Breathing Ladder

As I've said before, I am a big fan of the kettle bell. They are versatile and challenging and they form the core of my home gym. Here is an easy kettle bell workout we did this morning.

Kettle bell breathing ladder

 

Step One:

Pick a kettle bell and an exercise; today I used a 50lb KB and did American (overhead) KB swings.

 

Step Two:

Decide how high you want your ladder to go. A breathing ladder goes like this; do one repetition (ie; one KB swing) and then put the weight down and take one controlled breath in and out. Then do two reps and take two breaths, then three and three, etc. Our ladder this morning went one to ten and back down to one, then back to ten and back down to one again. It looked like this:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

 

You could also go 1-20-1 or any other variation of the ladder. The idea is to maintain controlled breathing (in through the nose and out through the mouth) throughout the rest periods. You can breath however you want during the work periods.

 

Step Three:

Work hard

 

Try it out. Enjoy.

 

Jack

 

PS - No Gameday games today as we will be at a Super Bowl party, and chili and alcohol don't go well with exercise. Instead we did the breathing ladder in the a.m. With the season ending, I'm not sure which sport will replace football for Gameday games, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. . .