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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The Tabata protocol is for advanced exercisers and was tested on elite endurance athletes. Most people aren’t ready for the all out 20 seconds of exercise followed by a 10 second rest period and then repeating this for a total of 8 rounds in 4 minutes.

A leisurely pace won’t get the fat burning effect you’re looking for with these short rounds of exercise.  Robert dos Remedios recommends starting with a 10 second work period followed by a 20 second rest period.  The next progression would be 15 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest.

So you would gradually work up to the 20 seconds of work followed by the 10 second rest period, repeating for 6-8 all out rounds of exercise.  Stationary cycling was used in the research and will probably work the best for you.

Coach Mike Boyle likes to use the Airdyne cycle for doing intervals.  The Airdyne combines stationary cycling with handles that allow for an upper body push/pull.  This is a great tool for this intense training.

Recently on his blog, Boyle talked about a Tabata workout he did on this bike.  He completed 3 sets of 6 sprints, lasting 2 minutes and 50 seconds.  After the first set he rested one minute before starting the next set of 6.

After the second set he rested 2 minutes before starting the third set.  So he did 18 sprints of 20 seconds each in just under 12 minutes.

I don’t have any bikes in my studio so I have my clients do interval strength training workouts that last 30-40 minutes.  By using a Power Plate vibration platform for part of the workout I can have them do a lot of work in a short amount of time.

The exercises on the platform combined with the multi-joint resistance exercises done off the platform create a metabolic disturbance which leaves the metabolism elevated after the workouts have stopped.

This way someone with past injuries or someone who has been sedentary can still get some of the benefits of intense exercise without all the stress to their joints.  Otherwise, you can just use a stationary bike and gradually increase the work periods.

For more info on Tabatas you can read my review of Cardio Strength Training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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If you’re eating the wrong foods and don’t even know it, you might be screwing up your hormone levels – causing your body to store more fat!

Items such as low fat, reduced fat, diet sodas, and diet drinks, are often unhealthy foods in disguise.  If its something highly processed and/or containing high amounts of high fructose corn syrup or sodium, it could increase the size of your waist.

“Foods” containing trans fats (artificial fat) can slow down your metabolism, as your body doesn’t know what to do with these and stores them in your fat cells.

If it says low or reduced fat, it usually means they replaced the fat with carbs, which isn’t typically a good thing.  Extra carbs tend to get stored as bodyfat – not what you want!

Are high cholesterol levels really a bad thing?  Trainer and nutrition specialist Mike Geary has a new book that addresses all these issues and helps you fuel your fat-burning furnace, instead of slowing down the fat metabolism.

If you would like some info on Mike’s Fat Burning Kitchen, click here.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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If you want to lose weight without spending hours on the treadmill, burst training is the way to go!

Did you know that several studies have shown that you can burn fat in sessions lasting 30 minutes or less?  The key for weight loss in minimal time is intensity – turn up the flame.

When you go into oxygen debt with your workouts, you increase fat burning when the training session is over.  In one study, a group of women performed a short, intense workout and the other group did a moderate intensity aerobic session.

Both groups burned the same amount of calories (300) with their workouts, but the interval group lost more bodyfat, with the shorter workouts.  Another study saw the group doing short bursts of exercise keep their metabolism elevated for 24 hours after they stopped exercising.

Their workouts were 15 minutes shorter than the aerobic group.  Intense training puts you in oxygen debt, which leads to fat burning after the workout has ended.  If short on time, crank up the intensity for best results.

Interval (burst) training increases the production of testosterone and growth hormone in your body.  These hormones build lean muscle tissue to keep your metabolism elevated.  They also assist in fat burning.

Ropes Gone Wild are one way to speed up the fat loss, sprint training is another.  Vibration platforms have been shown to increase positive hormone production while decreasing cortisol, a stress hormone that is associated with endurance training.

I like to combine whole body vibration with sandbags, suspension training, resistance bands and ropes.  Besides giving you a great workout in 30 minutes or less, it gives you plenty of different exercises to choose from.

Besides being very time-efficient, it reduces the chance of boredom, which is why so many people give up their New Year’s resolution 3 months later.  For best results over the long haul, add in some leisurely activities here and there – long walks or hikes, bike rides, or paddling a canoe or kayak.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Is it more important to burn fat during your workout or after?  Alwyn Cosgrove recently wrote an article on EPOC and the “afterburn” effect – where your metabolism stays elevated after the workout.

A research study published in 2002 looked at the effect of a 31 minute circuit training workout on post workout metabolism.  This study showed an increased metabolic period lasting 38 hours after the workout.

Meaning, 38 hours later, their bodies were burning more calories than before the workout session!  The workout involved three multi-joint exercises (bench press, squat, and power clean) done in a circuit, 4 times in 31 minutes.

This should say a lot about the role of high-intensity resistance training and the ability to burn fat – also, the use of compound movements (multi-joint) for maximal efficiency.

One of the things this study does, is highlight the fact that the number of calories burned during the workout isn’t necessarily as important as the number of calories burned after.

This routine broke down a lot of muscle tissue and the rebuilding phase obviously burns quite a few calories.  Combine this interval resistance training with a cardio and nutrition program and you should see even greater fat burning.

This is the basis for Cosgrove’s Warp Speed Fat Loss system that I completed earlier this Summer.  I lost 13 pounds in a month and wasn’t quite perfect in following the low carb diet.

Training is important, but so is the eating.  These workouts were all under an hour in length.

Get moving!

Brian

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