The 12 Kettlebells of Christmas Workout

The holiday season can reek havoc on your fitness goals.  Between poor food choices on the road while traveling, family time taking over our regular gym time, and holiday sweets, the struggle truly is real.

Enter the Twelve Kettlebells of Christmas workout.  I got the idea several years ago from a co-worker.  The original workout idea was designed around gym equipment found in your typical strip mall gym.   Since my clients are used to functional strength and conditioning workouts using more unconventional training equipment, such as kettlebells, giant tires, and sledgehammers, I modified the workout to fit their need.  What was created was a full body conditioning workout that will challenge even the most conditioned of athletes.  If workout time during the holidays is at a premium, the Twelve Kettlebells should take under an hour to complete, and will test your strength limits and burn off all of those holiday treats.  

As always, make sure you choose weight that challenge you, but that you are able to use perfect form throughout the entire workout.  The later rounds can be challenging, but make sure you don't use that as an excuse to let your form slip.  When doing this workout, you'll want to go through it just like the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song.  So, that means you do 1, then 2-1, then 3-2-1, all the way up to round twelve:

1.  Turkish Get-up (switch sides every round)

2.  Kettlebell power crunches

3.  Tire flips (Find the heaviest tire you can find.  No tire?  Barbell deadlifts or power cleans can work, too)

4.  Pull-ups

5.  Alternating kettlebell snatches (That's five per side)

6.  Two handed kettlebells swings (Go HEAVY)

7.  Burpees

8.  Alternating kettlebell cleans

9.  Push-ups (challenge yourself here.  You can do depth push-ups, tricep push-ups, or even plyo push-ups)

10. Sledge hammer strikes (No hammer?  Try heavy medicine ball slams instead)

11. Box jumps (no box?  Do Star Jumps instead)

12. Heavy goblet squats