28-Days-to-Lean Meal Plan
With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days.
Read articleIf you want to minimize your time in the gym and maximize your calorie burn and results—and who doesn’t?—then you should grab a pair of kettlebells.
Most kettlebell exercises are explosive, full-body movements which rev your heart rate and challenge multiple muscle groups at once. Need more proof? Lifters who train with kettlebells burn as many as 400 calories in 20 minutes, a study by the American Council on Exercise showed.
Pro tip: Perform this workout at a high intensity to get the benefits of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. EPOC is known as the “afterburn” effect, because your body continues to burn calories post-workout, and therefore boosts your metabolism long after you’ve left the gym.
You’ll need two kettlebells of equal weight for this workout. Pick a weight that is challenging but allows you to finish a set of reps as prescribed for your experience level while maintaining proper form.
Perform the exercises and repetitions as a 20-minute AMRAP. Pace yourself—20 minutes is a long time to work near your maximum capacity—and try not to take any more rest than you need. If the exercise is a single-arm movement, perform the prescribed number of reps on each side.
Beginner: Complete 6-8 reps per movement
Intermediate: Complete 8-10 reps per movement
Advanced: Complete 10-12 reps per movement
Alyssa Ages is a strength coach at CrossFit Metric and an athlete with PowerNYC Training.
Check out five kettlebell exercises for beginners, eight kettlebell workouts to build total-body strength, and five high-intensity interval weight-loss workouts you can do with kettlebells.
For a complete archive of our daily quick-hit routines, go to mensfitness.com/todaysworkout.