Kettlebell Exercise: The Turkish Get Up Duration: 20 minutes Frequency: 1 day per week
Week 1: Perform as many sets of 1 rep per side in 20 minutes.
Week 2: Perform as many sets of 2 reps per side in 20 minutes.
Week 3: Perform as many sets of 3 reps per side in 20 minutes.
Week 4: Perform as many sets of 4 reps per side in 20 minutes.
Week 5: Perform as many sets of 5 reps per side in 20 minutes.
Week 6: Perform as many sets of 5 reps per side in 20 minutes.
Simple Kettlebell Workout #3:
Kettlebell Exercise: The Snatch Duration: 20 minutes Frequency: 1 day per week
Week 1: As many sets of 5 reps as possible in 20 minutes.
Week 2: As many sets of 7 reps as possible in 20 minutes.
Week 3: As many sets of 9 reps as possible in 20 minutes.
Week 4: As many sets of 11 reps as possible in 20 minutes.
Week 5: As many sets of 13 reps as possible in 20 minutes.
Week 6: As many sets of 15 reps as possible in 20 minutes.
You’re right – these workouts don’t look that complicated. That’s because they’re not. They don’t have to be in order to be effective. And that’s exactly what you want – effective fat loss workouts.
Not only that, because each kettlebell workout is only 20 minutes long, you’ll be done in no time – literally before you know it. And that’s a great thing because, let’s face it, you’ve got better things to do with your time than spend it doing long, boring, ineffective cardio workouts, right?
So then, there you go – a simple – and different – kettlebell workout performed three days per week that’s guaranteed to strip off some major body fat.
Kettlebell Training – How You Can Have Six Pack Abs
Six pack abs I hear it all the time what should I do to lose fat and get lean tight abs. It is a common goal for people looking to transform thier body. Many programs for losing weight and developing firmer, toned abs are not always telling the truth. Some are just full of hype and false promises that don’t work. For a person who needs to burn fat and develop great-looking abs kettlebell taining can accomplish both of your goals.
Before we get to today’s article here are…….
5 Facts You MUST Understand if You Are Ever Going to Lose Your Belly Fat and Get Six Pack Abs
1. Many so-called “health foods” are actually cleverly disguised junk foods that can actually stimulate you to gain more belly fat… yet the diet food marketing industry continues to lie to you so they can maximize their profits.
2. Ab exercises such as crunches, sit-ups, and ab machines are actually the LEAST effective method of getting flat six pack abs. We’ll explore what types of exercises REALLY work in a minute.
3. Boring repetitive cardio exercise routines are NOT the best way to lose body fat and uncover those six pack abs.
4. You DON’T need to waste your money on expensive “extreme fat burner” pills or other bogus supplements.
5. Ab belts, ab-rockers, ab-loungers, and other infomercial ab-gimmicks… they’re all a complete waste of your time and money. Despite the misleading infomercials, the perfectly chiseled fitness models in the commercials did NOT get their perfect body by using that “ab contraption”… they got their perfect body through REAL workouts and REAL nutrition strategies.
These 5 facts are courtesy of Mike Geary of The Truth About Six Pack Abs Program. Mike is one of the leading experts when it comes to getting lean tight abs.
Kettlebells have been around for over 100 years and they’re the simplest form of exercise equipment there is. You hopefully know how I feel about kettlebell training. I think they are truly one of the best tools for fat loss, lean muscle gains and changinging your body composition.
Here are 5 reasons Kettlebell Training can get you Six Pack Abs…
1. Unilateral Work
Most people that start out with kettlebell training really just want to see if it’s for them. Because of that, they go out and buy ONE kettlebell. Little do they know that they’re frugality is probably the best thing that they could do to get that 6-pack.
As they start to snatch, swing, row & press that single Kettlebell they’ll notice that their form has to be impeccable in order for the exercises to work.
Training with that single Kettlebell creates an imbalance in weight distribution while they are performing their exercises, meaning that the side that isn’t loaded has to work extra hard to maintain balance. That imbalance results in your abs and your low back & glutes to contract resulting in strengthening like no other.
2. KB Training Forces Your Abs to Work The Way They Were Meant To
You’re already aware that doing endless crunches or situps will NEVER get you six-pack abs, right? Let’s understand why and how Kettlebell training can help you get 6-pack abs that work.
One of the many functions of your abdominals is to stabilize your spine and torso – to hold you upright, not allowing your torso to collapse.
That said, by swinging, snatching or doing any Kettlebell exercise where your center of gravity is being moved around, you are using your abs to resist rotation or any excessive lateral flexion (bending sideways). Doing this forces your abs to contract or brace and protects your very sensitive lower back area forcing your abs to not only work the way they were meant to work, but doing it at every conceivable angle.
3. They force you to relax your hip flexors, getting rid of that stomach fat.
Living in a society that is constantly sitting, it’s no wonder that our posture is terrible. One of the most commonly tight areas of our body are our hip flexors (the muscles responsible for bringing our knees into our chest). The problem is with tight hip flexors (from excessive sitting) is that we force our pelvis into anterior pelvic tilt (the swaying of the back of our pelvis up giving us a big arch in our low back).
Not only is having that arch bad for our low back, but it unnaturally forces our guts out giving us the appearance of a paunch belly.
When you do the bread & butter exercise of Kettlebell training – the 2-arm KB swing, we force our hip flexors to relax by using their antagonist muscles, the glutes and hamstrings. After doing high reps of swings to finish our workout, your hip flexors will have no choice but to relax and thus eliminating that excessive protrusion peaking out of your shirt.
4. Kettlebell training keeps your low back healthy.
It’s a myth that Kettlebell training is detrimental to your back.
Learning and mastering “bracing” techniques (the same kind of bracing that you would use when you squat or deadlift), will actually allow you to strengthen your back when you dynamically use a Kettlebell.
As we stated in point #2 above, moving that kettlebell around and shifting your center of gravity forces your abs to work in such a way that you are resisting rotation and flexion. Your abs don’t work alone in this as they have to contract in concert with your obliques and your erector muscles (the 2 columns of muscles in your low back).
Bracing properly and using a Kettlebell will make your back bullet-proof and safe guard you from any kind of “everyday” injury.
5. Kettlebell training is interval training “on steroids”.
Interval training, usually done at the end of a workout, involves bouts of high intensity exercise (sprinting, bodyweight circuits, complexes, etc) followed by recovery periods.
Research has shown that training of this type creates an amazing fat burning response and will spare your hard-earned muscle.
Traditional Kettlebell training usually involves doing a series of full body exercises and movements continuously without any rest until we reach a certain time or until we finish our required number of repetitions. These “circuits” or “drills”, as they are sometimes called, give us a more of challenge simply because we adding Kettlebells into the mix. The result is one of the gut wrenching interval sessions you’ve ever done in your life. And the beauty of it is the variety of movement that will reduce the amount of overuse that occurs with traditional sprinting on a track or bike.
Kettlebell training, although it’s history is rich in tradition, is the wave of the future. It’s the hottest 6-pack-abs generator of the moment and will definitely help you get those rock hard abs you’ve been looking for.
When It Comes To Fat Loss These 3 Kettlebell Exercises Can’t Be Beat
With kettlebells becoming increasingly more popular among fitness fanatics it only seems to make sense to investigate which kettlebell exercises are the best for fat loss.
I’ve narrowed it down to “only” three.
Let’s take a closer look at each kettlebell exercise and the reasons they made the top 3.
*** Side note each kettlebell exercise shown in the video’s can be done with 1 kettlebell ***
1. The Kettlebell Swing (and all it’s variations)
The Kettlebell Swing is the most basic, most fundamental kettlebell exercise. It is the exercise that all the other kettlebell exercises are based upon, or built off.
Double Kettlebell Swing
1. Place the kettlebells in front of you.
2. Step back about half a step. You should be able to fold at the hips and
still place your hands on the kettlebells.
3. Aggressively hike the kettlebells between your legs and underneath
your body so you feel a stretch across your hips and down your
hamstrings.
4. Keep you head up and eyes on the horizon.
5. Drive your feet into the floor/ground and stand up hard.
6. Contract your abs and squeeze your glutes hard. Power breathe as
you snap your hips. The kettlebells should float up on their own by the
power you generated with your hips.
7. Hike the kettlebells back between your legs for another rep.
8. Perform as many reps as you choose.
9. Place the kettlebells safely on the ground after a backswing.
That’s because the kettlebell Swing teaches you how to “hinge” or “fold” at your hips instead of using your lower back.
This is critically important for safety reasons – if you hurt your lower back you can’t move, and if you can’t move, you can’t burn calories. And if you can’t burn calories, you can’t lose fat! (Makes sense, right?)
But there’s a lot more to the kettlebell Swing than the safety concerns – protecting (and also strengthening) the lower back.
Because the Swing teaches you how to hinge at your hips, you learn how to use your body’s most powerful muscles – you posterior chain.
Your posterior chain – your glutes (butt), hamstrings (back of your legs), your calves, and your lower back – is responsible for helping you walk, run, jump, and climb stairs or hills.
Here’s why that’s important for fat loss – the more you focus on the posterior chain, the more your using muscles that require your body to expend a ton of calories (burn fat).
AND, the stronger you make your posterior chain, the more calories you can burn during each and every kettlebell workout.
Pretty cool, huh?
You bet your posterior chain it is!
And that’s why the kettlebell Swing is the #1 kettlebell exercise for burning fat.
2. The Kettlebell Snatch
This is like the suped-up big brother of the kettlebell Swing. It’s more technically demanding than the Swing and it requires more upper body strength and more leg power than the Swing.
Double Kettlebell Snatch
1. Start by setting up like the Double Swing.
2. Hike the kettlebells hard back between the legs.
3. Drive hard with the hips pulling the elbows up and back like the
Double High Pull.
4. As the kettlebells become weightless, punch them up toward the
sky, allowing them to roll around your wrists or flip over the top of
your wrists.
5. To perform another rep, drop the kettlebells into the rack, and
then hike them back between the legs, repeating steps 3 and 4.
6. Perform as many reps as you choose.
7. When finished, place them on the ground like a Double Clean.
the kettlebell snatch step-by-step
The kettlebell Snatch requires more effort to perform. You have to accelerate the weight faster to get the kettlebell to travel up over your head. That requires more energy, and therefore more calories are burned.
And that’s why it’s such a great kettlebell exercise for fat loss.
In fact, a recent study found that when performing very specific intervals, the Snatch allowed you to burn 1200 calories per hour!
To put that in perspective, running burns an average (between men and women) of 112 calories per mile. If you can run 6 miles in an hour, you’re only burning approximately half as many calories as you could be with the kettlebell Snatch!
3. The Kettlebell Clean and Jerk
If the Kettlebell Snatch is the “big brother” to the kettlebell Swing, then the Kettlebell Clean and Jerk is the “grand daddy” of all kettlebell fat burning exercises – especially if you use two kettlebells instead of just one.
Double Kettlebell Clean and Jerk
1. Start with the kettlebells in front of you.
2. Aggressively hike the kettlebells behind you underneath your hips.
3. Tuck your elbows into your sides and roll the kettlebells around your
wrists up the front of your body.
4. Keep the kettlebells pulled close to the body.
5. Gently place them in the rack position. Keep the elbows glued to
your ribs.
6. Similar to the Double Kettlebell Push Press, keeping the torso vertical
(perpendicular to the ground), dip your knees quickly and then
straighten them.
7. As the kettlebells pass your forehead, drop underneath the kettlebells
ending in a “mini-squat” with your arms locked overhead.
8. Straighten your knees and stand up.
9. To lower the kettlebells, either pull them back down to the rack or let
them “freefall” absorbing or catching them by dipping your knees.
10. To perform another rep, repeat steps 6 through 9.
11. Lower the kettlebells to the ground the same way you would the
Double Swing.
WARNING! DO NOT perform your Cleans with a rounded back like this picture demonstrates. Keep your back flat instead!
Here’s why – it’s more complex and you can use heavier kettlebells than you can for the Snatch.
To perform the kettlebell Clean and Jerk, you first must lift (clean) the kettlebells to your shoulders. Then, using your legs, you drive the kettlebells over your head to the lockout position, rebending your legs to catch them.
To put into perspective just how difficult this exercise is and therefore why it’s such a great fat burning exercise, the late Dr. Mel Siff, a world-renowned sports scientist, calculated that a maximum effort Clean and Jerk performed with a barbell cost 14.26 calories to perform (10% of running one mile)!
At first glance, that may not seem like much, but consider this – it only takes about 5 seconds or less to perform a maximum Clean and Jerk. Now compare that to how long it takes to run one mile and you’ll see that is a huge energy expenditure in a short amount of time!
(One mile typically takes the average man 8 minutes to run or 480 seconds. A maximum Clean and Jerk uses 10% of the calories it takes to run that mile in 1% of the time! WOW! That’s a HUGE return on investment!)
So now that we know that, imagine how many calories you can burn performing multiple sets and reps with the kettlebell Clean and Jerk. I can’t provide an exact number for you, but you can bet that based on all of our previous numbers that it’s going to be very, very high!
And that of course is GREAT news for anyone looking to burn fat!
Putting The Top 3 Kettlebell Exercises For Fat Loss Into A Kettlebell Workout
Ok, now that we know all that, how do you apply it – how do you put together effective kettlebell workout that will guarantee that you burn fat?
It’s quite simple really.
Start with what you know.
If you’re a “kettlebell newbie” – start with the Swing.
Take your time and perform Swings three times per week, on alternate days.
Here’s a sample of what a kettlebell workout might look like for you:
Monday – Wednesday – Friday
2 Hand Swings – perform for 20 minutes.
Do as many reps as you can with good form then rest.
Do as many sets as you can in that 20 minutes.
If you’ve been using kettlebells for awhile and are familiar with the Swing, move on to the Snatch.
Here’s what a sample kettlebell routine might look like for you:
Monday – Wednesday – Friday
Monday – perform as many sets of 10 Snatches as possible in 20 minutes
Wednesday – perform Snatches for 30 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do as many rounds as possible. Seek to add more rounds each week.
Friday – perform your choice of Swings for 60 seconds. Rest for 60 seconds. Do as many rounds as possible. Seek to add more rounds each week.
And if you think you’re ready for the Big Leagues, here’s a sample kettlebell workout that revolves around the Clean and Jerk:
Monday – Wednesday – Friday
Monday – perform as many sets of 10 Clean and Jerks with a single kettlebell as possible in 20 minutes
Wednesday – perform as many sets of 5 Clean and Jerks with a pair of kettlebells as possible in 20 minutes
Friday – perform as many sets of 15 Clean and Jerks with a light kettlebell as possible in 20 minutes
So there you have it – the top 3 kettlebell exercises for fat loss – what they are, why they work, and some sample kettlebell workouts to get you started.
If you’re looking for something more comprehensive, more detailed, something more “step-by-step” for fat loss than check out these kettlebell exercises/kettlebell workouts
