When it comes to building brute strength, nothing beats the barbell as a training tool.

Kettlebells on the other hand are a fantastic piece of equipment for rapid fat loss, and shooting your conditioning levels through the roof.

So for folks like me and you, who want to:

– gain strength and lean muscle
– if needed, be ready at any given time to take on a variety of physical challenges – maybe run a 5k, or bench press 1.5x your body weight, or snatch a 24k KB 100 times in 5 mins …
– just look, feel, and perform at our best, all of the time

COMBINING these two training modalities gives you the best of both worlds.

BUT – what’s the BEST way to do it?

Well, after getting questions almost every day about the best way to mix barbell and kettlebell work in the most efficient way, I went to the “lab” (my gym) and tested dozens of different training programs first on myself, then on a few select training clients. I came up with a program that is the result of YEARS of hard work, experimentation, and figuring out the most effective barbell / kettlebell workout that will get you the fastest results, in the shortest amount of time. And I put it together into my new Barbell / Kettlebell Hybrid Training program.

I wanted to give you an actual sample of one how one of these workouts is put together, so you could see if it’s a training style that would fit your needs:

 

Barbell / Kettlebell Hybrid Workout

1 – Start with a general warm up, including foam rolling and mobility work

2 – Move on to superset #1 – four rounds of these two exercises total:

– Barbell Deadlift x8
– KB Single Arm Press x8

3 – FOUR sets of alternating reverse goblet lunges, eight reps each, try to go UP in weight each set (until you can no longer complete the reps / your form breaks down / etc)

4 – Kettlebell – based metabolic finisher to end the workout

(This one is actally from my friends Funk Roberts and Chris Lopez’s new Kettlebells for Fighters program – the beauty of this plan is that you can use one of the “finishers” I give you in the workout, OR you can use any other one you like. It’s great for mixing things up, but also keeping the “core” lifts the same so you can continue to make progress on them etc. ):

– Do exercises circuit – style, one after the next
– 45 seconds work
– 15 seconds rest between exercises
– Rest for two minutes after round one and repeat circuit a total of four times

– 1/2 stance 1 arm KB swings (2 rounds right, 2 rounds left)
– single leg KB deadlifts (2 rounds right, 2 rounds left)
– goblet squats
– push ups
– one arm KB rack step ups (2 rounds right, 2 rounds left)
– KB renegade rows
– 2 arm KB swings

Video on how to do this circuit:

Click HERE for more info on the KBs for Fighters program

To sum up, for gaining strength and lean muscle, to be ready at any given time to take on a variety of physical challenges, and to just look, feel, and perform at your best, all of the time – you can’t beat the combo of barbell and kettlebell training. The key lies in HOW you combine the modalities for best results. And you can learn EXACTLY how to do this, in the most effective and time-efficient way, with my new Barbell / Kettlebell Hybrid Training plan HERE.

Thanks for reading, have a great Friday, and talk soon –

– Forest