Hi everyone,
Firstly, I could kill my computer sometimes! I tried to get this workout up yesterday but the editing Software was crashing and I kept losing clips, so my patience just couldn’t hack it and I gave up last night. Feeling fresh, and much less irritable this morning, I bring you a Killer Kettlebell Workout.
While I was thinking aloud about what type of workout I would put up (because I wanted it to be something different to my usual designs), it was suggested to me to try a Pyramid. I have never done a Pyramid before so I was intrigued. When designing it, I had to set realistic but challenging reps. There is no point starting at 1 rep because none of the exercises are overly challenging in the very low rep range (if you are have Pull Ups in it, then that’s different). So, I started the reps higher and I increased each round by 2 reps (so the intensity would noticeably increase). The total reps for each exercise is 48.
A Pyramid (in this way) can be a great way to improve your Strength Endurance and conditioning. You can also use a traditional Pyramid style approach in the gym ie: with each set you increase the weight and decrease the reps. Additionally, there is “Reverse Pyramid” training when, after your warm up sets, you start your work set at your heaviest weight (I have never tried this). However, because I don’t want to complicated today’s workout, I was using this design as a new challenge and a bit of fun! Perhaps in a future post I will explore different methods of training with weights and what advantage/disadvantage each method has.
Would you find this helpful? Let me know 🙂
The Workout
You’ll need to set your Gymboss Classic Interval Timer for stop-watch mode to time yourself. There are 6 exercises and there are 7 rounds (sorry). The first round you start with 4 reps of each exercise, then each round after that you increase the reps by 2 until you get to 10. After that you go back to 8, then 6, then finally 4. I even hated myself when I got to the 8,10, 8 part! EEK!
- Goblet Squat (I used 20kg)
- Double Military Press/Push Press (2 x 14kg) – my vertical press needs work!
- Suitcase Deadlift Burpee (2 x 20kg) – what a burn from these towards the top of the Pyramid!
- Push Up
- Double KB Bent Over Row (2 x 14kg) – probably should’ve used the 16kg’s here, but ah well.
- Vertical Swing/Pull Burpee (20kg) – Upper back BURN
What weight? I chose weights I knew would challenge me but not be impossible. In hindsight, I probably could have gone heavier in the Goblet Squat and Rows, but I couldn’t be bothered bringing MORE KBs outside.
Only 1 Kettlebell? Well, you have a longer workout ahead of you as you will have to split the “double KB” exercises in to “right and left” by completing the set repetitions on each side. For the Suitcase Deadlift, you can either swap the KB from side to side each round, or you can place it in the middle and do a standard KB Deadlift. If you are swapping it from right to left, you do not need to do double reps – just swap sides each round and that will be enough 🙂
Oh and will you believe that I planned a Tabata for the end of this?? EH, I don’t think THAT was going to happen! Maybe next time 😉
Have fun and let me know your thoughts.
Cheers
Marianne