Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

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theanimal
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Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by theanimal »

I started incorporating Keith Weber's Extreme Kettlebell Cardio into my workout routine 3x a week. I'd highly recommend it for those of you interested in HIIT and kettlebells. The digital download is only $5. He uses a lighter weight (16 kg) and goes through a whole range of exercises overhead squats/lunges, swings, snatches, cleans, presses and some he came up with himself. I've been debating whether this workout or the Insanity program causes me to sweat more. Either way I'm dripping after 10-15 minutes (total time is about an hour). It's intense. Highly recommended.

There is a version 2 and 3 which I'll be following after another month or so of this, Version 3 ups the ante and uses 2 kettlebells and has 3 days of workouts.

niemand
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by niemand »

One or two bells? I’ve got one 16kg bell I my garage. Might give this workout a try if only one is required :P

thegreatvoid

Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by thegreatvoid »

Or save the 5 bucks and whatever the cost of a kettlebell is and do a shitload of push ups, situps, Dips, blanks, burbees throughout the day and for Cardio run.

Prison style work out

theanimal
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by theanimal »

Version 1 and 2 only use 1 kettlebell.

@greatvoid- I do that anyways. $5 is nothing when it comes to health.

theanimal
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by theanimal »

4th week of doing this 3x a week. I fucking love this workout. I heartily recommend it to all. Will be moving on to version 2 soon.

platypus
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by platypus »

theanimal wrote:
Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:18 pm
4th week of doing this 3x a week. I fucking love this workout. I heartily recommend it to all. Will be moving on to version 2 soon.
What sort of results are you seeing?

take2
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by take2 »

Sounds intriguing. I recently cut my gym membership due to lack of time and expense. I was doing CrossFit which I enjoyed but it’s expensive and my new job doesn’t work well with class times or commute.

I’ve been doing 50 burpees a day plus running 1-3x a week which is OK but not really enough. Did a lot of kettlebell workouts with x-fit and was considering buying one.

How much space does the workout take up? I have a small terrace that could work well now that summer is coming.

What sort of program is it? The same workout each time or a progressive build up over a fixed period? I did Insanity a few years back and liked it, but the 2 month aspect of it made it hard mentally to keep going or repeat after I “finished”. I’m looking for something to incorporate 2-3x a week without any milestones or set time to it. Just a constant routine that I can add to the mix.

theanimal
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by theanimal »

@Platypus- I don't take any measurements and haven't weighed myself in a while so can't provide any quantitative statistics. Being able to complete the whole workout is one though. Couldn't do all the segments in the beginning. Definitely greater leg strength and biceps. The biceps only because I rarely specifically target that group most of the time. It should be noted that my starting fitness base was fairly high, YMMV.

@anesde- You should be able to do it on your terrace. You just need space to do swings, turkish get ups, lunges in place, squats etc. It is only one workout running a little over an hour in length. There are 7 different segments to the workout plus a core component. Each segment can stand on its own and is made up of a series of moves. Most of the time I've mixed and matched depending on what I'm looking to work on that day if I'm not trying to do the whole thing. Keith Weber suggested a program on his blog incorporating some of the segments from v1 and v2 for a 4x a week program. Might give that a go once I get into v2.

niemand
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by niemand »

@theanimal: Thanks for the info regarding this workout :D

Since I coincidently had the right weight (16kg) kettlebell at home, I purchased the digital download and have been doing the workout for a couple of weeks now, usually on days where I don’t get my normal exercise in (martial arts, lifting) -because busy. It’s been a great gap filler for me.
I usually mix it up and do about three segments / 20 minutes each session. I haven’t tried yet to string the whole workout together in one session, like theanimal does.

I must admit that I’m struggling with some of the kb exercises in the videos such as the Windmills and the Turkish Getups. This surprised me since the kb is not that heavy and I routinely benchpress 85kg with dumbbells. Must be that these kb compound exercises activate some underdeveloped stabilisers of mine.
For now I’m replacing the kb with a lighter dumbbell for these exercises until I’ve reached the ability to do them with the kb’s weight.
On the other hand some exercises are a little too easy for me personally, like the leg stuff. Still I’m really enjoying this workout :)

jacob
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by jacob »

Are the sets counted in reps or time? I ask this as a tall guy. Having longer arms, etc. than a 5'"6 person, my "pendulum time" is a bit longer which means that when the instructor is on rep #8 on a set of swings, I might be on #6, which means I'm not replicating the same effect(*).

(*) Just to illustrate, consider Insanity vs Max30. It seems that with Max30 everybody decided to decrease their range-of-motion in order to do things faster. This might be great cardio, but not so greater for strength, power, etc. Compare e.g. Insanity power jumps to Max30 power jumps. The latter look more like plie knee tucks.

theanimal
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by theanimal »

@niemand- Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Going into it, I had low expectations given the lighter weight, but was surprised to find it to be quite the challenge.

@Jacob- On average, each segment has about 6 sets consisting of 10 reps with the total segment varying from 6-12 minutes. For example, one of the leg centric ones is 10 reps (each side) of thrusters, squat kicks, overhead squats, overhead lunges, tactical lunges and swings. Full range of motion is encouraged. There's a few points throughout the video where he emphasizes that. It's short enough that if you write down or memorize the series of moves you can complete it without the DVD at your own pace, unlike Insanity.

niemand
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by niemand »

@jacob. The whole thing is pretty minimalistic. It’s basically Keith Weber on the beach doing the sets and counting the reps, shaky camera, upbeat music in the background, one hour all workouts combined.
There’s no progression or periodisation - it’s up to you (though I think he has some recommendations on his website).
To me it’s quite tough in the dripping sweat HIIT sense. I often wish I could just drop the kettlebell into the sand like Keith sometimes does at the end of a set...

theanimal
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by theanimal »

I got version 2 and started this week. It's definitely a step up from the first one. Each segment is longer, there are more of them and the sequence of moves in each segment seems more challenging than the first. It's still the same set up with Keith on the beach. Video quality is better but there is more background noise on this one (it doesn't affect the workout). This version has 2 core routines (instead of 1 on the first) and a warm up.

He has a 6 week program on his website that he's followed that incorporates both of the versions. I started following that starting with week 3. It's legit. I was close to maxed out on Monday by the end of the workout and only did 1 round of the leg series today to avoid overdoing it. I still highly recommend both of these versions to everyone.

Here's his website with the program: https://weberphysiotherapy.ca/blog/61-h ... ne-kb-dvds

Here's a playlist with video demonstrations of the various moves by Keith and a possible warm up sequence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bck9JV ... g1mM_TwBmx

take2
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Re: Extreme Kettlebell Cardio

Post by take2 »

I ended up buying a kettlebell and incorporating it into a fitness challenge with my friends. We recently completed 50 burpees a day for 100 days and now upped it to:

6 min of KB workout per day for 100 days
5 pull-ups a day (+ 3 additional /week) for 100 days
Run 100 miles in 100 days

We’ve been using the Kettlebell App (available on iPhone, probably android too). It’s free and allows you to pick total time and then splits up exercises in 40 second chunks. Pretty good so far - most I’m familiar with but have gotten some new exercises which are good. Especially the ones that work the transverse plane (wood choppers, etc)

Recommend it for anyone looking to get involved.

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