Kettlebell Stamina Workout
The Kettlebell stamina workout program outlined below should probably be broken out into three separate workouts as opposed to attempting to accomplish the entire thing in one day. My massage therapist got sick, which left me with some time to kill so I ended up doing all three in the same day. Overall it’s a pretty fun workout, and realistically if you broke it up over the course of three days you could probably do this protocol for about a month without getting too bored.
This routine also incorporates 4 of the big 6 – swings, squats, presses, and cleans with an optional addition of snatches at the end.
Make sure you stretch / foam roll before accordingly. Below are a few suggested stretches and warm up to throw in for good measure on top of your additional stretch routine.
Band Stretches
- Touch hands behind back, if unable to use a resistance band to pull your hands closer
- Pull band from in front of you to over head and behind to warm up shoulders
Warm Up
- Good Mornings
- Alternating kick to opposite hand
- Bear Crawls
- Crab Walks
Routines one through three are going to be using the following timer – 6 rounds – 4 sessions per round at a rate of 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, and 1 minute 30 seconds. Each session you are going to do 5 reps of the exercise. Total time is 18 minutes per routine.
Routine One – Swings and Push ups
I actually described a variation of this routine previously in one of the weekly challenges called kettlebell push ups.
Odd rounds you’re going to do swings. Depending on the weight of the kettlebell you have available you can do either double arm or single arm swings. At the end of each round you will have done a total of 20 swings. At the end of the routine you’ll have done 60 swings.
Even rounds you’re going to do push ups with one hand on the bell handle. Switch left hand on bell, right hand on bell each session. At the end of each round you’re going to have 10 push ups with your left hand on the bell and 10 push ups with your right hand. At the end of the routine you’ll have 30 left and 30 right push ups.
Routine Two – Lunges and Squats
Round one is going to be a left leg forward lunge, round two is right leg forward lunge, round three squats. Then do the same thing for rounds 4 -6. I leave it up to you and what you’re comfortable with as to how you want to hold the weight. If you have one bell you can goblet it. If you’re working your cleans, get two bells.
At the end of this routine you’ll have 40 left leg forward lunges, 40 right leg forward lunges, and 40 squats. Given the sheer volume of squats you’re doing this is geared more towards endurance and stamina as opposed to strength training so please choose a lighter weight than your typical strength training bell (where you’re doing 3-5 reps for 3-5 rounds.)
Routine Three – Low Windmills and Shoulder Presses
Follow the rounds laid out above for lunges and squats – left low windmill rounds 1 & 4, right low windmills rounds 2 & 5, and shoulder presses rounds 3 & 6. Follow the push up suggestions for alternating shoulder presses each session, so 5 left, 5 right, 5 left, 5 right.
This will also give you additional clean opportunities as you clean the bell to get ready for the shoulder press. Totals will be 40 left low windmills, 40 right low windmills, 20 left shoulder presses, and 20 right shoulder presses.
You can go heavier on the shoulder presses than with the squats as the number falls within the 3-5 reps for 3-5 rounds suggestion.
