Top 5 Fat Burning, Muscle Building Kettlebell Exercises For Busy Men

Kettlebell MAXIMORUM
https://go.chasingstrength.com/kettlebell-maximorum-e/
[1] The Double Kettlebell Clean + Press
The Double Clean + Press is a valuable exercise that uses every single muscle in your body.
In fact, Sig Klein, old time strongman, called the 2-Dumbbell Clean + Press the “One Best Lift” and claimed that the early 20th Century European weightlifting champs owed their strength, power, and muscularity to this lift.
So, if it’s good enough for Sig and those guys, well…
Plus, when you do it for enough reps it stokes the fires of your metabolism, burning a bunch of calories, while training your heart and lungs at the same time.
That means it’s good for your heart health and your waistline and helps you defeat the “battle of the bulge.”
There’s a “magical” effect on body composition that results from combining an explosive lift (Clean) with a slow/ grind lift (Press):
Simultaneous muscle growth/strength gain and body fat loss (known as recomposition).
[2] The Double Kettlebell Clean + Push Press
The Double Kettlebell Clean + Push Press is a close number 2.
A Push Press is a Press that you “cheat with” by using your legs. You first dip your body with a quick knee bend, and then straighten your legs quickly, driving the kettlebells up over your head.
It allows you to make heavier-than-you-can-press KBs start feeling light, so you can press them.
Plus, the extra dip and explosive drive with your legs jacks your heart rate up… So, “bonus conditioning” for you.
(A worthy substitute for the Double Kettlebell Clean + Jerk, which most desk jockeys can’t manage due to stiff thoracic spines developed from years / decades of sitting.)
[3] The Double Kettlebell Front Squat
The Double KB Front Squat is really the foundational double KB lift.
I cover the exact reasons why in great detail inside my video series, Kettlebell STRONG!, but suffice to say, it teaches you how to stay tight under a pair of KBs while making your whole body tremendously stronger.
It punishes your midsection (in a good way) and in most cases, it makes your abs “automatically” work. And as a result of this “reflexive abdominal contraction,” for some guys, it creates access to long lost hip mobility, restoring squat depth…
… and training the legs in ways that have been unimaginable for a decade or more.
For most, the DFSQ is a more-than-sufficient replacement for any barbell squat.
If you don’t believe me, go squat a pair of 32kg KBs for 20 reps.
I’ll wait…
[4] The Single Kettlebell Snatch
The Snatch is my hands-down favorite “power” exercise.
Power is a quality we lose as we age, along with the important fast-twitch muscle fibers. (These are the ones that help us run faster, jump higher, and lift heavier.)
Research has shown that we lose 10% of our muscle mass - from fast twitch fibers - every decade over 30. Which is why you see so many guys in their 70s shaped like Christmas trees – they’ve lost the muscle in their upper bodies and now store even more fat around their middles.
This “power failure” - the loss of fast twitch muscle fibers - makes us more prone to slipping, falling, and breaking a hip.
Fortunately, we can reverse this “power failure” with the Snatch.
Plus, we can create wicked levels of conditioning using it, which boosts our daily energy levels, and whittles body fat off the midsection.
[5] The Goblet Squat
The Goblet Squat is a great “squat restoration” exercise that pries open and “greases” rusty hip and knee joints when performed correctly.
Like the Double Kettlebell Front Squat, it too creates a reflexive muscular contraction of your core muscles. This stabilizes your spine and pelvis, which in turn unlocks and restores a squat depth many guys haven’t seen since their teenage years. In fact, it should be the forerunner for your Double Kettlebell Front Squat.
The Goblet Squat also helps build the “hinge” pattern necessary for your kettlebells ballistics like the Swing, Clean, and Snatch. It is a worthy alternative to the Double Kettlebell Front Squat.
[6] The Turkish Get Up
Honorable mention goes to the Turkish Get Up.
Every one over the age of 40 needs to practice getting up and down off the floor and the TGU is THE exercise to help you do just that.
Plus, it’s a fantastic shoulder restoration exercise from years of heavy bench press abuse.
Now, this list goes without saying that you should have built a fairly strong “kettlebell foundation” with Swings (and Turkish Get Ups - which is why this didn’t make the top 5).
Now that you know what the best kettlebell exercises are for those of us over 40, you may be wondering -
How do you put them into a manageable program?
It needs to be:
Challenging enough to keep our attention…
Hard enough to make us feel like we’ve actually accomplished something – yet not too hard so we can’t recover…
Short enough not to take up big chunks of time or interfere with family time…