You don’t need any weights at all to build muscle, but if you can get hold of one kettlebell, it will instantly increase the effectiveness of your strength workouts. The best kettlebells are versatile bits of kit that you can use for pure strength sessions as well as HIIT workouts, and one is all you need to build power throughout your body.
This 20-minute workout from fitness trainer Kat Boley is focused on the lower body, and so she recommends using a fairly heavy weight — Boley is using a 40lb kettlebell for reference. The workout targets all of the major muscle groups in the lower body through a series of compound exercises, and using a heavier kettlebell means that you’ll sufficiently challenge these large muscles.
Along with the kettlebell, other bits of equipment you might want to use for the workout are a yoga mat to protect your floor, and you also need something to stand on for the elevated squats in the circuit. Boley uses two yoga blocks, but you can sub in any sturdy surface you can stand on while doing deep squats.
Watch Kat Boley’s 20-minute kettlebell workout
There are five exercises in the workout and you should aim to do 10 to 12 reps of each in total. That means for moves where you work one side at a time do five to six reps on one side then switch to the other. Rest as required between the moves, but aim to move on quickly, and do three rounds of all five exercises in total.
Before you start it’s worth swiping through Boley’s Instagram post and making sure you’re familiar with each of the five exercises, so you can switch between them quickly during the workout. Move slowly in the first round in particular so you can get the form for each move right and engage the right muscles — you can work faster in the later rounds once you have the technique down.
Here are the five moves you’ll be doing:
- Split squat
- Elevated squat
- Side lunge to high knee
- Curtsey lunge
- Deadlift
As with most good lower body workouts, you’ll be doing lunges, squats and deadlifts in various forms. It’s hard to find moves that are more beneficial for the legs and glutes than those trio, and they are also good for your core strength and smaller stabilizer muscles throughout the lower body.
The workout is easy to scale according to your fitness — you can do it without any weights if you’re finding it too hard, while if you find you’re completing the three circuits comfortably you can add in another round or two or use a heavier kettlebell. If you’d rather do a bodyweight lower body workout then this 20-minute session is a good alternative.
You can also do this workout with a dumbbell if that’s the free weight you have to hand, or try this 15-minute dumbbell leg workout for a squat-loaded session that will work wonders on your lower body strength.
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