Gravity Fx Fitness

A recent study at Truman State had participants doing as many kettlebell swings as possible in 12 minutes, resting when they wanted.

The average heart rate was 86% of maximum for this session.  The researchers concluded that “KB’s provide a useful tool with which coaches may improve the cardiorespiratory fitness of their athletes.”

Kettlebell swings use lots of muscles to complete the lift.  When done with little rest in between, they will get your HR up in a hurry and can definitely give you a cardiovascular training effect.

KB lifters like to promote the fat burning that occurs with their use.  They can be used to increase strength or increase muscle endurance, depending on how you use them.

I have played around with them a little bit but am far from an expert at using them or teaching others how to use them.  Like any other “hot trend” you have people looking to jump on board simply because something is popular.

The first time I used them was at a one day seminar in Atlanta, where I was living at the time.  The instructor was one of the graduates of the first Russian Kettlebell Certification program and there was about 16 or 17 of us out in a large urban park.

Many people were out walking, biking or running and we drew a lot of interested looks, as this was something “new” and different in 2003.  A homeless man in particular was dumbfounded as to what we were doing, lifting these strange looking objects in the park.

While they are much more common today than they were then, there are people that are promoting them without understanding their proper use – when you see an adult using a 4 pound KB, that’s a pretty good indication they don’t know what the objective is.  This is similar to someone lifting pink dumbbells and think that they are “toning” their muscles with high reps, when the amount of resistance is not adequate to challenge the muscles.

If you are looking to get optimal fat burning results in minimal time, then doing cardio resistance training is a great way to get the best of both worlds – building lean muscle tissue at the same time you challenge your cardiovascular system.

Using tools like sandbags, TRX, bands, ropes, and dumbbells with little rest in between exercises is a great way to burn fat and challenge your muscles.  You can get a good cardio effect without doing steady state work on a treadmill or elliptical machine and you might reduce some of the pounding on your joints.

KB’s are a great training tool but you can get great results with other tools, as well.  Using them with poor technique may put you at increased risk for injury, so if you decide to give them a try, make sure your instructor knows what they are doing.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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