{"id":234154,"date":"2026-01-08T11:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/234154\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:59:16","slug":"i-tried-the-best-kettlebell-workout-and-it-hit-my-whole-body-in-10-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/234154\/","title":{"rendered":"I tried \u2018the best kettlebell workout\u2019 and it hit my whole body in 10 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There\u2019s an obsession with superlatives in the fitness world right now. People won\u2019t touch a workout<\/a> unless it\u2019s \u201coptimal\u201d and promises a ridiculous return on investment, but few protocols actually live up to their exaggerated claims. This three-move kettlebell workout<\/a> bucks that particular trend, and it\u2019s a lot of fun too, as I found out recently.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called \u201cthe humane burpee\u201d; a blend of kettlebell swings, goblet squats<\/a> and press-ups cooked up by esteemed strength coach Dan John<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe humane burpee is the best single-kettlebell workout,\u201d he tells me. \u201cEvery quality you want to chase is going to be in there somehow. You get sweaty, you get stronger, and you\u2019re going to become a little bit more mobile too.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a CV this appealing, and with me being a fitness writer, I had to give it a go. So I lugged a 24kg kettlebell to my local park and got to work.<\/p>\n

How to do the best kettlebell workout<\/p>\n

Complete 10 rounds of the circuit below (each round, perform one less goblet squat and one less press-up). Scroll through the Instagram post above for a video demonstration of each exercise. <\/p>\n

Kettlebell swing x15Goblet squat x10Press-up x10\u00a0<\/p>\n

The faster you can complete this workout with good technique, the better. If you\u2019re a beginner, you can start with five goblet squats and five press-ups for a shorter workout. You can also change the weight of the kettlebell to adjust the difficulty of the session, although John says a 20kg or 10kg kettlebell will \u201cadequately challenge\u201d most men and women respectively.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The Independent\u2019s fitness writer Harry Bullmore performing a press-up (Harry Bullmore \/ The Independent)<\/p>\n

The workout: How I got on<\/p>\n

It was a grey day when I came to tackle this workout. A potent cocktail of work and social commitments left no time for a trip to the gym, but I knew I\u2019d feel far better for getting out the house and moving my body, so I resolved to do something during my lunch break.<\/p>\n

I wanted a workout that would spike my heart rate and recruit my entire body in lightning-quick time, all with minimal equipment. The humane burpee fit the bill nicely, so I dragged my 24kg \u2018bell to a nearby park and got to work. <\/p>\n

John\u2019s advice was to aim for \u201cquality completion\u201d \u2013 cruising through the movements smoothly, and only resting briefly during the transition between the goblet squats and press-ups. To reap the full benefits of the session, it\u2019s important to maintain sound technique while pushing the pace to a point where you\u2019re challenging yourself, he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf it takes you 25 minutes to do it, you\u2019re probably not in very good shape,\u201d says John. \u201cIf it takes you a single minute, you didn\u2019t do it right and your reps were horrid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"You<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

You only need one kettlebell to try this workout, and you can do it pretty much anywhere (Harry Bullmore \/ The Independent)<\/p>\n

I aimed for somewhere between the two, and the first round of 15 kettlebell swings, 10 goblet squats and 10 press-ups felt surprisingly smooth. I was able to wrap it up in less than a minute and, given this is the longest round of the workout, a little voice in my head suggested the rest would be easy. But John had warned me not to get carried away.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get to [the round of] seven, it\u2019s illuminating and people feel like they\u2019ve made bad life choices,\u201d he jokes. \u201cBut once you get to six it\u2019s not so bad, and once you get to five it\u2019s just about survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: I just ran my first Hyrox race \u2013 here are six things I wish I\u2019d known<\/a><\/p>\n

He was spot on. The reps racked up incredibly quickly as the workout continued, and by the round of seven my forearms were starting to tire from all the kettlebell swings. The fact I had only completed four of 10 total rounds felt somewhat demoralising as well, but I forced myself to press on without falling off my enthusiastic early pace. Challenge leads to change, after all, particularly in a fitness context.<\/p>\n

The next couple of rounds were a slog, but at the five-round mark I experienced a sudden switch in mindset. Thanks to the decreasing rep scheme, I realised this wasn\u2019t the half-way point at all \u2013 I was much further along than I thought. With only five or fewer reps of goblet squats and press-ups each round, I persuaded myself to up the ante, and wound up finishing the workout in 9min 17sec.<\/p>\n

\"Writer<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Writer Harry Bullmore performing a kettlebell swing (Harry Bullmore \/ The Independent)<\/p>\n

My verdict: Would I do this workout again?<\/p>\n

I thought this workout was brilliant \u2013 gamified and effective. It was almost like a classic push-pull-legs workout split, just compressed into less than 10 minutes, working my chest, shoulders, back, legs and core in record time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe body is one piece,\u201d John says. For this reason, he believes splitting it up and training different body parts on different days is a sub-par approach for most people, and instead champions movement-based workouts like the humane burpee.<\/p>\n

The workout also hit the sweet spot between too challenging and too easy, taking me to an uncomfortable place without being so difficult that I was forced to stop. As a result, mental and physical fortitude were required if I wanted to stick to John\u2019s instructions and keep going without breaks.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The goblet squat is one of three fundamental moves that make up this workout (Harry Bullmore \/ The Independent)<\/p>\n

The humane burpee acted like an exercise MOT too, highlighting which facets of fitness I need to work on the most. I like lifting weights, so it makes sense that the goblet squats felt great. The press-ups, while a little harder, didn\u2019t present too many problems either. But it was the 150 kettlebell swings that proved to be the kicker.<\/p>\n

My grip was fried by the end, as were the muscles across my back and glutes, which is a sign that I need to work on strength and muscular endurance in these areas.<\/p>\n

But my favourite thing about this workout was its accessibility. If you have one kettlebell and enough room to swing it, you have everything you need to give it a whirl. It democratises top-quality strength and conditioning, and for that reason I\u2019ll be returning to it time and time again. If you have a kettlebell at home, I humbly suggest that you do too. <\/p>\n

Read more: Stanley Tucci got into the \u2018best shape of his life\u2019 at 63 with this training method<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[499,103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-234154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}