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Good news for busy women who want to stay fit despite their hectic lifestyle: now you can achieve your health goals by exercising for just a few minutes a day using kettlebells. These ball-shaped weights have rapidly risen to become a fad in the world of fitness, especially among women.
Below are the different kettlebell workouts for women that you can try out. By doing these trainings, you obtain maximum results with just a very minimal risk of injury, unlike the use of other workout tools. Addressing both strength and cardio training, these workout routines with kettlebells can be done in just 20 minutes to achieve fat loss or muscle tone improvement.
Warm-up
For each of these exercises, position your feet about one foot apart.
1. For the back and abs – Hold the kettlebell with both hands and raise it overhead, maintaining an abs-tight, shoulders-down, and chest-forward position. Then, rotate your hips clockwise 8 times. These rotations should slightly propel the kettlebell overhead to make small circles, too. Repeat this for another 8 counts, then switch to a counter-clockwise rotation.
2. For shoulders and arms – Secondly, stand with knees slightly bent. Hold your kettlebell with your right hand and swing your right arm forward. Then, quickly reach out with your left arm to receive the kettlebell and swing your left arm to your back. Quickly reach back with your right hand to receive the kettlebell and swing the weight forward. Repeat this process for about 20 seconds.
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Main Exercise
1. For hip, thigh, and butt – Position your feet about half a meter apart. Shift to a squat position and hold kettlebell with both hands. Swing kettlebell back toward the space between the legs, then swing back up in front of you while you stand from squat position. Repeat about 45 times, then do a single-arm swing for one minute each arm.
2. For butt, arms, and legs – Hold kettlebell with right hand. Step right foot forward and bend the knee at a right angle, to create a lunge position with your right leg. While in that position, pass kettlebell under your right thigh from your right hand to be received by the left hand. Shift back to standing position. Then, lunge forward with left leg this time (again creating a right angle with the knee) and pass kettlebell under the left thigh from the left hand to the right, then back to standing position. Repeat this 18 times per leg.
Cool-down
For your cool-down routine, you can opt to repeat the warm-up routine and do it slowly but without the kettlebell involved. Here are some other options if you prefer something else. If you prefer the normal cool-down routine, you can go for the classic shoulder stretch, hip stretch, and hamstring stretch.
According to kettlebell users, this routine burns pounds off the body within just weeks of doing the workouts religiously. Fat loss and muscle toning can even be ushered in faster by doing 20 minutes of cardio exercises (such as running, jogging, dancing, swimming) every other day. The kettlebell provides a great and productive exercise experience for those women who do not have time to go to the gym and lift weights. Fat-burning and body-toning can now be done within just the confines of the house or office.
