When I got serious about getting healthy years ago I plunged into exercise. I was looking for strength, fat loss, and performance. Initially I trained with kettlebells. They brought great success. Fat started pouring off my body, and I got very strong.
After deciding to run our local race the Volkslauf ( a 10k with mud, walls, ropes, and tons of fun obstacles) I changed my training over to endurance. Weight loss stopped. Running 10k every night halted all my progress. I watched as my body changed again. While i wasn't gaining weight, my composition was changing. Fat was over taking muscle as the running taught my muscles to be more efficient fat burners (the last thing you want if you are trying to lose fat!). I experimented with my diet, no change. Running gave me great endurance, but i was feeling weaker by the day.
After the race, which was too easy I turned to Afterburn. Alwyn Cosgroves plan for strength and fat loss. I saw just how weak running had made my body, and was glad to be putting muscle back on, but the fat never seemed to leave. I gave the plan 3 out the 4 months, 15 lbs heavier, diet still tight, i am officially proclaiming it bunk for those in the long haul.
After a month of intense muscle growth, I am now on Crossfit. I have been watching the program for years now. After the first 2 weeks, i have been pleasantly sore every day. Something I haven't felt since I started with Kettle bells.
I hope that this program is able to get my body whipped back into shape. It's been fun so far, and I love quick, hard workouts. If after 2 months I see no noticeable results, back on a strict diet of kettlebells and sandbags. I could cheat every day and fat was melting off with my workouts. Everything else has been falling short even when my diet is perfect.
Hated the 10k last week because we ran it on treadmills. I will never run on a treadmill again.
Showing posts with label kettlebells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kettlebells. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
No love for the gym rats
Last night we went down to our local neighborhood gym to do our nightly workouts. We are pushing things hard there. We usually use the empty part of the gym(the racks). To do our sets we take up a small area and are jumping straight from exercise to exercise, alternating upper and lower body parts, and resting after the power set is over. It really gets you huffing, sweating and generally receiving confused looks from the folks around you.
We enjoy having our area to do this, although we are bummed that more people aren't training for performance. The big downfall of this area is all the folks in the middle working on useless vanity muscles are making love to themselves in the mirrors that we are standing right in front of. I kind of start to feel uncomfortable. I have seen movie stereotypes of characters that are in love with themselves, but i haven't spent too much time around an actual person that infatuated with themselves. I really want to tell them to do that alone in their own bedrooms, cause it's kind of disgusting.
I think you can have some good results in a gym, but I am sick of being surrounded by people dressed up for spring break, and looking to hook up. Give me the underground strength training. Give me bootcamps. Give me kettlebells and mirror-less hot and sweaty weight rooms. The gym has become this ridiculous meat market that is only breeding(literally) the end of our intelligence as a species.
From a business perspective the gym is perfect. Hire underpaid enthusiastic staff and get a ton of people to give you money for services 90% dont use enough to keep paying each month, then charge em a ton when they try to cancel. It's perfect. Just like mini-storage you have an incredible money making machine with little overhead.
I meet a lot of great people, but nothing compares to our park workouts, being outside, laughing and sweating with a bunch of people and a common goal. Our underground strength sessions provided us with incredible results. We throw around sandbags, kettlebells, do pull-ups on trees, odd object lifting, the whole works. Outside "underground" training gives you such a mental edge in the world too. Even though i hold a black belt and feel confident in my self defense ability I still know that I can throw a 150lb sandbag across my lawn. So when I see the muscle laden impressive looking guys i feel no threat. Cool you can bench 360. I don't know when that will come in handy in the real world. I can't think of a single sport or situation where you can be successful pushing weight while lying on your back, if you are lying on your back you already failed. No, not impressive, and I don't care what you can put out.
What can your body do as a whole. Do you have to use wraps to do exercises? You're Weak! You are always only as strong as your weakest link. Anyways, enough ranting.
I can see everyone having great benefits and results in a gym, but the equipment and atmosphere in these big box gyms is not conducive to real performance results.
Join us in the underground. Crossfit, underground strength, kettlebells, these tools and resources are changing everything. I have been following some trainers for a while now, and am excited to hear about some new guys hitting the market. Josh Hunnicut is a guy to watch out for. Be ready, his knowledge will help anyone break plateaus and achieve the results they want.
It's working for us. It will work for you.
And gym rats, well, we will welcome you into our fold, but please stop making love to yourself in the mirror, that's the kind of thing you should only do in the privacy of your own home.
We enjoy having our area to do this, although we are bummed that more people aren't training for performance. The big downfall of this area is all the folks in the middle working on useless vanity muscles are making love to themselves in the mirrors that we are standing right in front of. I kind of start to feel uncomfortable. I have seen movie stereotypes of characters that are in love with themselves, but i haven't spent too much time around an actual person that infatuated with themselves. I really want to tell them to do that alone in their own bedrooms, cause it's kind of disgusting.
I think you can have some good results in a gym, but I am sick of being surrounded by people dressed up for spring break, and looking to hook up. Give me the underground strength training. Give me bootcamps. Give me kettlebells and mirror-less hot and sweaty weight rooms. The gym has become this ridiculous meat market that is only breeding(literally) the end of our intelligence as a species.
From a business perspective the gym is perfect. Hire underpaid enthusiastic staff and get a ton of people to give you money for services 90% dont use enough to keep paying each month, then charge em a ton when they try to cancel. It's perfect. Just like mini-storage you have an incredible money making machine with little overhead.
I meet a lot of great people, but nothing compares to our park workouts, being outside, laughing and sweating with a bunch of people and a common goal. Our underground strength sessions provided us with incredible results. We throw around sandbags, kettlebells, do pull-ups on trees, odd object lifting, the whole works. Outside "underground" training gives you such a mental edge in the world too. Even though i hold a black belt and feel confident in my self defense ability I still know that I can throw a 150lb sandbag across my lawn. So when I see the muscle laden impressive looking guys i feel no threat. Cool you can bench 360. I don't know when that will come in handy in the real world. I can't think of a single sport or situation where you can be successful pushing weight while lying on your back, if you are lying on your back you already failed. No, not impressive, and I don't care what you can put out.
What can your body do as a whole. Do you have to use wraps to do exercises? You're Weak! You are always only as strong as your weakest link. Anyways, enough ranting.
I can see everyone having great benefits and results in a gym, but the equipment and atmosphere in these big box gyms is not conducive to real performance results.
Join us in the underground. Crossfit, underground strength, kettlebells, these tools and resources are changing everything. I have been following some trainers for a while now, and am excited to hear about some new guys hitting the market. Josh Hunnicut is a guy to watch out for. Be ready, his knowledge will help anyone break plateaus and achieve the results they want.
It's working for us. It will work for you.
And gym rats, well, we will welcome you into our fold, but please stop making love to yourself in the mirror, that's the kind of thing you should only do in the privacy of your own home.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Kettlebells: Hype or High Performance Tools
A couple years ago I was introduced to Kettlebells by a co-worker. He was also into every form of homeopathy so I dismissed them as a fad. I started to hear the word and decided to take another look at them. Martial Artist were jumping on this "trend" left and right. I decided to try them. I remember ordering my first bell having know idea even how to use them. The information available online was scarce, and the horror stories were in abundance. It took a lot of searching but i finally found enough information to get started. I haven't looked back since.
People around me have dismissed this as a fad for along time. I just show them my results. I lost 88 lbs using these puppies! I felt like an animal. Of the group that began to train with me, all saw phenomenal results whether or not their diets were healthy. I'm missing my bells. I started a program recently that guaranteed me it would drop 2-3 lbs of fat every week. So far i have only gained weight. I can't tell if it's all muscle, but the claims just aren't adding up and I am longing for my bells after 9 weeks of this new program.
kettlebells can be a complete fitness tool. But I still will use a rack to squat and a db's to military press. Learning proper kettlebell form is essential to avoiding problems down the line. There are a few dvd's out there to help but right now they are all so expensive it's hard to bite the bullet. Use all the free stuff you can find. I have heard of some new kettlebell dvd's coming out that should do more than teach form.
What ever your thoughts are, give them a chance. I saw better results with kettlebells than any other program i have tried. Yeah they are weird and ackward in the beginning. Keep using them, before you know it you will have a rock hard core, increased strength, and feel ready to take on the world. Warning, these are addicting. I started with 1 35lb bell (recommended for starting men) I now own 12 ranging from a 5lber(for starting kids) to a 117 lber(only advance and super strong men should attempt). They seem expensive, but now that gofit has released a set they are more available and more affordable than ever before.
Happy swinging
and remember
"Swing with your legs!!!!!"
People around me have dismissed this as a fad for along time. I just show them my results. I lost 88 lbs using these puppies! I felt like an animal. Of the group that began to train with me, all saw phenomenal results whether or not their diets were healthy. I'm missing my bells. I started a program recently that guaranteed me it would drop 2-3 lbs of fat every week. So far i have only gained weight. I can't tell if it's all muscle, but the claims just aren't adding up and I am longing for my bells after 9 weeks of this new program.
kettlebells can be a complete fitness tool. But I still will use a rack to squat and a db's to military press. Learning proper kettlebell form is essential to avoiding problems down the line. There are a few dvd's out there to help but right now they are all so expensive it's hard to bite the bullet. Use all the free stuff you can find. I have heard of some new kettlebell dvd's coming out that should do more than teach form.
What ever your thoughts are, give them a chance. I saw better results with kettlebells than any other program i have tried. Yeah they are weird and ackward in the beginning. Keep using them, before you know it you will have a rock hard core, increased strength, and feel ready to take on the world. Warning, these are addicting. I started with 1 35lb bell (recommended for starting men) I now own 12 ranging from a 5lber(for starting kids) to a 117 lber(only advance and super strong men should attempt). They seem expensive, but now that gofit has released a set they are more available and more affordable than ever before.
Happy swinging
and remember
"Swing with your legs!!!!!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
