Kettlebells To Ease Back Pain

Turning To Kettlebells To Ease Back Pain


This article is dead-on. Used properly, kettlebells can definitely help alleviate back pain by strengthening the posterior chain and the core muscles. If you're in the Athens/NE Georgia area and would like to give kettlebells a try, come by and see me at Athens Fitness And Mixed Martial Arts. Just ask for Steve. You can also follow this link: Personal Training In Athens

Ready To Make A Change?

So are you finally ready to make a change for the better in your life? Are you ready to improve the way that you look and feel? Do you want to be happier about what you see in the mirror? Are you ready to lose inches, gain muscle, and get stronger? If you answered yes to any of these, then come see me at Athens Fitness And Mixed Martial Arts. We can help set you up with a personal training package that's right for you. So if you're ready to make an investment in yourself, just follow the link below for more information.

How To Give Yourself A Head Start Reaching Your Goals

The 7 Jerks You Meet In Every Gym

Fortunately, you won't run into too many of these people at Athens Fitness & Mixed Martial Arts. In general, at least. It's just a shame that the picture with "Unsolicited Advice Guy" is someone showing a kettlebell technique. Oh well.

The 7 Jerks You Meet In Every Gym

A New Year, A New You

The holidays are finally over, and I hope that they were great for you. Now that they are though, it's time to get back on track and start working on making 2012 even better. I have my goals (both fitness and otherwise) for the year, but have you thought about yours? Do you need to lose a few holiday pounds that you picked up? Do you need to get in shape for Spring Break? It's right around the corner, after all. So is summer, with beach vacations and hanging out at the lake or the river. Maybe you want to look good in a bikini, or for the guys, maybe you want to look good with your shirt off. Do you have some sort of competition coming up that you just need to improve your overall fitness and conditioning for? Maybe it's just time for you to do something that will make you look and feel great! Whatever your reasons are, NOW is the time to do something about it. If you're ready to make a positive change in your life, and you're in the Athens area, then please get in touch with us at Athens Fitness & Mixed Martial Arts. You can visit the website, give us a call at 706-850-8444, or stop by and see us at 240A Collins Industrial Boulevard. We've got some great specials going on right now, so if you're ready to take the plunge into personal training, just let whichever of our consultants that you speak to know you'd like to train with Steve. Even if you don't come see me, best of luck in all of your fitness and training endeavors for the new year.

I See Their Point, But...

Vintage Weight Gain Ads

Remember, doctors used to endorse and prescribe cigarettes too. If you do gain weight though, just make sure it's muscle, not fat. I'll get into that more on a another day, but for now I'll provide some pictures as to why.

7 Reasons Women Should Try Kettlebells Now

7 Reasons Women Should Try Kettlebells Now

This article makes a lot of excellent points. The women I've trained with kettlebells have really enjoyed using them and have been extremely happy with their results. It should be pointed out though, if you think that kettlebells are something that you'd like to try, please make sure that you find a qualified instructor to teach you how to use them. The average personal trainer (and even some internationally known trainers) don't necessarily understand how to teach the mechanics of even the most basic kettlebell movements.

This isn't meant to slam personal trainers. It should be pointed out though, that the most common personal training certifications can all be acquired by doing nothing more than passing a written test. That's all well and good, but teaching someone to use kettlebells safely and effectively requires a little more hands-on training. All of the kettlebell certifications I've participated in involved being taught the proper movements, learning how to properly teach the movements, and then a performance based evaluation. Think of it like this. Just because you passed the written portion of your driving exam, it doesn't necessarily mean that you could go out and drive in the Indy 500.

Bottom line, kettlebells are a fun and extremely effective way for women (and men) to lose fat, gain muscle, look good, feel great, and get in fantastic shape. Just make sure that you find the right instructor so that you learn how to use them safely and efficiently. The best instructors will usually be certified through the World Kettlebell Club (WKC/AKC), Dragon Door (RKC/HKC), the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation (IKFF), and Kettlebell Concepts (KBC).

There Might Be Easier Ways To Get Injured, But I'm Having Trouble Thinking Of One

I used to like Crossfit. I even tried it myself for a while. It really seemed like there were some decent ideas at the core of the system. Their ideas about the so-called "American" kettlebell swing aside (which will eventually be its own topic of discussion), I've tried not to say too much bad stuff about them as they've gotten further away from their roots. This video I just came across, however, is just too much to stay quiet about. Take a look:

Amazingly, this video is supposed to be encouraging, and not a warning against bad technique. As a fellow trainer put it, the things going on in this video are "simply egregious". If you train at a gym that condones, much less encourages, this type of lifting with no regards for safety, get your money back and go somewhere else. It's not a question of if you'll get hurt, but when.

(Also, I understand that strongmen do this lift. However, these are average people, not professional strongmen. I have no doubt that the "Strongman Certified Coaches" the video mentions are just Crossfitters who had an extra $299 to spend and 8 hours to play with strongman equipment one weekend. It also bears mentioning that professional strongmen are almost constantly nursing some type of lifting-related injury. So take that as you will)

It Really Is Just A Number

Your age is just a number. It's not necessarily an expiration date. Granted, there are sports where if you haven't started training by a certain age then you'll probably never compete at the highest levels, but that doesn't mean that you can't train and have fun. There are two great examples of this recently.

At age 52 (and after spending 26 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, Dewey Bozella made his professional boxing debut. He won a unanimous decision over a much younger opponent. Even though he said that it will be his only fight, he still got in the ring and lived his dream. You can read the whole story here:

Wrongfully convicted man wins pro boxing debut at age 52

Even more impressive is the story of Fauja Singh. Singh is 100 years old and just entered the Guinness Book of World Records (and not for the first time either) as the oldest person ever to complete a marathon! Think about that for a minute: a 100 year old man went out and ran 26 miles. In fact, Singh runs 10 miles every single day. Keep that in mind the next time you're "feeling old". Here's the amazing story about Singh:

100-year-old smashes world record for the oldest marathon runner

Your age really is just a number.

What's YOUR Excuse?

Every day you have a choice. You can make progress, or you can make excuses. Anthony Robles, despite being born with only one leg, chose to make progress. He became one of the most dominant wrestlers in the history of Arizona State University, and even won a National Championship. What choice will YOU make today?

An Introduction To Kettlebell Sport (GS) Lifting

So this afternoon my girlfriend and I drove down to Duluth, GA to visit Scott Shetler at Extreme Fitness and Conditioning. Scott is the WKC Master Trainer who certified me as one of the very first WKC Combat Athlete Specialists back in July. Today he was hosting a clinic for people who were interested in getting started in the sport of kettlebell lifting (also known as girevoy sport, or GS, for short).

Scott managed to pack a lot of information into the two hour seminar. So much, in fact, that it went for three and a half hours, and it could have easily gone longer. This was in NO way a bad thing. He's a fantastic coach with a lot of knowledge and practical experience in the sport (he's currently Rank 2 and working towards Rank 1). We covered technical aspects of all three lifts that comprise the two traditional events in kettlebell sport.

We began with the biathlon event, which consists of the jerk and the snatch. After some instruction and a demonstration of the jerk, Scott broke us up into groups and had us lift while he walked around making corrections and giving advice. Typically, GS events go for 10 minutes. We did 3 minute sets, and they were challenging enough. After both groups did two sets, we moved on to the second part of biathlon, the snatch. Once again, we received instruction and a demo, and then we got to try for ourselves. We then moved on to the second event (and the one that I'm the most interested in), the long cycle. After more instruction, a demo, and some lifting of our own, Scott concluded the "hands on" part of the clinic.

Scott then sat us down and went over some the ways to prepare for a meet. After about 45 minutes or so, I had a MUCH better idea of how to start getting myself (or a client) ready to do a continuous ten minute kettlebell set. Basically, you better be ready to put in almost daily work for a few months. Unfortunately, we couldn't hang around after the clinic was over, but I have ZERO complaints. After all, the whole thing only cost $50 per person. You'd be lucky to get one hour with a regular personal trainer for that price, much less three and half hours with someone that has Scott's qualifications. All in all, it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

There's A Lesson Here

Why Did You Ask If You're Not Going To Listen?

I've been training for a long time, and even though I get paid to train people, I've always been willing to try and help out anyone who's asked. Sometimes, it's really rewarding. It's always great to see someone finally understand the right way to properly do an exercise, use equipment the way it was intended, or just just generally be happier and more productive in the gym because of something you helped them with. Then there are the people who hope your answer will be the shortcut that lets them do the least amount possible. And if your answer isn't the easiest possible way to do what they want, they just throw your advice out the window.

It happens to me all of the time. Besides the gym, I also work at a bar. I always get someone coming up and saying "Hey, you work out a lot. I need to lose 15-20 pounds. What can I do?" Well, the first thing you can do is put down that beer and that shot. The next thing you can do is go home and quit hanging around bars getting drunk until 2am and then eating greasy, fried foods. Which of course brings up the "Well, I can't/won't do that. Isn't there some pill or supplement I can take?" If you're not willing to stop drinking to lose weight, then you've got bigger problems than I'm willing to deal with. And no, there's not a pill that you can take that will let you lose all the weight you want while eating bad food and not exercising. Well, maybe meth or crack, but that would just be irresponsible.

It happens with lifting advice too. A new guy at the gym asked me and my training partner what he could do to make his legs bigger (after telling us he was "really good" at bench pressing). Both of us being former powerlifters, we recommended heavy, deep back/front squats, deadlifts, and pushing and pulling sleds. He then said he wished the gym had a leg press machine and that he'd been doing some calf raises. We explained why the free weights were better for him and suggested that he at least add more weight on his calf raises. He thanked us and went home.

The next day he came in and did legs. Well, he did about half a dozen sets of front and back squats combined. Since then, I've seen him lift four or five times. I have yet to see another squat or even the first deadlift. Although he did finish off his hour-plus arm workout today with three sets of calf raises. Oh well, maybe the next one will listen.