New Routine Brings New Life to Kettlebell Workout

Over the past few months, my workout partner, Michael, and I have integrated kettlebell exercises into out morning workouts.  We turn to the kettlebells at least three times a week – usually on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.  Both Michael and I play in an over 30 basketball league that schedules games on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings.  I generally skip the morning workout on Wednesdays and our Thursday routine tends to be more focused on stretching and cardio as opposed to heavy lifting.

Our routine has been to run through three sets of five exercises.  Most of the exercises involve 20 repetitions of the exercise.   Each set takes about 20 minutes so our routine totals about an hour.   We also include a 20 minute pre-workout stretch and sometimes a 30 minute interval training on the eliptical.  There is still probably too much talking going on, but I always work up a good sweat and the routine is a great start to the day.

Recently we changed things up a bit.  Instead of performing three sets of five exercises, with each a break between each set, we are performing two sets of 10 different exercises with increased reps and increased weight.  I like the new approach as it breaks up the routine and involves more muscle groups.  We tend to alternate between upper body and ab work which enhances the whole body benefit of the kettlebells.  As we get used to the increased weights, I expect that we will move to three sets of the ten exercises.

Technorati Tags: workout routines, kettlebell exercises, kettlebells and abdominal exercises