effective

A Quick (and effective) Kettlebell Swing + Bodyweight Movement Workout

Quick Tips

I’ve started to trend some of my posts toward topics that people are searching for in Google, which I am informed of on my blog.  You cannot see these stats and search terms, but I can, so advantage to me!

I won’t sell out and write what I think will drive more traffic to this blog (a lot of fitness bloggers do), but I am interested in what kind of traffic numbers will arrive if I direct some of my posts toward the needs of the people.  My goal has always been to write authentically and reach as many people as possible.  We will see how it turns out.

Ha, listen to me… “The needs of the people”.

Photo Credit: tv.com

Photo Credit: tv.com

I sound like I should run for city office, or city treasurer on Boardwalk Empire.

Anyways, I put myself through what I would consider an intermediate workout tonight.

This workout was heavily centered around kettlebell swings, and supplemented with various other bodyweight movements.  I feel like “supplemented” is the proper terminology in this particular situation, as you’ll see from the workout below.

The bodyweight movements that separate the kettlebell swings are nothing more than filler exercises used to keep my heart rate elevated in between bouts of swings.  More muscles worked, more calories burned during and after training.

I tend to choose both upper and lower body bodyweight movements to disperse the training stress to  more of a total body approach.  Splitting the movements to upper and lower allows for a brief period of training stress directed at a specific movement pattern (horizontal push, squat, vertical pull, etc) without exhausting that pattern completely.  This allows for intelligent fatigue management during other bodyweight movements and more importantly during kettlebell swings.

When fatigue sets in, technique gets ugly, people are exposed to bad habits and injury.

So, without blabbing any further, here is the structure of the workout, please notice that it is very similar to the multi-method cardio approach:

sample kettlebell and bodyweight workout

A couple of points…

First, there is a lot of work being done here, as you can see.  There is a lot of muscle being stressed and the rest is light.  A workout like this could be a complete training session for a beginner or an intermediate, or scaled up for an advanced lifter.  Scaling up for an advanced trainee might involve a bump up in bodyweight exercise progression or adding a weight vest to those movements.  It’s all a matter of tweaking the variables based on your unique situation and needs.

Second, I kept the reps to even numbers, 10’s and 20’s.  Why?  Because it is annoying having to check your notebook after every movement.  I want you to be focused on what you’re doing during the training session not counting reps like people count food calories.  Focus on your movement, your breathing, your recovery.  Forget about complicated rep schemes… I have plenty of those that I will post in good time.

Third, go sub-maximal but not too light on your kettlebell swings.  Grab a bell that you could swing for 30 reps and focus on hip snap during those suggested 20 reps.  Guys you might grab a 24kg or a 28kg, gals you might grab a 16kg or a 20kg.  Both guys and gals, you’re allowed to grab more or less than that, but on average, males and females will use those weights.

Remember, don’t gauge your energy expenditure on the first set of swings because you’ve got 3 more sets of swings and 4 different bodyweight movements lying ahead.  Manage your fatigue appropriately.  If you have a heart rate monitor, I would suggest using it to check you heart rate.  Of course, you’d want to already have an idea of the beats per minute that separate you from exhibiting crappy movement technique.  When you reach that heart rate, you can back off, rest for a few seconds, then get back into the workout once you can control and OWN the movement.

Why 20 reps of swings?  Because I personally feel that anything more than that really doesn’t provide much benefit other than poor technique (lack of finishing in full hip extension, slouching, etc) and a rising risk of losing the bell on the backswing or at the highest point of the arc.  One slip will kill your pet or put a hole in your wall, and the other will destroy your brand new LED TV.

20 reps (or less depending on your conditioning level) seems to allow for a sufficient elevation in heart rate without making the swings pointless from lack of load and endless volume.  There will be plenty of work performed in this training session, it doesn’t all need to be accomplished with kettlebell swings.

If you’re bored with your typical cardio routine, I would highly recommend giving a workout like this a real shot.  You will be pleasantly surprised at how hard your cardiovascular is taxed during a training session like the one described below.  20 minutes seems to be the sweet spot for me.  I have tested up to 30+ minutes of work like this, and it just doesn’t work for a couple of reasons…

1)  I feel like I am just going through the motions with regard to loading (aka weight used).

2)  I feel like I am adding  volume for an unjustified purpose.

These days, workouts like this serve as a great follow-up to my 2-day on/1-day off training schedule.

Day 1 is a heavily focused on strength work with a splash of jump rope or Airdyne cardio work, while day 2 (this workout) is dedicated to sub-maximal movements strung together to work cardio-strength (traditional strength moves with incomplete rest periods).

Ultimately, the goal is to stay physically prepared until I shift my training toward a particular goal.

Also, although the 20-25 minutes of work being completed in a workout are definitely stressful and draining, I feel as though it’s a short enough bout that allows for adequate recovery between training sessions, avoiding over-training.  The full 24+ hours of rest is also a motivating factor to work hard during this type of training session.  The rest day is just that… a rest and recovery day.

Be a perfectly golden marshmallow at the end, not a crusted black scabby marshmallow.

Give it a shot and let me know how you make out!

Cheers to short effective bouts of exercise!

Kyle

Be A Perfectly Golden Marshmallow: Toying w/ BJ Gaddour’s Fat Loss Workout

Quick Tips

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BJ Gaddour

BJ Gaddour is the new Craig Ballantyne.

Craig Ballantyne created Turbulence Training back when it was personal trainers were not publishing material on the internet the way that they are now.  Now everyone has a product.

Hey, if you can write and you have the drive to stay motivated after working 9-10 hour days, why the hell not?  Everyone is selling something, product or self.  Doesn’t matter, it’s how we succeed.

BJ Gaddour currently works with Men’s Health as a consultant.  Essentially that means that he made enough noise doing his own thing that Men’s Health contracted him to write workouts, articles and programs for them.

BJ’s claim to fame is fat loss and boot camp style workouts.

A while back he posted a free PDF titled “The Seven Deadly Workout Sins”.

Pretty solid little article.

In it, he describes a general outline on how to design effective fat loss workouts.

When I read the article, it was a wake up call that I should have WAY more confidence in my writing and methods.  It was nearly identical to my training philosophy at the present time.  It was a great moment for me to realize that what I am cooking up here in Eau Claire (the mecca of the Midwest) is well seasoned (nice play on words) and spot on for what’s current in the training world.

Total body workouts, timed efforts and rest, 3-4 days a week.  No cardio.  Cardio is obtained as byproduct from the unique blend of incomplete rest periods and resistance based exercises.  

Again, this is a STYLE of training.  It’s not the law, but this kind of training gets results quickly.  If you buttoned up your eating habits, you would shed unwanted layers in very little time.

I enjoy giving other trainer’s workouts a run through, as it can get a little monotonous writing your own programs all of the time.  Sometimes, it’s nice to have someone else do the designing for you.  I just follow along for once.

BJ’s workout looked something like this:

Image

I talk about movement patterns on this blog all of the time, and a closer look at BJ’s template shows that he thinks along similar lines.  Hip hinging, squat, pressing, pulling, total body movements are all represented in this workout.  It’s a recipe that has endless variations and keeps your workouts interesting and effective.  The systemic effect of a workout like this is fantastic.

Most people will probably find that they are unable to keep moving all of the way through some of the 30 second work bouts with certain exercises.  Chin-ups continuous for 30 seconds doesn’t sound that hard, but talk to me about that in round 3 of the workout when your eyeballs are teetering on your orbitals.  It’s a different ballgame at that point of the workout.  You’re in the eye of the storm in round 3.

What I like about this workout is that is manageable.  The movements can be scaled up or down depending on a person’s training level and age.  Manageable fatigue is the key to successful fat loss workouts.  If you cannot control and OWN every movement in every rep, every round, every workout, you’re putting yourself at risk.  Posture collapses in a matter of a rep.  I’ve seen it in both my own training and others.  That’s all it takes to slip a disc, tear a rotator cuff or and break bones.  It’s a long, painful and expensive ride to the emergency room.

Injury during training is a tragedy.

Overall, this is a great workout.  The rest periods can be frustrating if you have to adjust your equipment in between exercises.  I was using my suspension trainer for a variation of this workout.  I found that adjusting the straps was a nightmare.  15 seconds is not a lot of time to gather yourself and set up for the next movement, especially when your hands are shaking like crazy.  The nervous system is on full alert.

The 60 second rest periods at the end of each round is also well thought out.  One minute gives adequate time to gather yourself, get a drink and towel off before entering into the next round of work.  In the later round, one minute feels like a blink of the eyes.

Successful work capacity based fat loss workouts seem to have peaking point with regard to exertion, whether in the middle of the circuit itself or as gradual accumulating fatigue that reaches a high point at the end of a workout.  The goal is to manage your output, giving an effort that challenges your body steadily in the early and later rounds.  Early burnout makes for sloppy exercise technique in later rounds and a serious lack of enjoyment.  The workout should be challenging but fun and engaging.  Purposeful.

Lately, I’ve been drawing similarities between the perfect “golden marshmallow” and a fat loss driven workout:

The golden marshmallow

When you cook a marshmallow for a s’more, some people enjoy perfectly cooked golden marshmallows and some people like the torched black marshmallows.  Cooking a perfectly golden marshmallow is a campfire art.  If the marshmallow gets too close to the fire it will burn.  If you don’t get it close enough it’s just a warm white marshmallow.

Peaking after the final rep of a workout (while still being able to own your movement) is an art.  We are all at different fitness levels so this is largely a judgment call by YOU, the trainee.  You need to make the decision on when to pull the plug on a set, a workout, or when it’s necessary to add more.

This is what a smart personal trainer can monitor for a client, and why good personal trainer add value to person’s fitness endeavors.  Personal trainers can take a client close to that edge, that fine line, without pushing them over.  The entire workout remains in control, yet impactful in its training effect.

The goal of a great workout is to be a perfectly golden marshmallow at the end.

BJ’s workout accomplishes this.

 

 

Cheers to golden marshmallows and better workouts!

KG

Canadian Outreach: Delivering What Needs to Be Delivered

Supplemental Nutrition

The Canadian outreach program is in full effect.

I first met my next contributor at a convention in Miami, FL.  We got talking about each other’s backgrounds, experiences and reasoning for attending the convention and we hit it off instantly.  Again, I was like a kid in a candy store asking her all kinds of questions, and I actually had more to ask but I decided to control myself.

One of the takeaway points from chatting it up with Julie was her comments about the female population and effectively treating osteoporosis by supplementing calcium, especially if it is consumed in an isotonic capable form.  Isotonic?  Think liquid form supplementation that is absorbed ridiculously fast by the body, delivering what needs to be delivered.

Calcium deficiency is interesting to me because the most obvious (and well-known) source of calcium is milk.  However, as I have harped on this blog in past posts, you’d cry yourself to sleep if you knew the quality of the milk that you’re probably buying and drinking.  I’ll save the heart ache for another post.

You’re welcome.

Besides the low quality of mass-produced milk, we also face the issue of inflammation and dairy sensitivities in a lot of people, IBS, etc.  Now, you could turn to other foods like kale, which is a rich source of calcium that a lot of people don’t know about, but kale quite frankly is a pain in the ass to prepare.  Eating it raw is like chewing on laminate flooring.  Most people won’t take the time to execute that gourmet kale recipe, so let’s just deliver the damn calcium and get it over with, ok?

*** Oh, if you want some interesting information about bone health go here for some notes I took while attending a recent webinar.  Knowledge is power.

I’ll let Julie share her opinion…

When any of us are looking for solutions to address our personal health concerns, we look for solutions that are safe and effective.  Safety and efficacy comes from research and experience with the products and this is one of the best parts about selling Isotonix. 

As consumers, we all know there are some friends we trust more than others regarding health advice.  

As I become more familiar with using the Isotonix products, I find that my customers and friends come to me more and more for this kind of advice, and I always want to have a well-researched answer for them.  The best part about distributing Isotonix products is that the MarketAmerica science team has done a lot of the leg work for me in terms of gathering the scientific research ensuring that safety and efficacy that I am looking for, in the entire product line.  

Having Isotonix as a research-backed product line, provides me as a distributor with peace of mind that what I’m selling to customers is a great supplement and the best option for those who are looking.

  • Why Isotonix?

–  It is affordable, and it is better value due to the enhanced bioavailability of the products.
–  There is a range of products that make it possible to help reach a more diverse customer base of people with a tool to help them take control of their health.
–  It is based on the most current research, so everything is always up to date to ensure the best customer satisfaction and results from taking nutraceuticals.

  • Why is it so great for practitioners?

–  The products are effective and backed by scientific research on design and combination, so all you need to do is ensure your research on indication and dosage. 
–  You are never alone in recommending the products. Doctors and health care practitioners have been benefiting from being able to provide their clients and patients with access to a dependable product line.
–  There is access to the products online so that customers can order products from the comfort of their home or work with the autoship program.  The method of distribution adds a convenience factor for you and your customers.  

There are always a number of reasons to prefer one type of product over another, but from my experience, of all the nutraceutical products out there, the enhanced bioavailbility of the Isotonix line and the diversity of products and applications makes it an easy decision for me. I feel fortunate to be able to provide these supplemental options to my customers, and it has tremendously benefited my personal health and the growth of my business. 

– Julie Hwang, BSc, ND (cand. 2014)