If you’re pushed for time and like to achieve as much as possible in your workout, strengthening as many muscles as you can while also burning fat and boosting your cardio fitness, a kettlebell HIIT session is a strong contender for your best option.
All you need for the workout is one of the best kettlebells, or two of them, since you can choose whether to do the workout with one or two weights. If you do have access to a range of different kettlebells then that’s ideal, because you can choose the weight that’s appropriate to each move.
This 25-minute workout from YouTube fitness duo Juice & Toya is a great example of an efficient full-body routine. In the space of 25 minutes you work every major muscle group in the body, as well as the smaller stabilizing muscles in your core, and you do so at a fast pace that elevates your heart rate to fire up your metabolism and increase your cardio fitness.
Watch Juice & Toya’s 25-minute kettlebell workout
As with all of Juice & Toya’s excellent workout videos, both of them are on screen and demonstrating two different versions of each move so you can choose the one that’s suitable for your fitness level. In this case, Juice is doing the moves with two kettlebells, while Toya is doing them with one.
To help you pick the weights to use, Juice is using two 35lb kettlebells in the video, while Toya is using either a 26lb or 30lb weight, switching between them depending on the exercise. If you have a variety of weights, don’t be afraid to start with two or a heavy kettlebell, you can always switch to one or a lighter weight during a set if it proves too difficult.
During the workout you do tri-sets of three exercises in row, doing each move for 30 seconds without any rest in between. After you do all three moves you rest for 30 seconds before going onto the next set of three moves. There are five groups of three moves in a circuit, and after you’ve done all five you rest for 30 seconds and then do it all again.
Juice & Toya include a warm up and a cool down in the video, and it’s worth doing both if you have the time — even doing both you’ll be done and in the shower after just 30 minutes, and you’ll feel better the next day for having done the extras before and after the workout.
Since this is a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session you do want to move quickly when performing each exercise to increase the intensity and get your heart pumping, but this shouldn’t come at the cost of poor form.
Make sure you’re controlling the kettlebell and engaging the right muscles, and if your technique is starting to fail then switch to a lighter weight if possible. This'll help you work your muscles effectively without causing any injury.
If you don’t have 25 minutes to spare, but do have a kettlebell, you could try this 15-minute core workout instead, or if you want a session that focuses on your lower body and abs, try this 30-minute kettlebell superset workout.
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