Author: D C

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!

This article featuring the kettlebell recently appeared in Taiwan’s largest magazine. They had contacted us about the article and we did our best to educate them on how to use it. But that didn’t go as we had planned.

Any time you talk to the media, you run into all sorts of preconceived notions they have about fitness: aerobics is great, weight training is dangerous, spot reduction is possible, you can lose weight effortlessly, etc. These are the things their target audience already believes, which is exactly why most people in general are NOT fit. What most people think they know about fitness is wrong, what most reporters think they know about fitness is also wrong, and therefore the articles written about fitness end up keeping everyone who reads them misinformed. It’s a vicious cycle.

The problem with the kettlebell as a product is that you have to know how to use it — the magic is in the method. But you have to learn and practice the method to get the results. That makes it different from most fitness products like steppers, which the kettlebell is compared to in the article. The stepper is a cheap toy bought by people who are not serious about their fitness, that’s why they want something cheap in the first place. They weren’t serious about any of the other fitness toys they have in the closet and they know in the back of their minds they won’t use this new toy for very long, either. So they use the cheap toy for a few days, get no results from it, put it in the closet and look for the next cheap toy that promises to get them fit easily and without making any effort.

On a side note, this is how the local fitness community wanted me to promote the kettlebell — as the latest “light weight” fad that you could dance around with and get great results from. When I refused to play that game, they moved on to people that told them what they wanted to hear.

Our kettlebell was not featured in the article because they aren’t cheap toys — they are serious, high quality fitness tools that actually get you fit when used as we teach people to use them. The problem is that the fitness claims made for the cheap, plastic toy kettlebell are based on what you would get from using a real kettlebell. But when people use the toys and get toy-like results, they’ll blame the kettlebell and think it doesn’t work. The idea that they bought a toy instead of the real thing will never enter their minds and they’ll continue to wonder why they can’t get fit. The sad part is they could have spent just a little more money and gotten the real thing.

So I apologize to you that we couldn’t get real, useful fitness information out to the folks that really need it in this case. We tried but the problems present in trying to present good information to the public sometimes prevent that.

Here’s one way.

We had a guy come in one day and take a look around. He said it looked like a good place to work out but he wanted to know where the treadmills were and I told him we didn’t have any. He got flustered and said,”But how do you do cardio?” Some people just don’t get it. So here’s one way we do cardio: push the weight sled.

I originally planned to keep my heart rate at around 130-140 by dropping the weight but my ego got the better of me and I kept it pretty high the whole time: around 150-165. I only rested just long enough for my heart rate to drop back to around 145 or so and since I was wearing the heart rate monitor the whole time, it was easy to track so I didn’t cheat. When I used the carotid pulse and look at my watch method in the past, I sometimes over-rested and made the workout easier. Not this time. Enjoy.

Oh, and if your gym doesn’t have a weight sled, join a gym that does — like Formosa Fitness. 🙂

What role can machines play in functional fitness? We often tout the advantages of no-machine training, but machines can play a role. “Isolate then integrate” is an important concept for anyone looking to strengthen a weakness. Sometimes compound movements hide muscle weaknesses by allowing stronger muscles to dominate the movement at the expense of the weaker muscles. Machines isolate muscles, allowing you to focus on them, making weaker muscles stronger. Then when you go back to compound movements, the weaknesses in your kinetic chain are stronger. Plus, machines can hit angles that compound movements miss. Finally, the ability to isolate muscles is useful when something like your lower back is sore and compound movements are therefore out of the question. So used smartly and not as your main fitness tool, machines are useful.

Showing off our new toy: the glute ham raise. This thing is a bitch. Be careful when you play with it — it has a bite. Try partial movements at first.
Here’s a look at how to use it:

And here’s a look at how NOT to use it:

The GHD situp is not a good movement for many reasons. The likelihood of getting hurt is enormous. Check out this article.

Don’t be a douchebag that has to show off his tattoos and show what a badass he is and then injure yourself. Use exercise equipment intelligently and with attention to detail and you’ll get great results. If you need help, please ask our trainers!!