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.