Bad Day at the Office! Barbell and Kettlebell Super-Set Workout!

Hi everyone,

When I posted my last workout I thought “happy days, no Jet-lag” … well, turns out there is no escape and it’s a wee bit devious. But, before it hit me, I was able to fit this short workout in.

My love of the barbell has blossomed and I want to use it more for “my style” of training; which is often Barbell Super-Sets! I Super-Set everything: Front Squats and Romanian Deadlifts, Glute Bridges and Back Squats, Front loaded Reverse Lunges and Sumo DLs, Pull ups and Dips, Push Ups and Rows etc etc! Sometimes I even do Squats and squat jumps or some other kind of evil combo 😉

Anyway, in the gym there are rarely any Kettlebells of interest about (they are all too light), so I am never able to put together some Barbell and KB Super-Sets. Because I love both tools, I wanted to combine them in a Super-set workout. This is great for days when you don’t have much time in the gym but want to do work on a Barbell lift (for me I am working on Front Squats) and you want some conditioning.

Because the Front squat really targets my Quads I thought adding a KB swing to the picture would help provide some posterior chain work to balance things out. It also helps with reducing grip fatigue; the front squat extends the wrist, so the KB swing grip will “reset” the wrist. When the KB swing grip is fatigued, the front squat wrist extension will provide a nice stretch. This allows you to super-set these two exercises quite nicely without your grip giving up on you 🙂

So, while down in Sam’s place I did the following Short and Sweet Super-set Workout. It actually turned out to be VERY short indeed. It didn’t go quite as planned.

The Workout

I set my Gymboss Interval Timer for 30 seconds (because I was doing double KB swings) and I alternated the exercises as follows. Oh and the Tabata I mentioned on the video DID NOT happen …

1. Barbell Front Squat (40kg x 10reps)
2. KB Swing x 30 seconds (24kg x 25 reps)
3. Front Squat (45kg x 7 reps)
4. KB Swing x 30 seconds (24kg x 25 reps)
5. Front Squat (50kg x 5 reps)
6. KB Swings x 30 seconds (28kg x 18 reps)
7. Front Squats (55kg x 2 reps)
8. KB Swing x 30 seconds (28kg x 16 reps)
9. Front Squat (60kg x 0.5 reps + iso hold + failure) Scary Biscuits!!!!!!

Jet-Lag + slight hangover *shame* + lack of mental focus = crap workout!

I just could not get my nervous system fired up. It just wasn’t happening as well a I wanted it. And to top it off I nearly ended up with a barbell on my neck. That God Sam was there!  Anyway, I’ll write it off as a bad day and move on. Next time I’ll be better … and I’ll have the spotting bars higher too :-/

Hope you can take a few ideas from this workout and create your own super-sets.  I think every so often it’s good to Super-Set like this – provided your form stays strong.

Back soon with more 😀

Cheers
Marianne

PS For some recommended reading, head to Nia’s Blog and read her latest post “Food Struggles and Victories“. Excellent material!