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Changing routines and why you are still fat…

Warning: Rant Alert!

Let me tell you a story…

aerobics

Teaching quite a lot of kettlebell classes for a fair number of gyms, my classes have to be accessable to anyone who decides to ‘just drop in and try it’. The kettlebell swing (a hip hinge) is at the same time a very simple and natural movement AND a hideously complex and alien one for people who’ve forgotten how to move. So I need to be able to provide a session similtaneously for amatuer athletes and complete beginners, which CAN be slightly problematic. Let me share a tale… Read more

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If you could only do three exercises…

An off the cuff, quickie, unedited (and unapologetic) piece I just wrote. My answer may change slightly in the morning…

My good friend and Brazilian Jui Jitsu/Kali/Gladiator extraordinaire Christian ‘c-Lefty Dog’ Ekerct asked a question on Facebook recently.

“To all Yoga-, Strength-, Fitness- and/or Martial Arts Trainers/Coaches:

If you could choose only three exercises/drills/postures of your art, what would it be?

(If the name is not to common, please explain it a bit)”

Three exercises/drill/postures, with no other knowledge of what the goal is, or the physical history of the individual/group! Christian has a tendency to not ask easy questions! Read more

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Metabolic Conditioning doesn’t work…

“Have you heard about the new metabolic conditioning classes? They only take 30mins, that’s why I’m doing them.”

… is what I overheard in the gym about two weeks ago. Ever since a lot of people got back from the International Fitness Conference ‘metabolic effect’ is the thing all my clients and gym-rats have been asking me about. It usually starts:

“Hey, have you heard about the new fitness craze? Metabolic conditioning…”

Hold on there, Buttercup. New? The 1990’s just called and they want their science back. Any PT, Coach or other athletic trainer worth their salt has been incorporating metabolic conditioning training in their fat loss/conditioning programmes since at LEAST the early 2000’s (in its currently understood format, I’m not going to pretend for a second that it wasn’t happening before then). It might not have been called met-con (yep, we’ve abbreviated it), but it was there. Read more

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I hate functional training

You heard me, I hate the current trend of what is being espoused as ‘functional training’.  The idea that ‘this or that’ is ‘functional’…Functional for what?

squat on a swiss

To understand the idea of what functional training is, we need to answer that question. What are we training for, what is the desired result? What is functional for a marathon runner may not be functional for a strongman competitor. So this becomes goal dependent.

The basis of what is deemed functional training can be broken into a series of simple movement patterns: Read more

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Why kettlebell training doesn’t work

Sharon and Nikki were having their weekly catch up late in the morning one autumn day. They lived in the suburbs and frequented an authentic privately owned coffee shop. Their children had both recently left the city for University and they had long since left full-time work behind and sought other avenues and adventures.

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“I wish I had your genetics, I don’t understand how you can stay in such good shape and still eat like that”, this was Sharon; she stared longingly at Nikki’s chocolate fudge cake… with cream.

“Well, it’s not as if I over indulge”, said Nikki, noting that Sharon was now on her second piece of granola slice. “I only really indulge like this when we meet up, and maybe two glasses of wine at the weekend. But, I’m fairly active in the garden.”

“Did you say you were going to a kettlebell class twice a week? I’ve been going to one for about 10 months now.” Read more

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Misinformation Station #1: Kettlebell Side Bends

[Note: Misinformation Station is a series of articles aimed at providing information to the general gym goer. It’s based on mistakes I see in the gym everyday.]

Every day thousands of people discover through some means or other the ‘new fad’ that is the kettlebell. Using the kettlebell is going to make them stronger, leaner, faster, more powerful and generally look awesome.

You may discover kettlebells through the hundreds of fat camp shows on TV, the pictures of fitness models using them (poorly) in a fitness magazine, or it may be a friend of yours has discovered a hardstyle or GS kettlebell class in their neighbourhood.

 

Please ignore the pink 'bells in the corner...

Please ignore the pink ‘bells in the corner…

You want the benefits of this awesome training and so you sign up for the gym (handing over your hard earned cash). You receive an induction into the safe use of two-dimensional gym machines, and all the time that the gym staff are talking you are nodding but have one eye on the kettlebells in the corner of the ‘functional area’ of the gym. Read more

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