Kettlebell Complexes for Maximum Efficiency

What Are Complexes?

I first discovered complexes as an underpaid Division 1 Strength and Conditioning Coach. I figure I was underpaid because all the money had been blown on Nautilus equipment and “all” the previous coaching staff had to do was “HIT” the athletes with their non-effective, fatigue-inducing, injury-increasing, time-wasting, machine-dominant, “strength training program”: one set to failure was “all” the athletes needed. (I kid you not, the extent of the former Head Strength Coach’s interaction with the athletes was to tell them to put the seat belt on when using the Hammer Strength machines—but I digress.) So with limited equipment and athletes with limited motivation, I was forced to improvise.

It’s said you always find what you need when you need it most. Someone left a Muscle & Fitness (like you’ve never read one) in the weight room and I saw an article by Romanian Coach Emeritus Istvan “Steve” Javorek about a system he’d developed to stimulate lean body mass, power-endurance, strength-endurance, and improved coordination in his Olympic lifters. Well, since I was an Olympic lifter, I read the article. It was on complexes.

Complexes are a series of exercises performed in a sequence with the same weight without rest: all the reps for a given exercise are performed first before moving on to the next exercise. For example: perform five cleans followed immediately by five front squats and finally five presses, using the same weight for each.

I used complexes with great success with some of the varsity wrestlers. They could get in the weight room and get out in less than thirty minutes. They had usable mat strength, mental toughness, and unlimited stamina. The wrestlers were pleased. Their coach was pleased. I had instant credibility. Since then, I’ve used many, many variations of complexes with other athletes and my private clients. (Many authors have written briefly on them, but I thought I’d offer my own little twist since I’ve used them as a coach, a trainer, and a lifter for ten years now with great successes.)

Complex: A series of compound exercises performed sequentially without rest in which all the reps for one exercise are completed before moving on to the next exercise in the sequence.

I believe the true power of complexes is fully realized with the use of kettlebells. [It should be obvious by now that] The shape of the kettlebell allows for more torque on the joints and therefore more stimulation of the affected joint musculatures. Plus, when performing ballistic exercises, there is a longer stroke when compared to traditional barbell, and even dumbbell variations. Therefore, since complexes were originally designed to improve multiple motor qualities using a barbell and/or dumbbells, it stands to reason that using kettlebells for complexes will only enhance the improvement of those particular motor qualities.

3 Important Benefits of Kettlebell Complex Training

1. Fat Loss

Because the lactic acid production can be so high while performing kettlebell complexes, growth hormone is released and lipolysis, or fat-burning occurs. More studies by William Kramer and his colleagues have demonstrated that the body releases growth hormone in response to large amounts of lactic acid in the blood stream. Elevated growth hormone has been shown to induce lipolysis. Growth hormone is released in various ways: at night while you sleep, in response to specific dietary guidelines—low carbohydrate, high fat, and through exercise.

Compound lifts produce fat loss through another mechanism: EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. That’s just a fancy way of saying an elevated metabolism. Traditionally, EPOC has been studied using traditional aerobic exercises, such as cycling and running, in either an aerobic or anaerobic fashion.

Well, what about EPOC and weight training?

In a recent study on resistance training’s effects on EPOC by Schuenke MD, Mikat RP, McBride JM. Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC): implications for body fat management (Eur J Appl Physiol 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7), the research team found that 3 exercises, squat, bench press, and power clean, performed at momentary 10RMs in a circuit fashion, resting 2 minutes between exercises, for 4 circuits, (it only took 31 minutes), produced a 20% increase in EPOC for 38 hours. Read that again: a 20% increase for 38 hours. Those are huge numbers. This means if your body requires 3,000 calories a day, for the next 38 hours you will burn an extra 500 calories. Now consider this: the late sports scientist Mel Siff, in his magnum opus, Supertraining, states that a 1RM clean and jerk costs 14.28 calories. How many calories does a clean and jerk with 50% of a 1RM burn if performed repeatedly? Answer: A lot. Now what happens when you combine the increased ranges of motion that kettlebells give you with multiple repetitions of clean and jerks and other exercises, such as the squat, in a circuit fashion, without ever putting the weights down (a compound lift), without rest?  You achieve very high heart rates, high levels of blood lactate, growth hormone release, and therefore, fat loss.

I recently performed a body composition assessment on one of my clients. She’s 49 years old, has a sedentary office job, but an athletic background. In the short time span of only three weeks (between assessments), she dropped five pounds of fat using only kettlebell complexes, training with them an average of twice per week. (Of course, she was on a fat-loss diet as well, but the caloric expenditure of these is outrageously high.) In the past ten weeks, she’s lost approximately eight percent body fat training an average of two hours per week. That’s pretty time-efficient.

Just to ram home a point, another female client of mine lost four-and-a-half inches off her waist in an eight-week time period, taking three weeks off of training due to travel for work (that’s only five weeks of training averaging two training sessions per week). Why am I using females as examples here? Because they always assume that it’s much harder for them to lose fat than for men. And just in case you think I only train women and that this only works for them, yet another client of mine, Marc, recently dropped five pounds breaking through his plateau at just above 200lbs using a variety of kettlebell complexes. I must also mention here that these are not huge, long, complicated complexes. They are, for the most part, complexes that contain only three or four exercises. Want to try one that contains five?

2. Increased Lean Body Mass

What is the number one necessity for muscle gain? Tension, be it slow or fast, tension is the name of the game. The time under tension for the average complex is approximately 60 seconds, right down the middle of the 45-75 second time-under-tension philosophy of some strength coaches. But here’s the really neat part, for the longer complexes, some as long as two minutes, tension shifts from one muscle group to another, exposing multiple muscle groups to various tensions. Soviet sports scientist and weightlifting champion, Dr. Arkady Vorobyev, found a greater increase in strength when the training load was adjusted sharply, as opposed to smoother, stepwise progress in training loads. This means more possibility for increased strength and muscle growth due to increased frequency under various training loads of each muscle group participating in a compound lift. For example, one day you perform a shoulder dominant complex, the following training session a leg dominant complex, and the following, a back dominant complex. However, in each training session the shoulders, legs, and back are exposed to a training stimulus. This means there is greater potential for muscular growth of each of these muscle groups not only because of multiple training frequencies but also due to the varying intensities of the different loading parameters.

The same 49-year-old female client I mentioned as an example in the previous point on fat loss, gained four pounds of lean body mass in that same three-week period! Are you paying attention? This is a 49-year-old female training for fat loss! If she can achieve these types of results using kettlebell compound lifts, how much more can you achieve? (As an aside, she’s gained six pounds of lean body mass in two months.) What are you waiting for?

3. Decreases Training Monotony

Let’s face it, some of us can use the same five exercises over and over and over and make great gains just by changing the order in which they are performed or their loads. Others of us need a lot of change. Louie Simmons, Westside Barbell Club powerlifting guru extraordinaire, says extroverts need lots of variety in their training programs, introverts, less variety. I guess that explanation explains a lot of things. If you are extroverted, you’ll love training with kettlebell complexes. Every training session can be new all over again, just by changing one exercise. And, not only that, you can make constant improvement just by using the “same but different” principle. For example, you can swap out a double military press for an alternating military press and still make great gains in shoulder size and strength. Another day, you can follow the exact same compound lift, but instead of using two bells, you use only one, and make it heavier, and perform unilateral compound lifts. The variety is endless. So, for you extroverts out there, you never have to be bored again with the same old workout. A new workout is just a tweak away.

Complex Program Design

Although setting up complexes are relatively easy, you should always keep two questions in mind:

1. What am I trying to accomplish? Increased strength?  Increased muscle mass?  Decreased body fat?
2. What is my weakest exercise that I want to include in my complex?

Your complexes should be set up accordingly.

Basic Ground Rules

Let’s say you want to set up a complex to just improve your general conditioning and your weakest exercise you’re going to include is the press. You can currently press a 24kg for 5 sets of 5, resting three minutes between sets, or approximately 8-10 reps if you had to perform a rep max. You can press the 32kg for one or two good reps, depending on the day.

So, how much weight should you start with?  I apply Coach Javorek’s general rule of thumb, which is to use a weight equal to between 50-60% working up to 70-80% of your one rep max, or estimated one rep max of your weakest exercise. So, in this case, you would start with the 16kg and plan on working up to the 24kg as your body adapts. Remember, it’s better to start off slow and light and complete the workout and “grow” into the routine than to burn out on the first one or two sessions.

For example:

When first performing this complex, place the weakest exercise first in the complex.

• Press x 5
• Snatch x 5
• Front Squat x 5

*Perform the complex with your non-dominant side first and then proceed to your dominant side.

Only after you have become accustomed to performing them should you move the weakest exercise to another place in the complex.

As you become more advanced, you can change the order, which of course, will elicit a different response.

• Snatch x 5
• Front Squat x 5
• Press x 5

As mentioned before, complexes can be designed to train motor qualities like strength-endurance or to strengthen weak muscle groups holding an athlete back. Below is an example:

Complex for Improving Strength-Endurance

• Snatch x 5
• Front Squat x 5
• Clean + Press x 5
• Row x 5

Every muscle from your calves to forearms will be worked in this complex. Perform your reps quickly making the transition between exercises as fast as possible without putting the kettlebell down. That 50-60% will start to feel heavy as your heart starts pounding in your chest and your intercostal muscles start to cramp as your ribcage struggles to expand as you breathe against the extra time under load. As you decrease the rest periods from workout to workout, this becomes absolutely brutal.

Try to match the load used to the reps performed. Although linear periodization is being questioned as a valid means of programming, you should still apply one of its basic tenets when designing your complexes, which is as the weight increases, the reps should decrease. Obviously, as you get in better shape, you can use more reps at a higher percentage of your maximums.

To recap:

1. Start with 50-60% of your weakest exercise that you’re including in the complex.
2. Place the weakest exercise first in your complex.
3. Only move the weakest exercise once you become familiar with your complex.

Sample Workouts (SW, GU, and GSQ only)

Your training week might look like this:

• For 2 days a week: 2 medium workouts; next week 1 hard and one easy.
• For 3 days a week: 1 hard, 1 medium, one easy.
• For 4 days a week: 1 hard, 2 medium, 1 easy.
• For 5 days a week: 1 hard, 2 medium, 2 easy.

Infrequently, about once a week, you should push hard. Occasional hard workouts will take you to the next level of strength and conditioning—provided you have put in the time building a foundation of medium workouts. And sometimes, usually once a week as well, you will take it really easy. Easy sessions help you finesse your technique and recover.

You do not have to work all three exercises equally hard each time and you don’t have to do all three every time either.

Following are three sample weeks of kettlebell classes with students who have already developed acceptable technique. Although sample kettlebell sizes are listed, you will need to individualize them.

Monday / Medium Day

Start with 5 minutes of mobility exercises: halos, face-the-wall squats, etc.

Pair up your students according to their ability.

Beginners: men 16kg, women 12kg for swings and squats and 8kg for get-ups

Intermediate: men 24kg, women 16kg for swings and squats and 12kg for get-ups

1. Two-arm swing. “I go, you go” for 5 sets of 10 reps. An easy start.
2. Partial get-up: supine to half-kneel. 5 reps per arm, switch arms, switch partners. 3 sets per side.
3. One-arm swing ladder, “I go, you go.” 10L-switch partners-10R-switch partners-15L-switch partners-15R-switch partners-20L-switch partners-20R-switch partners. Repeat twice (100 reps total).
4. Partial get-up: half-kneel to stand, 5 reps per arm, switch arms, switch partners. 3 sets per side.
5. Reaction goblet squat, 3 sets of 20 seconds. Rest 2 minutes between sets, practice relaxation exercises.
6. Hand-to-hand swing. “I go, you go” for 5 sets of 10, 20, 10, 20, 10 reps (50 total).

Wrap up with relaxation, corrective, and stretching exercises.

Wednesday / Easy Day

Start with 5 minutes of unloaded get-up practice (a shoe on the fist).

Beginners: men 16kg (GU, GSQ, SW) and 24kg (SW), women 8kg (GU), 12kg (GSQ, SW) and 16kg (SW)

Intermediate: men 24kg (GU, GSQ, SW) and 32kg (SW), women 12kg (GU), 16 (GSQ, SW) and 24kg (SW)

1. Goblet squat, moderate speed. “I go, you go.” 3 sets of 10.
2. Plank, 30 seconds.
3. Two-arm swing. “I go, you go.” 3 sets of 10.
4. Get-up. 15 minutes of self-paced practice.
5. Goblet squat with 10 seconds of prying on the bottom. 3 sets of 3, rest 1 minute between sets.
6. Plank, 60 seconds.
7. One-arm swing. Staggered weight ladders. The students need a second, heavier, kettlebell. “I go, you go.” 2 ladders of 10, 10 reps (40 reps).

Wrap up with relaxation, corrective, and stretching exercises.

Friday / Hard Day

Start with 5 minutes of mobility exercises: halos, face-the-wall squats, etc.

Beginners: men 16kg (GU, GSQ, SW) and 24kg (SW), women 8kg (GU), 12kg (GSQ, SW) and 16kg (SW)

Intermediate: men 24kg (GU, GSQ, SW) and 32kg (SW), women 12kg (GU), 16 (GSQ, SW) and 24kg (SW)

1. Get-up with an overhead walk between the ascent and the descent. 3 sets of 1. “I go, you go.”
2. Goblet squat with a 10-second pause on the bottom. 2 sets of 5. “I go, you go.”
3. Two-arm swing with a heavier kettlebell. 5 sets of 20. Rest for 10 breaths between sets.
4. Get-up. 5 minutes of continuous get-ups switching arms after each rep.
5. Goblet squat, moderate speed, with a heavier kettlebell. 10 sets of 10. Rest self-paced.
6. One-arm swing. 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off as long prudent.

Wrap up with relaxation, corrective, and stretching exercises.

Monday / Medium Day

Start with mobility exercises.

Workout by Geoff Neupert, SFG II:

Select a moderate size kettlebell. Students may use the same size kettlebell for both exercises or use a heavier one for the swing.

1. Perform 1 get-up per side, alternating between sides, for 10 minutes, resting as necessary between sets.
2. Rest for 2-3 minutes.
3. Perform 10 one-arm swings on the minute, every minute, for 10 minutes, switching arms each set.

Gradually work up to 20 minutes of swings. When the student reaches this goal, have him/her cycle back to 15 one-arm swings on the minute, every minute for 10 minutes, working back up to 20 minutes. When the student reaches this goal, have him/her cycle back to 20 one-arm swings on the minute, every minute for 10 minutes, working back up to 20 minutes.

Wrap up with corrective and stretching exercises.

Tuesday / Hard Day

Start with mobility exercises.

Workout by Mark Reifkind:

This is not a workout for beginners. Intermediate men use 24kg kettlebells, intermediate women 16kg kettlebells.

1. One-arm swing ladder, “I go, you go,” for 10min: 10/10, 12/12, 14/14, 16/16, 18/18, 20/20, 10/10 (200 reps).

For example, partner #1 does 10 swings with his left, partner #2 does 10 swings with his left, partner #2 does 10 swings with his right, partner #2 does 10 swings with his right, #1 does 12 swings with his left…

Wrap up with an easy jog to cool down, corrective and stretching exercises.

Thursday / Easy Day

At home. Use a shoe for get-ups, a light kettlebell, i.e. 12kg for women and 16kg for men for the other three drills.

1. 10 deadlifts.
2. 5 prying goblet squats.
3. 20min of get-up practice focusing on the difficult for the individual part(s).
4. 20 two-arm swings.

Saturday / Hard Day

Start with mobility exercises.

Workout by David Whitley:

Select a “light” kettlebell for each student. Alternate 45 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest/transitions.

1. Half-kneel to stand left (start with the kettlebell overhead, put it up with both hands)
2. Half-kneel to stand right
3. Two-arm swing*
4. Goblet squat
5. Kneeling windmill left
6. Kneeling windmill right
7. Two-arm swing*
8. Goblet squat
9. Supine to sit-up left
10. Supine to sit-up right
11. Two-arm swing*
12. Full getup left
13. Full getup right
14. Two-arm swing*
15. Goblet squat

Wrap up with relaxation, corrective, and stretching exercises.

*Whitley clarifies: “I always make it a point to explain that “as many as you can do in 45sec” is not necessarily the same as “do them for 45sec continuously” and that if they need to do 8-10 swings, set the kettlebell down, breathe for a few seconds, pick it back up, etc., it is fine. This applies not only to beginners but to experienced people moving up to a bigger kettlebell as well.”

Monday / Medium Day

Start with mobility exercises.

Beginners: men 16kg, women 12kg

Intermediate: men 20kg, women 16kg

1. Prying goblet squat for 2 sets of 5 reps.
2. Get-up practice for 10min.
3. Prying goblet squat for 2 sets of 5 reps.
4. Maximally explosive two-arm swings with an overspeed eccentric (throw the bell back). Alternate 15 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. Get full extension on every rep. Stop when the kettlebell is about to slow down.

Wrap up with an easy jog to cool down, relaxation, corrective, and stretching exercises.

Wednesday / Easy Day

Start with mobility exercises.

Beginners: men 16kg, women 12kg

Intermediate: men 20kg, women 16kg

1. 10 sets of 10 two-handed swings with 5 breaths between sets.
2. Half-kneel to stand practice for 10 total reps per side at the students’ own pace. Put up the kettlebell overhead with both hands.
3. 20 hand-to-hand swings.

Wrap up with corrective and stretching exercises.

Friday / Hard Day

Start with mobility exercises.

Workout by Shaun Cairns, Master SFG:

This workout is only for experienced gireviks who can safely perform the swing with two kettlebells.

Two kettlebells per person, 20s or 24s for men and 12s or 16s for women.

1. 1 get-up per side
2. 2 get-ups per side
3. 3 get-ups per side

Take a brief pause to catch your breath when changing sides.

4. 5 double kettlebell swings, 10 seconds rest
5. 10 double kettlebell swings, 20 seconds rest
6. 15 double kettlebell swings, 60 seconds rest

Repeat for 3-5 rounds.

Beginners do the same workout but practice get-ups with a shoe and do single kettlebell swings.

Wrap up with an easy jog to cool down, relaxation, corrective, and stretching exercises.