The second of the four-part series of “Beast workouts” requires you to do a kettlebell workout. But before you do that, you need to squat. Everybody should squat. Even if you don’t particularly care about how your legs look, a proper squat will work your entire core, and the hormone kick it gives you will help the rest of your muscles to grow.
“The basic rule of thumb is to squat as low as you can, but not so low that your lower back rounds out,” says sports and conditioning coach Zach Even-Esh who programmed this series of workouts. “You want your quads parallel to the ground at the bottom. If you’re not going low enough, then you’re going too heavy.” If you want more squatting tips, check out our guide to proper back squat form.
How To Do The Workout
If you’re already fairly decent at squats, aim to do between three and five warm-up sets, and then do three serious sets (or ‘work sets’) with a weight that’ll challenge you even for a low number of reps.
Once you've done the squats, move onto the kettlebell complex. “I call this my kettlebell combat complex,” says Even-Esh. “This is nasty. I have my wrestlers do it – you can do your main lift and do this, and you’ll be done.” Try doing it with a 16kg kettlebell, and go heavier if it doesn’t feel tough enough. Do three sets of 10 reps of each move. Rest for 60 seconds between rounds.
