Happy Friday to you.
Today I finished Day 5 of the 4 Week Fat Loss Challenge and had venison cottage pie, made with sweet potato as my post workout meal…yum!
I’m now looking forward to a weekend off the intense exercise and preparing myself for a completely different workout format starting next week.
This week I was asked an interesting question that I thought I would share with you…
Here’s the question:
I’m considering moving over to kettle bells but I’m worried about the impact on strength. For example I bench press 3×10 reps at 76kg three times per week, which I am very comfortable with. I am a 54 yr old male with a slim build. Can this level of strength be maintained with kettle bells?
I always find these kind of questions interesting because exercise is always very relative.
For example, lying on your back on a bench and pressing weight overhead will get you very good at… lying on a bench and pressing weights overhead but not a lot else.
So when asked whether this level of strength can be maintained with kettlebells I would want to know why anyone would want to be strong lying on their back.
Surely being strong lifting weights from the floor, carrying them or being able to press them overhead from a standing position is a lot more useful.
If you want to put on lots of muscle then isolation training is important and this is where machines and bench type exercises are beneficial.
However, if you want to be strong like a builder or fit like an athlete then you need to get off those machines and train on your own 2 feet.
My workout philosophy has always been to not only get you results but to make you stronger for everyday life too.
When you get off the machines and train standing up you engage a lot more muscles as well as improve your balance too.
You will also find that training standing up will feel a lot more natural because machines limit your natural movement patterns.
So in answer to the initial question, you can become naturally very strong using kettlebells and expect better overall useful strength than performing exercises like the bench press.
Who would you rather face on a rugby pitch?
A man who can bench press a lot of weight lying on his back or a man who can stand up and squat, push, and pull a kettlebell weighting only half the load.
One final point, professional athletic trainers are moving away from using very heavy weights for their athletes in replacement for much lighter loads but training using one leg rather rather than two.
Lighter loads but in a more challenging environment will produce more useful results while minimising the risk of injury.
OK, sorry if I rambled on a bit. I hope you found this philosophy useful and you can now better understand the type of training I endorse.
Have a great weekend,
Greg
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