Kettlebell swing instruction video

As you can read in the Cristiano Ronaldo Workout, on day 3 you will be doing high intensity interval training with kettlebells in Tabata style. You will be using a kettlebell to do swings.

I could write an article explaining how to do kettlebell swings but showing is a much more effective way of explaining. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an instruction video would be worth at least a million :-)

So instead of writing a million words, I have poste a video from YouTube below with instructions on how to safely and effectively do kettlebell swings.

Cristiano Ronaldo wins Ballon d'Or

Congratulations to Cristiano Ronaldo for winning the award for best soccer player in the world. This award is also known as "Ballon d'Or" (Golden ball in French). This is the second time he has won this award (last time was in 2008). The other contenders for this prize were Lionel Messi from Barcelona and Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich.

The Real Madrid striker was emotional during his speech after winning. He thanked his team mates of Real Madrid as well as the Portuguese national team.

Ronaldo emotional as he receives award from Brazilian legend Pelé

The Cristiano Ronaldo workout

Most fitness equipment sellers would like you to believe that you can get a six pack by using their machines to doe ab exercises. This is total nonsense. To get a six pack you must first lose fat so that your muscles become visible. If you just do only ab exercises you will develop ab muscles but nobody will see them if these muscles are hidden under a layer of fat.

This workout will focus on both building muscles and losing body fat. This workout will consist of cardio (including High Intensity Interval Training also known as HIIT), weight lifting and some plyometric exercises for explosive strength. The weight exercises consist of only 5 repetitions. When lifting weights the ideal range of repetitions to create muscle definition without looking like a bulky body builder is 5 to 8 repetitions (except for kettle bell swings). In this workout all the weight exercises consist of 5 repetitions to accommodate for beginners. When you progress a bit you can increase this to 8 repetitions but you should always lift in the range of 5 to 8 repetitions to prevent getting that puffy look.

This routine is not too difficult but is also tough at the same time. Before you start this exercise routine (or any other exercise), do check with your doctor or physician first.

Here's an overview of the workout:
Day 1: Total body workout with weights
Day 2: Slow steady cardio
Day 3: HIIT/Cardio
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Bodyweight exercises
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Game day (if you practice a sport) or take a walk in the park/beach etc. if you do not practice any sport.

For every exercise, choose a weight with which you can do the number of repetitions mentioned. When the exercise becomes easy with a certain weight, increase weight and not the number of repetitions.

Day 1:
Dumbbell chest press, 5 sets of 5 repetitions (lie flat on your back on a bench or swiss ball)
Dumbbell lunge, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Seated dumbbell overhead shoulder press, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Dumbbell side lunge, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Dumbbell squats, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Kettle bell swings, 5 sets of 10 repetitions

Day 2:
Run or jog (not too slow not too fast) for 20 to 30 minutes. The idea is not to get too intensive here. This wil help you to recover from muscle aches of the intense workout of day 1 by stimulating blood circulation. It will also help you develop endurance.

Day 3:
On this day you will do HIIT followed by slow steady cardio. HIIT will release fat stored in your body and the slow steady cardio will burn it. This is very effective to make your abs (and other muscles) show and get that ripped muscular look.
HIIT will be done in a Tabata protocol. Tabata protocol means that you do an exercise for 20 seconds as hard as you can and then rest for 10 seconds and repeat this for a total of 8 rounds.

Here's an example with kettle bell swings (kettle bell swings are a great way to train your whole body and especially your core).
Round 1: do kettle bell swings for 20 seconds and rest 10 seconds.
Round 2: do kettle bell swings for 20 seconds and rest 10 seconds.
etc.
etc.
Round 7: do kettle bell swings for 20 seconds and rest 10 seconds.
Round 8: do kettle bell swings for 20 seconds and rest 10 seconds.
This is a total of 4 minutes.

After this Tabata exercise you do slow steady cardio (jog or run slowly) for 26 minutes.
Total workout time is 30 minutes. That's it for day 3, this is more than enough.

Day 4:
REST. REST. REST. You really need this.

Day 5:
Push ups, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Mountain climbers, 5 sets of 5 repetitions per leg (10 repetitions total)
Bodyweight squats, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Box jump, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Burpees, 5 sets of 5 repetitions
Run or jog, 20 minutes (this helps to burn fat after the body weight exercises release the fat)

Day 6:
REST. REST. REST. You really need this.

Day 7:
Game day if you practice a sport like football/soccer or whatever. If you don't practice any sport, you can choose to take a walk in the park or on the beach etc.

Good luck training and getting in the best shape of your life.
Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or remarks

Results achieved by Cristiano Ronaldo workout

The article about Cristiano Ronaldo Workout is coming soon. In the mean time to keep you motivated you can watch this video to see what results you can achieve following the workout.
The video features Cristiano in a commercial for Armani Jeans with that typical polished Hollywood look.

Speed, strength and agility

Here's a video showing the speed and dribbling skills of Cristiano Ronaldo. This video is meant to give you an idea of the kind of athleticism you can achieve with this workout.

If you train like a bodybuilder you will never be able to reach this kind of speed because of all the extra mass you will be carrying around. Apart from becoming slow you will not look good either if you just pack on muscle everywhere on your body. The trick is to build muscle in certain areas of your body to have functional strength and look good.

Now you must be asking yourself how do you develop power and strength without muscle? Good question. You see, bodybuilders train for size not for strength. So the answer is simple. You do need muscle mass for power and strength. But you do not need to look like a bodybuilder to have power and strength. You can pack a lot of power and strength with a lot less muscle mass if you train the right way. To illustrate this point see this video below of Cristiano Ronaldo's powerful shots at goal. He doesn't look like a bodybuilder but he has a lot of power and strength in his legs. Especially pay attention to his shot at goal 50 seconds into the video below.

Here's another impressive showcase of the strength of Cristiano Ronaldo. In the picture below you can see how high he can jump.

This what powerful legs can do. Clik for larger picture.