You might think I’m crazy, my neighbors probably think I’m crazy and if you listen to me your neighbors might think you’re crazy.  And you might be crazy if you listen to me, but you will be in better shape.  Try sledgehammer training.

In the effort to get fit you don’t have to rely on traditional methods of training or standard types of fitness equipment.  Dumbbells and barbells are great, as are kettlebells, but there are other non-traditional implements that can be used to improve your overall physical fitness level.

Which brings us to the sledgehammer, as in a large, heavy hammer wielded with both hands.  There’s not much technique involved, but there is the need to exercise caution, so don’t go and swing away at something for 20 minutes the first time you try this kind of training.  You need to acclimatize your body to the overall demands that sledgehammer training will put on your body.

I wish I could say I thought of this program all by my lonesome, but alas it is not true.  For this I give credit to a Mr. Reinhard Engels who has come up with a simplistic yet brilliant approach to the indoor use of the sledgehammer.  He has worked out a simple yet effective total body routine that can be performed indoors in a small area in about 15 minutes, with a 10-pound sledgehammer.

Completing Reinhard’s “Shovelglove” routine is the prerequisite for embarking on a full-fledged, out-doors, bash-the-heck-out-of-a-tree-stump training program.

And here’s a quick note on the concept of “hardcore” as it applies to working out.  Hardcore is a state of mind, in that a person is willing to deviate from convention and use all the tools and knowledge available in order to come up with an interesting, fun and effective way to train.

Hardcore isn’t going to a gym and struggling and straining and making loud noises in order to do curls or leg extensions or the bench press.  Being big or wearing old, ripped, tattered workout clothes don’t make someone hardcore.  If you’re hardcore, you don’t train with belts, wrist wraps or spend most of your time on machines.

Don’t be intimidated by the concept of hardcore, embrace it.

Once you’ve spent a month or two with the “Shovelglove” you can venture outside and seek out an old tree stump, log or railroad tie or score an old tire from a local auto repair shop.

All you need is a 10-pound sledge, safety goggles (to prevent anything you hit from shooting into your eyes) and the willingness to work hard.  This kind of training is great for every part of your body from your fingers to your toes, and especially works on your core.  Core training is all the rage these days and nothing will work your core like 20 minutes swinging a sledgehammer.

The first time you head outside, after you warm up with some “Shovelglove” moves, spend only 10 minutes actually hitting something   You will be generating quite a bit of force so you don’t want to overdo and suffer an injury.  Working on terrain, and not on a level gym floor, will force your body to move in ways that you probably aren’t used to, which is another reason that you don’t want to do too much right off the bat.

Do yourself a favor and take your time, as the best approach is to “sledge” for about 10 minutes at a time three times per week.  From here, you can add time to your sessions until you can go for about 25 minutes at the most.

You will be amazed at how sledgehammer training will improve your physical fitness.  Buy a sledgehammer now.

Kettlebells have been around since the 18th century, but thanks to the efforts of Pavel Tsatsouline, giryas (kettlebells) are a 21st century phenomenon.

Russian Master of Sport Pavel Tsatsouline has been the number one proponent of bringing the old school method of kettlebell training to the masses.  His DVD, The Russian Kettlebell Challenge, is a must have for anyone who is interested in training with kettlebells.  Pavel’s Russian Kettlebell Challenge is and invaluable resource as it is the first and best word in providing a comprehensive kettlebell training program, and should be a part of everyone’s fitness library.

Hype and fitness are a bad mix.  Almost every time you see hype attached to a piece of exercise equipment or program, you can be sure that the product won’t live up to expectations.  This isn’t the case with Pavel’s promises.

If you visit his web site you will see endorsements and testimonials from military men, weight lifters, wrestlers and civilians of both sexes.  You will read about how training with the kettlebell can make you stronger, more resilient, more flexible, improve your endurance and permanently reduce your body fat.

I wouldn’t blame you if you checked out the web site and thought this was all a bunch of fitness folderol.  After all, people who want to sell us fitness products have lied to all of us.

Well I’m here to tell you that you can trust Pavel Tsatsouline and that kettlebell training can deliver on all of the promises if you are willing to work hard and throw away all of your preconceived notions of what a workout program is.

Not only do I use kettlebells – I have a set that I keep at home and travel with – but my wife uses them, my Dad and brother use them, and all of my clients use them.  Men, women, young, old, athletes, klutzes, all sweat and groan and swing and press kettlebells.  Teenagers to eighty-year olds, tennis players and golfers and football players.

My clients on both ends of the spectrum – an NFL-Europe offensive lineman and a Maxim model – use them.  As a matter of fact, the football player’s mom and dad are also clients of mine and THEY use kettlebells as well.

If you’re tired of all of the hyperventilating that accompanies advertisements for most exercise equipment, Pavel’s “low tech/high concept” approach will serve as a welcome relief.  And his kettlebell training program will provide you with the best workout that a few simple pieces of fitness equipment could ever give you.

Russian Kettlebells seem like they are only for the hardcore, but they are fantastic training tools that can help to reshape your physique and rev up your metabolism. Even if you are just a beginner.

A kettlebell is a cast iron weights that looks like a cannon ball with a handle.  Known as a “girya,” kettlebells have been a traditional Russian tool for extreme all-around fitness since the beginning of the 1700’s.

In this century, Russian Master of Sport Pavel Tsatsouline has been the number one proponent of bringing this old school method of training back to the masses.  Another great read is Pavel’s “purposely primitive” approach to strength training as detailed in his book “Power to the People: Russian Strength Secrets for Every American.”

Back to the kettlebells.  The giryas come in all sizes big and small, starting with a 4kg (9 lb/.25 poods) cutie and going all the way up to a 40kg (88 lb/2.5 poods) behemoth.   The benefits of kettlebell training are many.  Used properly, kettlebell exercises will push you to higher levels of all-around fitness and make you more capable; ramp up your metabolism without the bother of the time-wasting pursuits of diet and aerobics; increase endurance; and develop a killer combination of strength-with-flexibility.

All this, plus train your body in a functional manner with the most portable and versatile equipment available.

The giryas offer a great change of pace and break up the monotony of a regular training regime featuring traditional equipment.   The backbone of training with kettlebells is the two handed swing, but you can also perform hang cleans and snatches.  You can squat with them, military press them, throw them and anything else that you can think of.  There’s no limit to what you can do with a girya.

However, you must have an open mind and a commitment to hard work to get the most out of this style of training. And if you are a golfer, I guarantee that if used properly, training with a kettlebell will add more distance to your drives than any other method of training.

Everyone should buy Pavel’s instructional DVD “The Russian Kettlebell Challenge and/or “From Russia With Tough Love: The Women’s Guide To Kettlebell Training.” Women who are beginners should start with a pair of 4kg/8 lbs kettlebells, women who are currently training with weights and men who are beginners a pair of 6kg/13 lbs kettlebells and men who are currently training with weights a pair of 12kg/26 lbs kettlebells.   You can add to your collection as you improve your technique, strength and conditioning. Kettlebells are one of the best fitness investments that you can make.

The deck of cards workout is one of my all-time favorite workouts, and is the perfect way to exercise while on vacation.  All you need is you and a deck of cards!

I’ve been using the deck of cards workout for almost 30 years and have performed an endless string of variations of this great workout.  The basic deck of cards workout consists of doing body weight squats for every black card selected and push-ups for every red card, and there are no limits to the way this exercise routine can be tweaked.

While on vacation the basic deck of cards workout provides you with the perfect exercise routine because it can be done in just about any location and doesn’t require any equipment.  Of course if you’re able to have a few pairs of dumbbells with you and/or a Kettlebell, the deck of cards workout offers an even more incredible training stimulus.

The deck of cards workout can be modified in any number of ways, but a few basic alterations are to substitute lunges for squats, split the red cards into push-ups and sit-ups and/or to split the black cards into squats/lunges and squat thrusts.

If you split the deck up and include one joker with the black and red cards, the colors account for 230 repetitions.  Here are the rules and the basic breakdown.

• Jacks are 11 reps
• Queens are 12 reps
• Kings are 13 reps
• Aces are 15 reps
• Jokers – if you have them in the deck – are good for 20 repetitions
• For every red card turned you do push-ups – for the King of Hearts you do 13 push-ups
• For black cards you do body weight squats – for the five of Clubs you’ll do 5 squats.
• Each suit of cards contains 105 repetitions T
• The extra 20 reps come from the Jokers

Once you’re familiar with these guidelines you can make any adjustment that you see fit.  No matter how you slice it – or cut it – the deck of cards workout will challenge even the fittest.

If you make exercise a regular part of your daily routine it’s only natural that you’d want to continue to do so. However, use the occasion of getting away from home as an opportunity to change your exercise routine.

When you spend a lot of time exercising – at a gym, at home, distance running or biking – use vacation as a time to throw yourself a change up and do something different.  Our bodies adapt to stimulus quite easily, so to use a completely different exercise program for a week or two is a great way to avoid mental and physical training plateaus.

At the beach, leave your sneakers and distance running mentality at home, and do sprints and/or shuttle runs barefoot in the sand.  Throw in some calisthenics and you have an almost endless supply of vacation workout options.  If possible, take a pair of dumbbells or two, a Kettlebell or other piece of training gear and mix a few basic exercises in with sprint/agility drills on the sand, and you’ll probably get a better workout than you are used to.

The key is to stay out of the gym, whether you’re going to a rental house or resort, take a break from the indoor, traditional structured workouts whenever possible.  Certainly there’s nothing wrong with exercising while on vacation, and looking forward to doing so, but don’t let exercise dominate your plans while vacationing.

Taking time off from regular exercise when healthy is a good thing and in the long run helps progress and is important for recovery.  Time off from exercise because of an illness or injury does not offer the same benefits.  If you don’t take a break from training a couple of times per year you’ll have a greater chance of suffering from overtraining syndrome, mental burn-out or injury, which sets you back.

Well-timed breaks from your regular exercise routine will not set you back, but will help you progress.  So next time you go on vacation, give your regular workout routine a vacation, as well.

One of the latest phenomenon’s taking the exercise world by storm is the kettlebell.  A kettlebell is an iron weight that looks like a bowling ball or a cannonball with a built in handle.  Kettlebell exercises provide many key workout benefits and are proving to be more than just a passing fad.  Since kettlebells work out the entire body, they can be a valuable way to switch up your regular routine a little bit and keep your workout regimen from becoming dull or boring.

Kettlebells: A New Way To Experience An Intense Workout

Once relatively obscure, kettlebells are cropping up in more and more places as people are discovering the great benefits of working out with them.  In fact, many websites on the Internet are plastered with kettlebell training tips and routines, allowing you to try a different one every week without ever running out of new options.  For finicky exercisers who thrive on variety, kettlebell exercises might be just what the doctor – or athletic trainer – ordered. In many ways, using a kettlebell is like working out with weights and doing step aerobics at the same time – and the results can be phenomenal.

Become a Lean, Mean, Fat-Burning Machine with Kettlebells

These deceptively simple looking devices make for a truly heart-thumping, envelope-pushing workout.  Although kettlebell training has been popular with bodybuilders and other professional athletes for some time, everyday folks looking to burn fat more efficiently are turning to kettlebells in droves as their fat-burning capabilities are being promoted more and more. Many people pick a kettlebell up thinking it will be “no sweat” to mix in with their routine, only to gain a healthy dose of respect for the device after using it for just a few short minutes.

Take Your Workout Routine To The Next Level – Try Kettlebells Today

Whether you have grown bored with the same old workout routines – or have a sincere desire to burn a tremendous amount of fat in a very efficient way – kettlebell training might be right for you.  It’s important to ease yourself into kettlebell exercises as much as possible; jumping right in might burn you out too quickly.  Test the waters by finding simple kettlebell routines online, or ask your personal trainer about basic exercises.  Over time, you can use kettlebells to cut fat, increase stamina, improve agility and much more – truly pushing your body to its maximum potential.

 If you use the coming of spring and summer as an incentive to get into shape, you better get started.

I don’t think that people should just get into shape just because the warm weather is coming.  However, I do recognize that people use the change of seasons as motivation for starting to exercise or for making changes to their existing routines.

So I’ll get the “you-should-know-better” part of this piece out of the way and tell you that taking care of yourself is a 12-month proposition.  If you are consistent all year round with your workouts and nutritional habits, you won’t have to worry that bathing suit weather is right around the corner.  I know all some of you hear is, “Blah, blah, blah,” but I speak truth.

Okay, so now that I’ve told you that you shouldn’t look at following a healthy lifestyle as a seasonal pursuit and recognize that real life indicates that people do this, I’ll try to help you get into shape for the spring.

First of all, you need to start making this change right now.  Not in March, April or (certainly not!) May, but in February.  This means those of us who live in places where Old Man Winter has us in his grip cannot wait until it gets a little nicer outside to make additions or changes to our activity routine.  If you live in the Northeast or Midwest and wait until it starts to get less horrible our, it’s too late.  You can’t depend on outside exercise to get you into shape.

Making changes to your routine and fitness level takes time.  Despite what television shows like “The Biggest Loser” preach, you cannot cram five or six months of exercise into 6 weeks.

That being said, even where I live in New Jersey the weather is rarely that bad for a long enough period of time where I cannot get outside for a 20-30 minute workout at least once per week.  I’m not a crazy person who heads out in the foulest of weather to workout.  Not me.  But I recognize that exercising in the cold winter air is a great way to shake off the winter doldrums.

Those of you who are regular visitors to HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com have seen my outdoor videos and know that I practice what I preach.  Do yourself a favor and practice what I preach.  Throw on some gloves, a hat, sweatshirt and whatever else you need to keep you comfortable on a cold, sunny day, and go for a walk, do some sprints, calisthenics or Kettlebell swings.  Your neighbors might think you’re a bit odd, but we’ll know you’re cool.

Anyway, if you’re afraid of or unwilling to deal with the cold – even though cardiovascular equipment is not my favorite kind of aerobic activity – given the alternative of doing nothing to walking on a treadmill or elliptical-ing on an elliptical trainer, choose the machine-based activity.

If you don’t have access to cardio equipment, calisthenics can provide you with an effective means to develop and improve your fitness level.  Actually, calisthenics are preferable to any machine-based cardiovascular exercise, but I’m not going to make that argument now.  I’ll just leave it at this; if you want to get into great cardiovascular shape you will choose to do jumping jacks, squat thrusts, leg drives, grasshoppers, push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups.

So if you want to get into shape for spring, start now.

The Kettlebell snatch, one-legged box jump high-intensity superset will improve explosiveness and overall conditioning.

I’m a big fan of high-intensity/low-volume workouts, as this kind of workout is way more efficient and effective than low-intensity/high-volume workouts.  It’s also a lot more athletic and fun.  Whether you are a personal trainer or strength coach looking to add something new to your clients’ workout routine or you train on your own, this workout offers many benefits.

There are many different exercises that you can mix and match to use in this format, but I find the Kettlebell snatch/box jump combo to be challenging and effective.  I usually spend a little more time warming up for this kind of workout, using running drills, jump rope and some of my explosive body weight moves before doing warm up snatches and lower height box jumps.

For the actual workout, I do 3-4 work supersets featuring 3 repetitions of the snatch with each arm and 2 box jumps with each leg, in alternating fashion.  Review the video to see how the workout looks.  I take about 20-30 seconds in between the snatches and box jumps and 3-4 minutes in between supersets.

This kind of workout can be performed with two-legged box jumps for more total reps or on a higher box.

This explosive lift/plyometric superset workout should only be used by people who have experience with both the snatch and box jumps, and is not suitable for beginners or anyone who cannot properly perform these exercises.  Consult with a qualified, certified personal trainer or strength coach if you are interested in learning how to properly perform these moves, and push your fitness to the next level.

This week you’ll learn the proper way to perform dumbbell military press, the first upper-body strength training exercise in my free online exercise program.

The military press is the best exercise to build upper-body strength.  Long before people fell in love with the bench press, “militaries” were the exercises that men used to measure their upper-body strength.  As a personal trainer and strength coach, the military press is the exercise that I use to measure my clients’ upper-body strength.

 

As opposed to the bench press, the military press – also called the overhead press – requires that you provide your own balance and stability rather than rely on a piece of equipment to do so.  The military press is a fantastic functional, ground-based, compound movement that is one of the most efficient and effective strength training exercises that there is.  Athletes and non-athletes alike will reap the benefits from including the military press in their strength training routine. 

I use dumbbells for the military press in the video clip that is part of my continuing, free online exercise program, but the exercise can be done with a barbell, kettlebells, logs, heavy stones, sand bags and other traditional and non-traditional kinds of resistance.  Incorporate military presses in your routine to improve your upper-body strength. 

By the way, adjustable dumbbells are a great investment for any home gym, as one pair of 50-pound adjustable dumbbells is like having nine pairs of conventional dumbbells.

The military press is a simple exercise to learn so review the video clip and get started.  If you have any questions, send them to me at Sal@HealthAndFitnessAdvice.com.

What kind of exercise should you do on vacation?  Should you exercise on vacation?  Answers to these questions, and others, if you read on.

I’m always asked about my thoughts on vacation and exercise.  In general, I think exercise and vacation are a great mix. However, I don’t think exercise should dominate a vacation.

If you’re the kind of person who loves to exercise and yet cannot train as frequently as you’d like because of family and work demands, than vacation can offer a great opportunity to get some quality exercise.  Exercise can add to the enjoyment that you get from a vacation, especially if you have the luxury of taking 2 or more weeks off from work. Vacation can also provide the opportunity to engage in forms of exercise that aren’t possible during your usual routine.

I love to vacation at the beach and I take advantage of the unique workout options afforded by the sand.  I love to sprint on the beach.  I’ve also seen what can happen when you combine the beach, sprints and a Kettlebell.  Can something be beautiful and horrific at the same time?

Here’s a quick story.  Two summers ago my family had a house 3 houses from the ocean at the Jersey shore.  While my three boys and wife were lazing around the house during the early morning I headed up to the beach with my 50-pound Kettlebell.  I had stepped off a 40-yard stretch of beach and was doing some warm up activities when a couple of younger guys – they were over 20 years my junior – asked me what I was doing.  I told them about my plan to do a 40-yard sprint sandwiched between 2 sets of 20 two-handed Kettlebell swings, and then a final set of 10 Kettlebell military presses.

I was going to do 6 rotations of these exercises and take about 2 minutes rest between.  These daring young men in the board shorts asked if they could join me.  I said sure.  Spreading my brand of fitness 2 dudes at a time.  Anyway, they staggered off in the middle of their third time through the sprints and swings, never able to do more than 5 reps in the military press and taking on a most unique skin tone of green.

It was a great workout and a great way to start a vacationing day.  At least for me it was.  So what was I saying?

Oh yea…

I’m on vacation this week and while I will exercise – I did sprints this morning – I am also going to stay out of the gym, won’t lift weights and didn’t bring any of my Kettlebells with me.  I’ve been working pretty hard at home and am taking the opportunity of my time away from the gym to stay away from the gym. For me, that’s what I need.

What I’m trying to get at after 475 words is that vacation is a great time to take a break from your usual routine.  If you are always in the gym – either because it’s your vocation or avocation – use vacation to take a break.  Do different things.

Don’t let exercise dominate your vacation or decide to start an exercise program while on vacation; that’s a losing proposition like trying to start a diet at the holidays.  And the worst situation would be to let not being able to workout ruin your vacation.

Enjoy your vacation and enjoy your exercise.