Kettlebells Fixed My Squat

One of the things that I have been consistently struggling with in my lifting routine is getting down deep enough in my squats. Nate has tried every which way to help me: telling me to widen my stance, make sure my feet are at the right angle, etc.

Nothing seemed to be working.

I wasn’t having a lot of trouble doing the actual squat motion but I knew that I wasn’t getting deep enough to make the movement really count. My hips were just not flexible enough and I could never seem to find a way to adjust for that.

I kept squatting and just hoping that as I continued to do the movement I would gradually get more and more flexible and be able to have a full range of motion in the movement.

After seven months, that just didn’t seem to be happening.

Completely by accident, I think I finally found a way to actually improve my depth, form, and pay attention to how I was moving my body in the motion.

Turns out, kettlebells may have been the answer.

I got briefly into kettlebells last year when Nate told me how good they were for getting your heartrate up and getting your workout started on a high note. I started doing them before most of my workouts but hadn’t ever really gone past the basic Russian Kettlebell Swing.

They were hard as hell and I wasn’t weightlifting at the time so I quickly lost interest and stopped doing any kettlebell workouts at all.

Then one day after I had been lifting heavy for about six months I skipped my squat day at the gym. I felt weird all day and decided to workout at home after work. I asked Nate if there was a good substitution for squats that I could do at home.

He pointed to the kettlebells and I sighed…

Let me be clear here, we do not have light kettlebells at home. We have a 45 pound and 70 pound kettlebell. That’s it.

Knowing that I was stronger, I picked up the 45 pound one and Nate showed me how to do a Goblet Squat with it.

It was haaaaard, but after I started to understand the motion better, it gradually got easier.

The weight of the kettlebell and the slightly different movement of squatting with it allowed me to focus more on my squatting form. So much so, that kettlebell workouts became kind of a regular thing if I skipped squat or deadlift day at the gym or wanted to get a quicker workout in at home.

I’ve probably done my little kettlebell routine a dozen times in the last month and a half or so and each time I did it the squat motion became easier and I noticed that I could get deeper and deeper into the squat.

I was thrilled.

So yesterday was my normal squatting day. I went to the gym and was in a bit of a rush so I hustled over to the squat rack, stretched, and loaded up the bar.

I chose the rack that sits in front of a mirror, partially because bros took over the other ones, but mostly because I wanted to watch my form and see how deep I could get. From my first squat with 110 I knew that I looked better.

From 110 and all the way up to 130, I was able to do 5 sets at each weight with consistent form and depth. I was even able to pause at the bottom and my femurs were almost parallel with the ground! I’ve never been able to even really come close to that form!

After resisting to do a happy dance in the rack, I powered through the rest of my workout at top speed and went home to talk Nate’s ear off with how excited I was about my progress.

Long story short, kettlebell squats saved my normal squats. It made my form better, helped me actually squat super close to the correct depth, and helped me become more kinetically aware.

It was a win all around.

So needless to say, my kettlebell routine will now be a regular part of my lifting routine and I HIGHLY recommend trying some of them if you are struggling with your squats or if you just want to explore squats and see that they are all about.

Definitely start with a lower weight kettlebell than I did though…I was just too lazy to go out and buy a lighter one.