Make your Cardio Fun with Kettlebell Cardio
Here’s something that people don’t tell you about burning calories: the harder you work, the more calories you burn. One obvious example is a sprinter and a jogger. Sprinters work much harder than joggers. Their goal is to expend as much energy in as little time as possible.
Joggers, on the other hand, focus on conserving as much energy for as long as possible. Two dramatically different training styles. And two dramatically different types of physiques. A sprinter is not only lean, but he’s strong and powerful.
A typical jogger looks like he hasn’t eaten for days. He’s skinny and weak. What kind of physique do you want? If you want a strong, athletic physique, then you should focus on performing ballistic exercises at a high intensity level. One of the best ways to get a killer cardio workout in the comfort of your own home is to perform Kettlebell workouts.
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Exercises such as Kettlebell Snatches and Swings work many more muscle groups than sprinting. After just 10-20 repetitions, you’ll feel the movements in your lower back, shoulders, and hipflexors . And once you combine these ballistic movements with other basic Kettlebell exercises such as Floor Presses, Bent Over Rows, and Windmills, you’ll be able to get a great, full body workout in an extremely short period of time.
Kettlebell Cardio: It’s Time to Make your Cardio Fun
But the best thing about Kettlebell Cardio, as I like to call it, is that it’s a lot more fun than most other forms of cardio. My favorite forms of cardio used to be jump roping, shadowboxing, and sledgehammer swings. However, as my body adapted, theseforms of cardio became way too easy for me.
Many people are endlessly trying to burn fat with boring treadmill and elliptical workouts. The bottom line is that if you’re not having fun, then you won’t stick to you workouts. If you don’t stick to your workouts, then you won’t get results.
Before we get into using Kettlebell cardio to replace your current cardio, I first want to make sure you know how to do three of the basic Kettlebell movements: Snatches, Swings, and Cleans. If not, then please watch the following videos carefully.
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If you already know how to perform these movements, then simply skip down past them to get to some of my favorite intensity techniques you can use to develop high intensity Kettlebell cardio workouts:
The Exercises
Kettlebell Swing
Kettlebell Clean
Kettlebell Snatch
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Intensity Techniques
There are a lot of ways you can create your own Kettlebell cardio workouts. However, the following are some techniques that almost anyone – beginner, intermediate, or advanced – can start using today. These are not complex techniques.
In fact, you can probably get up off your computer right now, grab a kettlebell, and get a great, intense workout right now!
Intensity Technique #1: Pyramids
Pyramid repetitions are where you start off with a low repetition, then gradually increase the repetitions as the workout progresses. Once you get up to a predetermined number, you go back down the pyramid. By the time you’ve returned back down to the original number you started off with, you’ll be in a pool of sweat.
For example, lets use Swings as our example exercise. Start off with 3 repetitions, and rest 60 seconds. Add 3 repetitions, and keep going until you getup to 21 repetitions. Now go back down. So, you’re workout will look something like this:
- Kettlebell Swings for 3-6-9-12-15-18-21-18-15-12-9-6-3
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To make this workout harder, simply reduce your rest periods or alternate with another exercise. It’s best to superset the Kettlebell swings with pushups, pullups, or another cardio movement such as jump roping or shadowboxing. Perhaps you can alternate with a minute of jump roping after each set.
Intensity Technique #2: Repetitions for Time
Here’s another no-brainer intensity technique. Here’s what you do: choose a set number of repetitions, and perform it. For example, lets say you want to do 100repetitions of the Kettlebell swing. Just start a stop watch and see how long it takes you to do a 100 repetitions.
Don’t count sets, but if you need to rest, then rest. But try to keep your body moving and try to complete those 100 repetitions as fast as possible. 100 repetitions too hard? then start off with 50. 100 repetitions too easy? then either do more repetitions, or switch to a more difficult movement.
Intensity Technique #3: Timed Rounds
This is the complete opposite of repetitions for time. With timed rounds, you simply set a time limit and try to complete as many repetitions as possible within that time period. This is different then interval training, since the time frames you will use will be longer than 90 seconds.
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For example, you can do a timed round of 3 minutes, followed by a minute rest. So, for 3 minutes try to do as many swings as you can. Then rest for 60 seconds. Write down how many repetitions you did, and try to beat you repetitions for the next set of 3 minutes.
Most likely, you’ll only be able to do 2-3 of these timed rounds, if you truly exert yourself to the best of your abilities.
Additional Exercises, Workouts, and Techniques
Kettlebell Cardio is just one use of Kettlebell training. Not only can you use Kettlebell training to burn fat, but you can also use them to build lean muscle mass, get stronger, improve overall health, and improve your athletic fitness. In fact, there are dozens of other exercises and techniques you can perform with just one or two Kettlebells.
One of the most complete resources you can use for effective Kettlebell training is the Turbulence Training Kettlebell Revolution program. This system uses the world-famous Turbulence Training system to develop high intensity Kettlebell workouts.
