How to Burn 20.2 Calories Per Minute

The last time I went skiing was when I was 15. I never made it past the “bunny hill”, which is the beginner level. I tried the intermediate hill once, and I fell flat on my face. Skiing wasn’t my thing, but I did have mad basketball skills.

People called me “JJ”, which stood for Jordan Junior and my jump shots were like celebrities and Rehab centers… always going in.

Ha. A-ha-ha…. dramatic pause….. HA. Boom.

Whatever. The point is this – The American Council on Exercise, ACE, conducted a study with experts at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, that analyzed energy cost and intensity of kettlebell workouts like the one in this email.

Their study found that with each minute of kettlebell training the participants were burning 13.6 calories per minute aerobically, and 6.6 calories per minute anaerobically. That is at least 20.2 calories per minute, a burn rate, which ACE noted, matched cross-country skiing up hill at a fast pace.

20.2 calories per minute? That’s very powerful.

I’m sure you’d agree that kettlebell workouts would be more fun than learning how to cross-country ski.

So, I asked Chris Lopez, my Canadian friend and kettlebell expert, to hook you up with a fast KB workout.

This is the EXACT workout he did in a hospital parking lot (long story).

Do this circuit 3 times, and rest for about a minute between circuits.

I’ve gotten to know Chris for a little over a year now and he’s a smart guy. I’m thoroughly impressed he stays exceptionally lean year round with 5 kids.

He brings the 3 fat-burning “must-haves” to his workouts that don’t last any longer than 45 minutes.

But he has a “ninja trick” about kettlebell training on top of burning 20.2 calories a minute. The sneaky ninja trick to kettlebell training is that in addition to getting a great conditioning effect, if you do the exercises correctly, power breathe correctly and stay true to Hardstyle form, you‘ll also get ridiculously strong without ever really having strength as your main goal.

And if you want to be well-conditioned, strong & athletic AND pack slabs of lean muscle, all you have to do is eat more and that’ll happen.  It’s really a very simplistic approach.

So, how does Chris set up his workouts to burn 20.2 calories a minute?

Here’s what he said from the interview I had with him…

“I’ll start most sessions with foam rolling & static stretching for my hips, hamstrings, quads & pecs.

Then I’ll move into a dynamic warm-up where I’ll do various exercises to open up my hips and upper back.  And then I really am focusing on getting better at doing pistols and handstands so I’ll practice doing pistols (maybe 3 per side with perfect form) and then I held a handstand for 45s.

Then I’ll take a light kettlebell (a 16kg for me) and do a circuit of 1 get up on each side, then 10 x 1-arm swings per side, 5 cleans per side, 5 snatches per side, 10 goblet squats and finish with another get-up.

Then I’ll get into the main workout:

I always like to start with an explosive movement, and I’m teaching myself to handle a heavier load over my head so I started with a superset of:

And I repeated that superset 5 times.

Then I move to the strength portion of the workout and supersetted a press with chin-up ladders so I did

And finally I finished with double 24kg kettlebell front squats doing 20 straight and then holding a plank for as long as I could.”

That’s solid. So, to burn 20.2 calories per minute with kettlebell workouts, follow this template:

Burn 20.2 calories per minute with these workouts

That’s how to start an epic fat-burning weekend,

Mikey, CTT

Tags: fat loss workouts, kettlebell workout routines, metabolic resistance training