Posted by Travis Harwood, CSCS, Lead Personal Trainer at Athlon Elite
Many of you have performed kettlebell or dumbbell swings here at Athlon Elite…
Well the "Kettlebell snatch" is the swing’s very ugly, painful, amazing, cousin!
The kettlebell snatch is similar to the barbell, or Olympic lifting snatch in hip movement but is very different in action. While Olyimpic weightlifters intend to lift the highest amount of weight by maximizing efficiency, kettlebellers use a concept called “Hard Style.” Hard Style training will make the exercise as physically demanding as possible (sounds fun huh! As you know, the more challenging your "practice" is the better prepared you will be for game time.)
If you remember from your high school physics class Work= Force x Distance, and in physical activity the more work you perform, the more you have to use your big muscles as well as your small stabilizer muscles to control the "Work." This leads to a huge training stimulus that will prepare your body for battle. (Plus, for you athletes needing to trim a little body fat this leads to more calorie consumption to fuel the activity.)
Now where the kettlebell exaggerates "Work" is with torque (torque = force multiplied by the distance of the weight away from the body’s center of mass). So to make a long story short, not only are you moving the weight through a large area of space, but it is getting heavier as you do it; in other words say hello to your new VERY strong core musculature as well as large "mover" muscles… and goodbye to those calories!!!
So, now you’ve heard the calorie burning potential of the kettlebell snatch, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg…
Exercise Scientists have written entire books explaining the benefits of performing explosive, total body activities for the musculoskeletal system and kettlebell training programs.
To hear more about all the benefits of Kettlebell Training and to learn the Swing, Clean, Snatch, Front Squat, Getup, Sit-up, Windmill, Press, Pistol, Pull-up, Single Leg Deadlift, and Single Leg RDL (the movements that almost all professional athletes are starting to use in their training programs) contact Athlon Elite at (805) 440-0215 or CLICK HERE and schedule a
FREE private consultation with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County’s ONLY professionally certified Kettlebell Instructor
In Athon Elite’s most recent Elite Newsletter I talk about calorie density and how most people don’t realize how dense with calories their daily food favorites are, (i.e., your typical fast food value meal vs. 18 apples… both 1300 calories but I bet you can’t eat 18 apples in one sitting)!
How dense is the calorie content in your meals? Are you eating very calorie dense foods like hamburgers and chili-cheese fries or less dense stuff like stir-fry’s, apples and carrot sticks?
According to Dr. John Berardi most humans eat around 3-5 pounds of food per day, (compared to an elephant which will eat about 360 pounds per day).
Pictured above is about 3.7 pounds of food… a full day’s worth. Clockwise starting in the upper right he’s got:
2 lentil burgers, steamed broccoli
Peaches & blueberries
Raw buckwheat granola with hempseeds and flax
Roasted garbanzos & goji berries
Sprouted grain bread with peanut butter
Lettuce & kale
Celery, carrots, zucchini
As we reach around 4 pounds of food in a day, we start feeling satisfied, and not really hungry any more.
Now, this can be 4 pounds of celery…or it can be 4 pounds of candy bars!
You see, it’s not the calories that count for making you full and satisfied, it’s the total volume/poundage that counts. But obviously there’s some pretty big nutrition differences between 4 pounds of celery and 4 pounds of Snickers bars!
So, as Berardi says…
what’s in your 4 pounds?!
For more discussion on this read up on the Elite Newsletter this week. And, if you don’t already get our regular bi-monthly Elite Newsletter subscribe by filling out the information below:
Posted by Travis Harwood, CSCS, Lead Personal Trainer at Athlon Elite
Many of us love our Starbucks, but did you know that a vente’ café’ latte’ runs you around 300 calories with almost half of those calories coming from saturated, nasty fat; WHAT A WASTE!!!
Well, our very own Kristen Longcrier (who, by the way, showed a decrease of 5% body fat in her last evaluation) has come up with an amazing combination we have now coined “the Longcrier Latte’.”
The recipe is simple:
- 16oz of your favorite home-brewed coffee (hot or cold)
- 1.5 scoops of your Athlon Elite whey protein isolate (chocolate or vanilla, whichever you prefer).
- If you are drinking it cold put the whole thing in a shaker and shake it up!!!
- If you are drinking it hot, mix the protein in a few ounces of coffee or water first then dump it in and stir!!!
I also like to add a little coffee mate French Vanilla Creamer (fat free 5g of carbs) to give it a little extra sweetness!!!
The whole drink yields 102.5 calories of "thermic" metabolism-boosting high quality whey protein…
and less than 1g of sugar!!! (unless you add the creamer which bumps it a little)
NOW THAT’S WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT!
AND IT’S DELICIOUS I MIGHT ADD… IN FACT THIS WHOLE BLOG WAS "FUELED" BY ONE OF THOSE BEAUTIES!!!
Just because you can’t come into Athlon today, (Labor Day), doesn’t mean you can miss your workout. You have to stay dedicated to truly create body transformation… or keep the transformation you’ve already created.
Set aside 30 minutes and slam through the workouts below:
"THE BACKYARD"
4 rounds for best time of:
10 Cross-over mountain climber push-ups
(in push-up position touch your right knee to your left elbow and do a push-up, then your left knee to your right elbow, then do another push-up, repeat)
Tuck Jumps
Jump for maximum height and tuck your knees to your chest while in flight, then land it and repeat without pause
10 T-up Push-ups
(do a push-up then come up onto one arm in a T position, drop down and do a push-up then go up onto other arm in a T position, repeat)
10 Burpees
(you know this one… if you don’t just Google it and you’ll find millions of examples!)
20 Prone back extensions
(lie face down with your hands laced behind your head, extend your spine and lift your chest as far off the ground as possible without lifting your feet, then return, repeat)
20 Walking lunges
(lunge forward on one leg "kissing" your back knee to the ground, then step forward back to a full standing position, then lunge forward on the opposite leg and repeat)
20 Russian twists
(sitting on the ground with your feet 6 inches off the ground, clasp your hands together and twist your shoulders as far as you can to one side and touch the ground with your hands, then twist to the opposite side, repeat)
10 Full Sit-ups
Just like you did in high school gym class (arms across chest, knees bent)
Work hard and get it done early. Then relax and enjoy your Holiday.
Here’s some pics from us doing the workout yesterday.We did it in 19 minutes! (and trust me… I hate burpees just as much as you!)
Getting into shape, becoming fit, looking better, lowering your cholesterol all have a lot more to do with action than it has to do with knowledge. You can know exactly what to eat to drop body fat, build muscle and lower your cholesterol or control your blood sugars, but you’ll still fall short of your goals if you don’t actually eat those things. Same goes for exercise.
I hate to belabor this point, but I really can’t move on until you’re nodding your head in agreement… until you realize that inactivity is your biggest hurdle to change.
Are you nodding your head?
If so, you can proceed. If not, come on and give me a nod.
You probably see this happen every single day, just like I do: people losing weight and then gaining it back. You see people reading the popular diet books and never changing their bodies, not even a littel. You see poeple "exercising" at gyms and health clubs but not improving and sometimes even getting worse (I see this all the time).
So what’s the deal with all this failure? Is it that the advice just isn’t very good? Sometimes, maybe. There’s certainly plenty of bad advice out there. But nine times out of 10 it’s because people are just learning without doing.
Or at least only doing for a short time before stopping.
They seek the knowledge but then don’t apply that knowledge (or at least not correctly or correctly for very long before giving up), and that’s why they’re failing. They aren’t doing what it takes to succeed and then they give up, cursing the advice, cursing their genetics, cursing the system.
Here’s the deal… you have to take action and you have to take it correctly, and you have to continue taking action even after you’ve failed a couple times!
You don’t see a baby give up trying to walk after falling 10, 15, 25, 35 times. No, they take action, over and over and over. And their parents encourage it, over and over and over. They don’t blame the carpet for being too bumpy or the baby for being too clumsy. The baby doesn’t go and take a course in biomechanics so it can learn to walk more effectively. Right? The baby just continues to try and try until it succeeds.
And then what?? That baby continues to walk the rest of its life, never stopping.
So why don’t we do this with our fitness and healthy nutrition habits. I see so many people "study" to improve their fitness and diet, yet don’t ever get anywhere close to accomplishing body change. They give up too soon (or worse, don’t even get past the "studying" phase and try because of a fear of failure).
Our goal here at Athlon Elite is to be the source to help people get over the studying and just take ACTION.
Our goal is to ensure that no client makes the mistake of thinking that it’s ok to just bail-out, to stop trying, to blame the system, the heavens or their own "bad genetics."
And speaking of taking action, check out Clint Davis taking the "tire-pull lap" around the building.
(For those of you that have done some training with us KNOW the tire-pull lap! It has become somewhat of a right of passage.)
Clint and Pete (in the video) have really taken the "bull by the horns" and taken ACTION. Those two guys show up like clockwork, follow the system and push themselves to give their very best. And you know what…
They’re both seeing tremendous results. That’s how it works and it can work for you. Check em out below…
People of all shapes, sizes and goals have benefited from Athlon Elite’s 7-component system of:
Strategically designed exercise programs for results
Eating strategies
Calorie metering
Meal log compliance
Water intake
Caffeine use
Specific supplements for health & performance
And you don’t have to pull the tire to get the results!
So stop studying and come into Athlon Elite and take action. We’ll make sure you get what you want: RESULTS and have some fun while doing it!
And then, we’ll make sure you continue doing it and keeping your RESULTS.
Until Next Time,
Ryan
Call today and ask about our special 6-Week Kick Start Program… 6 weeks of personal training for only $279!!
You can’t beat that with a stick. Call today, (805) 440-0215 or click the button below. Don’t put it off and keep studying!
Posted by Travis Harwood, CSCS, Lead Personal Trainer at Athlon Elite
The kettlebell snatch is similar to the barbell, or Olympic lifting snatch in hip movement but is very different in action. While Olyimpic weightlifters intend to lift the highest amount of weight by maximizing efficiency, kettlebellers use a concept called “Hard Style.” Hard Style training will make the exercise as physically demanding as possible (sounds fun huh! As you know, the more challenging your "practice" is the better prepared you will be for game time.)
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They seek the knowledge but then don’t apply that knowledge (or at least not correctly or correctly for very long before giving up), and that’s why they’re failing. They aren’t doing what it takes to succeed and then they give up, cursing the advice, cursing their genetics, cursing the system.
