How To Use A Kettlebell Or A Barbell ‘Landmine’ Setup For Quick And Effective Training

If you’ve got limited equipment but can find a kettlebell or barbell lying around, here’s what you can do with them to still get in some great training sessions.

Who is this for?

• If you’re relatively new or returning to strength training and don’t have access to many weights or a gym.

*If you’d like to start off with some simple bodyweight movements, there’s some outlined at the end of this article. When you’re keen to use some weights, the following will be a quick and simple way to start.

• If you’re a little bit more experienced with training, you probably need access to more weights, but this could be used as a warm-up or when you’re not feeling so great and just want to get a quick session in for some general movement. *If you do have access to more weights, this can still be a useful method for harder training sessions, but you would add and subtract weight depending on the difficulty of the movement you’re performing.

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Using just a barbell (‘landmine’ setup)

The set-up:

Shove one end of a barbell into the corner of a room/outside area where it is free to move but the end of the barbell can't slide around. If you’re worried about it damaging your surroundings, you can cut a tennis ball in half and place it over the end of the barbell:

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The movements:

As demonstrated in the video, perform the following movements with no rest in between:

• Squat

• Single-Arm Press

• Single-Arm Row

• Hinge

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If you would like some single-leg variations as an alternative to the double-leg movements shown, you can perform these two for your ‘squat’ and ‘hinge’:

Using a kettlebell

Grab the kettlebell you have available and perform the following movements as demonstrated in the video:

• Squat

• Single-Arm Press

• Hinge

• Single-Arm Row

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Two common issues which may pop up:

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• Can’t get the kettlebell over your head? Try this instead of the overhead press:

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• Struggle to get that hinge pattern? (you just feel like you’re bending forward). Try this for your ‘hinge’ movement:

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Guidelines
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How many sets and reps for these?

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• If you’re using this as a warm-up/easier session, perform the circuit once or twice with as many reps as you’d like.

• Sets (rounds): If you’re using this for your training sessions, perform it two to five times. You could start with two rounds the first week, then add a round the next week, the following week another round and so on (until you’re performing 5 rounds in a session).

• Reps: The amount of reps you will be able to perform for each movement will vary considerably as you’ll find some movements much easier to perform than others. Hit as many as you can for each movement and just focus on getting to a point where you’re pretty close to not being able to do anymore.

*Have access to more weights? If you do have access to some small weights or plates that you can add to the barbell or you have another kettlebell, you can vary the weights based on the movement and its difficulty. For example, if the squats are too easy and the overhead presses are too hard, add weight for the squat and subtract weight for the overhead press (the changing of the weights can be your rest between movements).

What to do in between rounds?

This is a great opportunity to do some mobility drills, stretching or you may just want to sit there and focus on your breathing for a bit. Rest as long as you need between rounds so that you’re not entering the next round overly fatigued.

What are the progressions?

• Try to beat the number of reps you perform for each movement each session (write them down).

• Once you’re hitting a very high number of reps (30+), you either need to find some more weight or move on to a different variation (eg. Single-leg squats/hinges instead of the double-leg squats/hinges.)

“Am I doing the movements right?”

They don’t need to be perfect (experiment with what feels best) but if you feel like you’re way off, film yourself and compare them to the movements demonstrated.

More importantly, as you repeat them you’ll begin to work out what feels best and discover the best way of performing the movement.

Here’s some general cues for the movements:

• Your squats: Think about staying tall and letting your knees bend as for forward as they can. If you feel like you’re falling forward, elevate the heels slightly by placing a small object underneath them (eg. two similar sized books). If you’re holding a kettlebell, you can push it out in front of you as you descend (as demonstrated in the video).

• Your hinges: Think staying tall and relatively rigid while reaching your bum back as far as it can go without just bending your back (closing a door with your bum). The knees can bend a bit but you want most of the movement happening at your hips!

• Your overhead presses: Let your elbow travel in line with your shoulder (or close to) until your armpit ends up next to your ear. Bring it back down the way it came up.

• Your rows: Create a base (bend knees and sit back) and hold that position while simultaneously pulling your elbow back to your hip, and your shoulder away from your ear on the side that you’re pulling.

Again, they don’t need to be perfect! They’ll improve the more you do them and you’ll learn what different movements should feel like.

The Takeaway

If you’re limited on time or equipment but have a kettlebell or barbell lying around, performing the kettlebell or landmine complexes demonstrated can be a great way to still get in effective training sessions. They can also be useful as a warm-up or a quick and easy session to squeeze some movement into your day.