Kettlebell Pick ‘n’ Mix!

Hi everyone,

I always say not to keep doing the same exercise routine so your body doesn’t have time to adapt, but how quickly can your body adapt? I think the body adapts quicker if all you do is cardio, cardio and cardio. By not including weight training, your weight my decrease or you may stay the same weight, but your body composition (your muscle:fat ratio etc) will end up favoring fat. You will generally end up with less muscle if you don’t provide your body with some muscle-building resistance. Remember the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism.

Cardio only burns fat, if you protect your muscle. This is done with resistance training and equally important, nutrition! You need to trick your body into burning fat stores by providing less energy packed foods, such as carbs and non-essential fats. But ALWAYS give your body protein. This will support the muscle you have and prevent it being burned off during cardio.

Now back to the workout. At the minute, with the Belfast Marathon looming, my training regime has changed slightly, and I have made my kettlebell workouts (about 3 per week) my staple. In addition to my workouts that I video, I have added running and some sprint training, and also my heavier weight session once a week in the gym (although I haven’t trained heavy for about 2 weeks due to an injury). My point is that, because I am seeing some results with this new training regime I will continue it for a few more weeks as I hope to make somemore gains in that time. Then before I plateau, I’ll change things about.

The Workout

My workout today consisted of two rounds of 10 exercises and my trusted Tabata Interval training at the end. Again I set my Gymboss Interval Timer for 8 cycles of 10 seconds rest and 20 seconds MAX effort.

The exercises are as follows:

1. Kettlebell Alternating Swing x 50 reps
2. Kettlebell Front Squat (2x12kg) x 15 reps
3. Kettlebell Press-up into Clean into Push-press x 10 reps
4. Plyometric Jumps x 8 reps
5. Double Kettlebell Chest Press x 12 reps
6. Kettlebell Windmill (right) x 10 reps
7. Kettlebell Windmill (left) x 10 reps
8. Plyometric Jumps x 8 reps
9. Kettlebell Renegade Rows x 12 reps
10. Double Kettlebell Reverse Lunges x 20 reps (total)

Repeat the 10 exercises again. Then perform the below Tabata Workout to “finish” you off LOL!

1. Two-handed Kettlebell Swing (12kg)
2. Double Kettlebell Swing (2x12kg)
3. Kettlebell Snatch (right)
4. Kettlebell Snatch (left)
5. Two-handed Kettlebell Swing (12kg)
6. Double Kettlebell Swing (2x12kg)
7. Kettlebell Snatch (right)
8. Kettlebell Snatch (left)

Good luck with this workout, and I’ll be back soon with more 🙂

Marianne