I was just pointed to this article over at Clarence Bass’ website:
I would like you to take a moment and read it.
It seems that common sense is finally coming to the medical industry, they have finally cottoned onto what we in the fitness industry have known for years.
Keeping yourself fit and strong will greatly enhance your quality of life. Spending a little time in the gym will keep your life outsi
de the gym healthier, happier and hopefully, longer.
It also pints to the fact that Strength or Cardio on their own are less effective than the two combined. Again, this points to the all round picture of health and fitness promoted by many of us in the industry.
We’re all familiar with the marathoner that can barely lift their kit ba above their heads and powerlifters that can barley walk up a flight of stairs. But these are specialists, and any specialist is lacking in something.
Here at Wild Geese we opt for a non specialised approach to strength and fitness training. Yes, we harp on about kettlebells, but I’ll come to that shortly. In the bigger picture we use a variety of training methods, but whatever we use we attempt to get our clients not only stronger but build stamina and endurance at the same time.
After all we made our name as martial artists, fighters. Most of our clients are fighters.
If your going to be stepping into a ring you will need strength and power to punch and grapple your opponent and the stamina to keep doing it as the rounds keep coming.
If you tire before your opponent, you will lose.
This is why we like kettlebells.
Lets look at a an example
Sandra & Karen, a pair that train with me a couple of times a week. 6 weeks ago they nearly died after performing 10 sets of 10 kettlebell swings in 10 minutes (start each set at the top of the minute).
Now with a combination of Kettlebell and bodyweight drills we have not only trimmed inches of them, but they recently performed 10 minutes straight of swings! They’ve also gone from barely push pressing the 8kg over head to doing strict press & windmill combo’s with 12kg.
Strength & Fitness have been built simultaneously. Sandra by the way has reported that minutes hae been shaved off her best running times since she started with the bells, and her mate, Karen no longer suffers from hip pain. We never even addressed these issues directly….
Now you don’t have to spend your life in the gym. A well designed Kettlebell/bodyweight session can last as little as 10 minutes and will get the results alluded to in the article above. My wife, for example, does 100 swings a day, usually doing them as soon as out 1 year old is put down for his afternoon nap. Some days she does sets of 10, other days 20, occasionally she tries to do it in a single set!
Last Tuesday I took my fighters through a nice bodyweight finisher, try it for yourself:
2 minutes Hindu Push Ups, 4 minutes Hindu Squats and 2 minutes Plank.
No rest
Now they had already been lifting weights, this was just a finisher. The times mentioned are adjustable, soon they will do 5 mins push ups and plank, 10 mins squat…
You can play around with it, if you train daily vary the times, some days do more than others, occasionally going for a max.
Implement some basic training into your week, be it bodyweight, kettlebells or joining a class, it doesn’t really matter too much, just as long as you do something that improves your strength & fitness.
Regards
Dave