A Kettlebell Workout For A Firm Butt And Slender Thighs

Good Morning,
I have a guest article for you today by Andrea Du Cane (better known as the Kettlebell Goddess). The workout she has for you concentrates on the lower body specfically the hips, butt and thighs.

If you have never used kettlebells before you should really give them a try. kettlebell training not only is a great workout for adding lean muscle and strength but is a tremendous cardio and fat loss workout.

If you don't own a kettlebell you can do this workout with a dumbbell. But if you can get yourself a kettlebell trust me it's worth it. Okay enough from me Andrea will take it from here enjoy.

The New Year is here and let's put the cookies and mince pies down and get back to work. I hope you are truly motivated to get your training back on track. One way to do that is have a GOAL, or pick an area where you'd like to see an increase in strength, endurance or flexibility. Or maybe it's just to lose those 10 pounds you gained over the holidays. Well… I'm here to help you set your goals and achieve them.

I'm going to start by making some assumptions. Whether or not you relate to them, if you follow my tips you'll get RESULTS. We're going to focus on the lower core, the hips and legs. No I'm not talking "Thigh Master", but REAL HARDCORE TRAINING that will get you the results you're looking for.

You may have heard that the swing is the FOUNDATION of Hardstyle Kettlebells. It is, and for good reason. Working the hips, butt, and legs dynamically with explosive power burns the fat and gives you an unparalleled cardio workout. Swings, simple and brutal should be your basic program. The swing workouts can be done on alternating days to really hit it hard or after your strength training. There is so much information out there on working your swings, take your pick but DO them.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, sets, ladders, time, whatever works, but make sure you get them done EACH week.

Now on to the other good stuff, lower body strength training. I'm going to focus on a superset of lower body drills. Here is a quick and simple lower body killer that doesn't take very long. Move from one exercise to the next with as little rest as possible.

Goblet or Front Squat 8-10 reps

One- Legged Dead Lift (Right-side only) 8-10 reps

Goblet or Front Squat 8-10 reps

One- Legged DL (Left-side only) 8-10 reps

Rest and repeat for a total of 2-3 super sets.

Finish with 10 Good Mornings (done very slow and tight)

This is just one example of a simple complex set of layering 2 drills to really target certain muscle groups. Moving from single leg to both legs gives the body a sense of a rest without really resting. You can use 1 kettlebell or 2 for either drill. If you're starting to fatigue, you can drop a rep from each set as you go.

Of course if you have the Goddess DVD, follow the Goddess workout Callipygos for a great leg and butt workout!

Here is a link to read more about Andrea's Kettlebell Goddess Program.

Your Fat Burning Workouts Using Variety For Success

Someone asked me the other day which workouts should she choose to do. She was a little confused because in my articles I talk about weight training, kettlebells, interval training and bodyweight exercises. So I could see how she was a little confused.

My answer to her and all of you is use them all. You know the whole variety is the spice of life thing. When it comes to fat loss, gaining lean muscle and improving your fitness and health variety is your best path. Now I mentioned 4 different ways to exercise above do you know the combination and workouts you could put together?

Using variety will keep you motivated and focused on getting to your fitness and fat burning goals. I don't know about you but I tend to get bored easily and let's face it exercise isn't always the most exciting thing in your life. If you keep challenging yourself with new and different workouts you will start to look forward to them. Especially once you start seeing the rewards in the mirror.

The one small problem with using exercise variety like I do is you have to really plan ahead. Back in the old day's of doing the basic bodybuilding splits you went to your garage or gym or wherever you worked out and were going to do the same workout over and over.

I tend to go by feel sometimes just for whatever reason I might feel like doing a particular exercise or exercises so I do it. I don't want it to sound like I just jump into a workout not knowing what I'll do that day. I do have it planned ahead of time but I will deviate from the plan also.

What I want to give you here is how to incorporate a variety of fat burning and muscle building exercise programs to use. You do need to plan this ahead on at least a weekly basis.

Commit to Weight training Monday and Thursday use total body exercises. As an example:

#1. Deadlifts

#2. Pushups

#3. Clean and Press

Again these exercises aren't written in stone maybe for whatever reason I don't have the feel to do pushups I'll do Incline dumbbell presses instead.

Use heavy weights, keep your reps in the 4-8 range, 4-5 sets each (best for lean muscle gains and losing fat). Yes it is only 3 exercises but with these 3 exercises you have also worked virtually every muscle group, Workout with intensity, haphazard workouts give haphazard results. You workout for a purpose, burn fat, gain lean muscle and improved fitness and health.

Tuesday and Friday do some Kettlebell exercises - Use timed sets

Set a timer for lets say 5 minutes (this will depend on your fitness level adjust time up or down)

#1. Kettlebell Swings - do as many reps as you can in your time frame

#2. Kettlebell Snatch - same as above

With timed sets every workout try to do more reps than the workout before. You don't need to do 10 more reps if you can't even 1 more than your last workout is progression.

Wednesday and Saturday could be Interval Training.

Do some bodyweight circuits, Jump Rope, go outside and do some sprint intervals.

This is just an example of how you could set up your exercise week. No you don't have to workout 6 days a week this is just an example. You should set up your workout to your conditioning level. Keep your workouts short 45 minutes(for weight training) 20 minutes and under(for kettlebells and Intervals).

Like I said sometimes I feel like doing something in particular so I do it.

I guess in a round about way what I'm saying is if you say to yourself I am weight training today but I really feel like doing Intervals than do Intervals that day. You are motivated to do intervals not weight train that day. Chances are if you say I have to (instead of I want to) weight train you probably won't even make it through your workout.

Use this article as your guide. As I mentioned change out exercises for variety. Keep the workouts short (not only saves time but also helps keep you motivated). At my new web site Fat Burning Diets And Workouts we talk about all kinds of different exercises and workouts you can do. We also talk about nutrition and healthy eating, motivation and goal setting. Stop by and check it out.

Check out my new web site Fat Burning Diets And Workouts for more workout and diet articles. Thanks Joe