A Kettlebell Workout for Really Getting Into It, or Getting BACK to it!

It’s been really great for the past few weeks both at the small RKC Workshop I led in Raleigh, NC, and with the handful of local people who train with me. Talking about kettlebells more than usual, fielding questions from others and enjoying the nice weather outside has gotten me even MORE fired up about kettlebell training. Some of you may wonder how this is possible, but as with a lot of things, prior to ramping up my training for the RKC Workshop, I’d been keeping things at a maintenance level. Which seemed necessary at the time, but now, I’m not so sure. More recently, I’ve been enjoying doing and also sharing some pretty interesting full body workouts outside on Sundays at the park with people who have already been training with me for a long time, or who have worked with other very high level instructors (basically, people who will have the form down, and who I don’t have to coach… so I can do the workout too!) “Sunday Challenge” started as an accountability thing for me after all. It’s a also time when I test workouts, combinations, time intervals, etc. It can be a time for PRs, and a time to celebrate others’ PRs too!

This Sunday, we did a workout that was a modification of a previous Sunday Challenge from a few weeks ago. I wanted to increase the total number of presses, and get in more heavy kettlebell presses myself. We also agreed to do get-ups at home during the day as grass pollen is high right now in the area and none of us wanted to especially roll around in it. While everyone participating had a high skill level, some participants were just getting back into working out regularly again. This is why the workout below can be done a few different ways. Some of us were looking to blow off a lot of steam and push ourselves, while others were getting back into the groove… A great thing about kettlebell training is that past a certain proficiency level, we can have different goals and “moods” but still work out together for fun and accountability. With the workout below, you can scale it up or down by choosing appropriate weights, or dropping down the rounds of the main circuit to 3 or 4 rounds instead of 5 – it will goof up the twisted ladder a little bit, but I wouldn’t worry about that too much – sometimes the extra rest is needed if you’re just getting back into things and ramping up your conditioning. Likewise the 8-Count Bodybuilders can be subbed out with standard pushups, or even tall planks – the main reason they are there is to give our grip a break and flatten out the hands. (Scroll to the bottom of this workout post for a how-to video on 8-Count Bodybuilders)

Here’s our kettlebell workout from Sunday:

Joint Mobility Warmup (and well… carrying everything from the cars!)

Warmup Circuit 4x:

• 10 kettlebell swings (moderate/light warmup weight)
• 1x Prying goblet squat
• 4x Alternating lunges with optional kettlebell held overhead (snatch test weight held overhead odd rounds right side, even rounds left side)

Main Circuit 5x (contains a twisted ladder, so you’ll see each round spelled out for certain exercises):

• 10-15 Kettlebell Swings (10 if going heavy, 15 if you’re using a lighter weight or working on your conditioning more)
• Kettlebell Military Presses – 1st round 10/10, 2nd round 8/8, 3rd round 6/6, 4th round 4/4, 5th round 2/2
• 8-Count Bodybuilders – 1st round 2, 2nd round 4, 3rd round 6, 4th round 8, 5th round 10
• Kettlebell snatches 10/10 (with snatch test weight kettlebell if possible… If you’re just getting back to it and need to condition your hands, please drop this down to 5/5 or 5r/5l/5r/5l if you want to keep the higher reps)
• Kettlebell rows 5/5

Abs Finisher 3x (Especially because we ran out of time for this on Friday…):

• 10x Crossreach Situps
• 1x Bridge (shoulder or full, your choice – or do both)
• 20x Russian Twists (kettlebell of your choice)

It was really great to be able to spend time with friends and get a lot of work done at the same time. Next time we’re going to do this and then walk to pick up a take out brunch!! (We’ll try and remember to take photos too…)