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Why train with kettlebells?

Our clients LOVE Kettlebell training because they don’t have to perform boring ‘bodybuilding’ workouts and the fat burning potential is HUGE!

Minimising body fat and toning every muscle of the body

The average person exercises to maintain or achieve low body fat. Even if they don’t, it’s always a nice bonus as a side effect of your training!

It has been proven that the most effective way to reduce body fat whilst maintaining muscle (after sound nutrition), is a combination of metabolic weight training and high intensity intervals.

Kettlebell training enables both methods to be achieved simultaneously enabling the busy person to gain maximum effect from their training in minimum time. What more do you want?!

Not only do body fat levels drop like a stone (when combined with effective nutrition) but the full body movements involved in kettlebell training will produce a great body shape. You can expect to gain a lean, toned physique. Ladies, a tight backside, tight thighs and a slim, toned upper body will soon be on its way! Gents you can expect to develop a strong, lean, muscular physique once you have harnessed the power of kettlebells!

Optimising physical capabilities

Crucially the kettlebell is the single most effective way to learn how to use your body as one, solid, interlinked, inseparable chain of muscles and joints. It is accepted that free weights are galaxies ahead of fixed machines for functional training which is applicable to activities in daily life and on the sports field, but kettlebell training takes this to a whole new level.

The challenge to the core muscles is great enabling the trainee to build a very solid base from which to work with more advanced exercises. We once heard it said that ‘you can’t fire a cannon from a canoe’. In other words, no matter how strong or powerful you think your legs or arms are, if you have a weak, dysfunctional core, you will never achieve the true potential of your limbs. You must have a strong foundation on which to develop powerful, functional muscles.

Not only this but due to the unique way in which the centre of mass of a kettlebell moves, such training is also a huge challenge to the smaller muscles around the body which primarily act to stabilize our joints. In particular, the shoulders become very strong after a few months of kettlebell training providing great benefits to those involved in racket sports, boxing or martial arts or who perform regular weight training of any kind.

Jon has first hand experience of the power of kettlebells in a rehab setting.

“After a year of progressing through the stages of kettlebell training to the more advanced exercises, I suffered a partially dislocated shoulder in a cycling accident. I believe that it is down to the kettlebell training hat I was able to press a 28kg kettlebell within 5 weeks of the accident. This was achieved by first working with the light kettlebells in drills such as the windmill, ‘walking in the wind’ and the get up.”

Location, location, location

Anywhere, any time!

Wouldn’t you rather train in the great outdoors or at home than in a busy gym where you can’t get on the right equipment, the putrid air from the smelly guy on the treadmill is recycled to everyone else and you just want to be in nature?!

Kettlebells are effectively a portable gym as infinite exercises and combinations of exercises can be performed with just one kettlebell. Not only are they versatile in terms of what you can do with them, but they can be thrown in the back of the car and used to train in the park, in hotel rooms, in your back garden…anywhere!

This adds to the excitement and natural feel of training whether you are in a 121 environment or group setting!

If you have an area of around 2m x 2m and a height of 7-10 ft depending how tall you are, you can train with kettlebells.

This makes kettlebells the ideal tool for many people from all walks of life including:

• Those who are sick of training in commercial gyms, full of members who don’t really care and managers who care even less.
• Those who need a portable training tool which gets results. This includes business people, soldiers and anyone whose lifestyle isn’t conducive to regular visits to the local health centre. No gimmicks, no magic machines, just a proven method which gets results fast.

Variety and excitement

Aside from versatility of location, possibly the most widely talked about and most captivating element of kettlebell training is the versatility of training and the short amount of time required to perform a full, effective workout!

Let’s face it. No matter how committed you are to fitness and exercise as the cornerstone of your life, it can get boring if you have no variety in your training!

Our clients often look back and wonder how they ever survived trudging into the gym every day after work! Now they actually look forward to training and you will as well!

We’ve never, ever trained in such a way which enables so many muscles to be worked in such a variety of directions with more advanced trainees being able to move smoothly from one exercise to the next with deft movements of the bell.

Exercises are easily manipulated to suit whatever fitness goal you may have and because they are so dynamic and free moving you’ll feel awesome afterwards!

Reduced cost of exercising

For a beginner, an investment of around £100-150 will get you a full set of brand new kettlebells. For some people this can be 3 months gym membership, The difference is, you don’t have to queue; you don’t have recurring direct debit fees for a gym you never use; you can train where you want, when you want; you can get your training done in half the time with twice the results; it’s far more exciting than plodding on a treadmill or sitting on the pec-deck breathing in all the putrid , recycled air of the average commercial gym and the routines you can create are limited only by your creativity!

Mental wellness

You will soon find yourself creating awesome sessions which push you to your limits and make you feel incredibly invigorated afterwards. Kettlebells are guaranteed to blast your endorphins (the happy hormone) through the roof!

We’ve yet to experience a method of training which develops mental strength and physical ability as well as kettlebells. It is a similar way of life which captivates you and creates steely willpower and physical prowess beyond anything you’ve experienced before.

Posture (and a great bum!)

A word should also be given to the effects on posture. Because the key kettlebell exercises demand a lot of work to be done by your posterior chain (the muscles on the back of your body such as glutes, lower back and hamstrings) as well as the core muscles, you will soon notice big differences in the way you stand. Because of the way we sit at our desks all day hunched over a keyboard, and the usual focus in the gym on the ‘beach muscles’ such as the chest, arms, abs and quads, our bodies become very ‘front dominant’.

Typical desk posture results in tight chest, tight hip flexors and tight hamstrings which more often than not lead to lower back pain directly or indirectly.

The use of the kettlebell swings and snatches helps address this by strengthening the previously weak glute (buttock) and lower back muscles . The mechanics of such movements also bring about repeat dynamic stretching of the hamstrings. When combined with a sound flexibility program, an upright, painless posture results.

You can expect a firm, toned bum as well!