This is a fairly quick (or can be shorter if you do fewer rounds) workout for when you only have a medium to light kettlebell with you. In this case for me it was a 16kg “narrower handle” variety* (click here for the explanation of how these are different from the standard ones) from Dragon Door. (Cool story, bro where’s the workout?) And while I’m more than a little perplexed by the weird recent social media crazy around “kettlebell flows” the following workout is about as close as you’ll ever see me get to them. One of the neat things about kettlebells is that if you’re great at cleans, you can switch between moves without setting the kettlebell down. Unfortunately this fact has led to an odd phenomenon where solid form takes a backseat to flashy moves for social media. One of the neat things about kettlebells is that if you're great at cleans, you can switch between moves without setting the kettlebell down. Unfortunately, this fact has led to an odd phenomenon where solid form takes a backseat to… Click To Tweet A lot of it reminds me of the “dancercize” crap I am so grateful is no longer the only option for the mainstream’s idea of “women’s fitness”. There we go, there’s our #gratitude post for the day, I don’t have to dance around in leotards to be fit.

But I digress…

Kettlebell Mini Combo Circuit Workout:

I warmed up with my Joint Mobility routine (the whole thing is at the beginning of this recent follow along workout video I’ve added to the end of this post), then continued with the following small circuit:

5 Rounds of:

1 Get-up each side, light kettlebell or no weight even – focus on FORM
10 2 hand kettlebell swings
L-sit practice (From the floor on flat hands or fists if you need more “room”)
1 shoulder bridge, one full bridge

After that I got down to business with the main circuit… also 5 rounds if you have the time. 3 isn’t bad either:

Right side – three one arm kettlebell swings, three presses, three squats
Switch hands with a hand-to-hand swing
Left side – three one arm swings, three presses, three squats
8-Count Bodybuilders (1st round 10x, 2nd round 8x, 3rd round 6x, 4th round 4x, 5th round 2x)
20 Alternating walking lunges (Optional: hold the kettlebell at the chest for extra challenge)

I ended the workout with another round through the joint mobility sequence. Good times!

*Some of you may or may not have noticed this in the Black Friday guide a few days ago, but while Dragon Door is out of stock on the standard 16kg (SKU: p10a) kettlebells, they still seem to have plenty of the 16kg (SKU: p10s) ones. Here’s the deal, both weigh 16kg, but the p10s ones just have a slightly narrower handle – I’ll get my digital calipers out for you if you want, but it’s not actually THAT much of a difference. From what I understand the p10s was developed after a bunch of very strong but otherwise smaller-hand-having women requested a kettlebell that would be a little more suited to their needs. While I personally have a pair of both varieties of the kettlebell, I do find that I’m more confident snatching the heck out of the p10s kettlebells with my not-so-big hands. Seen side by side, I can tell the difference but mainly that’s because my tiny little hands have worn down the surface on the p10s kettlebells from insane amounts of reps over the years. Otherwise if you get one of each you will feel that they are different, but that it’s not that big of a deal (unless you do try to do doubles with a mis-matched pair, but c’mon….)

The beginning of this video features the joint mobility sequence…