Get Strong and Lean – Kettlebell Strength and Tabata

Hi everyone,

Right now I am sitting in my living room, in front of the beautiful open fire (which I just revived from last night). Shinning in through the bay window, the winter sun oozes festivity.  Logs burning, snow melting, the smell of ginger and cinnamon wafting from the kitchen (I may have made some flapjack last night :/ ), just the occasional cracking off the fire and the tap tap tap of my keyboard is all that breaks the peaceful silence – can you tell that Christmas is nearly here?! Gotta love this time of year 🙂

Here is a picture from last night – how cosy is this?

Now, back to business. Today’s workout is strength training followed by Tabata. The Tabata was an total killer, but worth the extra effort! I used to include tabata training at the end of most of my earlier workouts, it is a great way to boost the metabolism and elevate the heart rate.

As you know I am putting together some tutorial videos. I am doing the first one today, so I hope to have it posted tomorrow. This will really test my teaching skills, so I apologise in advance if I seem awkward LOL, BUT I will be trying to keep the tutorials brief 🙂

Back to today’s workout. The first section is strength-based, so each exercise has set reps. I did 3 rounds of the seven exercises in 22 minutes and 41 seconds. It was really tough, especially the Kneeling Press!

So, I just set my Gymboss Interval Timer for stopwatch mode and timed the 3 rounds. The 7 strength exercises and the set reps are:

1. Double KB Suitcase/Dead Lift “Burpee” x 8 reps (I used 2 x 24kg)
2. Kneeling KB Press (right) x 4 – 6 reps (16kg)
3. Kneeling KB Press (left) x 4 – 6 reps (16kg)
4. Single Leg Deadlift and Row (right) x 8 reps (20kg)
5. Single Leg Deadlift and Row (left) x 8 reps (20kg)
6. Heavy Sumo Deadlift x 8 reps (2 x 24kg)
7. On a KB Tricep Push Up x 8 reps

After the strength section I took a short breather while I reset my Interval Timer for 8 cycles of 10 second rest and 20 seconds max effort. The Tabata section is a mixture of KB swings and bodyweight cardio exercises.  The sequence is as follows:

1. Two-Handed KB Swing (20kg)
2. Burpees (with push ups)
3. Two-Handed KB Swing
4. Mountain Climbers (eek!)
5. Two-Handed KB Swing
6. Squat Jumps (watch the knees)
7. Two-Handed KB Swing
8. Lunge Jumps (really watch the knees)

What a challenge! This workout was great, I had so much fun today, and the Tabata really made me feel like dying during it, but after, I felt amazing!

Let me know what you think of this one everyone!

See you tomorrow

Cheers

Marianne