The Kettlebell Revolution

This is a Kettlebell workout developed by Missy Beaver, or "MisFit," celebrity trainer. Admittedly I don't know much about her but thought her workouts (both titled The Kettlebell Revolution) looked really good. This is the newer version (2011) in which Missy works out alone. The filmography is really artsy and is all black and white, and Missy rotates several different neutral-colored outfits. I don't usually have the patience for artsy exercise DVDs but I thought it was done well here and non-distracting. There is a little kettlebell in the bottom corner which counts up the reps on each workout. I thought this was a great idea-except that Missy didn't tell you how many reps you were doing (could be 5, 10, or 20) or would have been better for it to count DOWN rather than up, as a better motivator. There was a brief screen at the beginning of each chapter telling you which exercise was next. The music was the same tune throughout but it was a fun tempo and it didn't seem repetitive. It was really unusual that there was NO DVD menu; the DVD just started with Missy's introduction then onto the warm up and exercises. Then the DVD ended just like that. Unfortunately there was no cool down afterwards. The total workout was about 35 minutes, although Missy misleadingly says it is only 20 minutes in her introduction.

Missy lead you through about a 5 minute joint-mobility warm up, with head, elbow, ankle, and knee rolls, arm circles, alternating lunges, and the like. There were then 28 different workouts (not repeated) including double arm swings, single arm swings, alternating swings, walking (side to side) swings, overhead swings, deadlifts, suitcase deadlifts, one-leg deadlifts, alternating deadlifts, one-leg squats onto a chair, snatches, cleans, presses (there were actually two sets of these), Turkish getups, around the body circles, around the head circles (halos), high pulls, windmills, swing with kettlebell catch, one arm swings with kettlebell catch, alternating front lunges, alternating front lunges with bell overhead. Missy did not offer what kind of poundage to use; I used 15# and may work my way up to 20# but she goes fairly fast throughout and it may be hard to get that many reps in using much heavier poundage. I made the mistake of trying the tricky catches in my exercise room and dropped the bell, making a sizable dent in my drywall (whoops). Would not recommend attempting those catches unless you're experienced!

While I thought Missy gave good form pointers, she didn't demonstrate the moves, and with quick camera transitions, she sometimes got ahead of you before you had a chance to prepare. (Think of the old Firm days where the step was magically in front of you, not giving you a chance to go get it). Like on the one exercise using a chair, her chair was magically there and you had to scramble to get your chair/step. On the whole I thought it was a fun workout, moved very quickly, and thought she looked super motivating! I appreciated the variety in exercises and will know what kind of reps to expect next time (she usually did 5 for each side when doing arm strength work, 10 reps for leg work, and 20 reps for the swings on the one double-arm swing chapter). I think this will provide good variety in my kettlebell workout collection, and at 35 minutes is a good timeframe and about as much time as I'd like to spend on straight up kettlebell work. I would say the workout is intermediate-high intermediate and can be easily modified by increasing/decreasing the poundage of your kettlebell. Probably my only main complaint is the complete lack of a stretch at the end. Overall grade B+!