Kettlebells - high yield fitness

What is a Kettlebell?
A kettlebell is a traditional Russian training tool that has been used for hundreds of years to develop full body conditioning and fitness. A kettlebell looks like a cannon ball with a handle. The shape of the kettlebell allows for unique positioning of the weight directly above your centre of mass and allows you to keep your hand and wrists in neutral alignment; this enables greater endurance and longevity in the core lifts so that you can produce a much higher volume of exercise and thus greater conditioning and fitness. Unlike a conventional dumbbell or barbell, the Kettlebell’s centre of mass is displaced from the handle. This means the weight constantly pulls against your hand and requires not only strength and co-ordination, but also the recruitment of other muscles through your arms, shoulders and trunk.

How do you train with Kettlebells?
Kettlebell workouts have long been a favourite of martial artists, throwers, jumpers, sprinters and hurdlers. These athletes need to be highly agile and strong and they do exercises that have a dynamic component to them. You can perform squats, pulls, dynamic overhead snatches and rotational training plus much more, and these are the exercises that make up the majority of kettlebell training. Any age, size, fitness level… any relatively healthy person can get started with the proper instruction.
What are the benefits of kettlebells?
A regular kettlebell class will supercharge your fitness and melt your unwanted fat. You’ll bust your belly fat, lose your love handles and feel fantastic, energised and strong. Kettlebell training has tremendous sport and combat applications and they will dramatically improve explosiveness, help prevent injury and improve mental toughness.

See my website for information on classes, workouts and more:-

www.kickassfitnessuk.com

Tabata training - dispel the myth of aerobic exercise for fitness!

We've been fed the "aerobic" lie for over 30 years. Even doctors have been fooled by this pervasive myth.

The truth is slow aerobic training is terribly inefficient when it comes to burning fat.

With aerobic training, once you're done, you no longer burn the calories.
But with high intensity exercise your body continues to burn calories for several days.

Many people have the idea that they need to increase the length or distance in order to become fitter. Instead, as your fitness improves you need to decrease the duration so you cover the same distance in shorter and shorter times.

So what is Tabata training?

The Tabata protocol was developed by Izumi Tabata from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. It challenges both the aerobic and anaerobic systems in your body by using maximum effort intervals followed by a short rest. This enables you to burn more fat at rest by raising your metabolic rate.

Here's the protocol:-
You will need a Gymboss timer available from my website store:-

http://kickassfitnessuk.com/store/kaf-products/

Or use an online one as below:-




Sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds. This needs to be a 100% all out effort.

Active rest for 10 secs

Repeat 7 more times for a total of 8 sets.

So what you have here is a total of 4 minutes workout time. Only 4 minutes you say? Those who have done it never say 'only' again. But you can give yourself a pat on the back; you've just done a highly effective workout in four minutes and saved time, whilst everyone else is plodding along on a treadmill hour after hour.

I suggest the following exercises for variety:-
Cycling
Running
Skipping
Hitting a punch bag
Body squats
Pressups
Kettlebell swings / snatches.

Advanced warning: if you want to try Tabatas they are not for the faint hearted or unconditioned.
Beginners should learn general interval training first and once you are ready for the Tabata protocol, start out slowly and gradually work into a full workout. Aim to do 2 or 3 Tabata workouts per week as part of your normal workout routine.

As with any exercise program get a full physical check before you begin

"Flipping 'eck Tucker"

We're talking tyre flipping here!

Normally associated with those crazy "strongest Man in the World TV Programmes", the tyre is a fantastic addition to your home gym and suitable for everybody who wants to get into the best shape of their life. You can flip them, drag them with a rope or even hit them repeatedly with a sledge hammer - just be careful your hammer doesn't bounce off into your next door neighbour's green house! You may have trouble explaining that one.

Having performed multiple tyre flips using a lorry tyre on a few occasions, I can confirm this is one of those exercises that hits every part of your body and will improve your strength, endurance and explosiveness. A lorry tyre at around 25 to 30kgs is perfect as it will allow you to perform multiple flips in a set period.

Technique: As the weight of the tyre is carried around the edges, flipping one requires an explosive whole-body effort. Start in a deep squat with your fingertips underneath the tyre, drive up through your heels and push your hips forwards as you lift your arms to flip the tyre.

As a suggested workout for tyre flipping, use interval training: Set your timer for 10 minutes and tyre flip for 30 secs followed by 30 secs rest. Better still, work with a training partner, changing over every 30 seconds. A perfect addition to your fitness equipment is a 'Gymboss' Interval timer (available from Amazon) and allows you set up multiple or individual intervals.

I've just ordered a worn lorry tyre from ATS Stratford; They normally have monthly collections and I can go along and pick one free of charge. So a free piece of gym equipment that gets maximum results! Just one problem. How do I get it past the wife?

How to become a Superstar

Those of you of a certain age will remember Superstars' iconic champion Brian Jacks and his astonishing gym test results in the 1970's cult TV show. Brian was recognised more for his gym feats than his Olympic medals that he won in Judo. Click on the video link below from the Superstars 'fitness emporium', featuring Brian Jacks' amazing 100 parallel bar dips in 60 seconds:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE4ZYo7tvCI

Thrash your mates at press ups
You don't need to join the army to enjoy the many benefits of doing a proper press up. A press up, also called a push up, does not require any equipment other than you own body weight and it works all of the body at the same time. So how do you train to perform multiple press ups and be the envy of your mates? Enter the PRISON WORKOUT You don't have to get yourself locked up to take part in the prison workout, but there are plenty of real world applications. Do it in your house, garage, garden or when you are away on business when you only have a few minutes in your hotel room. It's intense and you could almost whip your body into shape by mastering this exercise routine alone. You'll be working out while Mr Average is still deciding what to do. Here's how.

• From a standing position, drop down into a press up position and perform ten complete press ups.


• Jump up, walk or jog to the other side of the room/garden, drop down again and perform 9 press ups.


• Repeat until you have completed all descending sets


• Time your routine and post your results

Descending from 10 down to 1 will give you a total 55 press ups, however if you descend from the holy grail of 20 you will be performing 210 press ups.

For an alternative try ascending from 1 upwards and see how far you get before you can't perform the next number. For instance you may get from 1 to 12 and then perform a further 7 press ups before you hit failure. This would give you 85 press ups.

Remember to post you results and comments.

Famous Sporting Comebacks

To be fitter after 40 will require facing a few obstacles and you are going to have to sweat for it. What it won't involve is spending hours in the gym everyday, after all if, like me, you have a family you would want to spend as much time with them as possible.

Here are some famous sportsmen and women who have returned to the fray:-

• George Foreman: Olympic Champion in 1968 at the age of 19 and went on to become world champion five years later when he defeated Joe Frazier. He lost his belt later to Mohammed Ali in the legendary 'Rumble in the Jungle'. But after some 12 years out of the game Foreman stunned the world of boxing when he floored Michael Moorer in 1994 at the age of 45. He remains the oldest ever boxing world champion.


• Lance Armstrong: The Texan survived cancer and went on to win seven consecutive Tour De France crowns before retiring in 2005. This year he returned to the saddle after four years away and finished third. An impressive feat for a 37 year old, totally inspirational.


• Steve Redgrave: Immediately after winning gold at the 1996 Olympic Games he stated that if anyone found him near a boat again they could shoot him. Despite this he went back for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and won his fifth consecutive gold medal whilst battling against diabetes.


• Niki Lauda: Won the world F1 Championship in 1975 and 1977 and quit in 1979 to focus on his airline. He returned in 1982 and in 1984 won his third world title with Mclaren.


• Dara Torres: The champion of coming out of retirement, swimmer Torres quit twice only to return to the pool in Beijing at the age of 41 and won three silver medals in the 50m free, 4 x100m free and 4 x 100m relay. She competed in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics before returning to the blocks at Sydney 2000 and winning five medals. She then continued her education, started a family in 2006 before announcing her second return to competition a few months later.
  

The Big Gym Mentality

If you are somebody that is prepared to commit to a path in fitness and be fitter after 40 what options do you have?

You could join one of the many large gym chains with an array of fancy equipment. However, step into the majority of these gyms and you'll discover that it's a world of confusion, dissolution. isolation, monotony, demotivation and ultimately disappointment. Over 90% of gym goers never reach their goals and that's ignoring the ones who continue to pay gym fees but rarely, if ever, turn up or those who have forgotten their original goal that made them join in the first place.

The reality is that the majority of these gyms are based around the body building mentality and it's been that way for over 40 years. No one questions whether or not the methods of training are acceptable to the general public because the people who work in this industry don't want to be exposed as unknowledgeable about fitness.

So let's take a closer look at the current state of the big gym:-

• Big gyms are based around the body building mentality - do you really want to be a body builder? Bloated, deformed and slow like prey: or would you rather be sleek, strong, agile, and lean like a predator?


• Static stretching before a workout - a complete waist of time that can lead to injury rather than preventing it. Have you ever seen a race horse do hamstring stretches before a race? No!


• Many exercises encouraged at the big gyms are based around isolation exercise such as bicep curls, tricep extensions and leg extensions. I've been to numerous gyms around the country and all you see is rows of guys doing endless bicep curls. Is this a bicep curling contest? Anybody caught doing bicep curls or tricep kick backs should be laughed at. Similarly for doing endless sit-ups in the futile hope that it will reduce an ever increasing waistline.


• A gym floor filled with endless rows of fancy machines. Do you really believe that you are going to get fit by sitting on a chair and pushing a weight that has already been stabilised and balanced for you? Reality check! Gyms use machines purely for economic reasons, meaning that they can employ cheaper staff as there is no skill requirement to train users on how to push a weight attached to a machine that does most of the hard work for you.


• Fat burning zones and spending hour after hour on treadmills and elliptical trainers. Do you really believe that you will become lean by training like this? I'm sorry but you are going to be very disappointed.


• A big gym would normally select one of two goals for you; bulk up and gain muscle or burn calories and lose weight. This can lead to unrealistic goals, a false sense of fitness and loss of motivation.

Isn't it any wonder that the majority of gym newcomers give up within a few weeks or rarely make an appearance. Obesity levels and falling fitness levels can only increase if gyms continue with these methods.

There is another way...

Over the next few posts, I'll show you the methods that will get you fitter at 40 plus than you were at 20. Stronger, leaner, more powerful, sleeker, faster and more agile. For those of you under 40 you have a head start.

Join the revolution.

Current state of over 40's health

Almost a third of males over 40 are obese with a further third over weight and not forgetting those who are unfit. These rates look like they will continue to rise.

Many males are in a state of self denial about their current fitness levels. What doesn't help is the fact that the western world has an image of how you should look and act at every life stage.

Many over 40 year olds wish they could be as fit and lean as they were when they were in their 20s and younger. Wishing for it does not mean that you care about your health and no government health and fitness initiative is going to improve things and reduce the burden on the health service. It has to come from the individual and they must be prepared to follow the correct path to all round fitness.