Which Kettlebells Are The Best For You?
Kettlebells have taken the fitness industry by storm. They’ve been around for a long time, but in the past ten years, have become some of the most important tools for building muscle and losing weight. Why are they good? It’s all about their center of gravity. It’s about six to eight inches beyond your hand. Your core muscles are forced to work harder to keep you stable, thus burning more calories, build strong muscles and providing functional fitness in the process. Functional fitness is the type of fitness that helps prepare your body for everyday tasks, like lifting a bag of groceries or picking up something off the floor.
What types of kettlebells are available.
As kettlebells become more popular, there are more options from which to choose. Some are adjustable, some are the traditional cast iron with others that have a vinyl coating. There are competition kettlebells and ones that you use for any type of training. The competition kettlebells have a smaller handle diameter, regulated dimensions and a required handle alignment with the bottom of the kettlebell. If you’re just starting out and don’t think you’re ever going to compete, you don’t need this type of kettlebell.
It’s all about the grip.
Before you buy, grip the handle. Is the handle extremely thick? If your fingers don’t wrap around it completely, you need to find a different one. The extra effort to hold on can tire out your forearms, stopping before you finish your workout. A handle that’s too narrow is also bad. One problem with competition kettlebells is that they’re made for just the width of one hand. When you’re using kettlebells as part of a workout, there are a lot of two handed exercises that are beneficial. Make sure both hands can fit on the handle.
Identify the size of kettlebell you need.
The stronger you are, the heavier the kettlebell. The more knowledge you have of form and more advanced movements you do, the heavier the kettlebell. 17lbs is a great way to start for most women to learn basic moves. Once that’s done, work up to 26 pounds for two hand swings and ultimately 35 pounds for advanced moves. For men, starting at 26 pounds and working up first to 35 pounds and then to 53 pounds is the normal progression.
- Make sure your kettlebell handle has a smooth grip that doesn’t have burrs or roughness. Those can cause nicks in the skin and hurt your hand in swings.
- While vinyl coating can help prevent floor scratches and feel smooth, they can also be slippery and the vinyl can wear, leaving rough edges.
- The body of the kettlebell shouldn’t be completely round. It should have a flat bottom but not a plastic addition with feet that can gouge your arm in a swing.
- At Iron Fit, we make sure that you have the right type and size of kettlebell for your level of fitness and experience.
For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio
If you’re dreading going to the gym and just hate the same old thing each time, you may be going to the wrong gym or working out on your own. There are fun ways to improve your fitness and some do involve working out at the gym. Have you ever tried working out with kettlebells or tried circuit training? There are so many programs available that can change boredom to fun.
You might be tempted to workout longer to get faster results or to skip a few minutes and get out of the gym quicker, but both will cause you to do a disservice to yourself. There’s a sweet spot where you have the perfect amount of time to get the benefits you want, but not so much time that you work to the point of injury. When you time your workouts, it helps you identify the time spent at the gym that’s wasted. You may be walking around, visiting with others or simply spending way too much time between sets resting.
I get a lot of people at Iron Fit in San Antonio, Texas, who are either starting a workout program after a long break from exercise or never had one. They prefer getting exercise routines for beginners designed especially for them, but there are some simple workouts or exercise routines you can do on your own if you’re not sure you’re ready to start at a gym or don’t have access to a personal trainer. Don’t put off your exercise program because you aren’t sure where to start.
If you find you’re sore after a workout, it might be normal. In fact, that achy mild soreness may be showing you that you’ve made the effort and it worked. However, more serious types of soreness that prevent you from working out and even moving hurts, can be avoided. You can prevent sore muscles like that by taking certain precautions. It’s worth taking the extra steps to keep you comfortably in the gym.
When gyms closed due to the quarantine in San Antonio, Texas, it interrupted the progress people were making on their fitness program. While we hope there’s never another shutdown, I’ve created a list of home gym essential equipment for those days coming to the gym is impossible. I’ve tried to focus on keeping the items affordable. The first on the list is a simple jump rope. You can find them everywhere, and they cost less than $20 in most cases. Jumping rope is a great cardio workout and can be used as part of interval training.
There’s a wealth of studies that show people put on weight their first year of college. It can be quite an ego blow, but also bad for your health. In order to avoid it, you need to eat healthy in college. While eating healthier isn’t difficult, you have to understand what healthy eating is before you can do it. Healthy eating means avoiding sugar as much as possible. Eating food in the most natural state and free from additives. Choose ones that have a maximum of five ingredients. Stick with fruits and vegetables and choose whole grains over their bleached, processed ones. Whole grains contain all the nutrients from the bran and the germ.
We get fast results at Iron Fit in San Antonio, Texas, because we use the most modern and beneficial workouts available. A HIIT workout is one of those techniques. HIIT stands for high intensity interval training and it can be used with any type of exercise. It uses the technique of varying from 100% effort where the heart rate is high, for a short time, then alternating to a recovery rate that’s less intense for the same amount of time or more. After the resting state, the person exercising goes back to the high intensity mode, bouncing back and forth between the two until all the sets are completed. Recovery increases the oxygen burned and creates a situation known as afterburn.
We’re prepared to provide a safe workout in a clean, sanitized environment at Iron Fit, but realized that there’s a need for workouts you don’t have to do in a gym, whether they’re quarantine workouts or those done when you have to stay at home, or are on the road without gym equipment to use. People who are most susceptible to the virus, may also avoid coming into any gym, not just ours. It’s easy to understand, but those are the same people that need the benefits of exercise the most. There are some exercise techniques you can use at home that will help you get or stay in shape until you can come to the gym.
There are so many reasons to do meal prep, where you plan your meals, make them in one day and have them ready to heat and serve at the end of the day. One of those is that it makes it easier to eat healthy at home, rather than go through a drive through or fill up on junk food or processed ready-made high calorie dishes, like frozen dinners. It’s especially true when you have freezer meals for meal prep already in your freezer. It’s as easy as making extra for a few weeks, giving you a weekend or two off when you need it.