Two-For-Tuesday Double Kettlebell Workout of the Week (W.O.W.) Volume 5:

Two-For-Tuesday Double Kettlebell Workout of the Week (W.O.W.) Volume 5:

As the title implies, you'll need 2 kettlebells (of equal weight) for the following routine.

Guys will use anywhere from 2 16kg's - 2 24kg's, and gals will use any...where from 2 8kg's - 2 16kg's. Start on the low end and adjust from there. Perform each movement back-to-back without setting the bells down.

4 Double-clean and presses OR Double-snatches
4 Anterior Lunges (see video below)
8 Double Rows (perform at the bottom of the lunge before standing up)
8 Spiderman Pushups of KB handles (elevate feet for more of a challenge)

4 Rounds. Perform 2 rounds through doing lunges and spiderman pushups off the same leg set-up, and the following 2 rounds on the opposite.

#KB #Kettlebells #WOW

Two-For-Tuesday Double Kettlebell Workout of the Week (W.O.W.) Volume 4:

Two-For-Tuesday Double Kettlebell Workout of the Week (W.O.W.) Volume 4:

As the title implies, you'll need 2 kettlebells (of equal weight) for the following routine.

Guys will use anywhere from 2 16kg's - 2 24kg's, and gals will use anywhere from 2 8kg's - 2 16kg's. Start on the low end and adjust from there. Perform each movement back-to-back without setting the bells down.

1. To begin, clean ...your 2 bells into the rack position and press overhead.
2. Perform an overhead carry for 20 seconds - own your rib position!
3. Lower the bells into the rack position and carry for 20 seconds
4. Lower bells to your side and farmer's carry for 20 seconds
5. Perform KB deadlifts for 20 seconds
6. Walk your feet back and perform your choice of push-up/plank variation off the handles for 20 seconds.

Repeat 3x. Progress by increasing the time from 20-25-30 seconds per exercise. Once you can perform all 3 rounds at 30 seconds, increase the weight and start over at 20 seconds, or less if need be.

#wow #KB #kettlebells

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 9 (2/17/14)

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 9

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights ...are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, it would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's 'Winner': "planks"

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 7 (12/9/13)

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 7

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights ...are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, it would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's 'Winner': CrossFit

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 8 (12/16/13)

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 8

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, i...t would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's 'Winner': Up-right Rows

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 6 (12/2/13)

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 6

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights ...are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, it would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's Winner: Having your orthopedically healthy client - though substantially overweight and weak- stand on a BOSU repeatedly waving a BODYBLADE (it's such a popular item at Wal-Mart that the page won't load as I type this if that gives you any indication how 'useful' one of these might be).

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 5 (11/12/13)

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 5
Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, i...t would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's Winner: (Cutting)cookies is suitable for Christmas, but not for training.

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 4 (11/18/2013)

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 4

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, it would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This Week's Winner: BS explanations and not taking responsibility and admitting you were wrong or at fault.

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 2 11/4/13

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 2

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, i...t would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This weeks 'winner': Physioball seated 1-arm overhead presses, WHILE PERFORMING BICEP CURLS WITH THE OPPOSITE ARM AND....AND AN ISOMETRIC LEG EXTENSION ON THE OPPOSITE LEG WITH KETTLEBELL HOOKED AROUND THEIR FOOT!

No, I didn't make that up. I couldn't if I tried. Talk about multi-tasking. It started out ok with the overhead press, but what purpose did adding in the bicep curl AND leg extension serve? Someone's taking the term 'muscle confusion' WAY too far. For starters, those are both inefficient single-joint exercises which provide no metabolic challenge to your system. Second, they require the load to be reduced across the board by such a degree as to render all 3 exercises about useless.

If you can't succinctly explain the purpose of each and everything you are doing in the gym, it's time to re-examine what it is you are doing and make the necessary adjustments. Everything should have a specific purpose with measurable outcomes.

Successful exercises programs are based around 5-7 basic movements, and the variables manipulated are rest, volume, and load - NOT the # of exercises.

You can look 'cool', get 'tired'...or - you can get BETTER!

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 1 10/28/12

Monday (Fitness)Massacre - Trainers Behaving Badly Vol. 1

Spending as many hours in the gym as I do on a daily basis, I'm afforded no shortage in sights of things that just make you shake your head. Unfortunately, quite often these sights are complete with a fitness 'professional' standing right there supervising the whole ordeal. I've decided the instead of standing silent and shaking my head, i...t would be better to call attention to said sights in order to educate my peeps.

This weeks 'winner':

Standing tricep extensions, WHILE STANDING ON TOP OF AN EXCERISE/PHYSIOBALL!

Here we've got an inefficient single-joint exercise, combined with an extremely unstable and dangerous training environment. A recipe for disaster if there ever was one. The gym should be a place to improve many things - strength, mobility, conditioning - what it should NOT be is an audition for Cirque de Soleil.

If you wish to use an exercise ball in an effective and efficient manner, come see us at Pittsburgh Kettlebells and learn exercises like ball roll-outs, stir-the-pot, and hip-bridge with leg curl that target your entire body all at once in order to make the most of your time and equipment investment!

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume LII: More Is Not Better, Better Is Better

First, a bit of a milestone today as with volume LII, you now have one tip for each week of the entire year to implement in order in improve your quality of life!

It's often human nature, especially with Americans, that if some is good; more is better. The following link illustrates the error and dangerous repercussions that can arise from this misguided way of thinking.

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume LI: Guard Your Goodies

While the possible negative side effects of cell-phone radiation are often discussed in terms of raising your risk of brain and other cancers, interestingly enough we often neglect to think of the negative impact those same emissions from our 'smart' devices can possibly have on other areas of the body they find themselves in close proximity to.

When we aren't talking on our phones, we can typically find them in our pockets; right next to..well I think you can see where this is going.

Having fertility issues?

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XLV: Training On a Budget (Time)

Not having enough time is a common excuse many use as to why they can't 'workout'. Here a few strategies to deal with this supposed barrier....

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XLIV: Do The Opposite (In the kitchen)

Over 2/3's of the population is considered overweight or obese. Approximately 26 MILLION adults and CHILDREN currently have diabetes. By 2030, these numbers are expected to DOUBLE. Clearly, the methods being used to counteract these epidemics aren't working. If you want to experience true success, do the OPPOSITE of what the majority ...is doing.

Free-Tip Tuesday Volme XLIII: Do the Opposite

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XLIII: Do The Opposite (In the Gym)

Over 2/3's of the population is considered overweight or obese. Approximately 26 MILLION adults and CHILDREN currently have diabetes. By 2030, these numbers are expected to DOUBLE. Clearly, the methods being used to counteract these epidemics aren't working. If you want to experience true success, do the OPPOSITE of what the majority is ...doing.

IF the majority of people spend all their time plodding along on treadmills, ellipticals, and other forms of 'cardio', try hill sprints, use battling ropes, or kettlebell swing intervals.

IF the majority completely shuns strength/resistance training, focus on getting strong in the four major movement patterns - hip-hinge, squat, upper-body push, upper-body pull.

IF the majority relies on Nautilus and weight stack machines isolating body-parts, utilize your own bodyweight, free-weights, and kettlebells to get strong in compound movements that challenge the entire body instead.

IF the majority does the same workouts, with the same weights, in the same order everyday, track your training to ensure you are making progressions in weight, reps, frequency, or some other variable.

IF the majority wonder around aimlessly performing exercises incorrectly and unsafely, obtain coaching from a QUALIFIED professional to prevent injury and ensure you get the most of your time investment.

When it comes to what you do in the gym, this is one case where the majority DOESN'T rule!

What other habits in the gym do the majority have that we would be best to avoid?

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XLII: TRAINING vs. 'Working out'

The same exercises. In the same order. Using the same weights. Undergoing this practice, as so many do, should leave no wonder why body composition also remains the same. You get out what you put in.

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XXXXI: Wanna lose weight?

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XXXXI: Wanna lose weight?

No you don't.

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XXXX: NOT So Good Health/Fitness Resources

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XXXX: NOT So Good Health/Fitness Resources

Up first: mainstream media headlines/articles

Why?

As the following article states, "...the media oversimplified things; to the point of not even being accurate. And yes, that’s why most media headlines are not very trustworthy."

CARDIO VS. WEIGHTS

This can happen when the writer, having no formal education or experience in the area, simply glances over the abstract instead of reading the entire study. Additionally, sometimes the researchers themselves often misinterpret their own data - an occurrence that happens far more often than most people realize!

As a bonus, the article also explains why, despite popular opinion and practice, cardio is inferior to resistance/strength training when it comes to FAT loss and therefore lies at the BOTTOM of the fat-loss hierarchy we utilize with our clients here at Pittsburgh Kettlebells.

Have a health/fitness related question? Shoot us an email, or stop by and say hello during our Open House Saturday, April 27th from 1:00pm-5:00pm!

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XXXVIV: Nutrition Resources

Last week we gave you some of our top strength training resources, this week we'll shift the focus to nutrition. Without further adieu:

Girth Control - Alan Aragon
 

Primal Blueprint - Mark Sisson


The Schwarzbein Principle - Diana Schwarzbein


While similar to last week's resources these 3 books may seem very different on the surface - in actuality the principles which guide them all are quite similar. Last week's strength training examples all championed using compound movements and the principle of progressive overload despite the 'tool' being used to accomplish it.

This week, despite the minor differences in application, the bottom line is all three authors advocate:

1. Eating Real Food and NOT "Food Products"
2. Ensuring Adequate Protein Intake
3. Combining #1's & 2 in order to create a REASONABLE caloric deficit

We understand there is a bunch of conflicting and confusing advice out there as it pertains to fitness and nutrition, and that's why at PGH KB it's our mission to teach and educate you how to sift through the BS and look for the similarities as opposed to trivial differences.

As the saying goes: METHODS are many, PRINCIPLES are few.

Free-Tip Tuesday Volume XXXVIII: Strength Training Resources

As we've mentioned before, after practicing sound nutrition principles, resistance/strength training is the most effective and efficent way to chan...ge both how you look AND feel. Mastering your own bodyweight, kettlebells, and free-weights are the 3 main ways to strength train. For those looking to get started, and even those who 'already know what they are doing', the following resources are some of the best in explaining the finer points of performing exercises CORRECTLY.

They also serve as a great head start or introduction before attending your first class at Pittsburgh Kettlebells.

Bodyweight: Convict Conditioning - Paul Wade


Free Weights: Starting Strength - Mark Rippetoe


Kettlebells: Enter The Kettlebell - Pavel Tsatsouline

Enjoy!