In the beginning of November I decided to “splurge” and buy myself a 40-lb kettlebell which I have lovingly named “Widowmaker”. Over the last few weeks, I’ve slowly been adapting my old workouts to phase out my 20-lb kettlebell and use only my 30- and 40-lb bells. This has been slightly more difficult than expected! Below you’ll find a rundown of my workout week:
Monday
Mondays are part of my weekend, so I do The Ladder workout with a few adjustments, which takes about 45 minutes total. Here’s my adjusted workout:
Friday I’m shorter on time, so I do the very first custom kettlebell workout I ever did, The Circuit, with the adjustments shown here:
40-lb Two-Handed Swing
30-lb One-Handed Swings
30-lb High Elbows
30-lb Windmills
30-lb Halos (formerly Squat Presses)
40-lb Sumo Deadlifts
30-lb Clean and Press
40-lb Figure 8’s
As of right now I can only get through 2 out of the 3 rounds while only using the 30- and 40-lb bells, but I’ll build back up to 3 rounds by January I think.
I’m currently working on week 6 of a 6-day-a-week workout habit, and I’m feeling great! Nothing better than a sense of accomplishment that comes with achieving goals, right?
DISCLAIMER: Do not attempt this workout without being comfortable performing basic kettlebell moves with confidence. This is not a beginner’s workout, and I am not responsible for injuries resulting from attempts at performing this workout. Try at your own risk.
So I promised you all I’d work on designing my own kettlebell routine. I decided that since I have Mondays off from work I’d plan on using the new routine on a Monday, so I had extra time to get the hang of it. Plus Monday is the ladder workout, which is untimed, so I’d really be able to pay attention to form for the new moves. I’ve added four moves that I had not previously attempted in order to expand my repertoire and to challenge myself to get stronger. Here are the new moves, all of which require a firm understanding of basic kettlebell moves:
Kettlebell Overhead Squat
This is a deep squat performed by holding the kettlebell over your head in one hand. It’s great for your shoulders and core, and requires good squat form.
Advanced version of a regular Clean. Master the regular Clean before attempting the One-Legged Clean. Activates the core and utilizes your balance as you stand on one leg.
You MUST master a regular kettlebell swing before attempting this exercise. Control is important to avoid slamming the kettlebell into your knees. Instead of swinging the bell between your legs and back to chest height, you’re swinging the bell from left to right, sort of like an elephant swings his trunk.
Armed with these new moves, plus some old standards, I plugged them into my Monday ladder workout format. I wanted to make sure that the one-sided moves got plugged into the odd-numbered spots, because this ensured that each of those moves would be repeated evenly on each side. Two-handed moves got the even-numbered spots. I also wanted to make sure that the easier moves were in the middle range of numbers, because I’d be repeating them, a lot. The moves that required more balancing were in the lower range, so I could focus on doing a few reps but repeated many sets, and that the more difficult moves were in the higher range so I would have fewer total sets. Complicated, right? No kidding! I managed to make it work, and here’s the result:
Now I’d like to comment that I did Fitness Blender’s Kettlebell ‘Til You Drop Friday morning, followed by running Friday evening, and sprints and stair running Saturday afternoon. When I woke up Sunday I was sore in places I didn’t know existed. Not bad sore, just your standard DOMS (Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness), but it’s obvious that sprints and stair runs utilize muscle groups that I’ve neglected for some time. When I got up this morning I was still sore, particularly in my quadriceps, hamstrings and hip flexors. I popped a few Ibuprofen, drank some coffee and had a banana, printed out the routine and changed into my workout gear. I checked the temperature outside and decided that despite the relative coolness, the humidity was enough to keep me from working out on the terrace. Guess the family of ducks that likes to watch me work out will have to wait until next week!
I took my time and worked my way through the routine. I had to be extra careful during the early balancing moves, but found I really enjoy the Lateral Swings! I do need to pay attention to the swing to assure I don’t smash my knee caps but the movement felt very natural and freeing to me. I definitely felt the challenge of all the leg work, but as I progressed and warmed up the soreness became more background noise. I followed up the workout with abs:
2 min 30 sec of donkey kicks (approx 35 per side)
20 kettlebell Russian twists w/ 30-lb bell
60 bicycle crunches (30 per side)
Repeat x3 (but do 100 bicycle crunches for the last set)
It’s now been 8 hours since I’ve worked out this morning, and I still feel like I worked out this morning. Guess I’ll be using my “torture ball” this evening!
In summary, this new workout was challenging without being impossible. The transitions between the moves was smooth, and I definitely felt like I worked my entire body from top to bottom today.
Did you workout today? Let me know in the comments!
When I inquired in my SparkPeople Team as to what everyone would be interested in reading about, I got a request for designing your own kettlebell workout. I’ve been putting it off for a while, mainly because I’ve never designed my own workout, ever! Not kettlebells, not anything. I started with kettlebell videos I found online, and then when I advanced past the original videos, a friend was kind enough to send me a timed workout, which I’ve been doing since October, and then another kettlebell ladder workout, which I’ve been doing since December. I also do a more advanced 40 minute kettlebell workout video on Fridays.
I realized I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to actually DESIGN a workout. Thus, as I am wont to do, I researched, and I learned. I found a few really great resources for this: www.johnnyfit.com and kettlebelltrainingmethod.com. Here’s what I discovered:
There are two types of kettlebell workouts: strength-focused, which uses higher weights and fewer repetitions for muscle-building, and endurance-focused (cardio), which uses lower weights with higher repetitions for fat-loss. I personally prefer strength kettlebell routines with heavier weights, but this is personal preference, and as you can see from my body, I am not “bulky”. (SIDE NOTE: It is VERY difficult for a woman to bulk up without really trying. Female bodybuilders work very hard to attain and maintain their physique.) There are also three types of kettlebell moves: pushes, pulls, and lower body. These are pretty self-explanatory, but I will elaborate.
Pushes – require you to push the kettlebell away from your body. Examples are military press, kettlebell pushups, push press.
Pulls – require you to pull the kettlebell towards your body. Examples are rows and pull ups.
Lower Body – Activates the muscles from the waist down and your core. Examples are goblet squat, lunges and deadlifts.
Once you get familiar with those, then you have to decide which kind of workout you want to do. The two main types of workouts are:
Repetition based – you have a pre-set number of repetitions to complete of each move, usually completed in sets. The ladder workout I do on Mondays is repetition based, and I complete the same number of each move each time, then move onto the next.
Interval based – You have a set time in which to complete as many reps as you are able to complete in correct form, alternated with shorter rest periods. My timed workout is interval based. I do each of 8 moves for 1 minute back-to-back and then rest for 2-3 minutes before repeating. When I started this workout I also had a 5 second rest between each move for my transition period.
Basically the idea is to alternate between upper body and lower body moves, making sure to include both pushes and pulls. All of my workouts include compound moves, like a lunge figure 8 or a clean and press. These are combinations of two or more smaller movements. A clean and press is a pull movement (clean) followed by a push movement (press). A kettlebell workout routine should also always include swings, which is a full body move that gets the blood pumping. All of my workouts include both a two-handed swing and alternating one-handed swings.
You can find a good comprehensive list of kettlebell moves here on JohnnyFit, complete with videos. Some of the names may vary from what I’ve called the same moves on my own workouts. I’ve noticed that the same move can be called multiple things depending on where you’re looking, which can be frustrating! There’s also a list here on Kettlebell Training Method, but they don’t link to anything.
Lastly, as in any strength training regimen (and yes, regimen is the correct word to use here, not regime or regiment), you never want to work the same body parts two days in a row. Your muscles need time to recover in between! I do kettlebells MWF, and run TRS, with Sunday as an active rest day.
Now that I’ve researched this information, Part II will be me trying to build a 30-minute kettlebell routine on my own, incorporating some new moves I’ll have to work on.
In the beginning of November I decided to “splurge” and buy myself a 40-lb kettlebell which I have lovingly named “Widowmaker”. Over the last few weeks, I’ve slowly been adapting my old workouts to phase out my 20-lb kettlebell and use only my 30- and 40-lb bells. This has been slightly more difficult than expected! Below you’ll find a rundown of my workout week:
A Measured Life 