Today, we are going talk about kettlebell swings. The king of fat loss. We live in a world today where we are constantly surrounded and bombarded by marketing gimmicks that promise fast fat loss like “vibrator belts” or even worse, slimming pills. Of course, fast fat loss sounds attractive to most of us, but let’s face it, it ain’t gonna happen without you putting in the work.

But don’t be intimidated either as fat loss is actually very simple and basic. By doing short bursts of highly intense exercise interspersed with short breaks, you can achieve very good results. And kettlebell swings are excellent for that. Kettlebell swings help to train and strengthen your posterior chain, the muscles from your glutes to hamstrings and these are the muscles involved in any form of athletic movements, like sprinting and jumping.

The lovely part about kettlebell swings is that your whole body is involved during the movement, from your shoulders to keeping your core engaged and your legs and hips. A surefire way to get the heartrate beating.

Some pointers to keep in mind when doing kettlebell swings:

-       At the top of the movement where the kettlebell is at its highest, squeeze and tighten your butt cheeks to complete the swing.

-       A swing is not a squat but more of a sitting back movement

-       Use power from your hips to swing the kettlebell up, and keep your arms slightly relaxed.

-       Do not resist the kettlebell during the downswing part, let momentum and gravity do its work!

For starters, try to complete 75 reps in 2-3 sets. Aim to hit at least 25 reps per set and rest as needed. For guys, start with 12kg and ladies 8kg.

With kettlebells getting more attention in Singapore and Asia, there are new companies jumping on the bandwagon to sell kettlebells. While this is great for promoting kettlebells and making them more easily available, buyers need to beware that not all kettlebells are made equal.

Most people assume that buying kettlebells is an easy affair, just a matter of choosing the cheapest deal online or in stores. Buying a poorly made kettlebell will not only hurt you, you may even have to end up buying a better one elsewhere. Kettlebells are great investment for your health and fitness, but make sure you do your homework and invest in a top-quality one.

First thing you have to take note of is the handle of the kettlebell. Is it too rough for usage? Rough handles will tear your hands easily and you will not be able to train consistently. I have personally seen some models of kettlebells (if they can be called kettlebells in the first place!) where the handle is rubber coated or plastic coated. This makes no sense at all as the increased friction when swinging the kettlebells will just hurt and tear your hands. This is just a blatant marketing gimmick to appeal to the mass market and will not benefit you in anyway.

The size and dimensions of the kettlebell matters as well. There is a reason why more and more people are starting to use Pro Grade Kettlebells instead of the traditional cast iron ones. Due to the uniform size and dimensions regardless of weight, it makes learning easier and more consistent. You no longer have to re-learn your technique when you move up a weight, in the case for cast iron kettlebells. It’s difficult enough to increase the weight you’re using, let alone having to adjust and re-learn your technique whenever you pick up a heavier kettlebell.

At the end of the day, it is best that you try out the kettlebell before purchasing. The last thing you want is to pay for a kettlebell that you find unusable.

The following is an interview with Steve Cotter done by Alan Orr of www.warriorfunctionaltraining.com. Steve Cotter is a world renowned kettlebell expert and martial artist. Steve is the founder of International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation. He travels around the world to hold courses and educate people on the art of kettlebell lifting. You can find out more about him at www.ikff.net

Alan: How did you get into Kettlebell training?

Steve: I had moved away from full time training and teaching martial arts in 1997; at that time I became a full-time college student, studying kinesiology. So, in the span of a few years, I went from training all day, every day and when not training I was teaching and of course I taught by training. So it would have been no exaggeration to say that I was as well-conditioned and anyone on the planet.

I went from that to full-time student, carrying a back-pack. Training went way down. After a few years of this I started noticing a decline in my fitness both in the sense of performance and aesthetically. I was losing the sharpness that I had taken as my inheritance as a boy who only trained. Now that I was losing that peak, I started to miss what I once had, and I wanted it back. Yet, I knew that I could not and would not train 8-10 hours a day again, 6 days a week like I did as younger man. Even if I could, I didn’t want to anymore. My wife and I had recently had our first child and so, my life was very different from the time when all I did was practically live at the kwoon, or in the gym or on the mountain. I started thinking–a lot–about “how can I get it back, how can I get back to that elite fitness, like I used to have”

There is a saying that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Well, it appeared in an ad in a martial art catalog.

The ad talked about this Russian form of training called kettlebells and described the snatch and jerk and other full-body lifts, and how it could be done at home. It talked about it being favoured by military and martial artists. I had experimented enough with barbell and dumbbell and machine bodybuilding oriented training to know that the premise made sense and that I wanted to try it. Didn’t have a lot of cash at the time, so I wasn’t quick to spend $120 on something I had never seen or heard of. I told a student of mine about the ad and he bought a couple. First time I tried it, I just did the snatch like in the picture and it felt really good! So, that is when I knew I would incorporate the training into my system of learning.

Kettlebell lifting is an art form. It needs to be studied and understood. There is no one size fits all and the study requires insights and refinement as the student’s progress. It is very much like a martial form in terms of discipline, structure and the coaching and training. That is what attracted it to me and the fact that you can develop great physical strength through its correct training, which is one aspect of martial arts application.

A: You have great functional bodyweight strength and power. Did you have that from you martial training? How does bodyweight training fit in to your personal training programme?

S: I attribute the majority of my fitness development to martial arts in terms of skill and body control. Kettlebell training has enabled me to become more dense and muscular, while being able to maintain suppleness in the muscles and connective tissues. The timing and intention from martial art training and having access to good information with regards to bodyweight conditioning is what laid the foundation.

Mostly now I do kettlebells and qigong with some running here and there. My schedule is very busy with travel and teaching. I teach entirely in seminar fashion, so I have a very minimalist approach to my training currently. It is the only way I can improve since my energy is going out. The way I train myself is going to be very different from how I train someone else.

Bodyweight training is crucial to learn, especially in foundation stages. There will come a point in development, when many basic BW movements no longer offer high-value in terms of the time allowed for training. In a busy schedule, one may only have 15-20 min to devote to any training. So, that time must be filled with high-value movements. That is where kettlebells comes in. I’m not saying that KB is the be-all; no one system can offer everything.   For me personally, I get more intensity from KB now, as I spent many years and many thousands of reps with the BW, so it’s not a struggle for me so much anymore.

A: What have been the main benefits to you in terms of personal fitness and martial application?

S: There have been different phases of development, as I’ve learned more about the subtleties of the art form.

Overall, the increase to my hand, back and shoulder strength has been significant. I’ve always been a late-bloomer, but kettlebells have helped my body to mature in physical strength. There is a different form of strength between a boy and a man, and I think the kettlebell training really sophisticated the use of my body for me. A lot of that has to do with the grounding that is required when you ballistically swing a substantiional weight around in both a concentric and eccentric fashion. The muscles have to brace around a fixed central axis. So, this is a way of training root or connection to the ground. With that foundation, the body can learn how to get stronger in a natural position, one of balance.

There is a self-correcting quality to it, which makes it a valuable form of body-awareness training. You cannot do 2 drastically incorrect reps in a row and maintain position. The kettlebell will pull you out of your root. So, in learning the basics, the body learns and maintains certain performance parameters.

I’ve learned how to use kettlebell to get stronger and there is good value in that. However, my new interest with kettlebells is the finer points and maximizing the endurance aspect under load. That is the real power of kettlebell training–developing massive workloads and learning how to relax under load.

The martial application is a double-edged sword. I’m much stronger now, so naturally when we have more strength we want to use it. The key with martial arts is to not use it, so while I am more powerful now, it also in some ways takes longer for me to get new concepts when I’m working outside of my own style. One thing I’ve noticed the most is that I am very hard to take down now. I’d always had strong legs and good agility however the upper body torso strength makes me able to stay upright, and clear grabs easier. So there is a lot of carryover.

A: How has your kettlebell training progressed?

S:Initially it was great because it was so new and different. So I made a lot of progress in the first couple of years.

After a few years I felt that I had mastered the system that I was exposed to. I wasn’t getting as much from it as I knew was possible. Part of that were my own incomplete training habits, and part of that was from incomplete coaching and information. So, without a coach that could guide me to my next level, I became focused on my own teaching rather than training. Later I got interested in the heavier kettlebells. I bought a 56kg and 65kg kettlebell and started playing around with those. I got stronger that’s for sure, but I noticed my repetitions with the 32kg didn’t go up any. So, I got stronger, and bigger, but my skill with the kettlebell repetition lifts didn’t improve. At that point in time I went to Russia and observed a very different way of training and lifting, and since then I’ve taken an interest in the higher levels of development that can be acquired through kettlebell training.

So, now I am at a stage where I focus more on the efficiency and relaxed power of kettlebell lifting and improving repetitions and endurance. The simpler I make it, the better I become.

A: I lot of martial arts practitioners are now working with Kettlebells. What would you say makes Kettlebells different to over resistance training methods.

S: A few key aspects that are unique to kettlebell training or at the least, are less common aspects of training that are best facilitated by kettlebells.

In other words, principles go beyond the methods and tools, and kettlebell has the same quality. It is teaching the body how to move more effectively. Kettlebell is a tool selected to reinforce a given quality; having that quality, it stay when the kettlebell is not in your hand. The tool becomes a prop. As a prop, kettlebells extend the range of movement beyond that of a dumbbell, because it’s centre of mass is well beyond the handle. It created a swinging motion like a pendulum that extends the bodies normal range of strength and motion. So, it is very useful in that regard because martial arts application is all about combined centre of mass. Your centre + your opponents centre. Finding and keeping with that, is the essential of any art form, sticking, following, uprooting, and finishing. It’s using the entire body and you are on your feet and there is a dynamic component, with a heavy grip component. Working the stance and the muscles of the back and spine and abdomen. Great for the shoulder range of motion. The is a unique loading that occurs in the swinging movements–swings, cleans, snatches or the single and double varieties. For example, you cannot swing a barbell between your legs. A kettle bell encourages this eccentric loading of the hips and rear side of the body—the all-important postural, power muscles.

There is also unique leverage points because of the way the bell sits on the forum when doing various overhead and cleaning movement. It gives added control and allow for the weight to be cantered directly over the centre of mass of your body. This is a very important and valuable distinction. You can align the weight without having to stress or strain the wrists. Keeping this neutral alignment of the wrists is more natural and comfortable. It is like holding a guard position with the elbows and forearms close to the body. Fit like a glove.

Most of all, kettlebells is the tool that best encourages work capacity, for a single tool. Repetition ballistics give you more bang for your buck than any other type of fitness training when done in earnest. Fighters in particular need sustained power. Not necessarily 1 strike power, although that is highly valued. Especially for any sport fighter, the ability to strike or otherwise manoeuvre at near-maximal power for a sustained period is a most important quality. Training a powerful anaerobic system is one of the best uses of kettlebells to supplement the martial arts training.

There are different attributes and styles of training with kettlebells also, like in martial arts. There is the classical lifting, contested in sport, there is the general fitness, there is feats of strength and stunts, and there is juggling. The variety that a single kettlebells offers in not found in any other single training tool, and that makes it extremely versatile for a creative trainer and athlete.

A: Lets talk about your insights to conditioning for the martial arts.

S: A few key points:

Many fighters do too much ‘cardio’ training; too much long, slow distance, too many sloppy reps;

The sparring and fight training itself is the sport specific part; the cross-training aspects—running, lifting kettlebells, medicine balls, BOSU, plyometrics, barbells etc—that stuff is all supplementary training to enhance and not to dominate the primary fight training

The fundamental plan that will give an athlete a good chance to win has to be in place–the right coaching, the right learning attitude and practice habits, the right team/training partners.

From there, the supplementary training, like a well-executed kettlebell lifting program can enhance the athleticism of the athlete, bringing the physical characteristics like power and conditioning to a peak; this helps to bring the potential out, to the upper limit of that individual athlete.

Things have to be very simple. Most of the energy goes into sparring and bagwork and roadwork, grappling, rolling, the fight training. Most people also have to work. So, there shouldn’t be a lot of time committed to the supplement strength and conditioning training. It has to be very concise and allowing for plenty of recovery.

Look at the strengths; look at the weaknesses of each fighter.

Address both in each training session. Everybody needs the basics; some will need additional mid-section (core) work, some will need extra grip/hand strength emphasis;

You will have usually 3-5 maybe up to 6 or 7 different exercises, but sometimes only 1 or 2.

As a general program, something like this would be very effective for a fighter’s conditioning cross training:

Loosen joints: 3:00

Clean & Jerk: 2x16kg @ 1:00 -warm-up, 2x24kg @ 3:00 x 3-5 sets (rest up to 1:00 bet sets)

Front Squat: 2x16kg @ 3:00

That’s just one possibility of course; but it would be easy to implement, not take too long and work every muscle and physical quality needed for a 3:00 round fighter;

The weights used naturally would be modified accordingly.

It could be modified to 5:00 sets as well; you have to learn to rest while working; it is fundamental to fighting and also to kettlebell lifting.

The quality of the work is as important as the time put in, more so really.

10 minutes of real work is more valuable than an hour of unproductive movement.

Shore up any weak links–neck, wrists/hands, shoulders, ribs, don’t leave any weak links. With training weak links can be addressed

The conditioning program and movements selected for martial artists need to be as intense as applications of the fighting system. The movements selected are to be full-body, focused and precise and the mind-set matches the goal of practice.

This is an art form that comes with understanding the nature of the movements and why to select one technique over another, just as a martial artists chooses one thing over another.

A: Yes, the method you have shown me has already transformed my kettlebell training.

S: Thanks for saying so—the methods are simple to apply; the things that work are always very simple; it takes years of hard work yet the system and the methodology does not and should not be complex; I always say that the little things make the big things; learning how to relax and pace yourself, being patient and control the energy output, these are qualities that we all need and especially martial arts training develops these same qualities. It is a very complimentary pairing, Kettlebells and martial arts. Also, that is why martial arts students can pick up the basics of Kettlebell lifting very quickly with the correct instruction.

A: I’m looking forward to the series of articles you are working on for MAI readers!

S: Yes, it will be very good to be able to contribute some of my experience with these readers. I have investigated the mechanics of various systems of movement and put it the context of training martial artists. Also, the idea that martial artists are athletes and need to prepare like athletes is something that I believe in. At a certain very high level, one relies less on athleticism and more on intention. However, the physical preparation should not ever be underestimated and a well-developed general athleticism gives any martial artist a big advantage in the ability to adapt to new, unfamiliar surroundings, which is what self-defence is really all about. So, I will be sharing my insights into the physical preparation side of things and how to best use the time in cross-training for your martial art.

A: Thank you Steve, I am sure your insights will be well received.

S: The wonderful thing about martial arts and the communities developed within and across the various styles, is that at its foundation it is very honest. One cannot get by on cunning alone. There must be skill and each person, at his or her current level, must be able to back up and validate what is said and done. The practical application of things can and should be tested. So, I know that what I teach works and can prove it. I know that I have a great deal more to learn, and so when I find things that can improve what I do today, I am able to learn and adapt. That is the nature of the student-teacher paradigm. I hope to share some of that.

Many people feel that kettlebells are simply unnecessary and overpriced compared to the good old dumbbell. So what exactly sets kettlebells apart from dumbbells? In this article, I will try to lay out the unique differences between a kettlebell and dumbbell and their training modalities.

1. Ways of gripping
Many first timers pick up a kettlebell and grip it the same way as they use dumbbells. A ‘death grip’ is used for dumbbell training, meaning you grip the dumbbell tightly with your hand, regardless whether the dumbbell is overhead or not. This is of course to prevent the dumbbell from falling out of your hands. With the kettlebell, you do not want to maintain a death grip because its just inefficient and tires your forearms easily. For example at the overhead position, the kettlebell is positioned diagonally across your palm and rest against the ‘hip of the hand’. This is a mechanically sound position and it allows the wrist and forearm to relax which cannot be accomplished with a dumbbell.

2. Compound and isolation movements
Compound movements are movements that target more than a muscle group and involves multiple joints movements (eg. knees, hips and ankles in a squat) while isolation movements only target a single muscle group and involve only movement of a joint (eg. elbow flexion in a bicep curl). Dumbbells are often used for isolation movements due to the symmetrical design and definitely good for strength development and in certain rehabilitation situations. On the other hand, kettlebell lifts like the swing, clean, jerk and snatch are compound movements which targets the whole body and teaches the whole body to move as one unit. Of course, you can perform isolation movements like the bicep curl with the kettlebell but you will not be able to extol the unique benefits that kettlebells have to offer due to its design and offset centre of gravity.

Now, some will argue that you can substitute the kettlebell lifts with a dumbbell too. We are talking about lifts like cleans and jerks. In the kettlebell clean, the kettlebell is rested in the rack position whereby the elbow is rested against the hip. It is because of the unique shape of the kettlebell that this rack position can be achieved and it is just way too awkward with a dumbbell. Not to mention that you will need to maintain a death grip on the dumbbell at all times.

Kettlebell Rack Position

How about swings? Sure, you can perform swings with a dumbbell too. So don’t buy a kettlebell just to perform swings only.

3. Different training modalities/goals
We will need to look at primary function of kettlebells in order to differentiate kettlebell training from traditional strength training. A kettlebell is a fixed weight, so it is fair to say that a good way to measure progress is to increase the repetitions. One way of training with kettlebells is to lift it for relatively high repetitions (30-200 repetitions) without putting the kettlebells down. This training modality is unique to kettlebell training due to its special design compared to traditional strength training where the weight is put down after 5-15 reps. What it does build is work capacity and fitness with a good amount of strength that can be used in everyday activities.

If your goal is for max strength and/or mass development, you will eventually outgrow kettlebells (not too mention it will be expensive to get a whole set of kettlebell) so a set of barbells/adjustable dumbbells will be more suited to your goals.

In conclusion, I think the reason for the debate and confusion is too many people make the mistake of attempting to use kettlebells like traditional weights. To fully utilise and exploit the unique benefits of kettlebells, it is essential to seek expert instruction from a trainer.

I have heard this comment many times from prospects who are looking for some fitness activities but are turned off by the price of kettlebells.

But are they really expensive? Let’s analyse.

Buying the equipment or buying the benefits?

There are people who buy exercise machines like treadmills, stacked weight machines, Osim iGallop etc. Which cost a lot more than kettlebells. Why don’t they think these are expensive? Whether they work or not is another story. Some do, most don’t.

When you buy a piece of equipment, are you buying the equipment or are you buying the exercises that you can do with it and the benefits of doing those exercises?

A treadmill is just a machine made up of metal cogs, electrical wires and some other stuff. I don’t think you want to buy a treadmill for the sake of the material it is made up of. Some people won’t even bother what is the mechanism of the treadmill. You buy a treadmill because you want to run on it and you perceive that running on it is worth buying the equipment. When you buy a treadmill, you only buy running.

The perceived value of an equipment (or anything else for that matter) is what makes us purchase it. A fitness gadget may promise 10 kg weight loss in 2 weeks, it is this supposed value that leads people to buying the gadget. Of course, most fitness gadgets over-promise and under-deliver. Many people foolishly think that by buying a piece of expensive gadget, the gadget will do the work for them and allow them to achieve their physical goals easily. If you are one of them, don’t bother buying kettlebells, they will never work for you until you start taking charge of your own health and putting in some real effort to do so.

A kettlebell is just a ball of steel. When you buy a kettlebell, you buy the swing, clean, press, push press, jerk, snatch and many more exercises that you can do with it. A kettlebell only cost less than SGD$200, a lot cheaper than treadmills or other exercise machines. With the many exercises that you can do with it, ask yourself again, is it expensive? The benefits of using a kettlebell include fat loss, strength gain and better all-round conditioning. More often than not, exercise gadgets only promise aesthetics benefits (if they even work in the first place) but not functional benefits like strength, flexibility and endurance which are more important than mere physical appearance.

A lot of people like to compare kettlebells with dumbbells and say that with the same amount of money that can buy them a kettlebell, they can simply get an adjustable dumbbell. The unique design of the kettlebell is what makes it different from the dumbbell, as such swinging a kettlebell is different and much harder than swinging a dumbbell due to the off-centered weight. The ballistic movements (which are the essence of kettlebell training) accomplished with kettlebells just don’t feel natural with dumbbells.

Will you grow out of them?

If you think they are expensive because you will grow out of them someday, you are wrong. My first kettlebell is a 16kg. I have been training with kettlebells for 3+ years. Until now there are exercises that are challenging for me with the 16kg, like the bottom up press. Heck, there are exercises that are challenging for me with 8kg and 12kg, like juggling.

You will grow out of dumbbells but you don’t grow out of kettlebells. You can simply do more reps with a lighter kettlebell (can be somewhat compared to jogging but safer and less impact on your joints) as a light workout. The design of kettlebell lends itself ergonomically to high-rep lifting where the kettlebell can rest against the hand without gripping it tight like a dumbbell.

Check out Valery Fedorenko, Master of Sport in Kettlebell Lifting, doing 2006 reps of push press with a 16kg, a beginner’s weight.

Space saving

Which one takes up more space? A kettlebell or a universal gym machine?

Personally I will not want to have a spare room just to store fitness equipment.

Convenience and durability

A kettlebell is portable and most home fitness equipment do not offer portability. Examples would include gym machines and treadmills. In case that you want to go outdoors or bring your equipment elsewhere for training, a kettlebell is much easier to transport than a rack of dumbbells. Bringing that one kettlebell allows you to do all the exercises that you can do at home or at the beach, wherever you want!

A well-made kettlebell does not require any maintenance unlike machines. They last for years or even a lifetime! They do not break, there are people in Russia who juggles kettlebells. In fact, people in Eastern Europe pass on the kettlebells from generations to generations, simply because they are made to last.

Here at Singapore Kettlebells, we promise high-quality products and have zero complaints with the quality of our professional grade kettlebells.

Conclusion

The bottom line is kettlebells provide more value than most fitness equipment which are much more expensive. A two-month gym membership can get you a kettlebell which will last for years. But it actually takes effort (just like anything else in life) in using them for results to show. If you are looking for an easy way out, kettlebells are definitely not for you!

I have been receiving enquiries on why we only sell Pro Grade Kettlebells and not the traditional cast iron ones. The reason is simple. We want to offer only the best to our customers.

For all major sports like soccer and basketball, they have a official standard ball size. Can you imagine haiving different ball sizes for competitive basketball? This would mean players will have to change technique each time the ball changes. It is the same for kettlebells. Pro Grade Kettlebells have the same sizes/handles and dimensions regardless of their weight. This will allow the lifter to use the same lifting technique throughout, be it 8kg or 32kg. You will be able to focus on refining your technique without re-learning everything each time you move to a heavier weight. Your workouts will benefit from the consistence and the precision of your lifting techniques enabling you to reach a higher level of fitness, strength, power and athleticism in your own sport or activity.

The Pro Grade Kettlebell also rests comfortably in the rack position without hurting your forearms, which can be the case for cast iron kettlebells. The slim handle will help to reduce grip fatigue and this is especially important for long endurance sets.

Pro Grade Kettlebells

Most people are stuck in the old bodybuilding mindset that a heavier weight should be a bigger weight in the case of dumbbells. But kettlebells are not about bodybuilding, it’s about performance and real-world fitness. The Pro Grade Kettlebells will prove to a worthwhile investment in the long run for both ladies and guys alike.

The health and fitness industry is notorious for being full of quick-fix solutions, miracle fat loss cures, and numerous other ways of making sure you lose money before you lose weight. Professional fitness instructor Herman Chauw lifts the lid on some of the surprising myths and truths that the health and fitness industry doesn’t want you to know about.

1. You need expensive exercise equipment to have a good training effect.

Are you impressed when gyms and fitness centres say they have the latest and most advanced equipment in the market? Does that make you want to join a gym more than a gym equipped with simple barbells and dumbbells – even if its membership fees are double?

To tell you the truth, high-tech equipment has only come into the fitness scene in the past few decades. Before that, strongmen trained with simple weights. There are people who trained (and still train) with crude fitness equipment like rocks and still get impressive strength, performance and physique.

It’s strange to think that when so many people want to pay less for fitness equipment, they can do exactly that by buying simple, effective tools that have a powerful effect.

Try this workout with a simple sandbag:

2. You need to spend a lot of time to have a good training effect.

Have you been told that you need to spend at least an hour of training up to two hours a day to get the results you want? Does that put you off exercising because you “don’t have time”?

To tell you the truth, half an hour or even less can have a good training effect too. The intensity of the exercise decreases as the duration increases. So the highest intensity exercises have the shortest duration.

This is something that the guys selling expensive fitness plans and regimes don’t want you to know: with a well designed training program, ten to fifteen minutes of intense exercise done right is all you need.

Try this Tabata Protocol, 6 minutes of gut wrenching workout. You can do this with kettlebells and incorporate a variety of kettlebell movements into the workout.

3. Running is the best form of exercise to lose fat.

If i had a dime every time i heard this, I would be rich. There is no “best exercise to lose fat”.

Any exercise can be used to good effect, depending on how you design your training program. I’m not saying that running is bad – any kind of exercise is great for keeping fit and losing weight. The point is that running is often claimed to be the most effective form of exercise, and this simply isn’t true.

As an aside, running is among the top ten most popular recreational activities BUT it is also among the top ten most injury producing activities. Most people do not run properly or have insufficient/improper preparation for running.

4. Machines are safer than free weights.

This relates to the first point on expensive equipment. Gymnasiums and other exercise facilities spend thousands of bucks buying the latest high-tech machines to attract crowds. They tell you that they are safer than free weights because free weights are more difficult to lift and the exercises are harder to learn.

The truth is that not only is high-end exercise equipment not necessary for the general population, they can be more dangerous to your joints that your local facility would tell you. In nature, we have to stabilize free weight (whether it be tools, groceries, babies, rocks etc) with our own muscles. We should simulate movement as we would in nature, not create artificial movements.

Machines can be used for advanced bodybuilders who want to isolate muscles which can’t be replicated by free weights. They can also be useful for rehab patients. But if you don’t fall under these categories, don’t even touch them. Stay away from them like the plague.

5. Progress from machines to free weights.

Related to the points above, some trainers advocate starting with a base of machine exercises and progressing to free weights.

But to tell you the truth, you can and you should start with free weights. As mentioned above, you already are balancing free weights all the time, 24 hours of you life. Your body is already capable of doing complex movements, just that it may have forgotten how.

Anyway, free weights will give you better training effect than machines. So would you rather waste your time doing many machine exercises or save time by doing a few good free weight exercises? Free weights like kettlebells when done correctly involve full body effort and often powerful results come from simple and straightforward kettlebell training.

Check out this exercise, called the Mill, trains multiple planes of motion at the same time, great for strength, endurance, joint mobility etc.

5. Heavy weights are dangerous.

You may have gotten this idea from people telling you that they injured their back lifting something heavy. It is true that the heavier the weight the higher the risk for injury. But that is not the whole truth.

The truth is that any weight can cause injury. In fact you can injure yourself lifting nothing significantly heavy, like just bending down improperly. You’re quite likely to injure your back picking up a loaf of bread, but people rarely speak of the dangers!

Whether you are at risk of injury or not is dependent more on your lifting technique. There are people who can lift heavy weights without getting injured, with proper technique.

The key element here is proper weightlifting technique. If you are not sure of your technique, please ask the friendly trainer at your gym and he would gladly assist you.

7. Weight training equals bodybuilding.

Or put it another way, weight training WILL cause you to get big muscles. This probably has been the message that a lot of people have been getting from the media. The more physique is glorified in the fashion magazines and other media, the deeper the truth is buried.

The fact of the matter is that there can be many purposes of weight training, and not all of them aim to create big muscles. An example would be weightlifting, a sport whereby the goal is to lift as heavy as possible. The goal and training methods are very different from bodybuilding. Small people in weightlifting can and often do lift mind boggling weights.

Check out this guy, Naim Suleymanoglu, weighing less than 60kg, he can lift 3x bodyweight.

8. Kids can’t lift weights.

Some coaches recommend that kids do not lift weights under a certain age, about puberty. There is a certain truth in that heavy, maximal weights can stunt growth in growing (in height) children.

However that is not the whole truth. It is only true when combined with an improperly designed training program. Everybody, and i mean EVERYbody lift weight 24 hours a day – our bodyweight.
Coupled with a properly designed training program which utilises submaximal weights, weight training can be a useful tool to develop strong and healthy kids.

Check out these kids swinging kettlebells:

9. I can’t exercise because I have back pain.

Most doctors would prescribe rest for any kind of pain, probably also painkillers. Most people also who have had injuries of some sort shy away from physical activity in fear of aggravating their injury. And yet here are also those who do extreme physical exertions in spite of their injuries.

While the first two types are probably rational way to go about the problem, the third is probably not very wise. You can balance this by doing what we call physiotherapy (or rehabilitation and recovery exercises), of which the goal is to recover from your injury and regain pain-free movement. You need to exercise if you are injured, to get back to normal function.

Take a look at 60+ years old Valentin Dikul, he broke his back as a teenager in a circus act. He can juggle 80kg kettlebells.

10. Crunches/Situps are the best exercise to get a six pack.

Crunches/sit-ups is not a bad exercise when coupled with a proper training program. Any exercise is useful to create a desired effect, depending on the context of the program.

However the truth is that people often do not know the dangers of doing it improperly or doing too much of it. You can get neck strain and postural problems if it is done indiscriminately.

And another truth is that, you will get a six pack regardless of them. As long as you have low bodyfat, a reasonably athletic person would have abdominal definition.

If you like a crunches/sit-up based program, check out the Beyond Sit Ups by Coach Murdock:

The health and fitness industry isn’t a bad place; but there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about which exercises and equipment are effective. The key point to remember is that exercise is best performed as part of a balanced training program, in sensible chunks of time, with proper method and supervision.

About the Author
Herman is a professional fitness instructor and kettlebell expert based in Singapore. He was certified by the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation in 2009. You can contact Herman at singaporekettlebellclub@gmail.com

Read this article in its original context at http://www.singaporekettlebellclub.blogspot.com/2009/09/ten-myths-of-fitness-industry.html

They may have started out as makeshift Russian training equipment in 18^th century, but Kettlebells are enjoying a surge in popularity around the world in the 21^st. Barry Smith finds out more about one of today’s most popular weight loss and fitness tools.

What weighs 16 kilos, looks like a cannonball with a handle, and comes in a variety of colours including blue, yellow and pink? It’s not a trick question – a Kettlebell is all this and more.

Legend has it that in the 1700s, Kettlebell-like objects were used as counterweights in Russian markets and industry. Some bright sparks decided they could use them as a training tool, and thus began Russia’s 300-year old love affair with Kettlebells.

This adoption of an everyday object into fitness training equipment wasn’t just an ingenious stroke of early recycling: it turns out that Kettlebells offer a complete all-body workout that fuses weight training, cardio training, and mobility and flexibility training.

The principle is simple. By having a more centralised gravity center, a Kettlebell isn’t so much lifted and curled, as with conventional dumbbells or free weights. Kettlebell lifting is about moving the weight around your body in a series of arcs, giving a complete muscle workout and exercising the parts that other workouts simply cannot reach.

“Kettlebells are great for building tone and developing muscle, but they’re so much more than this,” says James Lai, founder of Singapore Kettlebells. “They build flexibility in a safe and controlled way, so they’re useful in developing agility and mobility, which are often areas of fitness that are neglected by normal weight training.”

It goes further than this. Kettlebells have been shown to be a more effective weight loss tool than even that dreaded Singapore Sunday pastime – jogging. “Most people believe that the more you jog, the greater the fat loss that you experience,” says James. “But often the opposite is true. The body adapts to regular jogging, so the improvements in weight loss and fitness you get when you start jogging don’t sustain themselves as you continue.”

It almost sounds too good to be true – a weight loss workout that’s better for me than jogging, safer and more effective than slimming pills, and that gives me the opportunity to exercise and get fit without leaving my apartment and without spending thousands of dollars on home gym equipment. Is it really the answer?

James Lai again: “Of course, there is no quick fix weight loss or miracle overnight diet cure out there, and if you ever hear anyone telling you that there is, you should run a mile. What Kettlebells are great for is a concentrated, full-body workout that’s not just about muscle development. The beauty of a kettlebell is its versatility, and it’s this versatility that’s the real value.”

“Our website http://www.kettlebells.sg gives a lot of information on what you can do with kettlebells and how kettlebell training can help you maintain a healthy and fit lifestyle. And you can do this without leaving your apartment or balcony, or even your office!”

For those who would prefer a structured introduction to Kettlebells, you can attend a class right here in Singapore at the Singapore Kettlebell Club.

“That would be just the right kind of introduction to the sport that I’d recommend,” says James. “Get introduced to the weights and how they work, get some exercise routines together, learn in the safety of a controlled environment and then head home with what you’ve learned.”

It’s certainly an interesting area, and one thing that really strikes me is that the focus of kettlebell training is so much more open than conventional weight lifting. The emphasis isn’t on big lifts done by big guys on big stages – everyone in the kettlebell scene is friendly, relaxed, and solely interested in kettlebells for the fun, safe and effective workout that they offer.

For more information, and to buy kettlebells, see James’ site http://www.kettlebells.sg

Barry Smith is a freelance journalist.

The following article was written by Louis Ling, an advocate of kettlebells and a freelance personal trainer.

Life has its pitfalls of ups and downs, hectic work schedules, a social life which often has been neglected. Here are some ideas on how to revamp your training routines and ideas to squeeze in that 15-30 minutes you have left of your day. We all know 24 hours is sometimes never enough…

My outlook towards training equipment has been a neutral one, everything is made equal – Each tool has its purpose and place.

The kettlebell however, is a superior conditioning tool for fat loss and to improve your anaerobic work capacity. It’s versatility is bar-none to anything else that has been created in the strength and conditioning world and it will unlock your capacity to reach your goals if its towards conditioning and fat loss.

Circuit training has been used for a long time now, be it in military or uniformed groups which boast the cardiovascular intensive workouts to boost work capacity, circuit trainings are extremely useful with fat loss too. Who said Cardiovascular exercises must be boring jogs, walks, long bike rides which allows you to soul search or moving around like a bad skiing trip stuck in mud on an elliptical trainer?

If you’re looking for an effective fat burner within a short period of time, then circuit training is your answer.

How does circuit training work for me?

High work loads coupled with short rest produces lactic acid which stimulates secretion of anabolic hormones – Growth Hormones. Growth hormones are a power agent to mobilize fat, this together with oxygen deficit from messy conversion of energy, ATP – ADP; Adenosine Triphosphate to Adenosine Diphosphate or simply known as the EPOC (Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption) mobilizes fat and burns more calories than low intensity, steady state cardiovascular activity. There is much research and studies being done about high work loads, low rest ratio type of exercise regime, and most studies have concluded that fat loss is the results of it. The EPOC effect boost your metabolism instantly and it continues on for up to 36 hours and sometimes even longer.

What about improving my work capacity?

Circuit training conditions your body to handle high lactic threshold, the very same burning sensation that you feel when you’re doing repetitive movement over and over again without resting. We’re using the same principles but in a progressive manner.

Enough with the science! Lets cut to the chase!

Okay, so lets start with selection of kettlebells, how heavy do I need?

For men, I recommend if you’ve just started training or have less than 1 year of training experience in the weight room, a 16kg kettlebell will suffice. When you get stronger, you can gradually shift to 20kg and so on.

For ladies, I recommend an 8 kg kettlebell and when you’re stronger, shift to a 12kg and so.

If you’re cash strapped, get a single kettlebell, if you have the extra cash get a pair of the similar weight.

Remember that what you’re going to do is going to be tough mentally and physically, there is no need to rush nor push to make it harder.

Correct form and technique is the epitome in the strength and conditioning world. Without this primary principle, you’d injure yourself which will impede your progress and that is the last thing you want to do.

Strive to manage fatigue, and do more work in less time with correct form and not knock yourself out with heavy weights that you cannot handle.

So how do you choose the exercises?

Lets look at the basics of exercise physiology, the basic 6 movement that every exercise spans from.

• Horizontal Push – Bench press, Dips, Push ups
• Horizontal Pull – Inverted/Barbell/Dumbbell Rows
• Vertical Push – Military Press, Jerks
• Vertical Pull – Pull ups
• Quad Dominant – All Squat Variants, Lunges
• Hip Dominant – Dead lifts, Kettlebell Swings

How do I put them all together?

First you need the proper equipment, if you can afford a pair of gymnastic rings, get it.

With gymnastic rings, you are able to do all Horizontal Push/Pull movement (Ring Push Up, Dips/Inverted Rows) and Vertical Pull movement (Pull ups)

A set of rings is a infinite investment as there are many other exercises that can be done with it too.

It is small enough to keep it aside to and hang it up if you wish to use it, so if you don’t have one, its time to save up.

Then you have your Kettlebells - You can use them for your Horizontal Pushing/Quad Dominant/Hip Dominant Movement – Military Press/Lunges,Squats/Swings,Dead lifts.

Beginner’s Circuit

Lets start with a simple circuit all done back to back with no rest within a set amount of Rounds/Repetitions

One lower body + two upper body (One Horizontal Push and one Vertical Pull.)

An example would be:

Rounds – 5, Repetitions – 8reps of each exercise in a round

Lunges + Push ups + Chin ups

OR

Swings + Military Press + Inverted Rows

Intermediate/Advance Circuit

Two lower body + Three upper body

An example would be:

Rounds – 3, Repetitions – 10reps of each exercise in a round

Lunges + Push up + Dead lifts + Inverted Rows + Push ups

The list goes on and on, and only limited to your imagination and work capacity!

Tips/Caution and points to review again:

• Try not to place two lower body exercise back to back when you design your circuit
• If at any point of time you’re out of breath, need to stop for a break, don’t hesitate to do it but don’t cheat yourself if you’re no where near your limit.
• Always practice good form and technique, don’t allow your ego to take over.
• Progress slowly, don’t be too ambitious. Start small and increase very slowly.
• Experiment around with the Rounds and Repetitions to find what is comfortable for you and design it to suit your current fitness level
• Always strive to do more work with good form and technique and don’t force the timing if you can’t

Now you have acquired the art of working out within 30 minutes or even lesser, there is no reason why you can’t attain your fitness goals!