There is no Magic Pill! - By Ryan Thomson and Jason Perry - Week 1
Everybody’s looking for the magic pill. The easy out. Some way to get into better shape without having to actually move.
Well forget about it!
The only way to get into great shape is for the individual to put forth the effort. There has to be enough drive to get yourself up and moving every day (unless you have enough money to have a personal trainer come to your house and motivate you). Ryan has been training in a variety of different ways for over fifteen years, striving to find the best methods for attaining greater levels of fitness. He has found many methods that are effective and even more that are not. One of the benefits of having a variety of trainers available to this website is that we get many different angles of view on health and fitness. Ryan has developed some great ideas over the years and here is a list of his Do’s and Don’ts. Print them out to remind yourself to put in the effort every day.
Do’s:
Determine what your goals are from day one! Write them down. Look at them every morning. Short-term and long-term and the plan for attaining them. Don’t worry, they may change. That’s OK. Sometimes function becomes more important than form.<!--[endif]-->
Master all bodyweight exercises. Bodyweight exercises are the most effective and safest way to measure your progress. There are no plateaus when it comes to bodyweight exercises, just thousands of variations of how they can be performed. Push-ups, lunges, squats, dips, pull-ups etc. Using your own bodyweight is one of the best methods for muscle recruitment and overall core work.<!--[endif]-->
Use kettlebells! We have found that there is no parallel for muscle integration, endurance, core conditioning and overall functional strength.<!--[endif]-->
Plyometric speed exercises. Box jumps, burpees, grasshoppers, sprints, jumping lunges and snap-downs are great examples.<!--[endif]-->
Be intense. You are trying to achieve a goal. This goal will ultimately give you better quality of life. This is for you!. Limit break time and try to keep your heart rate up!<!--[endif]-->
Take care of yourself when working out. Push yourself, but know your limits. Injuries will prevent you from reaching your goals. If you go heavy, consider five repetitions your heavy rep rate.
Don’ts:
Don’t use seated machines. Almost all machines limit mobility of your joints and prevent the use of your core. This can cause joint impingement and can overload ligaments and tendons. There are 29 muscles in your core. You need to use them. Stay away from machines.
Listen to Bodybuilders. Bodybuilding is not fitness. Don’t listen to anybody who can’t touch their own head because of the size of their biceps. Clearly they have very different goals than we do.<!--[endif]-->
Hurt yourself. If you feel pain from an exercise, stop doing it! This seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people can’t recognize good pain from bad pain. Good pain is the muscle burning because you’re working it. Bad pain is pretty much anything else.
Remember that our goal here is fitness and functional strength. Next week Ryan will do a short article on basic nutrition concepts. Until then here’s a very basic nutrition thought for you: You know instinctively what is good and bad when it comes to nutrition. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out. Think about everything you put in your mouth. Until next week…
Why Kettlebells? - Fitness thoughts # 2
We've been getting a great response to the site. Everyone is excited about real fitness and how to attain functional strength. There have been many suggestions as to how to improve the site and we are taking all of them into consideration. There will be how-to videos up shortly with demonstrations of many of the different exercises. When we initially started doing the site we didn't expect the response that we are getting from folks who have never done any of this type of training. Which brings us to this week's subject. Why kettlebells?
The best place to start is with some history. Kettlebell lifting is the Russian National Sport. For centuries in small Russian villages strength contests have been held. These contests were originally held by using the heaviest cast-iron kettles that the villages possessed. The rules back then were pretty simple. Whoever could lift the heaviest kettle for the most repetitions was the winner. Understand that some of these kettles were huge due to the fact that they were used for communal meals. If you've ever picked up a heavy cast-iron dutch oven, imagine that many times larger. At some point, villages began casting weights with handles specifically for the village contests. These looked like cannonballs with handles on top. After World War II, much of urban Russia became more interested in Olympic-style lifting, but kettlebell lifting continued in the villages and smaller towns. There were no "official" rules until 1985 when the first Russian National Kettlebell championships were held. In 2000 kettlebells came to the USA thanks in no small part to Pavel Tsatsouline, Russian Master of Sports.
Now for the question, "Why kettlebells?" Many of us have been hearing that this whole kettlebell thing is a fad. That it will go the way of the Thighmaster or Nordic-Trac. We are here to tell you that this is not the case. Kettlebell's will survive and thrive in the U.S. for one very important reason: THEY WORK!
For too many years now the American fitness industry has sold us this idea that cosmetics are more important than function. The American public buys this idea and continues to head down a path of isolation exercises, machines, over-use injuries and just plain wasting time. Kettlebells work because they require us to use our whole body in core-dominant exercises in a very ballistic fashion. This has a whole slew of benefits.
The design of the kettlebell requires more effective utilization of multiple muscle groups and forces us to train in a core-centric way. Training from the core-out creates a better foundation for function. It also forces inclusion of many of the stabilizer muscle groups that traditional bodybuilding ignores or isolates to the point of uselessness. We should be working toward training our whole body to function effectively in unison. How many activities do you do that requires you to do a movement that looks anything like a dumbell lateral raise?
Another major benefit is the cardiovascular aspect of kettlebell training. Because so much of the training is done over set time periods with goals being based on number of repetitions completed it forces individuals into target heart rate ranges much more quickly than most "traditional" cardiovascular training. Members of our workout club consistently get their heart rates over 190 with averages being in the 180's. We maintain these rates for 20+ minutes. This is a testament to the conditioning aspect of kettlebells. Add to that the fact that most people will burn in excess of 450 calories in a twenty minute time period (we actually burned over 900 in one workout session that lasted 24 minutes!) and I can't see why anyone would get on a treadmill and bore themselves to death.
So my advice to anyone who wants to get in better shape, be stronger, lose fat and overall, function better, pick up some kettlebells. Make sure you get the proper training of course, but I think that you will find the most effective and fun workout you have ever done.
11/15/09:
Holiday season is here. Nearly everyone over-indulges with all of the treats that come with it. Some of you may be waiting for this season to pass and have put your fitness training on hold. Maybe some of you have even set a New Years resolution already. Setting goals is never a bad idea. The problem with New Year's resolutions is that they start after the New Year. Well, we are here to tell you to STEP IT UP, and start now! Everybody makes excuses sometimes. Maybe some of you do-gooders are giving all of your free time to help others, and prepare for the holidays. STEP IT UP! It is time to start being a little selfish with your time. Take 20min for yourself and exercise. No better time than RIGHT NOW to get a jump on the extra pounds gained, and improve your fitness level. Or maybe there are no extra pounds but you are low on energy? STEP IT UP! A little exercise everyday will increase your energy level and more importantly will increase that metabolic rate. Stop putting it off until next week or even tomorrow. Excuses are for the weak and lazy! STEP IT UP! You can get an excellent workout with using just bodyweight exercises! Check out the workout tab above and that will give you some great ideas.
