We’ve been led to believe that lifting as heavy as possible is the gold standard of workouts. While heavy weightlifting does have its benefits, like muscular adaptations and building maximal strength, other styles of training require lighter loads to put your engine to the test.
This four-move kettlebell routine is designed to do just that — build your cardiovascular engine. You’ll need a set of the best kettlebells, preferably of a medium weight, and nothing else. My clients always tell me — in the nicest way possible — that they fear my sessions the most when there’s less equipment. At first, they’d see just one set of weights and think they might be in for a treat, and now? The opposite is true.
The truth is, you don’t need a lot of gym equipment to get results, you just need consistency, enough challenge and intelligent, progressive programming. The rest can be as fun and creative as you like.
What are the kettlebell exercises?
The moves are compound exercises, meaning they target multiple muscle groups at once, which also means you are training your muscles efficiently and increasing calorie burn potential.
1. American kettlebell swings
Swings are one of my favorite ways to test endurance while working the core and hips and targeting muscles along the back of the body, like the glutes and hamstrings. It does this using a hip hinge and a hip thrust as you power through your glutes. The American swing increases the range of motion as you drive the weight overhead, testing shoulder stability.
Try not to let your arms take over; use the power of your core, glutes and hips to drive the weights, rather than your upper body. I always lift lighter weights for this variation, and urge you to do the same until you feel fully in control.
2. Kettlebell sumo squats
The sumo squat adopts a wider foot stance than a regular squat, which helps you target the outer glutes, known as the gluteus medius. You could hold one weight in both hands or use two weights at your shoulders. Focus on finding depth at the bottom of your squat, then driving to stand with power.
This is about strengthening the lower body, so you could opt to go heavier if you have the weight ranges available.
3. Kettlebell Arnold presses
Arnold presses come from the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger, and this press variation is an upper-body strength exercise that targets all three shoulder heads and the triceps. Your weaker side has nowhere to hide with this one, as you’ll be holding one weight in each hand, so use a load that your weakest side can handle. Kettlebells are also harder to control than dumbbells, challenging your stability, coordination and balance.
Kettlebell thrusters
We’ve targeted the engine and full body with American swings, hit the lower body with squats, then torched the upper body with overhead presses — now it’s time to combine upper and lower body with thrusters.
During thrusters, you’ll rack a kettlebell on each shoulder, perform a squat, then press both weights overhead as you stand. Coordinating your upper and lower body this way and controlling the weights throughout increases stability and power and will send your cardiovascular system into overdrive.
What is the workout?
Kettlebell flows are great for when you're short on time, as you will minimize rest and maximize time under tension, which is how long your muscles stay under tension for.
Start with two reps of your swings, bring your weight straight to your chest or two weights to your shoulders, then perform two sumo squats. After your last rep, add a weight (unless you're already holding both) and move into two Arnold presses. As you bring the weights back to your shoulders, move straight into two thrusters.
On the second round, complete four reps, then increase to six and so on. Continue until you reach 15 minutes of work. Choose when you need rest, but take no longer than 20 seconds, and try to wait until you finish a round rather than stop during reps or exercises.
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