Looking for a massive lower-body pump? You'll need twenty minutes and a single kettlebell. Let's get to it
Whether you’re faced with a lack of kit in a busy January gym, or prefer the simple life of a low-tech home gym setup, leg workouts can often feel like a challenge of the imagination when you don’t have access to a squat rack full of heavy weights and the latest leg swelling machinery. Kettlebells Skulls
If you’re worried that your lack of lower-body inspiration is going to lead to another skipped leg day, fret not— we’ve got you covered. This kettlebell only workout ticks all of the muscle-building boxes for bigger, stronger legs — as well as more stamina — all in just twenty minutes.
Hitting your quads and hamstrings from front to back and throwing a unilateral move into the mix for (literal) balance, this workout combines three moves back-to-back for some serious muscle building time-under-tension.
After a thorough warm up, grab your kettlebell and start a stopwatch. Beginning at 0.00 start a new round of the 45-rep circuit every 4 minutes for 5 rounds, for a total working time of just under 20 minutes. Resting only as necessary between movements to keep your form tight and those swings explosive.
Stand tall and clean your ‘bell up with both hands into the ‘goblet’ position atop your chest (A). Take a long step backward with one leg, bending your front leg until your back knee gently touches the ground (B). Stand up and forward explosively, pause and repeat with the opposite leg. Keep your torso upright throughout. Alternate legs for 20 total reps.
Drop your kettlebell between your legs, hinge at your hips, and swing the weight backward, high between your thighs (A). Drive your hips forward to explosively blast it up to eye level (B). Let gravity and the weight of the bell return you back into the hinge position and straight into rep two. Keep your torso flat, knees soft and hips explosive, throughout.
Finally hoist your ‘bell back up into the goblet position and take a deep breath, this is the home straight (A). Sink your hips back and bend your knees, dropping into a deep squat (B), your elbows should be almost between your knees at the bottom. Drive back up explosively, keeping your torso upright and kettlebell steady throughout.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
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