3 kettlebell exercises for building a lean, bulletproof body in a little as 20 minutes per workout.
Complexity is the enemy of results when it comes to building the body you want in the time that you have. As many parents soon discover after having kids, time and energy are in short supply and it’s very challenging to maintain a solid workout routine especially if you were a gym rat before kids.
Remember the days when you could go to the gym for two hours and perform a workout with eight different exercises just for your chest? Well they’re gone. If you don’t adapt your workout to your new life of being a father, husband, AND having a career, your health and fitness will not survive very long.
That’s why kettlebell training is a game change for busy guys especially dads. You can build a lean bulletproof body with one tool, in as little as 20 minutes per workout, and in pretty much any location that you can drag a kettlebell. A friend of mine once said that the kettlebell is the Swiss Army Knife of fitness tools because you can build strength, muscle, cardiovascular conditioning, and bulletproof joints with one tool when utilized properly. He is right. The trick is to choose the right kettlebell exercises for your goals.
If you want a leaner physique that is adaptable and resilient to injury (aka bulletproof), I recommend the following three exercises.
Get-up. The (Turkish) Get-up or TGU is an amazing full body challenge that builds strong, stable shoulders, knits the lower body and upper body together, and provides a unique abdominal training effect. Plus, getting on and off the floor is great cardio. Shoot for about 10 get-ups in a workout.
Swing. Arguably the biggest unique benefit of the kettlebell is the way that it can be swung ballistically. If Force = Mass * Acceleration, then doing kettlebell swings with a moderate amount of mass and a large amount of acceleration is an amazing way to create ALOT of force in a way that is very different from traditional weight training. You can build explosive strength and a crazy degree of stamina performing proper proper kettlebell swings. 75 to 125 proper kettlebell swings in a workout is optimum.
Goblet Squat. The squat involves over 250 muscles in the body. The goblet squat is perhaps the perfect squatting variation for build strong legs WHILE building great technique simultaneously. The goblet squat is also a great hip mobility exercise for those of us who tend to be a bit more desk bound than others. Depending on the bell size, perform between 25 and 50 reps per workout.
Want to see what this might look like in a 20 minute workout?
Perform 5 Rounds of the following workout with a 16-24kg kettlebell
15 swings
10 goblet squats
1 get-up on each side
Keep your technique crisp and as you become proficient at the movements your time will improve as you need less and less rest.
Try combining these three drills together in your next workout and experience for yourself how efficient of a training session you can get in just 20 minutes. I have seen guys in as little as three workouts per week get leaner, stronger, and more mobile in as little as 4 weeks.