Steve Cotter - Extreme Kettlebell Workouts

As a fan of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, I was compelled to pick up a bunch of supplements and kettlebells from Onnit. He had recommended a DVD for doing a kettlebell workout, however they were all sold out, so I decided on this DVD set from Steve Cotter. AWESOME choice!First off- great shipping by the company. DVD arrived quickly and safely wrapped in a nice package. I love the fact you get 4 great workouts in one DVD set, and these are all KILLER workouts. From the very first time I picked up a kettlebell and hit it with one of these DVD's, I was sweating, grunting, and exhausting myself. I would never believe I would get such an AMAZING workout in only 30 minutes, but that's what you'll get in each of these DVD's.Steve takes you through an explanation of the upcoming workout, a great warmup / stretch session, and then a brutal workout which will challenge your muscles and cardio. The exercises are explained clearly, and if you follow the workout, you will change your body. I can't believe how much better I look and feel over the last few weeks since I started working out with Onnit supplements and this DVD set.Steve Cotter offers a great motivational leader as well as a kettlebell instructor on each of these workouts, and I highly recommend this for everyone working out with kettlebells, especially the newcomers like me who have just recently started. This set is a must-own. Just buy it, get your kettlebells, and get ready to transform your life.

This is a 4-DVD follow along type kettlebell workout. Actually, there are ten different workouts instead of 15 as it claims on the title. Granted, by combining the workouts, you can get dozens of combinations but still there are ten individual workouts in the box.The first two DVDs are about 30 minutes in length and both include warm up and a strength/size workout, DVD 1 is for upper body and DVD 2 for lower body. You need two relatively heavy kettlebells of the same size, and a bench or stool for the workouts. The workouts consist of 7 or 8 different exercises, each done for 5 or 10 reps each set. All sets are done in back to back fashion, with 1-3 minutes of rest between the circuits. You are supposed to do three circuits in a workout, taking some 30 minutes.Disc 3 includes three different 10-minute abs/core workouts and two circuit workouts taking 20-25 minutes each. You'll need one relatively light kettlebell for these exercises.Disc 4 includes a kettlebell circuit workout of some 25 minutes and two cardio workouts, one of ten minutes and the other taking 20 minutes. You'll need one relatively light kettlebell for these workouts.The production of the film of OK, but there is nothing fancy either. There is no time counter in the exercises you do for time (like the cardio workouts), or rep counter for the exercises you'll do for reps. The workouts have not been divided into chapters, so if you want to skip an exercise, you have to use the fast forward button instead of just skipping to next chapter by a simple push of a button.On circuit workouts you'll do the same number of reps on each exercise, irrespective of the relative toughness of the individual exercise. So you'll do ten reps of swings, and ten reps of Turkish get-ups, although the latter is much harder exercise. In my opinion, it would have been better if the rep ranges would reflect the relative toughness of the exercises.There is hardly any instruction on the exercises, therefore this DVD is not for beginners as you are supposed to know the exercises beforehand. In my opinion, the workouts are not extreme either, so this workout suits for everyone who has already mastered the moves. The exercises are not technically difficult (windmill being probably the most challenging move technically), so you should not be scared by the word "extreme" in the title. You can easily make the workout harder or easier by selecting a suitable weight.This is far from perfect workout DVD, but for the money you'll get almost four hours of different kinds of workouts ranging from 10 minutes up, emphasizing cardiovascular endurance or size/strength, depending on your choice. However I find it pity they have not put that little extra on the final touches to make this a 4- or even 5-star product.

Interesting and useful bunch of workouts. There were an upper body and separate lower body workout for strength/mass involving moderate repetitions with significant weight. There were several cardio/circuit workouts and another group of workouts focused on "core" but all the workouts tend to overlap in function (the beauty of kettlebells). I was a little bit perturbed by the lack of direction in how often to do the various workouts in relation to one another. I attempted to contact Steve Cotter's website through their "contact form" but as of yet have received no reply. The workout combinations were useful and the instruction on the exercises was reasonably good. Steve Cotter looks a lot better than many kettle bell instructors and presents as rather "beastly" rather than appearing just aerobically fit. I guess I don't really know if he got that way from just doing kettlebells as he does sell DVDs on other forms of exercise. Considering the cost of other training programs this seems to be a pretty good deal. The instruction is certainly better than on several other kettlebell workout programs I have viewed/done. Again I was a bit disappointed about the lack of workout "mapping" and the lack of response in one workweek from Steve's website.UPDATE: I didn't watch the lower body workout all the way through as it consists of 3 cycles of the same circuit. I just did the last run through of the circuit by memory. In the video , after the completion of the third time through, Steve says you can do each strength/mass workout twice in a week "on opposite days." Not sure if he wanted users to fill in 1-2 other days with the core or cardio light days or do 3 wks. "heavy" and do a light recovery wk. with the lighter circuits every 3rd wk. or so. I may have missed that by not listening to an epilogue or something. Still no reply from his web site.