Why Kettlebells Dominate other Exercise Equipment

The Russian kettlebell owes half of its power to the proprietary RKC training system. The other half is due to the kettlebell's design, namely a thick handle removed from a compact center of mass.

The kettlebell is the ultimate in conditioning the body for extreme decelerations. Think of all the sudden stops and direction changes on the football field. If you have not conditioned yourself to handle these forces, you will perform sub-par and run a high risk of injury. Traditional strength training, even the Olympic 'quick lifts', does not address this issue as the weight is either dropped or treated to a slow negative. As Brett Jones, RKC Sr. put it, "You cannot swing a barbell between your legs." You could try it with a dumbbell -at least until the sheer width of it takes your knees out. The compact kettlebell can be dropped from the lockout between your knees and way behind you where it will impact load your hips.

This dynamic loading sets up the hip muscles for a powerful contraction. The kettlebell is the definitive tool for developing the hip thrust, the power generator in all athletics. Be it a jump, a kick, or a punch, when expertly performed, it comes from the hip.

The kettlebell will make your back resilient. Unique Russian exercises condition your back from every conceivable angle, statically and dynamically. One would have to take up powerlifting, yoga, strongman, gymnastics, and a couple of other things to half way imitate the benefits of kettlebell training.

Kettlebell's offset center of gravity maximizes shoulder strength, flexibility, and health. Most Russians have never heard of 'rotator cuffs.' Save for combat wounds, shoulder injuries are virtually unheard in the Russian armed forces. They train and test their personnel with repetition one-arm snatches with a 53 lb. kettlebell rather than pushups.

The kettlebell is an outstanding grip, wrist, and forearm developer. A thick and smooth handle combined with the ballistic nature of many exercises loads the grip like rock climbing. Bottom up cleans and similar leverage drills unique to kettlebells take care of the wrists.

The position of the handle allows dynamic passing of the kettlebell from hand to hand for a great variety of powerful juggling type exercises strongly endorsed by the Russian Federation State Committee on Physical Culture. These drills develop dynamic strength and injury-proof the body in many planes unlike conventional linear exercise.

The kettlebell will give you infinite freedom of lifting. It has been said that kettlebells to traditional free weights are what barbells and dumbells are to machines. Taming a kettlebell is akin to medieval sword, spear, and battleaxe play, liberating and aggressive.

The Russian kettlebell is a complete, no-compromise, extreme hand held gym. "We train with kettlebells in case civilization is temporary," stated the Philadelphia Kettlebell Club, "…don't rely on anything you can't carry."

Kettlebell blaster

What is a 'kettlebell'?

A 'kettlebell' or girya (Russ.) is a traditional Russian cast iron weight that looks like a cannonball with a handle. The ultimate tool for extreme all-round fitness.

The kettlebell goes way back, it first appeared in a Russian dictionary in 1704 (Cherkikh, 1994). So popular were kettlebells in Tsarist Russia that any strongman or weightlifter was referred to as a girevik, or 'a kettlebell man'.

"Not a single sport develops our muscular strength and bodies as well as kettlebell athletics," reported Russian magazine Hercules in 1913.



The Need for Strength Training
As we age, muscle mass tends to decline, causing loss of strength. Researchers estimate we lose about a half pound of muscle every year. The best way to fight that loss, or to build stronger muscles, is through strength training.

Strength training provides more benefits than strong muscles. It helps reduce body fat and increases lean muscle mass. Muscle burns more calories than fat. So as muscle mass builds, the body burns calories faster and more efficiently. Strength training also builds strong bones, increases stamina, improves sleep, and reduces the risk of falls or other types of injury. Many people claim to have a better sense of well-being and confidence after starting strength training.

Kettlebell Training
Traditional strength training is often done with the use of weight machines, free weights, barbells, resistance bands or a stability ball. Now, an unusual piece of equipment is becoming popular. It’s called the kettlebell.

The traditional kettlebell is a cast iron weight that looks like a cannonball with a handle. It’s believed to have come from Russia, where kettlebell exercises were described more than 300 years ago. They were popular among Russian power lifters and security forces. The bells range in weight from 4 to 106 pounds.

Today, kettlebell training is becoming popular with non-athletes as well as athletes. Angela Sundberg, MS, RKC-PT, CSCS, AT is the Owner of Bodyscapes Studio in Scottsdale, AZ. She says kettlebell combines cardio and strength training for a high-impact workout in a short amount of time. It increases stamina, resilience and flexibility, and provides more free movement than a standard barbell and better balance than dumbbells.

Sundberg warns kettlebell training is an extreme form of training, so beginners should have some instruction. Experts recommend the average man start with about a 35 pound weight and progress to about 53 pounds. A woman should start out at about 18 pounds and work up to 26 poun

Gadgets no good for health, say docs

Electronic massagers or weight-loss belts are being marketed as one-stop treatment for all problems. But doctors say mechanical health gadgets are a waste of money and may do more harm than good.

You have to read the fine print carefully for health warnings, which are never prominently displayed. “These gadgets are a strict no-no for pregnant women or those with bone or nerve disorders. We never recommend any electronic gadgets to our patients,” said Dr Arun Garg, consultant neurologist at Max Healthcare.

“Normally, pain receptors respond to any external heating or mechanical stimulation. Sometimes, repeated stimulus lowers the resistance level, more specifically among the elderly or among people with muscle disorders. Whenever the tissue is sensitized, even the non-painful stimulus can cause pain.”

In malls, where these electronic products are on display for free trials, salesmen usually assure consumers that there are no side effects. This is misleading.

Sukanya Sinha (name changed) fell into this trap. She tried a foot massager that gave her leg pain severe enough for her to end up in bed for four days.

“The salesman offered a free foot massage using a gadget on display and I got tempted as I suffer from pain in my legs regularly,” said Sinha. “When the session ended, I realised I couldn’t move. I developed excruciating pain that shot up to my knee and refused to die,” she said.

Sukanya is upset that the salesman did not warn her about the possible side effects that the gadget could have on her. “Neither did the salesperson tell me anything nor was there a warning board mentioning the dos and don’ts,” she said.

Companies insist that health warnings are mentioned on the product guide and the website. “People with ailments should ask the salesman if the product is safe for them to use. Also, if the salesman notices a physical ailment, he warns customer of possible side effects,” said Raghavendra Singh, senior general manager, Osim India.

He, however, admitted that health warnings are not prominently displayed in shops. “We shall take up the issue with the management, like making warnings more visible for the benefit of the consumer,” he said.

Doctors say gadgets bring few health benefits. “Manual massage is always recommended over electronic massagers as the pressure set in the machines are usually uniform and can’t differentiate between the tender parts of the body and the stronger ones, which can withstand pressure,” said Dr Sumit Singh, associate professor in neurology department at AIIMS.

He advises patients to go for long walks and eat healthy to lose weight instead of using slimming belts. He also suggests manual massages instead of the electronic ones. “It should be mandatory for companies selling health-related electronic products to warn the buyer of their side effects before recommending them or offering them for a trial,” he said.

-Jaya Shroff , Hindustan Times

Vibrating your way to weight loss

They are the words we've all been dying to hear; "You can blast fat by just standing still. "

HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo is here- probably to tell us what the catch is with this theory.

You stand still, no doubt about it, on a vibrating platform, and researchers at the State University of New York say not only will you lose fat, but you may fight off osteoporosis, too.

Remember vibrating exercise machines that promised weight loss. Sounds silly, right?

Researchers are now studying the effects of vibration with surprising results.

Mice that stood on this platform for 15 minutes a day formed more bone mass and less fat.

"The funny connection between bone and fat is they all come from the same cell," Clinton Rubin, a professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department, said.

That stem cell can become muscle, bone or fat. Scientists believe the gentle vibrations cause the cell to turn into bone to tolerate the jiggling.

"So, it's a different way of thinking about why we become obese," Rubin said.

In this torso scan, the red is fat. The vibrating mouse, seen at the bottom, formed about 30 percent less fat during the study.

The platform also showed promise in humans. Postmenopausal women who stood on the vibrating plate maintained their bone mass, while those who didn't lost about three percent.

Rubin said tennis players are a good example of how shaking leads to bigger bones. They have 35 percent more bone in their playing arms.

These vibrations may one day be a simple way to fight both osteoporosis and obesity -- problems that plague millions of Americans.

Okay now, before you let your imagination run wild, vibrations don't remove fat cells. They help fewer develop. So if you already have fat to get rid of you will still need diet and exercise.

You also need to be careful. The vibrations used in this case are gentle, so filling up your watching machine with tennis shoes and sitting on top is probably not a good idea, and could actually be dangerous for you.

And that would be the catch.

-Source

Maximize weight Loss, Three simple rules

We do agree the key to permanent weight loss and true fitness is a lifetime commitment to exercise and eating right.

But hey, there must be a shortcut to this goal in there somewhere?

"Yes there is," says Sammie Richards creator of Booty Camp Fitness, a program that invites women to laugh, jump, lunge, and punch their way to a great-looking body. "Just like learning to eat right step by step, we must also learn to exercise that way."

Don't waste your time, for example, on routines or

machines that fail you, she says. Instead, here are the three key principles to give you the most efficient, weight loss workout every time, courtesy of Booty-CampFitness.com:

1. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)-- Forget walking for 60 minutes every day, who has time for that? A 10-15 minute HIIT cardio workout burns more fat. If you spent 15 minutes doing HIIT on a stationary bike, for example, it would be the "calorie burning" equivalent to 60 minutes of walking.

2. Combine Resistance and Cardio Training-- Not only do you burn more calories during the workout if you combine cardio with resistance training, but it boosts your metabolism after the workout because of the resistance portion. For example, cardio alone will boost your metabolism for three to six hours, and resistance training continues to burn increased calories for 24 to 48 hours post-workout.

3. Muscle is Metabolism-- Lifting weights or body sculpting isn't enough. You need to challenge your muscles by working them harder and harder each time. Progressive strength training can be done with body weight, free weights, or machines. All that matters is that it's progressive and it's challenging enough to force the muscles to make improvements. For example, each additional pound of lean muscle mass will burn an additional 50 calories or so, per day.

-J. C. CARROLL, NEWS CANADA

WiiFit: meet the new games mistress

Can you really get fit by playing a video game in your living room? Our correspondent tries out the latest craze to hit Britain -Matt Rudd




Eight at night, it’s been a long day, and a personal trainer is taking down my particulars. How old am I? How tall? How heavy?

Like a suspected drink-driver pulled over by a Texas Ranger, I am then told to balance on one leg. Every time I wobble a bit on the incredibly sensitive high-tech balance board, an arrow on a TV screen zigzags.

When it is over, I have failed to impress. “Balance obviously wasn’t your cup of tea,” says my trainer. “Do you find yourself tripping over when you’re walking?” With a drum roll, I am then told my WiiFit age. I am 44, or 11 years older than I am in the real world.

This, says my WiiFit machine, is not good. For my trainer is not actually a person, but a video game console.

t appears that my muscles are much weaker than they should be. Tact is not the Wii’s strong point. Confusingly, it has also calculated that my body mass index is 22.18 (“ideal”, it says, so why all the doom and gloom?). It then tells me we should set a goal right away.

“Willamina,” it says because that’s the name I accidentally gave myself when I was trying to find out if Matt was an option. “Willamina, although your BMI is in the ideal range, how would you like to set a BMI of 22 as your goal?”

It has finally happened. The machines have taken over. Or they will have by the end of the month. I don’t want you to panic though, because H G Wells got it wrong: the machines don’t want to kill you – they just want to make you fitter.

Wii, Nintendo’s video games console, was already popular but in April, with the launch of its new exercise game, WiiFit, things got out of hand.

In the first two weeks of the launch, spurred on no doubt by the endorsement of the Girls Aloud superbabe Sarah Harding, Nintendo sold 338,000 (complete with that flashy balance board) in Britain and Ireland alone.

One month on, you cannot get hold of one for love nor money. Well, money, yes. The retail price is £69.99 but if you’re prepared to splash upwards of £130, eBay will oblige. That’s after you’ve already spent £180 on the Wii console you need to play it on.

According to the Office of National Statistics, booming sales of WiiFit (along with shoot-’em-up game Grand Theft Auto IV) softened the blow of the spending downturn on the high street in April. While other sectors reported declining sales, entertainment shops saw a 5.3% increase. In these dire times of credit-crunching gloom, one assumes food might be the last thing to go. It isn’t: it’s the WiiFit.

This, then, is a seriously crazy craze. And, weirdest of all, it involves us getting off our fat behinds and doing some exercise. Sort of. Anecdotal accounts of epic WiiFit weight loss are springing up across cyberspace. Suburban streets are hushed but for the swoosh of housewives Wiiing. And one hospital is even planning to use the WiiFit to treat stroke patients.

Could a computer game that claims to make exercise fun be the panacea for our sloth-like age? Will playing the WiiFit guarantee to turn you from couch potato to spring chicken? Or have we all gone stark, raving mad? FOR those of you not yet gripped by the cult of Wii, let me explain how it works. Launched in 2006, the Wii itself is a games console with one big difference. Instead of sitting on the sofa zapping things, you hold two wireless controllers and act out the game. For real. And virtually. At the same time.

In the Wii boxing game, for instance, the punches you throw are shadowed by your cartoon representation on the television screen. In golf, you take a swing and then watch the ball fly off down the virtual fairway. The console picks up your movements from the controllers and interprets them into the game. It is an astonishingly clever piece of technology.

WiiFit goes one step further. With the wireless balance board, it can sense your precise weight distribution. Along with the handheld controllers, it then perfectly recreates your movements on screen as you work your way through a variety of exercise-based games such as hula-hooping, slaloming, tightrope-walking and, less rivetingly, jogging.

You can do a yoga session, aerobics and muscle workouts (the press-ups are just as hard as ever). The more you do, the higher your score, the more levels of the game are unlocked.

Nintendo only goes so far as to describe it as “an easy, simple and enjoyable way for every member of the family to incorporate exercise into their daily routine”, although in the dialogue of the game itself the recurring, hypnotic theme is that by playing it regularly, you are improving yourself.

The government is certainly getting very excited about Wii. In January, even before the latest fitness-specific game was launched, it was considering putting Wii consoles into school gyms as a way to make games lessons fun. By inference, it has accepted that it does have health-giving properties.

There are plenty of online accounts of people using WiiFit as their main or sole fitness regime. One blog full of unsavoury then-and-now photos reports a man losing 11lb in 35 hours on the Wii, allowing him to wear a very strange tuxedo to his wedding (I’ll spare you the web link).

More academic studies are less positive. Liverpool John Moores University last year concluded that if you played Wii sports for 12.2 hours a week you could lose 27lb in 12 months. That’s not a great ratio. It also concluded that children playing Wii games burnt only 2% more energy than children wasting their lives on other games consoles.

Still, some men in white coats are willing to give WiiFit a shot and university staff at St James’s hospital in Dublin are even optimistic it could have benefits for patients. They’re planning to use a WiiFit to treat stroke victims, suggesting it could be a sturdier, cheaper and more entertaining alternative to standard medical equipment.

Joseph Harbison, a consultant at the hospital, says: “We’re considering the WiiFit in the first instance to assess and rehabilitate patients’ balance, as trying to restore a stroke patient’s standing balance is the first stage in getting them to walk again.”

Before installing the console, the unit was trialling a medical device designed specifically to rehabilitate stroke sufferers. The equipment costs eight times the price of the WiiFit. Harbison said that as well as being more expensive, it had only a fraction of the versatility of the Wii, was less robust, less adaptable to the individual and “frankly less interesting for the patient to use”. Meaning, presumably, that it didn’t have a tightrope walk.

Boredom is the biggest complaint made by patients in the hospital’s rehab wing. The plan is that the Wii will counteract this.

Even Darren Campbell, the Olympic-gold-medal-winning sprinter, has got a blimming WiiFit. You would think he wouldn’t need to bother but he is philosophical about why he plays it with his children: “The reality is that games consoles are now part of our lives, and a console where there is a little bit of exercise is not a bad thing. For keeping fit though, I don’t think anything can substitute running on the treadmill, or swimming. I am not going to throw away my gym membership yet.”

T J Salih, chartered physiotherapist and former team physio for Tottenham Hotspur, the Premier League football club, is less enthused, describing the WiiFit as nothing more than a gimmick.

“It’s okay for people trying to relearn their balance. It’s a good visual cue. But because the main measure is the pressure from your feet, you could be doing anything with your upper body to pass the test.”

He goes on to explain that it is almost impossible for us not to cheat when our brains have visual clues. “I often get patients to close their eyes for an exercise, but you can’t do that with the Wii. So the temptation is to do the exercises wrong. I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing people hobbling into my clinic who’ve been rocking about on their knee, ankle and hip joints for hours.”

Even before the arrival of the balance board, there have been concerns about injuries caused by excessive Wiiing. In January, a group of British osteopaths even coined a new condition, “Wii syndrome”, in response to the rising number of parents turning up at clinics with game-related neck, shoulder and elbow injuries. BACK in my front room, I’m finding that cheating pays dividends. I have become brilliant at the jogging game, mainly because I’ve worked out I can stand motionless and just waggle the control about. It’s so much easier than actually running.

Within seconds, my Mii (my virtual representation on the screen) has run ahead of the Wii pacemaker and the computer is panicking that I’ll do myself an injury. That I might sprint off through the patio doors. It has no idea I’m just standing there giving the stick a cheeky waggle.

For the next hour, I cheat ata lot of things and progress to previously unimaginable levels of sporting prowess. But after five hours, I’ve hardly brokena sweat. Wii, I’m afraid, is not the solution to everything.

Still, I’ve just been on again for another session (if nothing, it’s addictive). And it’s just told me my WiiFit age has plummeted to 38. That might be because I’ve learnt how to cheat in the balancing bit. It might also be because I have fewer clothes on.

I like to think it’s because I have become six years younger overnight. I’ve virtually convinced myself of it.

Incline Trainer -NordicTrack X10

The secret is an incredible 50% incline.

Burn fat faster, reduce impact and shape and tone your entire body. Only the Incline Trainer™ X10 from NordicTrack provides an incredible 0% to 50% incline range– and you can burn up to three times the calories just walking at a 25% incline than you can walking on a flat surface. With a 3.0 CHP Commercial Quadra Drive system, the X10 will power you through the toughest workouts. And it works your upper body with Adjustable Resistance Cardio Cables and 8 resistance settings to help tone and tighten arms, shoulders, back and abs for a total-body workout.


Product Specs:

0-12 MPH 1 Step Speed Control

    Find the speed you want at the touch of a button. The Incline Trainer™ speeds up or slows down on demand, so you can focus on your workout.
 
25 Workout Programs

    Four large LED displays track your speed, pulse, time, distance, incline, elevation, pace, calories burned and fat calories burned. The workouts adjust your speed or incline and focus on a variety of exercise goals: aerobic, weight loss, endurance or performance.
3.0 CHP Commerical Quadra Drive System

    NordicTrack's strongest, smoothest and fastest motor. Get years of reliable, powerful operation with this commercial-grade drive system. The innovative system utilizes a built-in fan that cools the internal motor components, protecting and extending the motor's overall life.

20X56 2-Ply Quiet Belt

    Take full, natural strides while walking or jogging with this quiet, non-slip tread belt. The extra-long belt is designed to reduce noise.

Quick Touch Incline

    Burn up to three times the calories with the 1-Step™ Power Incline, taking you instantly to slopes of up to 50%.

Special Features:

300 lb. Capacity Deck

    Get all the strength and support you'd expect from NordicTrack. The heavy-duty deck is designed to stand up to the toughest workouts.
Navigator Console with 37 Workout Programs

    Four large LED displays track your speed, pulse, time, distance, incline, elevation, pace, calories burned and fat calories burned. The workouts adjust your speed or incline and focus on a variety of exercise goals: aerobic, weight loss, endurance or performance.

2 CoolAire™ Workout Fans

    This built-in, two-speed fan creates air currents from 4 to 6 MPH, the ideal range for body cooling, so you'll stay comfortable and cool throughout your workout.

CardioTrack Heart Rate Monitor

    Just grip the convenient sensors built into the handlebars for an accurate pulse reading. Or use the convenient chest sensor for hands-free pulse monitoring.

iFIT® Compatible

    Instead of going to the gym, what if the workout and personal trainer came to you? iFIT.com® combines the benefits of a health club with the comfort and convenience of exercising at home. iFIT.com® provides programmed workouts via the Internet, compact discs or video that actually control the speed and intensity of your fitness equipment. You get targeted workouts, motivational personal coaching and music. Each workout is designed by a personal trainer. iFIT.com® compatible means your fitness equipment can run optional iFIT.com® workouts in addition to the workouts built-in to your console. All iFIT.com® compatible NordicTrack fitness equipment features the iFIT.com® symbol. iFIT.com® is an excellent resource for fitness. You can learn about nutrition, take the iFIT® Age test and more. Just visit workout.iFIT.com today.


    The NordicTrack Incline Trainer features a limited lifetime warranty. It offers a lifetime warranty on the motor, plus a 1-year warranty on all parts and in-home labor charges. For further coverage, extended warranties are also available.

Durasoft Impact Absorbtion System

    Reduce impact on your joints by up to 28%, as compared to road running, with this superior absorption system that delivers the perfect balance of exercise comfort and joint protection. Walking or running on pavement can wreak havoc to joints, often causing pain or injury. NordicTrack's DuraSoft™ Cushioning helps protect the important connective tissues of your ankles, knees and hip joints. Durable isolator cushioning absorbs impact as your foot makes contact with the treadbelt, resulting in added protection and workout comfort.

Adjustable Resistance Cardio Cables

    Strengthen your arms, shoulders, back and abs while increasing cardio workout efficiency with upper-body exercise cables featuring Digital Resistance Control. Use up to eight different cable resistance settings for a smooth, natural motion.