If you upgraded your home gym arsenal a with kettlebell during lockdown, but it’s since been relegated to a doorstop, it’s time to get to grips with it once again.
Hitting everything from your shoulders, back, quads and hamstring, while also jacking up your heart rate for a major metabolic burn, this one bell workout is the perfect no-excuses plan.
No kettlebell? No problem. The humble dumbbell works just as well. Whatever your weapon of choice, focus on keeping your movements explosive but fluid to get the most out of this core crushing circuit.
Complete 10 rounds of the following circuit — alternating sides from left to right each round, completing five rounds on each side. Rest minimally between sides, just enough to keep your form sharp, but take a 90-120 second breather between rounds, you'll need it.
1. Hang Clean and Press x 5
Hinge over and grip your kettlebell, keep your back flat and a slight bend in your knees. Pull the kettlebell back between your legs, finishing high, your hand touching your glutes (A). Explosively extend your hips forward, standing up straight and simultaneously using the momentum to pull the bell up into a front-rack position (B). From here, dip at the knees and use leg drive to assist you in pressing the bell overhead (C). Slowly lower back to your chest, allow the bell to swing back between your legs, before driving it back up again to repeat.
2. Single-arm Row x 10
After your final swing step one foot forward into a lunge position, support your weight on your bent leg and allow the kettlebell to hang freely on the opposite side (A). Keeping your torso rigid, row the kettlebell up towards your hip. Squeeze here (B), before slowly lowering the bell back to the start position.
3. Single-arm Swing x 15
Rows completed, keep a hold of your bell and hinge at the hips, posting the kettlebell back between your legs (A). Explosively stand back upright using the momentum from your hips to drive the bell up to your eye line (B). Allow the bell to pull you back down into a flat backed, hinge position, keeping your core tight throughout. Repeat.
4. Goblet Squat x 20
Finally, pull your kettlebell up to your chest and support it with both hands (A). Sink your hips back and descend into a deep squat (B). Your elbows should come close to your knees at the bottom. Drive back up, explosively. Repeat. Push hard to complete all 20 reps without resting.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
