Last month I spent 2 days at the State Sports Centre weight lifting facility getting certified as a kettlebell instructor. What this means is that I am one of only a handful of fully certified and insured Kettlebell instructors in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

So what is the Kettlebell is why is it such an awesome tool for strength, fitness and my client’s focus – weight loss.

What:

A traditional kettlebell looks something like a cannonball with a thick handle.

They traditionally come in weight increments of 4kg or 1/4 pood. A pood is 16kg. The kettlebells were originally used to weigh grain in Russia, which is where the pood measurement and the handle comes from. One day someone decided this heavy ball would be good to lift and so kettlebell training was born.

Kettlebells have been in use for centuries in Russia and have been used in the past by western strongmen and athletes.

But…

As the body building gym mentality took over, kettlebells faded from popularity.

But, But…

A new breed of fitness enthusiasts have enjoyed the revival of Kettlebells which was initiated by an Ex-Russian Special Forces Trainer Pavel Tsatsouline.

This little bit of history sounds good, but what does it mean to us???

Well, My Focus;

With obesity at an all time high, some fitness professional have decided to shun all the fancy machines and the gyms that house them to take on a more fundamental and effective style of training, using whole body movements and simple fitness tools.

I read an article the other day by Don Stevenson of Octogen Fitness and he articulated the scenario perfectly. I quote exactly;

“Functionality is the guiding principle of all Kettlebell training.

Despite what the over-tanned pump’n'toned trainers at your local gym think, functional training is not doing one armed bicep curls with 3kg while standing on a wobble board.

Real functional training is about preparing the body for the demands of sport, work and day to day life. The reality is that in most real life situations you will be called upon to manipulate an unevenly weighted object in three dimensions.

Kettlebell training is supremely functional. The kettlebell itself is unevenly weightled and even the simple act of picking it up off the ground forces the body’s stabilizer muscles to kick in.”

So there you go, kettlebell exercises work the whole body, great for weight loss and great for the core.

So forget all the weird and wonderful machines at your local gym, the most effective tools are often the simplest.

Your in Fitness

Troy Shipsey

Randwick, Centennial Park Personal Trainer

With all of the info around at the moment, I thought I would give you a brief explanation of why it is that we do certain things if we want to lose weight.

I hope with this understanding, you will be able to make better choices and not follow fads or be sucked in by headlines in magazines.

What is the most effective weight loss mechanism? Our metabolism! The calories that are burnt while our body carries out it’s own internal functions.

Why do we train at all then? We want to burn more calories. calories are a unit of energy that we receive when we eat food or drink beverages other than water. If that energy is not used, it will be stored as fat.

Why do we train aerobically? Aerobic training increases fitness levels, helps our health and most importantly for a lot of people, it burns calories. It burns calories at the time of training and during the recovery hours after the training. With the chronic changes that effect our blood and organs, we will speed our metabolism.

Why do we train weights? Weight lifting gives us more muscle tone and being stronger helps us in everyday life. We burn calories during a weights workout and in the recovery time after the workout, but the most important reason is that more lean muscle mass createsa faster metabolism by needing to use more energy to support the newly created muscle mass.

Why do we walk? Most of us don’t move enough! We wake up, drive to work, sit at our desk and then drive home to have dinner and go to bed. We NEED more movement in our lives! Don’t you wonder why we are a population that is getting bigger and bigger?

Why do we eat regularly? When we eat regularly, our bodies need to process the food, thus speeding our metabolism. If we leave large gaps in between meals, our body may think it is starving and it will hold onto the food we put in, not knowing when the next meal may come. By adding food regularly, we eliminate this problem.

Why do we eat more protein and less carbohydrates? Protein is the building block of the body, our growth and repair rely on the amino acids that are found in protein. 

Carbohydrates give us energy. If you consume too much energy without burning it away, it will be stored as fat. High glyceamic carbohydrates will spike your blood sugar levels causing insulin to be released into your blood supply which will immobilise your fat cells. Putting it simply, don’t expect to use any fat as energy for the couple of hours after eating high glyceamic carbohydrates.

Most of the population eat far too little protein and far too much bad carbohydrates!

Why do we train our abdominals? Our abdominal wall gives support to our spine. If you can strengthen your abdominals, you will have less chance of back injury.

If you are very lean, training your external abdominals will give you a six pack look.

Why do we stretch? Tight muscles can cause injuries not only to the muscle itself, but to the joint that the muscle crosses and/or affects.

Why do we rest? Our bodies need rest to avoid over-training. With too much exercise, our body may start to panic and go into survival mode and hold onto fat as an insurance for itself as it doesn’t know how much more exercise is around the corner.

Our muscles need rest to recover from the workout that we have put them through, so that they can repair themselves and grow stronger to accomodate the overload that we put them through with each workout.

Troy Shipsey

Centennial Park Group Fitness Trainer

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training

To join our group training classes, simply visit Group Training