Bloom to Fit Workout of the Week Episode 5: Carry On

Welcome to Episode 5 of the Bloom to Fit Workout of the Week series.

This week’s workout is designed to challenge not only your conditioning, but also your grip strength.

The workout is comprised of a unique combination of heavy kettlebells and jump ropes to really test (and develop) your upper body strength. 

Don’t worry if you don’t have all the tools. I’ll show you some cool alternatives you can do if necessary. 

Again, I encourage you to use a modified version (either a regression or progression) if you need to. Challenge your limits but always make sure you’re listening to your body and acting accordingly.

Let’s begin.

B2F Workout of the Week Episode 5: Carry On

Total time estimate to complete the workout: 25 minutes

What You’ll Need:

For this workout, you’ll need two kettlebells, a heavy jump rope, a timer, and a bit of space.

Before your workout:

It is essential that you do a proper warm-up before you start the workout. This will prep your body for the intense nature of the metabolic workout. Your warm-up should consist of the following

• A few minutes of light aerobic activity,
• Corrective stretches (optional),
• A series of mobility movements.

For details on how to structure a good warm-up, see the Perfect Warm-up Series.

The Workout

This week’s workout is the Carry On.

It is built around three exercises: kettlebell farmer’s carry, heavy jump rope single unders, and burpees.

Set your timer for 10 minutes and try to get in as many rounds of the following repetitions as you can:

• 100 heavy jump rope single unders
• 20-40 yards of kettlebell farmer carries
• 5 burpees

Important Notes:

• If you don’t have two kettlebells to carry, you can just grab two heavy dumbbells, heavy jugs of water, big milk jugs, or even big textbooks. Be resourceful. Grab whatever you have laying around that’s heavy enough to engage your forearms when you hold them. The heavier the better!
• If you don’t have any space to carry a kettlebell, just pick them up and hold them in place.

This is what the workout looks like:

Click play to watch the video.

After your workout

When your timer is done, start your cool-down session.

DO NOT sit or lay down. You need to gradually reduce your heart rate. Walk around taking deep breaths, do jumping jacks, or jump rope for a few minutes until your heart rates comes down.

Once your heart rate is normalized, finish your workout by going through a series of static stretches. You can click here for a full list of static stretches you can use.

Important muscles to be stretched for this specific workout: hamstrings, quads, calves, glutes, hip flexors, lower back. 

Progressions and Regressions

There are a number of ways you can make this workout harder or easier, depending on your current fitness level and limitations. 

Regressions

Here are ways you can make the workout easier:

• Take a 20-30 second break in between each round,
• Use lighter kettlebells and/or a lighter jump rope,
• Shorten your farmers walk down to 10 yards,
• If you’re struggling with the burpees, substitute in 20 mountain climbers instead.

Progressions

Here are ways you can make the workout more challenging:

• Do the entire workout without taking any breaks,
• Use heavier kettlebells for your carries,
• Do 10 kettlebell swings instead of 5 burpees to really challenge your grip,
• Increase your burpee reps to 10,
• Lengthen your farmers walk to 50-80 yards,
• Use a heavier jump rope for your single unders or substitute in heavy rope double unders (this is super intense).

Extra Notes

I found this to be a great test for my grip strength. The combination of kettlebell farmer walks and heavy rope single unders was awesome. Next time, I’ll probably substitute the burpees with kettlebell swings just to challenge my upper body strength and grip even further. My goal with the burpees was to add a conditioning element to the workout, but I think the swings would help serve this purpose as well.