Something I’ve loved to do for ages – for myself and for clients is create a “birthday workout”. Now… as we’ve all gotten older this has become more challenging. It’s a good thing we’ve been using all this time to TRAIN and practice our technique. Odd number ages always present an interesting challenge too – but if we’ve trained together, you know I love a theme – especially if the theme is some kind of celebratory challenge.
Ideas for Birthday Workouts:
If it’s an even numbered age, feel free to half it…
If you’re at or close to 50 or more, consider breaking it up into halves etc. or when appropriate/convenient it can be the weight of a sandbag etc. if appropriate. If you’re making a workout for a beginner you could even break the reps down (let’s say a beginner who is 50 years old has just gotten solid with kettlebell swings – you might do 5 rounds of a simple circuit which includes 10x kettlebell swings each round with appropriate rest.)
So, this workout was for an intermediate advanced friend who was ready for a celebratory challenge! I’d loaned her my battling rope a few months back during all this covid stuff so that we could train with it in her yard. So far so good.
Here’s what we did – you’ll see how the 47 pattern fits in, and then how I kind of played with the numbers to keep the rep ranges in an appropriate manner that still fits in the theme.
The 47 Challenge
We warmed up with joint mobility (joint circling mainly) standing routine.
Then we continued with a short mobility warmup circuit (3x):
Speed Circuit
performed with no rest 10x (heavy swings, we used 32kg and 26kg which were on hand at the moment – and traded each round):
- 5x heavy kettlebell swings
- 1x goblet squat or bodyweight squat
Plank Break:
1x 47 Second Plank
The 47 Challenge Circuit (14kg, 16kg, 20kg kettlebells):
- 47 Kettlebell Swings
- 20 Standard Pushups
- 47 Battling Rope Throws (up-downs)
- 10/10 Kettlebell Military Presses
- 20 Bodyweight squats
- 10/10 Kettlebell snatches
- 47 Kettlebell Swings
- 20 Standard Pushups
- 47 Battling Rope Throws (up-downs)
- 10/10 Kettlebell Military Presses
- 20 Bodyweight squats
- 10/10 Kettlebell snatches
- 47 Kettlebell Swings
- 20 Standard Pushups
- 47 Battling Rope Throws (up-downs)
- 7/7 Kettlebell Military Presses
- 7 Bodyweight squats
- 7/7 Kettlebell snatches
We cooled down with a little more joint mobility and of course putting everything back away! Good times.
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