Kettlebell Leg Blaster Workout

Hi everyone,

Today I felt like really targeting legs, so I put together a combination of resistance and Tabata. As I always say, it is so much more beneficial for your body to mix resistance and cardio. Muscles need to be challenged and adding weight, whether it be body weight, Kettlebells or whatever training tool you prefer, will stimulate much deeper muscles fibres and engage more muscle groups just to stabilise and anchor the body throughout the range of motion.

The Tabata provides fat burning cardio, and by adding weight to the exercises, by using KBs, you will burn more calories at the time and later.

The Workout

The workout consists of 2 rounds of the following sections:

Resistance

1. Double KB Deadlifts x 15 reps (both rounds using 2x16kg)
2. KB Figure of Eight x 60 seconds (using 16kg KB and changing direction after 30 seconds)
3. KB Front Squats x 15 reps (round 1, using 1x 16kg) then x 8 reps (round 2, using 2x 16kg)
4. Double KB Alternating Reverse Lunges x 12 reps total (round 1, using 2x 12kg) then x 8 reps total (round 2, using 2 x 16kg)
5. Body weight Single Leg Pivoting Deadlifts (right) x 8 reps (both rounds)
6. BW Single Leg Pivoting Deadlifts (left) x 8 reps (both rounds)
7. BW Bulgarian Jump Squats (right) x 12 reps (both rounds)
8. BW Bulgarian Jump Squats (left) x 12 reps (both rounds)

Tabata

1. 2 Handed KB Swings x 2 sets, using 16kg
2. Double KB Push Presses x 2 sets using 2x 12kg
3. KB Snatches (right then left) x 1 set each side, using 12kg
4. KB Thrusters (right then left) x 1 set each side, using 12kg

Do one resistance round followed by one Tabata, then back to the resistance, increasing the weight were possible, then finish with another Tabata.

Setting my Gymboss Interval Timer to “stopwatch mode” I timed both resistance rounds. Round 1 took me 13 minutes and 5 seconds, round 2 took me 12 minutes and 38 seconds to complete. In between I reset my Interval Timer for 8 cycles of two intervals, one 10 seconds “rest” interval and the next, 20 seconds MAX effort.

Keep pushing beyond your “comfort” zones and try to increase the weight. If you don’t have a selection of KBs to choose from, then improvise and challenge yourself in other ways. For example, by changing the tempo of the exercise. Performing a slower rep will make the weight seem heavier. Performing it faster will allow more reps but will engage more fast-twitch muscle fibres (which are often forgotten about). Fast twitch muscle fibres are responsible for explosive movements like in plyometrics, sprinting and can improve muscle reactiveness.

Anyway, as always I appreciate feedback on my workouts, so please leave me a comment below. Also remember, to save you wondering if there are new updates, you can subscribe to receive email notification of recent posts. Also you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube – hope you will drop by there too.

Until next time.

Marianne