to gain explosiveness.

Lately I'm a bit at a loss I am doing my own program which is calisthenics inspired by overcoming gravity 2.0 from Steven Low and Simple & Sinister from Pavel Tsatsouline on top. Before that I was doing Calimove program + S&S

I am not the best at programming and am running into a lot of fatigue issues.

I am looking for a program that mixes Calisthenics and Kettlebell with good exercises selection and good periodization and cycles.

The problem I'm running into is that those hybrid program are either made by a kettlebell specialist that is great at that but clearly don't know calisthenics except "do pull-ups and dips... oh and maybe pistol squats ok". No skills whatsoever like handstands, front lever, L-sit, planche etc.

Or they're made by a calisthenics specialists (it's more rare as they tend to stay specialized or if needed they integrate barbell for legs rather than kettlebells) that just tell you to swing a kettlebell and press it over your head maybe. No mention of cleans, snatches, TGU, bent presses, clean & jerk and other cool kettlebell movements.

Does any of you knows of a program made by someo who SPECIALIZE in BOTH Kettlebell and Calisthenics. I would like my training to be 60% calisthenics, 40% kettlebell.

A program that makes you stronger in both, gets you to learn some calisthenics skills and also kettlebell techniques, like all the aforementioned.

Thanks a lot I would greatly appreciate the help 🙏

For information my current level is the follow:
171cm/5"7 - 65Kg/143lbs - 36yo been training for roughly 3/4 years
27 strict pushups
11 ring pull ups
7 ring dips
12 bar dips
10 pistol squats both sides
5 archer pushups both sides
12 horizontal ring rows
8 skin-the-cat
L-sit: 14 seconds
Wall handstand: 60 seconds
Kettlebell OHP: 24KG
Times simple and sinister @24KG for one arm swings and @20KG for TGUs
I can do kettlebell clean but haven't learned snatches yet
 
@khohanguc Check out Marcus Filly's channel, he's really into using whatever equipment you can and has loads of videos about programming using loads of different tools. Worth doing a bit of a deep dive.
 
@khohanguc Built Strong Minimalist and Built Strong Maximum can be run with a mix of barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, and bodyweight. Minimalist just has squat, press, and pull, and Maximum has either squat, press, pull, and hip hinge (non-ballistic) or squat, horizontal press, vertical press, horizontal pull, vertical pull, and hip hinge. For each movement pattern, you plug in exercises with loads you can do for 4-7 reps, 8-11 reps, and 12-15 reps (they don't have to be the same exercise), and the worksheet generates your program. Minimalist is 8 weeks, and the Maximum programs are 12 weeks. Anything not in the program that you want to work on you can do on off days as long as it doesn't hamper your recovery.

I'm just finishing up a program that was a simpler precursor to the Minimalist program and have really liked it.
 
@nartynart Thanks, I'm looking it up and it's a strong first program. Is there an app or something? Where can I find the spreadsheet.

Thus it doesn't look like it includes calisthenics skills nor Kettlebell technical movements like snatch and clean & jerk.

It looks cool but I would still need to program myself on top of it. Which just ok not great in my case
 
@khohanguc They're on strongandfit.com, and they're paid programs.

Sounds like you may have to find a kettlebell routine and a bodyweight routine that complement each other and run both or pay someone to write you a custom program (there's people here that will).

As far as the kettlebell side of things, something like @rabbie77's KBOMG program might be good. I know it has a lot of different movements and is considered one of the more complete programs out there, though I haven't done it myself. I think it has snatches and clean and jerks.
 
@nartynart I'm absolutely willing to pay someone for a custom program but it needs to be someone who truly specialize in both. Like he knows his stuff in calistej including skills progressions, one arm chin up progressions etc. and can program me incrementally and gradually complex kettlebell movement like cleans, then clean & jerks, then snatches, then long cycles etc. into all that

Ok I'll look up KBOMG that might be what I'm looking for .

Thanks a lot
 
@khohanguc I’d also be very interested in this. Like you, I’m mixing Calisthenics with S&S, alternating days. It’s fine for now, but progressions would be very welcome!!
 
@thanes1 It's hard to find honestly. As I said the most you can find are kettlebell experts that throw in old School calisthenics like one arm pushups, pistol squats, dips, pull-ups etc.

those are great but there is rarely mention of skills. I think we need to fine tune it ourselves.

How is the fatigue from your side ? You're managing? How many days a week do you train ?
 
@khohanguc I agree. I even went on some of the “freelancing” sites to find someone that could do a plan that blends both but I didn’t find anyone.

I’m not as advanced as you are on the calisthenics side - I’m still building that up, so basics works well for me right now but won’t last in 6 months time.

Fatigue is manageable. I try and listen to my body these days rather than push through. Im trying hard to embrace the mindset of “training” rather than “workout” so if I’m feeling tired, I’ll work on a skill set after a warm up and push myself when I’m feeling good.

I’ll try and do a minimum “hard work” over a week. For example, a minimum of 2x S&S sessions where I’m pushing hard and a minimum of 1x Calisthenics that’s pushing my limits. I usually go a lot harder than that, but that’s kind of my minimum hard work for the week.

At the moment I’m programming two different Calisthenics focus days; days A & B. Then S&S between this.

So my days are: A, SS, B, SS, A, SS, B…

I try not to take a day off and this works out so some weeks are more KB and others more Calisthenics.

In your case, you could modify days A & B so that A is a general Calisthenics doing all the main movements and B focuses on what you’re currently working on. Planches for example.

It’s all a work in progress!
 

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