BeFIT Tip #2: The Kettlebell Swing

Hi everyone!  Hope you had an amazing weekend!  I will let you know how mine was depending if I win in fantasy football:).  I promised to piggy back off of my last post and give you some kettlebell exercises to incorporate into your routines.  I love this exercise!  I use this with almost all of my circuits to really amplify the calorie burn.  It is the kettlebell swing!  I observe a lot of trainers trying to use this with their clients often, more times then not, the wrong way.  Kettlebell swings can be very effective if done properly but if done incorrectly can cause injury.  It is very important to learn or be taught the correct posture for this exercise as with any other exercise.  Form is critical!  I see clients using the wrong mechanics and engaging muscles that should not be the agonists.  For starters, this is not a shoulder workout!  If you are feeling the kettlebell swing primarily in the shoulders then you are doing it incorrectly.  The cause of this is that you are not engaging from the true root of this movement primarily glutes and hamstrings.  You are not generating enough force to build momentum and therefore you feel the need to raise the kettlebell with your arms.  The arms should be nothing but an extension of the kettlebell.  They just guide the bell from start to finish.  This is not a lower back exercise!  You should definitely not feel this exercise primarily in the lower back.  This is where injury can happen.  I understand that beginners to this exercise might get a little soreness or tightness in the lower back just because of inexperience.  The cause of this is trying to create the extension phase of this exercise from the lower back and not from the hips.  Learning how to extend from the hips contracting your glutes is critical in order to perform swings.  Males and females alike rely much to heavily on their erectors for extension and not enough on the much larger, stronger gluteus muscles.  Now that I have pointed out some common mistakes when doing swings, let me explain how to do them correctly.  I'm going to break the swing down into two phases.  The prep phase and the extension phase.  In order to execute the prep phase correctly, you should familiarize yourself with the deadlift.  Doing the prep phase, the bell should be close to your body between your legs.  Legs should be based hip width apart or a little wider.  I like to tell my clients to lead with their hips keeping their chest high and let the knees follow what the hips are doing.  If you are quad dependent, you will often want to lead with the knees.  This creates more of a vertical line when what you are trying to create is horizontal.  Lead the hip flexors through passive flexion and try to maintain a flat back.  A very slight arch in the back my occur.  Make sure that you can see yourself from a side profile in the mirror in order to get this.  Also, if you have the correct posture, you will notice that the shoulder, knees, and ankles all stack on top of each other.  The hips are the furthest away from that center line or center of gravity.  The further away a joint is from the center of gravity, the more torque is created in that joint.  You want to create torque and build momentum through the hips so it makes sense that they should be furthest back.  Practice getting this prep phase continuously before executing the next step.  Once you have mastered that, you are ready to move on to the extension phase.  During this phase, you will perform the most work or put out the most energy.  Always start by building momentum and slowing rocking the hips to start the kettlebell into motion.  This allows you to start the bell safely and create a rhythm with your hips.  With each thrust or ext from the hip, you should notice the kettlebell going higher and higher.  For beginners, only attempt to swing the kettlebell to about mid chest height or directly to eye level.  If done correctly, you will experience a sense of weightlessness of the bell at the top of the motion.  Another thing that I tell my clients is to give a big exhale on the ext phase and inhale into relaxation on the prep phase.  Just make sure to hit that good posture every time on the prep phase!  You got it!  You can now do these swings for reps or timed intervals.  Try to build up into swinging for one minute straight!  Talk about building a strong core!  Your glutes will definitely thank you!  Maybe not right away because they will be screaming at you but in the long run:).  Swings burn about 20 calories for every minute that you do them.  Impressive!  That equates to 1200 calories/hour!  That's more than most people get out of 11/2 hours of bikram yoga at 105 degrees.  Even more impressive!  You will be truly adding some intensity to your workout as well.  Just make sure that you are getting the proper results.  If anything doesn't feel right, stop and ask!  Here is to that stronger, fitter you!  Right before the holidays.  Be functional, be inspired, be transformed, BeFIT Chicago!

Fit Tip: Starting The Week Off Right

Well, the weekend is over.  How was yours?  Did it involve a lot of unwanted calories and laziness?  For me, not so much this weekend because of the Spartan Race.  Usually, there are a  fair share of unwanted calories.  It is crucial for you to get the week started the right way to burn those unwanted calories off.  It's a new week and time to try something new to really rev up that metabolism!  My beFIT tip to you this week are kettlebells.  If you haven't already tried kettlebells, now is better than never.  Kettlebells are an awesome way not only to burn calories but to utilize your core.  What are kettlebells?  They are iron weights that have a handle at the top and a round mass at the bottom.  They differ from dumbbells because the mass is not centered horizontally but vertically.  This in itself makes it harder because the mass of the kettlebell is working with gravity as you are trying to lift it.  I would say however that kettlebells should be taught to you by someone who has experience using them.  I'm not talking about your friend who saw someone use them at the gym or your trainer that uses them on occasion.  I'm talking about someone that uses them consistently and knows how the movement should be executed.  Kettlebells should not be used in the same fashion as dumbbells!  Please don't let me see you on a stability ball pressing kettlebells.  Learn the basics first and take it slow.  You will then become more comfortable with them and then you can start to learn more complicated movements.  You will burn more calories doing a moderate kettlebell workout than you will doing an intense dumbbell workout guaranteed.  After you have learned the basics, try stringing the movements together into circuits.  Kettlebell circuits are very challenging and really get the heart rate up there so be careful.  Once you have experienced a good kettlebell workout, you will want to use them all the time.  After you have become acquainted with the circuits, you can then start to incorporate other things like plyos, power lifting, and agility into the circuits.  This always keeps the workouts interesting and keeps your body guessing.  So get to it!  Start to research kettlebells and learn the movements.  I will post some movements later and then give you a killer circuit to try.  Looking forward to a better, fitter you!  Have a great week!  Be functional, be inspired, be transformed, beFIT Chicago!! 

Defeat Cancer!!!

 October is all about pink!  I want to take this time to just pay tribute to all the breast cancer survivors.  I also want to acknowledge all of the family members that have lost someone to breast cancer.  We all need to do our part to increase awareness and help find the cure for cancer.  I don't know many people that have not been touched in some way by cancer.  We all know people or have family members that have experienced this horrible disease.  I lost my grandfather to cancer when I was young but I still remember seeing him in the hospital weak and confused.  For me, that was very difficult because my grandfather was the strongest man that I knew.  I recently competed and finished the sprint Spartan Race this weekend.  It was very interesting to say the least.  Some of the proceeds for the event went to breast cancer research.  Everyone was wearing pink.  I even saw a group of ladies in pink tutus running the race.  If you don't know what the Spartan Race is, make sure to look it up at spartanrace.com.  It is not for everyone and it makes most obstacle races like it seem easy.  The sprint is about 3.6 miles of trail that consists of mud, leaves, sticks, and water.  Obstacles are thrown into the mix.  Some of the obstacles are crawling under barb wire, carrying a bucket of gravel up and down steep hills, throwing a spear, jumping over fire, dragging boulders, and getting out of a pit of heavy mud up to your hip.  It is very intense!  I didn't expect how messy and challenging the event would be.  It was very special to me to finish the race.  I was already signed up to do it for our Powerade Zero team but had no idea that I would be running it for dedication.  Over the weekend, in fact, the day before the race my cousin passed away due to complications from breast cancer at the age of 37.  I was hit head on by the breast cancer demon that plagues many women.  I decided to dedicate the race to the memory of my cousin, Denise Lear.  I wore a pink wristband that read "RIP Denise Lear Forever in our hearts."  Although, the course was never at a point difficult enough to consider stopping, I thought of my cousin every time I slopped through dirty nasty smelly mud.  Thanks to the Powerade Zero team, Ashley Bond, and Tina Franceschina for helping me complete the race.  It was amazing!!  My family will always remember Denise for her strength and love for her three sons.  Let's all do our part and find a cure to defeat breast cancer and all other forms of cancer.  Together we stand! Together we can!

To my cousin,
You will be missed
You will be forever in our heartsYou are loved

You are home!
RIP Denise Lear

The CrossFit Phenomenon, Is it right for you?

The thought of writing a blog about CrossFit crossed my mind when a fellow trainer asked me if I was a CrossFit trainer.  I asked, What is a CrossFit trainer?  He told me that I trained in the CrossFit style and I did it correctly.  I was really shocked by this.  There is a CrossFit style?  Most of you probably would say" yes."  The reason that I don't associate myself with it is because I have been doing these things most of my life.  For those of you that don't know what CrossFit is let me explain.  CrossFit is a training style that incorporates total body movements in a circuit format often the length is dictated by time or number of reps.  They use jump roping, power/olympic lifting, ropes, sleds, kettlebells, long runs, and pullups in their circuits.  Usually they will put together a circuit with a specific number of exercises and reps.  The fastest time that you can complete it is recorded and you progress by beating previous times.  A sample circuit might be:

6-8 deadlifts
15-20 box jumps
10-15 kettlebell swings
8-10 bar to chest pullups
6-8 overhead squats

Not exact but just for example so you can get the picture.  All of these exercises take extreme coordination and use a lot of muscle to complete.  CrossFit has become so popular that it is hard not to find a studio on some corner in your city.  How about the CrossFit Games now aired on ESPN2?  Wow!  I don't want to sound like a hater but I just want to offer my opinion on the subject.  I don't want to get any comments by people that use their style of training.  I know that there are numerous success stories out there and quite sure they have changed tons of lives in the process.  My thing is that I don't see how you can put a label on something that has been done for years.

Is CrossFit right for you? If you are a person who is extremely competitive and athletic, then maybe it is.  You most definitely have to take some things into consideration although.  First, can you deal with constant soreness and muscle fatigue?  Training in this fashion is very repetitive and breaks down muscle tissue fast helping to hypertrophy the muscle as well.  Common aches and pains will accompany this transition.  Also, joints seem to break down from this repetitive stress as well.  Knee, elbow, neck, and back discomfort are common with this type of training. Are you looking to build bulky muscle or lean muscle?  With this type of training, you are moving a lot of weight especially in the power lifting exercises.  This helps to promote strong muscle but often time very bulky muscle.  So all you ladies out there that don't like big thighs and rounded shoulders, this is not going to work for you.  Anyone that is trying to lean out may want to stick to circuit training that doesn't involve moving a lot of weight.  I know people are going to say that doing a overhead snatch with 55lbs is not a lot of weight.  Think about it.  If you do 8 snatches that equals 440lbs and 10 is 550lbs total lbs moved.  That was the requirement for women in the day 1 exercise program for the CrossFit games.  I can't even get most of my female clients to lift 15lbs without complaining that they are going to get too big let alone 55.  Are you going to be able to sustain an intense pace?  It takes a lot of heart to get through some of these grueling circuits.  Most people just don't have that kind of intensity to pull this off.  I'm just being honest.  You should also be honest with yourself.  Even if you get through circuits consistently, can you continue to train consistently to keep seeing results?  For most people, that will be "no."  It's hard enough to keep people consistent with their training as it is without taking the intensity level up to CrossFit standards. 

Don't get me wrong.  I think the CrossFit games are an awesome display of athletic talent.  I am even considering trying out for next year.  I just don't think you can expect people to train in this intense, ballistic, repetitive style without injury.  I can't see the average person being able to train this way and it be beneficial to their health and well being.  I still believe that a personalized training program to meet your specific need is the best way to go.  If your specific needs requires CrossFit then so be it.  Most people are just not at the fitness level to want or need to challenge themselves in this fashion.  I most definitely use all the exercises and then some that CrossFit does but I use them with my clients in a more structured organized manner to meet their personal fitness levels.  I don't think CrossFit has a personal approach.  Form is definitely lacking in the lifts and I think too much emphasis is put on weight.  If you are doing it already, I wish you nothing but injury free success.  If you are not, make a wise decision about what is right for you.  Don't get caught up in the fad!  If there is one thing to take from them is to incorporate more total body exercises and lifts into your circuit training.  Keep the heart rate up and burn those calories!  As always, much success to everyone.  Be functional, be inspired, be transformed, beFIT Chicago!