It’s so easy to get sucked into the ‘alure’ of the metabolic conditioning workout …

And don’t get me wrong … the high-rep, low-rest, kettlebell and body weight circuit – style workouts I typically post on this blog are awesome.  These sessions hit every muscle in your body and work your a@@ off!  But it’s very important to remember that you have to do some strength work as well.

Having this strength foundation is so important … a simple, non-scientific way to look at it is this:  If you’re doing a workout that calls for, say, 10 pull ups and 5 presses with a 53# kb, if you lack the basic strength level to complete these moves, you’re sunk.  The workout is going to be really hard.  On the other hand, if you max out at 10 pull ups with a 53# ‘bell hanging from your waist and you can press the 106# kb with ease, this workout is going to be a heck of a lot easier.  So strength work will vastly improve your performance in your conditioning workouts.

Now, one of the big obstacles with this type of training can be lack of equipment – if you’re working out at home or don’t have access to traditional strength implements like barbells and dumbbells, building a sound strength based workout can be tricky.  So I wrote the workout in the video below with this exact predicament in mind …

You could approach this workout as either 1) mixing it in with what you’re currently doing (maybe alternating conditioning and strength workouts) or you could devote a specific period of time  – say four to six weeks – to exclusively working on building strength.  Watch the video for a walk-thru of the workout:

Workout Recap

• Start with 3 ‘low intensity’ Turkish get ups on each side
• Your first exercise pairing is pull ups and split squats. Stop two reps short of failure on the pull ups, and do six reps each leg of the split squat. Take as much rest as you need to hit it hard and use maximal weight – probably 2 or 3 minutes between sets.
• The second pairing is the kb clean and press (6 reps per side) and a ‘negative’ sit up (6 reps) – do these in the same fashion as the pair discussed above.
• Finish the workout with about 50 swings.

This is a basic strength workout you can do with a single kettlebell and your own body weight … if you’re not doing at least some strength work like this, you’re missing out.

Thanks for reading and talk soon –

Forest Vance

P.S. If you’re looking for more specifics about workout programming … if you’d like more detailed explanation of any of the exercises above … or if you just want a no-brainer, done-for-you program you can follow and start on right away, check out the great sale I’m running on all my best-selling fitness programs this weekend – it’ll give you tons of new workout ideas and help you reach your goals.  Click the link below for more info:

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