If you are like me you would like to be in better shape than you are at this moment. We both share a common desire to be physically fit and healthy. Most of us do not want to put in the extra time that most trainers tell us we need to spend in the gym to create and maintain our desired level of fitness. Do yourself a favor and calculate the total amount of time that you spend in the gym each week. Take that number and divide it in half. What would you do if you had this much extra free time each week? Working out with kettlebells allows us to spend less time exercising and receive superior results at the same time. What would you do with your extra free time? I truly love to exercise but I can think of several ways that I could enjoy with hours of extra free time each week.
In response to the massive increase in the popularity of kettlebells over the past few years the American Council on Exercise did a scientific study to measure their effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to see if exercising with kettlebells truly created a more effective workout in less time. Volunteers were from 29 to 46 years of age and all had prior experience exercising with kettlebells. The specific purpose of this study was initially to quantify the amount of calories burned from the aerobic activity in a kettlebell workout. Aerobic exercise requires the use of oxygen to produce energy. Anaerobic exercise makes the body produce energy without using oxygen.
An example of aerobic exercise is running. An example of anaerobic exercise is heavy weightlifting. Both forms have great benefits but when they are combined the quality of your results increases exponentially. A baseline fitness level was established for each participant before their workout was determined. Once all the participant information was collected each of them was taken through a typical 20 minute kettlebell snatch workout. The average amount of calories burned in 20 minutes strictly from aerobic activity was 272 calories. Participants burned 13.6 calories per minute in order to consume enough oxygen to complete the workout. The researchers also took blood lactate samples to measure the amount of calories burned from anaerobic activity during the workout. The participants averaged 6.6 more calories per minute from the anaerobic activity. So each participant actually averaged 20.2 calories per minute or a whopping 404 total calories burned in a basic 20 minute workout!
The reason that kettlebells reign supreme in the fitness arsenals of many top athletes is because they simultaneously increase our performance with anaerobic and aerobic activity. This is wonderful news for the masses of fitness enthusiasts who want to spend less time working out without sacrificing their desired level of fitness. We don’t need to be top athletes to reap the many benefits of the kettlebell. The use of the kettlebell dates back centuries to the 1700’s in Russia. Kettlebells have been used to increase stamina, strength, balance and flexibility for many generations. Many workout trends come and eventually disappear. In 2010 the use of this simple cannonball shaped weight with a handle that we call a kettlebell is more popular than ever. As a certified Hard Style Kettlebell Instructor this puts my motivation in to overdrive! Kettlebells can be integrated in to any fitness program from elite athletes to fitness rookies. Men, women and teenagers can all get more accomplished in less time. Kettlebells have the potential to replace an entire home gym and drastically reduce the amount of time we spend in the gym.
