Learn the Kettlebell “Windmill Exercise” and 4 Logical Progressions

By LuisWert

The Kettlebell windmill exercise is a powerful kettlebell exercise that strengthens core muscles, improves joint mobility and works deep into the shoulders.

  • The windmills exercise using a kettlebell is considered a more advanced move.
  • Benefits of the Kettlebell Windmill
  • The kb Windmill is a full-body exercise that requires both good joint mobility and stability.
  • Kettlebell windmills are an exercise that helps strengthen the body from within.

The windmill exercise can help prevent injuries. It will condition See Through Yoga the stabilising muscles to give the larger muscles a better platform for work.

The kettlebell windmill is not meant to be a strength-building exercise like the overhead presse, but rather a mobilizing and stabilising move.

Four Progressions to Safely Master The Exercise

The kettlebell windmill, as mentioned previously, is very taxing on your shoulders, hips and hamstring flexibility.

To avoid injury and get the most out of kettlebell exercises, I recommend you do the windmill exercise.

Windmill Exercise Warm-Up (no kettlebell).

  • Begin by practicing the movement with a kettlebell.
  • Straighten your legs and check if you can touch the ground or the opposite ankle.
  • Take your time. This is a tough stretch with gravity on its side.
  • Are you able to manage five good repetitions per side?

The kettlebell Windmill Exercise is able to penetrate the shoulder stabilizers.

  • The instability of the kettlebell overhead causes you to descend, making the shoulder stabilisers very difficult to work.
  • You should practice the full down positionĀ of the kettlebell windmill before you can hold the kettlebell overhead.
  • For 60 seconds, can you raise the kettlebell with one arm straight overhead?
  • Here’s a list of reasons the kettlebell windmill is such an excellent exercise.

Reason 1 of the Kettlebell Windmill Exercise: Reduce Back Pain

Lower back pain is often a sign that there are a few things happening in our bodies. A restricted range of motion in our hamstrings can cause lower back pain. Poor function of the glutes muscles and weak core muscles can lead to lower back pain. Your lower back pain is reduced by increasing your range of motion and flexibility in the posterior chain muscles, such as the hamstrings or glutes. Windmilling allows us to stretch our hamstrings, which can reduce stress on the low back. It also requires us to brace the core to perform the movement. When we strengthen our core, we decrease the amount of weight that is displaced to the low back, causing our pain.

Reason 2 of the Kettlebell Windmill Exercise: An Increased Range in Motion in the Hamstrings

The primary purpose of the kettlebell windmill is to increase your range of motion in your hips. This exercise is impossible without the windmill. The best thing about the windmill is that it works each leg separately, rather than together. Because one leg isn’t compensating for the other, this allows for greater increases in each of the hamstring muscles. Another benefit of this movement is that it teaches you how to fire your hamstrings and glute muscles from a stretched posture. To get out of the bottom position on the windmill, you will need to place your heel in the ground. Then, fire the glute and hamstring muscles from one leg.

Kettlebell Reason #3: Glute activation

Each glute muscle is being treated individually, much like the hamstring. This teaches us how we can contract the glute muscles from the bottom in order to get up. This is vital for anyone. You can’t jump, run, hit, get out of a chair, or enjoy the midnight move without firing your glute muscles.

Kettlebell Windmill Exercise Reason #4: Core Strengthening

We consider the windmill a Dynamic Integrated Stabilization exercise. Although the core’s main purpose is to stabilize your spine and back, the windmill allows you to do this dynamically. Our hips are moving, but our shoulders are stabilizing. This forces our core to work harder to control the movement. This is a more efficient way to take a core strengthening exercise and move it up to improve the strength of your core muscles.