Hands up all of you that hate standard cardio exercise? I have nothing against people that enjoy running, rowing or cross training machines but personally, I find that type of cardio extremely boring. The other problem is that the time spent doing the normal prescribed 45 minute cardio work could be better employed doing other training or checking out babes.
Unfortunately cardio is vital to health and general well being. It works the heart and circulatory systems, keeps the metabolism stoked (if done properly) and is one of the three components of strength and conditioning (the other two being strength training and flexibility/mobility work)
I'll introduce two cardio kettlebell routines, the first is based on standard HIIT. Its tough but the second one, the tabata protocol (HIIT for nutters) is a real puker. I've tried them both and they are extremely effective.
Density snatches (or on the minute, every minute)
Density training refers to a system of training where for each workout you increase the workload over a set period of time.
Using kettlebell snatches as the choice of exercise, set a stopwatch to time and repeat a 1 minute countdown. Perform 5 snatches, left and right, then rest for the remaining minute. Aim to start with 5 minutes of work and work up to 10. Once you can achieve ten minutes there are two ways you can proceed from there. Either carry on increasing duration or starting over again and increasing the reps done. Do 6 snatches, left and right and start off at 5 minutes.
Tabata snatches (or the puker)
This routine only takes up 4 minutes of your time. What more could you ask for in a workout? The only problem is that, most likely, it will break you! You'll need some sort of timing system as you will be working for 20 seconds, resting for 10 and repeating this for 8 sets.
For the 20 seconds of work you will do as many snatches as possible then you rest 10 seconds. Doesn't sound too bad? Try it out and then tell me its easy. I won't believe you
So there you have it, two alternatives to cardio that don't sacrifice strength training.
The way that Clarence Bass advises integrating Tabata training with weight training is to perform two sessions of each a week and I found this to be very effective. However, if your aim is high endurance work then I would increase the interval training and only perform one weights session a week. If you're strength training then do it the other way round.
If you need pictures or video clips of kettlebell snatches we'll be publishing them in the gallery shortly
References:
Clarence Bass
Dan John, 08/2004
