Broken Leg, Sore Knees & How to Simplify Your Kettlebell Program

Broken Legs 

Yes, that’s a picture of my 14-month-old son, JoaQuin, with a cast on his left leg.  

Last week he took a spill down a few stairs and fractured his tibia and fibula (both his shin bones).  I took him to the hospital late Saturday night and we came home at 4 in the morning with a new cast. Brutal.

Sore Knees

I’ve been riding my bike everyday to work for the past 3 weeks and feel great.  The one problem though is that my knees are starting to get sore and I’m thinking it’s because I’m starting to develop an imbalance between my quadriceps muscles (the muscles in the front of my legs) and my hamstrings & glutes (the muscles in the back of my legs).

Pedalling without being "clipped in" forces you to use your quads more.  Couple that with the new studded snow tires that I got on my bike and I’m working pretty hard every day to get to work.

The only problem is that I don’t think I’m getting enough work in for my hamstrings and glutes (my posterior chain), so I think it’s creating a muscle imbalance.  That means that it would probably be good to get some work in for those muscles.

Which brings me to my next point…

How To Simplify Your Kettlebell Program

So with Q being in a cast and me having to increase my involvement with pick-up and drop off and everything else relating to the kids AND with my knees starting to act their age, I’ve decided to make a change to my workouts.

Kettlebell Muscle has worked VERY well for me – I’m up to 163lbs and my waist has stayed at 31.5" (I actually lost 1/4 of an inch).  But given all the front squatting I was doing on KB muscle and being on my bike all the time, I’m going to have to incorporate more hamstring and glute exercises.

That said, I’m going with an A-B split routine for the next 6 weeks that will look something like this…

Workout A

1a) Turkish Get-Ups 3 x 1-5 per side (using a variety of KBs from 16 to 32kgs

1b) Neutral Grip Chin-Ups 3 x 8-12

2) 2-arm KB Swings x 100ish (in as few sets as possible using a 32kg KB)

Workout B

1a) 1-Arm KB Military Press 3 x 3-8 per side

1b) Blast Strap Inverted Row 2 x 15

2a) Glute-Ham Raise 3 x 12

2b) Ab Wheel Roll Out 3 x 12

I’m liking how I planned these workouts because:

1) They’re incredibly simple and use very BASIC FOUNDATIONAL EXERCISES and

2) it’ll allow me to get finished with my workouts very quickly so that I have enough time to ride my bike home in time to pick-up the kids (OR get home in time to get a workout in before I have to pick them up).

It’s another testament to Kettlebell Training and how something so simple can be so effective.

Chris Lopez, RKC

Tags: kettlebell exercises with injured leg, kettlebell swing broken leg, sore knees from kettlebells