A lot of people are under the mistaken impression that they need to spend hours in the gym to get fit, build muscle, or lose fat. And while it’s true that you CAN use long workouts to reach your fitness goals, short workouts can be every bit as effective.

These are three ten-minute kettlebell workouts for which all you need is a single kettlebell and your trusty Gymboss timer.

They all feature kettlebell swings, which is arguably one of the best bang for your buck kettlebell exercises you can do.

EMOM swings

EMOM stands for every minute on the minute. Set your timer, so it beeps every minute. Do a set of swings at the top of each minute. After your set, rest until the start of the next minute and then go again. So, if your set takes 40 seconds, you get to rest 20 seconds. The faster you work, the longer you get to rest.

Simply do 20 swings at the top of each minute for 10 minutes to total 200 swings.

Too easy? Do more reps per set, or more sets per workout, e.g., 12, 15, or 20 sets.

Too hard? Try 15, 12, or 10 reps per set, or do fewer sets.

To do swings:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your kettlebell in front of your hips.
2. Bend your knees slightly and lean forward from your hips, lowering the weight down to your knees. Do not round your lower back.
3. Drive your hips forward and, with your arms straight, swing the kettlebell forward and up to shoulder-height. Keep your abs braced.
4. Swing it back down and repeat.

Swing and goblet squat ladder

Set you Gymboss for one 10 minute interval to make sure you don’t go too slowly and end up taking longer than ten minutes to finish.

Simply storm through this sequence as fast as you can. The workout is over when you complete your last set of goblet squats.

1. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
2. Goblet squats – 5 reps
3. Kettlebell swings – 15 reps
4. Goblet squats – 10 reps
5. Kettlebell swings – 10 reps
6. Goblet squats – 15 reps
7. Kettlebell swings – 5 reps
8. Goblet squats – 20 reps

To do swings:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your kettlebell in front of your hips.
2. Bend your knees slightly and lean forward from your hips, lowering the weight down to your knees. Do not round your lower back.
3. Drive your hips forward and, with your arms straight, swing the kettlebell forward and up to shoulder-height. Keep your abs braced.
4. Swing it back down and repeat.

To do goblet squats:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise and hold your kettlebell in front of your chest, handle just below your chin. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
2. Push your hips back, bend your legs, and squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Do not round your lower back.
3. Stand back up and repeat.

Swings and push-ups

This final workout pairs swings with push-ups. After all, no workout is complete without this classic upper body exercise. Between them, these two exercises work virtually every muscle on your body. How’s that for workout efficiency!

Use your Gymboss as a stopwatch and try and complete this workout as fast as you can. Under ten minutes is something to be proud of!

1. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
2. Push-ups – 10 reps
3. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
4. Push-ups – 9 reps
5. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
6. Push-ups – 8 reps
7. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
8. Push-ups – 7 reps
9. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
10. Push-ups – 6 reps
11. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
12. Push-ups – 5 reps
13. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
14. Push-ups – 4 reps
15. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
16. Push-ups – 3 reps
17. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
18. Push-ups – 2 reps
19. Kettlebell swings – 20 reps
20. Push-ups – 1 rep

To do swings:

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your kettlebell in front of your hips.
2. Bend your knees slightly and lean forward from your hips, lowering the weight down to your knees. Do not round your lower back.
3. Drive your hips forward and, with your arms straight, swing the kettlebell forward and up to shoulder-height. Keep your abs braced.
4. Swing it back down and repeat.

To do push-ups:

1. Kneel down and place your hands on the floor, roughly shoulder-width apart, fingers pointing forward.
2. Walk your feet back and into the push-up position, so your body is straight. Brace your abs.
3. Bend your legs and lower your chest down to within an inch of the floor.
4. Push yourself back up and repeat.
5. Bend your legs and rest on your knees to make push-ups a little easier.

Wrapping up

You can train hard, or you can train long, but you can’t do both. Don’t let the brevity of these workouts fool you – they’ll kick your butt in about ten minutes flat!

Lack of time or equipment is a common barrier to exercise, but they don’t have to be. In fact, with nothing more than a single kettlebell and a timer, you have everything you need to get and stay in great shape in minutes and not hours.

The next time you think that you don’t have time to exercise, try one of these workouts. We’re betting that you’ll soon realize that, if you work hard, ten minutes is plenty.