Here’s one of my ‘standby’ kettlebell fat loss workouts – if I have about 45 minutes and want a fast-paced, challenging, full body workout, I’ll knock this one out. It includes a joint mobility/dynamic warm up portion, a circuit with Pull Ups, TGU’s, Swings, and high intensity cardio, and finishes with a static stretch. Let’s get going!

1. Joint mobility

There are tons of ways to integrate joint mobility exercises into your routine – here’s a nice series called the ‘Daily dozen’ on mikemahler.com from kettlebell expert Steve Maxwell:

http://www.mikemahler.com/articles/jointmobility.html

2. Dynamic Warm Up

Follow your joint mobility series with a dynamic warm up. Now you’ll take your major muscle groups through a full range of motion at speed and literally increase your body temperature. Check out this dynamic warm up video from Craig Ballentyne, creator of Turbulence Training (a killer workout program/philosophy, by the way – I use workouts from Craig’s Turbulence Training workouts literally every day with training clients and myself):

3. Pull, TGU, Swing, Cardio Giant Circuit

• Start by doing Pull Ups – go to two reps short of failure. So, if you could do 10 Pull Ups if you had to, do 8. If you can’t do Pull Ups, you can do Beginner Pull Ups or Inverted Rows instead.
• Follow the Pull Ups with a single TGU on each side. Pick a weight that challenges you, but one that you can use impecable form with. Here’s a refresher on the Get Up:

http://kettlebellbasics.net/2009/12/14/how-to-do-a-turkish-get-up/

• Follow the TGU’s with 20 Swings – do two hand, single hand or hand-to-hand – your choice.
• Finish the circuit with 60 seconds of high-intensity cardio – you could hop on a treadmill for 60 seconds, do 60 seconds of jump rope, or even high knees and butt kicks for 60 seconds continuously.

Repeat that circuit 3-5 times with no rest between individual exercises and about one minute of rest between circuits.

4. Static Stretch

Finish the workout with a static stretch.  Ideally, you don’t want to just arbitrarily stretch – you want to focus on your tight muscle groups. For a very in-depth and totally free guide to flexibility, click the link below:

http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_5.html

That’s it for this week’s Kettlebell Fat Blast workout. This is one you can bust out any time for a quick and efficient total body strength, conditioning, flexibility and core training workout. Enjoy!

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