This workout includes two foundational kettlebell exercises (Turkish Get-Ups and Kettlebell Swings) and is perfect for a home gym workout.

Who doesn’t love a home gym workout these days?  Time-efficient and minimalistic workouts are PERFECT proving the superiority of the home gym workout experience.

Clearly, I’m an outspoken advocate for creating a home gym space.

In the kettlebell training world, turkish get-ups and swings are two of the best exercises a person could learn, practice, and improve on.

I stand firm on this statement.  Call it “my truth” or whatever.  I’ve spent years working these two movements and the benefits of my efforts include sustained power, strength, and a consistently lean and muscular physique.

Aesthetics might seem superficial, but no one trains hard to stay fat.

There are HUNDREDS of other great exercises, I support them all, but going full-on minimalistic mode, I know that attacking turkish get-ups and swings would make a lot of people happy with the time investment.

It’s a powerful combo.

Kettlebell swings are a ballistic hip hinging exercise that’ll improve power, train fast-twitch muscle fibers and if organized accordingly, build conditioning in a really unique way.

Turkish Get-Ups are a pure loaded movement-rich exercise.  Few other exercises are as humbling, addicting, total body, and rewarding as practicing turkish get-ups on a regular basis.

You feel less like a Lego exercising while doing turkish get-ups, and more human.  

Equipment needed:  Timer and kettlebell

15 minutes Alternating Turkish Get-Ups

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2-Hand Kettlebell Swings (24 rounds of 15sec on/15 sec off)

The TGU’s

15 minutes of continuous turkish get-ups is a lot of work, so if the duration needs to be decreased a bit, please do it.

Start with 5 minutes, see how you feel.

If 5 minutes is a breeze, add 2 more minutes and see how that feels.

There are very few secrets to fitness.  Actually, there are none.  Only what you know, and what do you don’t know… and how consistently and effectively you are at practicing what you know.

The key to building fitness safely, is auditing and be honest with your fitness level, and adjusting any pre-formatted workouts (like this one) to match your abilities.

Turkish get-ups, like any other exercise, are not supposed to be sloppy.

A full turkish get-up is a marathon of an exercise, multi-segmented, with many steps/moves/transitions on the way up and down.

The technique, timing, hand and foot placements, breathing and coordination are just a few key things to pay attention to while performing Turkish get-ups.

Poor technique… can result in tweaks, strains and injuries, which is not the point of exercising in the first place.

We exercise to improve our lives, not make it worse.

Regressions may be necessary, and the person who acknowledges they need to scale back a workout is a person I RESPECT!

The Swings

24 rounds of 15 seconds on (swinging) and 15 seconds off (rest) equates to 12 total minutes.

6 out of 12 minutes are spent performing kettlebell swings.

Pausing to think about how potent kettlebell swings are for fat loss (among other benefits), it’s pretty amazing a measly six minutes can have such a dramatic impact on body composition over time.

When I first started shaping this workout years ago, I used a 24kg kettlebell.

Today, I like to use a 32kg or my 40kg for the swings.

Exercise Variations for the Workout

Establish familiarity with both turkish get-ups and kettlebell swings BEFORE diving into a workout like this one.

Here are the recommended variations of each exercise:

Turkish Get-Ups

Kettlebell Swings

Give this workout a shot and leave a comment.