By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.KettlebellWorkouts.com

In this workout you will learn the 5 most powerful lower body kettlebell exercises you can do to gain muscle and burn fat.  But, perhaps more importantly, is with these exercises you will begin to realize the flexibility kettlebell workouts offer in terms of convenience and lifestyle.

The first exercise is the Double Kettlebell Front Squat. So, start out by holding the KBs at shoulder height, push your hips back (don’t bend at the knees first), break parallel, squatting as low as you can while keeping your abs braced. Then drive back up.

The next exercise is called the Tactical Lunge, or a regular lunge with a twist. First, lunge backward and as you are lunging take the KB underneath your front thigh and switch hands. Alternate sides. Be sure to keep your torso upright throughout.

The next lower body KB exercise is the Pistol Squat. So, place the KB at chest height and balance on one leg with your other leg out in front. Next, squat down as low as you can go, and drive back up. Do all reps for one side and then switch.

The 1-Leg Rear Deadlift is another great exercise to do using kettlebells. The previous exercises work the front of the thighs, whereas this will focus a lot on your hamstrings. So, hold the KB with both hands in front of you, balance on one leg and push your hips back. Now, to come back up, you will squeeze your glutes and hamstrings for a powerful contraction.

The last exercise is the Turkish Get-up. And although this is a great ab exercise, in fact it, like all the other exercises mentioned here, is an excellent total body exercise.

So, from a laying down position, hold the KB overhead with arm extended (do not let your elbow bend) and bend the leg on the same side as the arm holding the KB. Next, you want to lift your torso up and get into the lunge position and drive up. Now, to return back to your lying down position, drop your opposite knee to the ground, then your opposite hand, followed by bringing your leg through to the front and then drop your torso down and slowly lower back down to the ground, all while maintaining that pushed out position with the arm.

These are some incredibly effective exercises for your lower body that can be done in only a small space with just one or two kettlebells.  Simple, fast, and supremely powerful.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. He has partnered with Chris Lopez to form a completely unique Kettlebell Training program based off of Turbulence Training principles. For more information on the Turbulence Training Kettlebell workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions, visit www.KettlebellWorkouts.com

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Here’s a great workout you can do just with your own bodyweight. This workout revolves around calisthenic and animal movements and is a great alternative to your regular bodyweight squat lower body workouts.

It’s also a great fat burning cardio movement. If you’re following an upper body/lower body training split, then this is a perfect workout for your lower body and cardio day.

Some of the movements require some space and place where you can make some noise without disturbing anyone. A park or your backyard would be great. Lets first learn the exercises before moving onto the workout:

Mountain Jumps

• Get into pushup position. Bring both your legs in explosively towards your chest. Your feet should land right below your hips. Push them back to starting position. This movement is exactly what you do during the transition between thepushup and squat jump during a traditional burpee.

Bear Crawls

• Get on all fours. Your butt will be in the air. Move forward by moving your right hand and right leg at the same time. Repeat on the other side. The best way to do this movement is decide upon a set distance, and just perform the bear crawl for that particular distance.

Duck Walk

• Get down into deep squat position. Walk forward without letting your body come off the ground. The best way to perform this movement is take small steps. A little bobbing up and down is fine. But try to keep your body as low to the ground as possible.

Frog Jump

• Start with in a low deep squat. Place your hands on the floor in between your feet. Most of your weight should be balanced on your feet. Spring forward and land on both your feet and hands at the same time. The biggest mistake people make with this movement is to land on their hands before landing with their feet.

Monkey Walk

• This movement is kind of like a cross between a bear crawl and frog jump. Instead of placing both your hands on the floor, place just one hand on the floor. Jump forward first with both your feet, then move your hand forward. Continue in this pattern – jump with your legs, then move forward.
• Repeat with the other hand.

Burpees

• Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Drop down onto the floor into squat position and place your hands on the ground. Kick your legs back, the way you would in mountain jumps. You should be inpushup position. Perform a pushup position.
• Bring your legs back in. You should now be in squat position again. Explode into the air. When your feet return to the ground dropimmediately back into the squat position and repeat.

8 Count Body Builders

• 8 count bodybuidlers are very similar to burpees. Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Drop onto the floor into squat position and place your hands on the ground. Kick your legs back and perform apushup. From this position, separate your legs.
• It’s almost like performing a jumping jack with your legs in pushup position. Bring your legs back together, bring your knees back in, and perform a squat jump.

Jumping Jacks

• Speaking of jumping jacks. Most people are familiar with this movement from gym class. Start with your feet together and arms at your sides. Jump and spread your feet outwards, and bring your arms up towards the air. Clap your hands together above your head and jump back to starting position.

Jogging in Place

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Bring your right knees up so that your 6 inches off the ground. Bring your right foot back down and repeat with your left foot. The main idea here is that you’re simulating jogging in place.

Squat Jumps

• Drop down into squat position and explode upwards as high as possible. As your feet hit the ground, squat back down immediately and repeat.

Now that you know how to perform the exercises, I will provide you with the workout. I’ve created three separate versions for beginners, intermediate and advanced trainees:

Beginner Workout:

• Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, followed by a 60 second rest. Work up to 2 rounds for a 30 minute workout.

Intermediate Workout:

• Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, followed by a 30 second rest. Work up to 3 rounds for a 30 minute workout.

Advanced Workout:

• Perform each exercise for 60 seconds, followed by a 30 second rest. Work up to 2 rounds for a 30 minute workout

The great thing about these exercises is that one transitions straight into the next one. There’s no need to do any setting up for any of the workouts.

If you’re ready to incorporate bodyweight training as part of your fitness plan, then you should check out Bodyweight Exercise Revolution. Coach’s Adam Steer and Ryan Murdock show you how to use unique bodyweight movements to lose fat, build muscle, increase strength, improve athletic fitness, and enhance longevity.

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Split Training refers to the way you organize your fitness program based on body parts, movements, and exercises. There are three methods of organizing fitness plans that I particularly use very often: Full Body, Upper/Lower Split, and Push/Pull/Legs Split.

Full Body

• A full body program is where you train your entire body in one session. The following is a three-day program based on a full body split:

Monday

Push-ups
Squat Jumps
Mixed-Grip Chinups

Wednesday

Incline Pushups
Lunges
Pullups

Friday

Hindu Pushups
Bodyweight Squats
Chinups

• Creating a full body workout simply involves having at least one upper body and one lower body exercise.

Benefits of a Full Body Split:

• Great starting point for beginners to develop a base level of strength
• Muscles will respond quickly due to a higher frequency of work
• Ideal for athletes that need to train their body as one unit

Bruce Lee Trained his Body as One Unit – Image by BeWaterMyFriend

Upper/Lower Split

• An upper/lower split is where you train your upper body on one day, and your lower body in another day. The following is a three-day program based on a upper/lower split:

Monday

Pushups
Mixed-grip Chinups
Incline Pushups
Pullups

Wednesday

Bodyweight Squats
Squat Jumps
Lunges

Friday

Repeat Monday’s workout

* Perform Wednesday’s workout the following Monday. Alternate the program between an upper body and a lower body workout.

Benefits of Upper/Lower Split

• More rest between muscle groups will allow for more focus in each workout
• Ideal for athletes who need to work on either upper body or lower body individually for specific improvements
• Great transition point from beginner to intermediate trainees

Push/Pull/Legs

• Push/Pull/Legs is the most common used split. Push involves any exercise where you “push” away from your body. The chest and triceps are the primary muscles being stressed. Pull involves any exercise where you “pull” towards your body. The back and biceps are the primary muscles being stressed. Leg day is devoted to lower body training. The following is a three-day program based on the a push/pull/legs split:

Monday

Push-ups
Incline Push-ups
Hindu Push-ups

Wednesday

Mixed-Grip Chin-ups
Pull-ups
Chin-ups

Friday

Bodyweight Squats
Squat Jumps
Lunges

Benefits of Push/Pull/Legs Split

• Ideal for athletes who need to work specific weaknesses
• Ideal for advanced athletes who need to work strength training along with other methods of training
• More rest between muscle groups will allow for more focus in each workout

Study the benefits of each training split, and decided which suits best for your goals and fitness level.

Additional Resources:

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle – This is the perfect resource to check out if you want to explore split training further. Tom Venuto provides with a template for a full body and a variety of other training splits. You also recieve a ton of information on diet and nutrition for fat loss. Check it out here.

To gain maximal muscle, you need to stick to the basics. You only need one or two basic movements per bodypart. The less movements you can do to get the job done, the better.

Setting Up a Program

Choosing a Training Split

Choose a training schedule based upon your training schedule. A typical schedule involves training 3 days a week on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. A training schedule should also take into account how quickly you recover from a workout. If you are following a full-body split, then it may take you to two to three days to recover from your workout. However, if you are training half your body one day, and the other half on the next day, you can work out more frequently.

Choosing the Exercises:

Choose 4 to 6 exercises to focus on, then split them according to your training split.

Core Exercises:

Deadlift

BackSquat

BenchPress

Bent-overRow

Pull-ups

MilitaryPress

Full-body Routine

For full-body routines, you do not need to perform all 6 exercises in one routine. Split the workouts up amongst 2 workouts in this way:

Workout A:

Deadlift

BenchPress

Pull-ups

Workout B:

BackSquat

Bent-overRows

MilitaryPress

Push/Pull

Push exercises are all exercises that involve you to push a weight away from your body:

BackSquat

BenchPress

MilitaryPress

Pull exercises are all exercises that involve you to pull a weight towards your body:

Deadlift

Bent-overRow

Pull-ups

Push/Pull/Legs

For this split, you would simply take the two lower body exercises out and give them there own day.

Sets/ Reps

To build muscle, keep your set/rep volume between 36-50total reps. For example, performing 6 sets of 6 repetitions is a total of 36repetitions for that particular exercise.

Start off with lifting 70-80% of your one repetitionmaximum. Gradually increase the weight as the weeks go by.

Rest 60 –120 second between each set.

Supplementation

I personally do not like to take supplements. Supplements are “supplements” to your diet and training. Only take supplements when and if you have your diet and training in order.

Related:

 

• Three Steps to High Frequency Training
• Hindu Squats and Pushups
• Stick to the Basics
• Why I’m not a Bodybuilder
• Crossfit and Bodybuilding