With kettlebells becoming increasingly more popular among fitness fanatics it only seems to make sense to investigate which kettlebell exercises are the best for fat loss. Ive narrowed it down to only three.
Lets take a closer look at each kettlebell exercise and the reasons they made the top 3.
1. The Kettlebell Swing (and all its variations)
The Kettlebell Swing is the most basic, most fundamental kettlebell exercise. It is the exercise that all the other kettlebell exercises are based upon, or built off.
The Top 3 Kettlebell Exercises For Fat Loss
Thats because the kettlebell Swing teaches you how to hinge or fold at your hips instead of using your lower back.
This is critically important for safety reasons – if you hurt your lower back you cant move, and if you cant move, you cant burn calories. And if you cannot burn calories, you cannot shed fat! (Tends to make sense, correct?)
But theres much more towards the kettlebell Swing than the safety issues – guarding (and also strengthening) the lower back.
Simply because the Swing teaches you how you can hinge at your hips, you learn how to use your bodys most powerful muscles – you posterior chain.
Your posterior chain – your gluts (butt), hamstrings (back of your legs), your calves, and your lower back – is responsible for helping you walk, run, jump, and climb stairs or hills.
Heres why thats important for fat loss – the more you focus on the posterior chain, the more your using muscles that require your body expend a ton of calories (burn fat).
AND, the stronger you make your posterior chain, the more calories you can burn during each and every kettlebell workout.
Pretty cool, huh?
You bet your posterior chain it is!
And thats why the kettlebell Swing is the #1 kettlebell exercise for burning fat.
2. The Kettlebell Snatch
This is like the suped-up big brother of the kettlebell Swing. Its more technically demanding than the Swing and it requires more upper body strength and more leg power than the Swing.
The Top 3 Kettlebell Exercises For Fat Loss
the kettlebell snatch step-by-step
The kettlebell Snatch requires more effort to perform. You have to accelerate the weight faster to get the kettlebell to travel up over your head. That requires more energy, and therefore more calories are burned.
And thats why it is such an excellent kettlebell physical exercise for fat loss.
Actually, a current study found that when performing very specific intervals, the Snatch allowed you to burn 1200 calories per hour!
To put that in perspective, running burns an average (in between males and ladies) of 112 calories per mile. In the event you can run 6 miles in an hour, youre only burning approximately half as many calories as you could be with the kettlebell Snatch!
three. The Kettlebell Clean and Jerk
If the Kettlebell Snatch will be the big brother towards the kettlebell Swing, then the Kettlebell Clean and Jerk will be the grand daddy of all kettlebell fat burning exercises – especially if you use two kettlebells instead of just 1.
The Leading three Kettlebell Exercises For Fat Loss
WARNING! Don’t carry out your Cleans having a rounded back like this picture demonstrates. Maintain your back flat rather!
Heres why – it is much more complicated and you are able to use heavier kettlebells than you are able to for the Snatch.
To perform the kettlebell Clean and Jerk, you first must lift (clean) the kettlebells to your shoulders. Then, utilizing your legs, you drive the kettlebells more than your head towards the lockout position, rebending your legs to catch them.
To put into perspective just how tough this physical exercise is and therefore why its such a great fat burning exercise, the late Dr. Mel Siff, a world-renowned sports scientist, calculated that a maximum effort Clean and Jerk performed having a barbell price 14.26 calories to carry out (10% of operating 1 mile)!
Initially glance, that may not seem like much, but consider this – it only takes about 5 seconds or much less to carry out a maximum Clean and Jerk. Now compare that to how lengthy it takes to run 1 mile and you will see that’s an enormous power expenditure inside a brief quantity of time!
(1 mile usually takes the typical man 8 minutes to run or 480 seconds. A maximum Clean and Jerk utilizes 10% from the calories it takes to run that mile in 1% of the time! WOW! Thats a huge return on investment!)
So now that we know that, imagine how numerous calories you are able to burn performing numerous sets and reps using the kettlebell Clean and Jerk. I cannot offer an precise quantity for you, but you are able to bet that according to all of our previous numbers that its going to be very, extremely high!
And that obviously is Fantastic news for anybody seeking to burn fat!
Putting The Top 3 Kettlebell Exercises For Fat Loss Into A Routine
Ok, now that we know all that, how do you apply it – how do you put together effective kettlebell routines which will guarantee which you burn fat?
It is fairly easy truly.
Begin with what you realize.
If you are a kettlebell newbie – begin using the Swing.
Take your time and carry out Swings 3 occasions per week, on alternate days.
Heres a sample of what a kettlebell workout may appear like for you:
Monday – Wednesday – Friday
two Hand Swings – carry out for 20 minutes.
Do as many reps as you can with good form then rest.
Do as many sets as you can in that 20 minutes.
If youve been using kettlebells for awhile and are familiar with the Swing, move on to the Snatch.
Heres what a sample kettlebell routine may appear like for you:
Monday – Wednesday – Friday
Monday – carry out as numerous sets of ten Snatches as feasible in 20 minutes
Wednesday – carry out Snatches for 30 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Do as numerous rounds as possible. Seek to add more rounds each week.
Friday – carry out your option of Swings for 60 seconds. Rest for 60 seconds. Do as numerous rounds as feasible. Seek to add more rounds each week.
And if you think youre ready for the Big Leagues, heres a sample kettlebell workout that revolves about the Clean and Jerk:
Monday – Wednesday – Friday
Monday – carry out as numerous sets of ten Clean and Jerks with a single kettlebell as possible in 20 minutes
Wednesday – perform as many sets of five Clean and Jerks having a pair of kettlebells as feasible in 20 minutes
Friday – perform as many sets of 15 Clean and Jerks with a light kettlebell as possible in 20 minutes
So there you have it – the top 3 kettlebell exercises for fat loss – what they are, why they work, and some sample kettlebell routines to get you started. If youre looking for something more comprehensive, more detailed, something more step-by-step for fat loss than check out these kettlebell exercises/routines.