Formosa Fitness

And no, I'm not kidding.

I've been experimenting for the past 6-7 months with many protocols to get an ideal workout for what I want to achieve. I wanted something that will work muscular hypertrophy with the kettlebells, provide conditioning and core work, and is doable in a fairly short amount of time. It took A LOT of experimenting and playing with the variables, but I've now found the combination I've been looking for.

This is an advanced double kettlebell circuit. Exercises are done for 1:00 followed by :30 of rest. The exercises are:
1. double snatch
2. double squat
3. double clean and press (narrow stance)
4. double swing
Notice that the upper and lower body is alternately worked.

I chose the narrow stance for the clean and press because it works the core more than wide stance. Also, I try to only rest in rack position when I need to.

The workout is four sets of the above circuit three times a week. On the off days, try to get out and do your 10,000 steps of walking/hiking.

I've been doing this workout three days a week and the results so far have been amazing. I love this workout more than anything else I've done. It's all in there: muscle building, strength training, conditioning, core training and all in 24 minutes!!!

The workout turns out to be 4 sets of each exercise and the rep range stays around 8-20, so that puts me solidly in the hypertrophy range. The fact that I'm doing 1:00 of work followed by :30 of rest keeps the conditioning factor high, so I'm not losing my conditioning. Core work is included by staying in rack for so long. The only time I'm not working or in rack is in the rest periods.

Being under the double bells for this length of time does wonders for the whole body and i think that's a key to what i was missing before. You're stressing the whole body for 1:00 in each set. That primes the body for growth. Simply put, I'm getting better results from this workout using the double 16 and 12kgs than I did using the double 24kgs in other protocols.

Another thing I was missing was taking a day off in between sessions. i had fallen into the typical kettlebell volume trap and had been training 5-6 days a week. I've been primarily interested in muscle building the past 5-6 months and it just wasn't happening working out that many days a week. Taking a day off in between these workouts gives my body a chance to grow. That's extremely important.

One more thing i was missing was keeping the workout very intense, but very short. My previous kettlebell workouts were WAY too long. My hormonal response to this workout is quite different. I can literally feel my body growing.

I call this the holy grail for men because most guys i know want muscle building along with their kettlebell work and that's proven to be fairly hard to do. The kettlebell is a natural conditioning tool but muscular hypertrophy is possible with the bells through this kind of protocol.

Try this out for two weeks and let me know how you feel!