Category: Uncategorized

Do Kettlebells Actually Help You Burn Body Fat?

Does it really do anything to help you burn fat? Or are the claims just hot air?

One of the many touted benefits of kettlebell training is that it can supposedly help you burn body fat, making you a weight loss machine.

However, we’ve already seen that the kettlebell will increase strength and is a good conditioning tool. It would seem that it would help you lose weight if matched with a proper diet, but does it?

Well, I decided to take a quick look at any studies I could find on the topic, and what I found was fascinating.

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A Scientific Look At Tabata Training

People today are busy. I get that. While I have more flexibility built into my day than most people, I’m fairly business too. I have a day job, here, and some other projects that I’m working on.

Because of that busy nature we all exist in, it’s important that we make the most out of our training time. That means we want the best bang for our buck.

That means you may want to look at Tabata training.

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Style And Substance

Why Fitness Equipment Should Be More Than Just Functional

Do you want to know one of the things I like best about kettlebells? What I like is that you’re far more likely to find kettlebells that don’t look the same as everyone else’s.

You see, kettlebell makers–especially smaller operations–are willing to look at the kettlebell a little differently. They’re willing to take a look at the implement and think, “How can I make this bad boy even cooler.”

This weekend, the Arnold Fitness Festival is taking place in Columbus, Ohio, and earlier today the strongman competition athletes went toe-to-toe with a piece of equipment that is both style and substance, and it made me wonder why we don’t see more of that kind of thing.

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One-Arm Or Two-Arm Swings: Which Is Better?

For kettlebell practitioners, there are two types of swings. The two-arm is sort of the entry-level swing while the one-handed is the more advanced move.

However, many people who use a kettlebell never seem to progress beyond the two-handed stage. After all, the one-handed swing is a logical progression if you’re looking to do cleans, snatches, high pulls, or any number of other exercises.

If you’re just looking to get fit, though, is one better than the other?

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The Difficulties Of Evidence-Based Kettlebell Training

When I started down this rabbit hole of looking for evidence backing up kettlebell training, I figured it wouldn’t be that hard. After all, the blasted things have been around for centuries. There are pictures of old-time strongmen like Eugene Sandow hoisting the things.

Anything that old and that linked to historic physical culture should have a lot of research behind it by now, right?

Eh…not so much.

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Picking Up The Kettlebell Again

When it comes to fitness, I’m far from monogamous. In my lifetime, I’ve had a lot of different training modalities throughout the years. I used to run way back when. I’ve lifted weights. I’ve even tried various video workout systems.

One thing that’s always intrigued me is kettlebells.

Perhaps that’s what I turned back to them on Monday when I was going to start full-body training?

Let me explain.

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How Should We Train?

A short while ago, I posited the idea that we’ve been training wrong. I argued that we’re capable of more regular training than we currently do. I stand by that.

However, after discussing it with some other folks, I took a step back and reevaluated a few of my assumptions and how that may impact things.

With that, I think I have a better idea of just what form training should take going forward, at least for me.

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Why Learning To Fight May Matter More Than Learning To Shoot

At my heart, I’m a gun guy. I’ve been fascinated by the things for decades now. Every since I first pulled the trigger on my dad’s Smith & Wesson .38, I’ve been a gun guy, even if I didn’t actually know anything about them.

However, while studying conflict through the years and trying to figure out the best way for a person to train to stay alive and safe, I came to the conclusion that they’re just not as important in many ways as some of us like to think. Don’t get me wrong, if you need a gun, you need a gun. There’s no real substitute for a gun in many circumstances.

That said, the truth is that shooting is actually way down on the list of priorities. Continue reading “Why Learning To Fight May Matter More Than Learning To Shoot”

An Apology

OK, folks, let me be blunt here. I’ve dropped the ball.

Horribly.

I can give you a lot of reasons for this, but mostly it’s been a case of I spend so much time writing about stuff that I’m kind of burned out when it comes to writing stuff for me. For better or worse, this site constitutes just that. It’s for me.

Well, it’s for me and it’s for you. However, I know what my readership is like, but I also know that I don’t really get paid for this at this moment. While I do like to help people, paying the bills comes first.

Regardless, however, I promised to write more and I failed.

For that, I’m sorry. I truly am.

So, with that in mind, what has gone on since last I wrote here? Well, a lot. For one thing, I kept injuring myself with my lifting until I pretty much just stopped.

Then I started back. (More on that tomorrow)

I’ve been educating myself, of course, and I hope to share more of what I’ve learned here, of course. Provided it can be a benefit.

However, I’ve also been doing some thinking on things like balancing one’s inner warrior with the requirements of the real world. Like it or not, we can’t spend all our time being badasses, much less working to be badasses. We have to have lives.

Again, all that is for further discussions in the future.

For now, just let me say that I’m sorry. I hope to continue writing here at the site and use it as a repository for stuff that I can’t write at Bearing Arms or PJ Media for whatever reason.

What I won’t say is that I will post on any particular schedule just yet. I’m going to try to hit something once per week, but I’m not about to make a promise I’m not sure I can keep.

In the meantime, I appreciate your patience.

Bringing In The Kettlebell

I’ve had kind of a crappy week this week. Yes, it’s because of what happened in Las Vegas. Yes, I will talk about it here at a future date, but not right now.

For what it’s worth, as a gun writer in my daily life, I’ve been writing a lot about what happened, and it’s impossible to cover a topic like that and an event like that and it not take a bit of a toll on you. Nothing like what those who were there experienced, mind you, but a toll none the less.

And the thing I noticed is that the one thing that really got me stoked was thinking about my kettlebells. Continue reading “Bringing In The Kettlebell”