Pavel Tsatsouline, along with many other folks involved in the RKC school of strength, is/are by far my biggest influence(s) in kettlebell workout design, kettlebell exercise technique, and overall kettlebell training philosophy.
However, there’s also big world out there that exists outside of the RKC … and being open minded to new training concepts and ideas is part of being the best trainer you can be.
Craig Ballentyne of TurbulenceTraining.com is someone I highly respect and follow closely when it comes to training advice and innovative workouts. I actually use ideas and exercises from a variety of Craig’s programs for my training clients’ and own personal workouts at least every week, if not every day.
Here’s a video from Craig where he outlines and demonstrates a killer kettlebell, body weight and stability ball circuit workout:
Video Recap
This kettlebell, body weight and stability ball circuit workout consiststs of 10 exercises performed for 20 reps each as fast as possible. A few notes on the exercises:
- To perform the extended push-up, place your hands about palm width in front of your face and do a push – up.
- To do a high-pull, use about the same amount of hip snap as you would on a snatch. The goal is to get the ‘bell to float for a second at the top of the move and become weightless … a great cue for the high pull is to imagine you’re throwing an elbow at someone right behind you.
- When doing mountain climbers, make sure your hips are down and abs are braced.
- For close – grip push – ups, place your hands about shoulder width apart. Make sure to keep the arms close to the sides and focus on using your triceps to do the bulk of the work in the movement. To make them easier you can do them from the knees … or you can increase the difficulty by putting your feet up on something.
- For the stability ball leg curls, you’ll (obviously) need a stability ball … make sure to keep the hips up high throughout the entire movement as you curl the legs in toward you and straighten them back out.
Metabolic conditioning – style workouts like this one from Craig Ballentyne of TurbulenceTraining.com are great for losing fat, gaining lean muscle and sending your conditioning level through the roof. Enjoy the pain!
Forest Vance, MS, CPT, RKC II
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