As great as working out at the gym is, if you have one of the best kettlebells at home, you have everything you need to get a great full-body workout done. Kettlebells are versatile weights that are ideal for building functional fitness, and they’re also good for strength workouts where you get your heart pumping to boost your metabolism.
This 15-minute kettlebell workout has been created by YouTube fitness trainer Caroline Girvan, and along with your kettlebell you need a table or chair to lean on when doing bent-over rows. Other than that the only piece of kit you might want is one of the best yoga mats to protect your floor, and then you’re all set.
The session is designed to target muscles all over the body and the fast pace you’ll be working at will also raise your heart rate, so you’ll be improving your cardiovascular fitness as well. You’ll be doing a variety of compound lifts with the kettlebell in the session, starting with a set of squats, so it’s important to do some kind of warm up if you can so your muscles are ready for the workout.
Watch Caroline Girvan’s 15-minute kettlebell workout
The workout is divided up into 10 supersets, where you do a kettlebell exercise for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of kettlebell swings, then take a 30-second rest before moving on to the next superset.
You’ll be doing a lot of kettlebell swings during the workout as a result of this, so make sure you know the form for that exercise, and if you have a choice of kettlebells pick a weight that’s appropriate for a lot of swings, as well as moves like the overhead press. Girvan is using a 16kg kettlebell, for reference.
The inclusion of the swings helps to keep your heart rate up in between classic lifts like lunges, squats and deadlifts. Your lower body will certainly feel the benefits of this session, but there are also upper-body moves like rows and presses to ensure the muscles in your chest, back, arms and shoulders get stronger as well.
Girvan demonstrates each move throughout the workout, but doesn’t give voice instructions, so make sure you can see your screen. For the lifts, it’s smart to start with a couple of slow reps to get your form right and find your balance — if you can then speed up while maintaining good technique then do so to get as many reps done as you can in the 30 seconds.
This full-body workout will be a good test for anyone if you use the right weight, so if you are finding it too easy grab a heavier kettlebell if you can. If you’re new to using kettlebells, check out our best kettlebell exercises for beginners for more ideas to include in your workouts.
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