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by Dave Chesser, owner of Formosa Fitness, Kettlebell Taiwan and Kettlebell Quest
This is one of the most common questions we get but I really wish it wasn’t. The problem is that few people have been exposed to real training so they don’t understand it. Training and exercising are not the same thing. Training is getting better at doing something. Exercising is simply random movement. Every time I hear the above question, the first thing that comes to my mind is,”Have you done this workout 2-3 days a week consistently?” and the answer is always no. If you haven’t done the workout 2-3x consistently then what would make a person think they can do it every single day and get good results?
Every workout that I write is based on training instead of exercising and that means a few things must be in place first.
One, are you doing the exercises correctly? If not, then you must learn how to do them. Doing them poorly will never get you results and yet I consistently see terrible form in every single group class and from every Facebook fitness guru. Seriously, this is the path to no where. Slow things down and do the exercises correctly and then you’ll see that you very rarely need to do them everyday to get results. It’s when people do exercises poorly that they think they have to do them everyday. If you have poor quality, you have to make up for it with quantity and that’s how people get hurt. I saw one Youtube fitness guru telling everyone to do situps every single day and the form was poor. A lot of people complained about how much their backs hurt. That’s what people get from following that guy.

Two, you must turn off the volume monkeys that tell you to do more. Facebook and Youtube fitness gurus tell you to do the same stuff everyday because it’s a good way to get you hooked into watching their nonsensical videos or reading their posts everyday, which drives up their site traffic. That’s the real reason behind all of this – to get more site traffic from gullible beginners that don’t know better. Once they get more site traffic and fans, companies will ask them to sell products they’ve never used in their lives and the fans buy whatever they are told to buy. It’s insane. But their popularity makes people think that the same exercises or workout must be done every single day. In order to change your thinking, you have to be smart and turn off the people telling you to do crazy volume all the time.

Three, you must use a weight that challenges your movement ability and that allows you to keep getting better. Using an 8kg kettlebell is easy and sure, you could probably do the same workout everyday with it eventually, but so what? Where are the results? You will stop getting them because your body has already adapted to the weight through those exercises in that workout. You must progress to a heavier weight in order to keep getting results. No, doing more and more and more of the same thing will not keep working. To all the people that ask can they do this workout every single day, what are you going to do after that stops working, do the workout twice a day?

Most beginners are greedy for results and are way too focused on the short term. They want maximum results right now without having to earn them but that doesn’t work. Most serious workouts should be done three times a week with good form if you are at the beginning level. Any more than that and you likely won’t be doing quality training. You need to EARN the right to train every day through getting the exercises correct and building a body that can withstand consistent, daily training. Don’t worry, with a consistent three times a week effort, you will get good results that you can continue to work on for a lifetime if you do it right. If you need more guidance, my Kettlebell Quest DVD has all the three-times-a-week workouts you will ever need. All you have to do is follow the program. Good luck in training.

Normal gyms couldn’t care less if you showed up or not. In fact, their business model depends on you quitting while continuing to pay. As a results-based business, you quitting doesn’t do us any good. In fact, the only thing that really helps our business is <gasp!> you actually getting in shape.
But it’s more than that: you are here to contribute to the athleticism and the power of the group.
Everyone starts somewhere and I get that but I like to say that we only have two groups of people at Formosa Fitness: winners and those that want to be winners. I don’t have time for anyone else and I put this opinion out there to scare off people that aren’t sincere in the first place. I’ve talked to many people who say they are interested in joining the gym and within 10:00 of talking to them, it’s clear to me and sometimes even to them that they have no intention of going through with joining the gym. I encourage those people to go to the treadmill-Zumba-nightclub down the street.
But even some people that join still don’t get it. We teach private sessions and group class in such as way to empower you to do it yourself! Yes, if you follow what we teach, you will eventually not need us to guide you. You not only can do it on your own, if you stay in any of our sessions or even if you stay in our gym, period, you will be expected to contribute to the gym, not just take from it.
What does that mean? It means being pro-active and not waiting for others to tell you what to do. It means helping others out. It means not making excuses and not being a drag on the group every time you come in. It means learning the exercises and LEADING the group! Yes, your fitness in Formosa Fitness isn’t just about you, it’s about you getting fit so you can help us with the newbies that need you to lead by example. It’s about you being a role-model for those that come after you. It’s about you breaking away from a weak society that tells you that you don’t need to be strong and joining your brothers and sisters in the tribe in developing and sharing the values that we hold dear.
What is it not about? It’s not about free towels, free water, and “light” fitness. It’s not about “where do I do cardio?” And it’s certainly not about, “But I don’t want to get strong.” Plenty of places dedicated to being weak. Please join one of those.
So if getting strong is important to you, this is where you belong. But the strong contribute to the group, only the weak detract from it and take what they can. Choose strength over weakness.

My new trainer Dylan has been training hard with the kettlebell and barbell following my training protocols and in two months. Below are his results:

As you can see, that’s pretty impressive! He works hard and has been very diligent in following my protocols. It’s amazing what you can do in a short time when you show up consistently and just stick to the plan. I don’t know why more people don’t try that. If you want results like this, come visit either of our locations and we’ll get you started!

Formosa Fitness 4.0 is ready for business. Soft opening on Monday morning. The monkey rig and dumbbells aren’t here but 95% of the equipment is so we’re moving forward. This new gym represents everything I know about training and equipment, and service. I’ve incorporated all the lessons I’ve learned just hope I’ve learned enough. I want to think my trainers for working hard to help me get it ready for Monday. I’m personally ready to rock and roll.

Another trainer in Taiwan is telling the public that women should start kettlebell training using tiny toy kettlebells and he’s saying that we put them at risk by starting them with a heavier weight. In Chinese, here’s a recent post he wrote on it:

He’s quoting Pavel Tsatsouline to justify his position. Pavel was the guy that brought kettlebells to the US back in the late 1990’s and it caused a resurgence in kettlebell training. Here’s Pavel:

Kettlebells had been used in the US and the West before but they had died out. Pavel re-introduced them along with the Russian system and they’ve been popular ever since then. He wrote a number of books on kettlebell training, all of which I have and have read numerous times. This trainer claims that Pavel in his book Enter the Kettlebell (2006) says that women start with the 4kg and he supposedly translated the chart into Chinese here:

So supposedly, Pavel is recommending that women start with a 4 or 6kg. Except Pavel never said anything of the sort. The picture above is completely wrong. Here’s the actual chart from Enter the Kettlebell page 3:

So what size does Pavel recommend that women start with? 4kg? No. 6kg? No. 8kg (18lbs). In fact, 4kg (9lbs) and 6kg (13lbs) aren’t even on the chart. And not only that, but Pavel recommends that women should get the 8kg (18lbs), 12 (26lbs), and 16kg (35lbs) to start with if they can. So Pavel is NOT recommending AT ALL what this trainer is suggesting and in fact Pavel seems to think that women should start with fairly heavy kettlebells — the EXACT OPPOSITE of what this trainer claims Pavel is saying.
We follow Pavel’s model in our training and most of our women start with 8kg. If they’re strong, we start them with 12kg. But for lady trainers, we demand that they pass our kettlebell cert with the 12kg. So most of out ladies likely won’t start with 12kg.
This post also has the following picture listing different kettlebell organizations, suggesting that all of these organizations support this trainer’s ideas. Otherwise, why include the picture?

My guess is most readers have no idea who these organizations are but since they were included in the post as supposed support for his statements, let me tell you about a few of these organizations.
The first organization is the International Union of Kettlebell Lifting. They are the larger organization that oversees all kettlebell competition around the world. Needless to say, they do not think women should start with the 4kg.
The second and third organizations are roughly the same. The American Kettlebell Club is part of the larger World Kettlebell club and is lead by former world champion Valery Fedorenko. This is a picture I took of Valery when I attended and passed their three certifications in 2011.

Here’s me with Valery’s second in command Catherine Imes at the certs:

Here are the three certs I received from the World Kettlebell Club:

At the cert, I had to use the 16kg for multiple 10:00 sets and we used heavier kettlebells during the strength and conditioning cert on day two. What weight did Valery think women should use? It certainly wasn’t the 4kg. Women also had to pass the cert using the 12kg just like ours. So I have three certs and have personally trained with the founder of one of the organizations (WKC and AKC) the trainer above is using to justify his position. Let’s move on.
Another organization listed is the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation (IKFF) led by Steve Cotter. Which Steve Cotter? This one:

That’s me on the left and I received my level one cert from Steve in 2009, making me the first certified kettlebell trainer in Taiwan. Here are my two certs from the IKFF:


This is me taking one of the roughly 16 tests I had to pass over two days with the 16kg kettlebell:

Here’s Steve lifting heavy kettlebells:

Do you think that Steve believes ladies should start with the 4kg? I can assure you he does not. Both Valery and Steve taught me that you can not properly use the correct muscles while lifting the kettlebell without using a weight sufficient enough to activate your hamstrings and glutes.So I have 5 certs in two of the organizations that this trainer is using to support his claims and they don’t suggest what he suggests.
Does Pavel think women should be using tiny toy kettlebell? Pavel started the Iron Maiden Challenge for women: 24kg press, pullup with the 24kg, and a pistol while holding the 24kg. What do you think?

One of the other organizations listed is StrongFirst, started by Pavel after he left the Russian Kettlebell Club (RKC). Notice the name — Strong First. What do you think that means? Use a 4kg first, right? So maybe Pavel changed his mind after he left the RKC and started StrongFirst? Let’s take a look at what he recommends women should start with when they lift the kettlebell. This is from his recent book Simple & Sinister (2015):

So Pavel in his latest book tells ladies they should start with the 8, 12, and 16kg. No mention of 4 or 6kg is there? So I think we can see that Pavel absolutely does not think ladies should be using tiny toy 4kg kettlebells. The idea is absurd.

We suggest the heavier weights because we are trained to teach people how to lift them correctly. In fact, we no longer offer the 4kg for sale because a woman trained THE RIGHT WAY will go beyond that weight usually in 5:00 or less. Why buy a kettlebell that will not be useful to you long term?

Be very, very careful who you get your information from. We do everything we can to bring correct information and safe, effective exercises to you. Thank you.