Kettle bells are the business. Trust me.

When I was around 21 (yes, a slow learner in this regard) I ‘got’ the endorphin buzz of exercise and suddenly fell in love with it, happy to make it a 3-4 times a week part of my life. Many (many!) years on, I still do love to exercise but I do like to mix my workouts up or else I get bored. And I think you get better results by shocking the muscles with different exercises. Suffice it to say, I am not one of those women who only ever does pilates (although I do love that too!) but there will always be a few workouts I come back to and this kettlebell workout is one of them.

After reading The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris I wanted to upgrade my workouts and got particularly interested in kettlebells and, because you can injure yourself flinging a kettlebell around if you don’t practice perfect fom, I wanted to get a DVD that had some instructions so I could get the moves right first.

Lauren Brooks is RKC certified, has a BS in Exercise Science and is a certified clinical nutritionist and I felt I could trust her to guide me through this workout. One of the most helpful things on this DVD is the intro, which demonstrates all the different movements with proper technique. Better still, she’s not too peppy (read: annoying) and she doesn’t talk too much.

Production wise, this DVD is low budget, but I couldn’t care less – if you’re worried about that you’re probably not exercising hard enough. The structure is HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING, so you get regular one-minute breaks in the workout, which might seem slack but is actually proven to increase your metabolism. And it really works.

I have been following this DVD for years and always come back to it. I usually do it once or twice a week, mixed in with skipping and bellydancing on other days. Thanks to this DVD I have seriously increased strength in my thighs and glutes. Ok, I’ll tell it like it is, it makes my butt rounder, firmer and perkier. The man in your life will likely notice that. But I also get compliments on my arms, with women demanding to know what I have been doing. I hate working out my arms so all I ever do is kettlebells for that body part. I just need to buy her collection now so that I can continue to change things up a bit. If you’re looking for a workout that works… Strong, lean definition and a tight butt don’t bypass this one.

Great stuff!

4 ½ out of 5