Summer. Are you ready?
A beautiful time of the year with sun, holidays, and more importantly beaches.
There isn’t much time to get yourself beach body ready and develop a figure we can be confident in.
Luckily, with just 5 exercises, and a kettlebell, you can get losing that winter weight in no time.
My ultimate kettlebell workout aimed to help you with weight loss is perfect for toning up and getting shredded for summer.
You can check it out for free in this article below.
Before we get into the exercises, though, let’s get an understanding of how a kettlebell can help you lose weight.
How Can I Use A Kettlebell To Lose Weight?
Losing weight is as simple as using more calories you consume, also known as being in a calorie deficit.
So, why is the kettlebell the perfect method to accomplish this?
It’s a full-body workout
Using a kettlebell in your routine can help recruit way more muscles than your ordinary workout machines.
Every exercise in this workout routine is a compound movement, requiring a lot more muscle groups to be involved for stability, balance, and strength.
The more muscles you use, the more intense the workout, therefore increasing the number of calories you are burning.
Increased intensity
Kettlebell workouts are one of the easiest methods to get your blood pumping and increase your heart rate.
Not only is it great for muscle building and strength, but kettlebell workouts are also an anaerobic exercise, increasing the calories burned ten-fold.
Performing this workout as part of a HIIT routine is a great idea to burn more calories in a short amount of time.
Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption
Also termed as the after-burn of a workout, EPOC is a phrase that describes energy being consumed following an intensive workout.
A kettlebell is one of the most common sources of this, due to it working many muscles anaerobically.
Enough about the why, let’s get into my ultimate workout plan that you can incorporate to get shredded!
My Ultimate Kettlebell Workout For Weight Loss
#1 – Kettlebell Swings
If you have read just a few of my blogs, you will know how much I love this exercise.
It’s perfect for fitness, strength, muscle building, and most importantly, weight loss.
As I said earlier, one of the ways to put yourself in a calorie deficit is to perform an intense workout that targets multiple muscle groups, and kettlebell swings do just that.
Working your glutes, back, and core makes them extremely tough on your body.
There are not many exercises that can get your heart pumping like the kettlebell swing, making it a staple for fat burning.
How To Do It
- Place your kettlebell on the floor beneath you, standing with your legs shoulder-width apart.
- Bend your knees to pick up the kettlebell with a two-handed overhand grip.
- Stand up tall, engage your core and shift your weight to your heels. Hinge at your hips and lower your body slightly until the kettlebell is hanging between your legs.
- Driving with your glutes, swing the kettlebell from between your legs until it’s almost in line with your shoulders.
- Hold this position for a second while tensing your back and glutes.
- Shift your weight back onto the heels and control the weight on the way back down.
- As the kettlebell returns to the original position, drive-through and repeat the movement as many times as possible without a break.
#2 – Goblet Jump Squat
A simple exercise, this exercise revolves around a compound movement, followed by an intensive plyometric.
The goblet squat by itself is an exceptional exercise, requiring the muscles in your legs and your core to work in tandem for both stability and strength.
Adding the jump afterward only magnitudes the intensity.
A killer exercise like the Goblet jump squat needs a lot of oxygen for proper recovery, burning a ton of calories in the process.
You can’t miss this exercise if you want to lose weight.
How To Do It
- Hold the kettlebell by the sides of the handle, with two hands. This will help keep the weight stable.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and your back straight.
- Engage your core.
- Squat down as low as possible, maintaining a fixed posture.
- As soon as you reach the bottom of your squat, drive through your heels and glute upward.
- As your legs straighten, jump through with extended legs.
- Land as softly as possible, and go straight into your next repetition. Repeat for as many sets as possible.
#3 – Kettlebell Clean and Press
You may be wondering to yourself how a weightlifting exercise has managed to make itself into a workout based on losing weight.
Remember, the key to a good exercise that can help you lose weight is intensity and incorporating as many muscles as you can.
The clean and press does exactly that.
It encourages you to use your legs, back, shoulders, and, of course, your core for stability.
Using so many muscles at once will not only help you lose weight but also tone your whole body and increase your fitness.
How To Do It
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and the kettlebell in one hand.
- Keeping your back straight and core engaged, hinge at the hips until the weight just brushes the floor.
- Deadlift the weight until your back straightens. As you are doing this, clean the weight by raising the kettlebell to your shoulder. Swivel your wrist to the “rack” position.
- Press the weight above your head, until your arm is fully extended. Keep the core engaged.
- Control the weight back to the rack position, then slowly lower the weight back to the floor.
- Instantly repeat the exercise for intensity. Complete for 3 sets until failure.
#4 – Kettlebell Overhead Lunge
Now, this exercise is tough.
On paper, it may seem like a normal lunge exercise with the weight above your head. Easy right?
Wrong. This exercise requires so many muscles to keep your body strong and stable.
A lunge by itself is hard enough, requiring muscles such as your glutes and quads to function alongside your core.
Adding the overhead aspect incorporates so much more.
Your upper body needs to get involved, requiring your chest, shoulder, and back to keep the weight upright.
Holding this position and keeping yourself moving forward is going to take some dedication, making it one of the most intense exercises on this list, but it’s most definitely worth it.
How To Do It
- The easiest way to do this exercise is to use 1 kettlebell in each hand. If this is not possible, then hold one in both hands, but gripping at the bell, not the handle.
- Press the weight above your head, engage your core and keep your back upright.
- Starting with your right foot, step out in front of you and lunge. Your thigh should lower until it’s horizontal with your knee. Do not allow your knee past your foot.
- Drive through your heel to extend your leg to the original position.
- Step forward with your left leg and repeat the exercise.
- This exercise should be done for 12-15 reps on each leg. Aim for 3-4 sets.
#5 – Kettlebell Snatch
The countless amount of strength and condition buffs I have seen doing this exercise is unreal.
And there’s a reason why – it works well.
And I mean extremely well.
The Kettlebell Snatch is the perfect tool for keeping you in shape.
It requires almost all of your muscle groups to perform as one, making it an excellent tool for strength, muscle building, and, of course, weight loss.
How To Do It
- Setting up similarly to a kettlebell swing, by standing shoulder-width apart with the kettlebell between your legs.
- Engage your core and hinge at the hips. Grab the weight in one hand with an overhand grip. As you stand up, swing the kettlebell between your legs.
- Driving through with your glutes, to initiate the movement of the kettlebell upwards.
- Swivel your fist around as you reach shoulder height like you are positioning the weight into the rack position.
- Rather than holding it here, push the weight upwards, like you are trying to punch the ceiling.
- As soon as your arm fully extends, lower back to the rack position and control it as it swings back between your legs.
- Repeat for 20 reps on one arm, then switch.
- Complete this for 3-4 sets for the ultimate burn.
Can Kettlebells Replace Cardio For Weight Loss?
Short answer, yes.
In fact, I can one-up this and say that this workout may even be better than cardio.
A kettlebell workout can be intense, burning upwards of 500 calories, with the added benefit of strength, stability, and intensity.
On the other hand, running on the treadmill for 10 maybe 20 minutes can leave you with a stitch, and a measly amount of around 300 calories burned, depending on your fitness level.
I’m not knocking running as an exercise.
Hey, some of you may enjoy that kind of thing.
I just think if you want to lose weight quicker, and get stronger, then the kettlebells can replace any form of cardio, especially in a High-Intensity Interval Training method.
(And my kettlebell workout is also way more interesting than a treadmill)
How Heavy Should The Kettlebell Be To Lose Weight?
With this type of workout, we are after endurance. We aren’t looking to progressively overload.
So, we can go with a lightweight.
I usually use around 25lbs (like the one you see below) depending on the exercise, however, not everyone is the same.
If you need to drop the weight for an overhead lunge, then do it. As long as you’re feeling the burn, and increasing your heart rate, then you’re doing it right.
If you are finding it a bit too easy when you do the jump squat, then increase it.
Our aim is to do as many repetitions of the exercise as possible, the more intense exercise we can do, the better for weight loss.
Is 30 Minutes A Day Enough To Lose Weight?
Not everyone can take the time out of their busy schedule to work out for more than an hour a day.
That is why this workout is perfect.
It’s short and simple.
We only need to do these 5 exercises, and limit the rest between each set, to keep the intensity as high as possible.
This means, that to lose weight and burn a ton of calories, we only need to work out for about 30 minutes a day!
The thing that makes this workout even better, is you can do it from home. This saves even more time out of your day.
Rather than having to commute to the gym, you can just purchase some kettlebells and work out from home.
That brings me to my next point. I am a believer that a gym membership is unnecessary.
You can work out anywhere, not just in a busy gym with people who hog the equipment.
If you want to learn more, then grab a copy of my free Ebook, “Train Wherever The F*ck You Want”.
It will open your eyes to a whole new world of fitness.
Conclusion
Trying to lose weight is a difficult task sometimes.
Trying to eat right and get the energy to work out is tough on the mind and the body.
However, this workout will hopefully take the pressure away from some of that.
With this workout every day, you are on your way to getting shredded for summer, with less of the calorie tracking requirements.
What exercises would you add to help you lose weight?
Have you found any exercises that make you feel stronger and drop the pounds?
Let me know in the comments below.