Formosa Fitness

I'm running into several misconceptions about the kettlebell and the related training. So here's a brief response.

"Kettlebells are just a fad."

No, sorry but I don't think they are. This comes from people who usually have never tried them and have no idea what they can do.

KB training is very, very different than the training that goes on in most gyms. The emphasis of the training is different, the tool is different, and experience it produces is different. It someone hasn't tried the training, then they might just look at the tool and see nothing special. That would be foolish.

Those differences have effected enough people's lives at this point that there's no turning back. We're seeing the development of a whole new segment of the market becuase of that.

"You don't need kettlebells to get into shape. Bodyweight training alone can do it."

Well just what do you need to get into shape? Can everyone do it with bodyweight alone? What about women or undertrained men that can do a single pullup or pushup? Is bodyweight training all they need? Hardly.

Fitness tools have a role in training. They allow things that body weight training alone can't give you.

"I don't want to do kettlebells because they'll ruin my taichi (or whatever)."

This one I get in some form nearly every week and I really just don't get it. There is NOTHING about KB training that in any way would negatively impact your taichi or MA training -- except possibly dropping it on your foot.

We really need to pull our heads out of 19th century China and start looking at tools that could really help us. 

Be the flow by Coach Scott Sonnon

Lots of great movement here. I get lots of "aha" moments when watching it. Enjoy.

My classes are starting to pick up a bit and balancing personal workouts with teaching is becoming more of an issue. EDT and working out fairly hard twice a day are out. It's just too much on my body (edit: actually EDT may be a part of everything I do now. Have to think about this). I now do the workout with my kettlebell classes most times. For example, today I led from the front and we did a killer 20:00 circuit workout:

20 deadlifts

20 swings 10L/10R

20 squats 10L/10R

20 high pulls 10L/10R

I was proud of my guys as they worked with the 16kg for most of the time. Good job, guys! I pushed myself a bit and keep up the pace as much as I could.

I do this for a number of reasons: I like to show I can do as well as teach, I provide visual ques and technique tips just by doing it with them, I get to feel the effects of the workouts I program (today's was a bit too back intensive, should have seen that), and me doing it with them gives clients motivation to do it themselves.

But then doing this twice a day or more is taxing so the personal workouts get cut sometimes (actually a lot lately). It's a little weird but then I like doing basics anyway so it still works.

As a "problem," it's a nice one to have. It's like the "problem" of choosing between Monica Belluci and Sophie Marceau. :) You win either way.

These were taken a while back and show a typical class at Formosa Fitness. I'm proud to offer a fitness altenative in Taipei. Anyone tired of running like rats on treadmills, freezing air conditioning in a place where you're supposed to sweating, ear-splitting music, pimple-faced "trainers," and "sign up now for $100 off, but this deal ends today" nonsense should check us out.

Classes are small, individual instruction is at a premium, and results come quickly with whole-body, functional fitness training. Come check us out.

Just throwing this out there but it seems to me that when training with the kettlebell, especially intensely, you'll find three layers: major muscle groups, minor muscle groups, and the purely mental stage.

When you start an intense set, you work the major muscle groups and exhaust those first. Then the minor muscle groups take over and your form improves. This is a nice area to be in. But that niceness doesn't last as you go beyond what good technique alone will get you. As you continue the set, you reach the stage where technique is no longer a refuge and the struggle becomes purely mental. Will you find the will to persevere?

This aspect makes kettlebelling different from some other trainings. It's a fairly unique aspect IMO and that's both a plus and a negative.

For one thing, it's difficult to communicate that we can and need to push ourselves past those comfort zones. Few people IMO really work out this hard. Going through these three layers means challenging your personal boundaries and seeing what's on the other side. It's revealing.

And yet survivable. Every time I hear, "I can't do it, I can't do it" I just have to smile. Because I know that they CAN do it. But they just don't know it yet.

We're capable of so much more than we think. When we persevere and do something we didn't think we could do, we've achieved something to be proud of.  Kettlebelling can provide this growth.

很多女性朋友不敢做重量訓練，因為害怕練出像男人一樣的大塊肌肉，其實並不會發生這樣的事。因為男人有比女人多10倍的激素可長出肌肉，女性沒有那樣的條件，一般女性的雄性荷爾蒙量太低了，再怎麼做重量訓練也練不出像健美先生那樣的壯碩肌肉，除非是有特殊體質的女性，做相當密集的訓練。

另外，很多女性覺得「肌肉」比「脂肪」還可怕，卻不知道她們認為很可怕的「肌肉」，竟是能夠幫助他們瘦得漂亮又健康的最大關鍵。

肌肉到底是什麼?

1.   肌肉的成長階段在青春期結束之後就告一段落。換言之，就是肌肉量會逐年減少。

2.   越不鍛練肌肉，流失的速度越快。

3.   懷孕期間，肌肉的流失會增加，因為肚子裡的baby需要蛋白質來成長。

4.   光靠節食跟有氧運動而不做重量訓練，肌肉只會流失不會增加。

5.    重量訓練把你失去的肌肉找回來。

6.    女性朋友在增加肌肉時，並不會讓您的身材大一號，反而會更加緊實，看起來格外苗條。

7.    肌肉的確能夠超有效率地幫你燃燒脂肪。

肌肉的好處

1.    肌肉能讓你的身體有高速的新陳代謝率。

2.   肌肉是一種活性組織，需要消耗大量的卡路里來建造，因此身上的肌肉越多，您所消耗的卡路里也越多。

3.    肌肉建造越多，脂肪消耗越多。

流失的肌肉該如何打造呢?

有氧運動和中強度的心肺運動固然很重要，但是沒做到重量訓練的話，就錯失了打造肌肉的最佳機會。

重量訓練的好處:

1.  培養並維護肌肉群

不管是長時間坐著的上班族，或是平常有做有氧運動的人，只要沒有做重量訓練的習慣，年紀越大，肌肉群就會加速喪失。身上的肌肉越少，身體的新陳代謝也會越低。很多人年輕時怎麼吃都不會胖，過了30歲後食量不變，身材卻莫名其妙像氣球一樣膨脹，就是這個道理。肌肉群減少後，力氣也會變小，多走些路，或是提了重東西，一下子就累了，變得很沒耐力。重量訓練是唯一能促進肌肉性能的運動，光是跑步等有氧運動，對肌肉的挑戰性是不夠的。

2.預防受傷跟促進平衡感

隨著人體老化肌肉變弱，身體的平衡感也會大幅減低，所以老年人很容易跌倒受傷，所以固定的重量訓練，能夠讓肌肉性能保持在良好的狀態。

3.增加關節延展性

重量訓練可以幫助身體的延展性，因為重量訓練後，肌肉變強，關節延展性也會提高。

4.預防骨質疏鬆

重量訓練會對骨頭產生壓力，骨髓則得以更新骨骼結構，使之變強，如此一來可保持骨骼密度，所以中老年人很需要培養重量訓練的習慣。

5.減肥和美化身材

因為重量訓練能增加肌肉群，而肌肉群可以幫助新陳代謝，所以當您減肥時，有這些肌肉群的熱量消耗，就可以加速效果。減肥成功後，也因為有這些肌肉群維持新陳代謝率，而不易復胖。

Love Scott Sonnon's presentation here on the one arm clean and jerk. I did a long cycle with the 16kg KB this morning and loved it. The clean and jerk is more technical than many other lifts so give yourself time to get it right. I know I am.

Also, I have three new students coming tomorrow and I'm in the process of scheduling my first kettlebell presentation to a large group. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm hoping this the beginning of my business taking off. Time will tell.

A while back, Time Magazine published one of the worst articles I've ever read in a mainstream publication: Why Exercise Won't Make you Thin. Time is in every doctor and dentist's office in America ironically so we'll have to deal with this nonsense for years to come. Way to go, guys.

Basically the author talks about how he exercises all the time and doesn't lose weight. Reading the article, I had a lot of geewhiz-I-wonder-why moments. Look at these quotes:

...perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym.

....It turns out one group of friends was stopping at Starbucks for muffins afterward....

....After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories....

...self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza. ...Because exercise depletes not just the body's muscles but the brain's self-control "muscle" as well, many of us will feel greater entitlement to eat a bag of chips during that lazy time after we get back from the gym.

Good grief. Where to begin?

The author obviously lacks any sense of will power whatsoever. He's like a 2-year old that needs his hand slapped out of the cookie jar every other minute. If he sees something, then he just has to have it. That's obviously a recipe for disaster if you're trying to lose weight.

Especially note the "self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it" part. I have no idea where he got this idea and it certainly does NOT apply to weight lifting and muscle development. How someone's will weakens after you use it beyond me.

Second, let's kill once and for all the idea that someone "earned" a trip to Starbucks or a large pizza because they went to the gym. That seems to be the main sickness the author suffers from. And I've actually heard this from people, unfortunately. No one who is trying to lose weight earns more junk food by going to the gym. I hope that's obvious. We're desperately trying to lose what we thought we already "earned," remember?

Let's make this clear: if you're burning 200-300 calories at the gym and then eating/drinking 500 calories of junk food after working out, then you're setting yourself up for failure. (Note to other trainers: yes, I know that total calorie intake and expenditure over the day may still balance this out, but I'm making a general statement.)

As a trainer, it's my job to help busy people sort through information so they can make healthy choices. And frankly irresponsible articles like this one just angers me. Normal people that are struggling with their weight will read this and get 100% wrong information. It could set back their health for years. 

Exercise and having the courage to control what you eat are absolutely crucial if you want to lose weight. Don't let Time Magazine tell you otherwise.

This is another workout method we use with kettlebells. A Tabata protocol is taking an exercise and then doing it intensely for :20 and rest for :10. This is one cycle. You do 8 cycles back to back for a total of 4:00. It's a tough workout if you select the right exercise and weight. I'm huffing and puffing in this one.

Tabatas are tough. Don't do them more than twice a week. Try to pick an exercise that you can do intensely and that will work the whole body. Tabata originally programmed this for the stationary bike, I believe. But it works well with weights, as you can see.

I'm doing double 16kg KB in the clip. I previously was only able to hold them in the rack for 4:00 and struggled even with that. Now I'm doing Tabatas with double 16s so I'm definitely getting stronger. Make this a part of your training every now and then when you want to test yourself and you will too!