Kettlebell Fitness Training Q & A with Jarret Lewis- head trainer at Stout Training Pittsburgh

 

Well I think the fundamental kettelbell movements are different from other forms of exercise many people have tried in that they tend to be much more dynamic .  I always think is fairly ironic as kettelbells are a very old method of exercise.  The other major difference revolves around programming, or the way we couple different movements, reps, sets, etc to create the workout.  People quickly notice in our classes that we are not typically training the way they may have been familiar with in their previous gym experiences.

Well it all depends on what I am training for, and what other forms of exercise/training I’m doing.  An example would be that right now I typically workout 4-5 days a week.  Having said that its important to realize I am not training BJJ …… I’m only getting 1-2 days a week…… or any other major physical activity as much as I would like.  I think 3 -4 days a week is more than enough to develop a respectable strength and conditioning base .

Currently no, I don’t.  Now don’t get me wrong that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could.  But like many people, I am hard pressed for time and kettlebells have seemed to give me the most bang for my buck in the past 3-4 years.  Doing a Turkish get up with a person had been something I always wanted to do [talking about the lift stunt with his girlfriend].  At the time I worked up to doing one get up with my girlfriend and a smaller male training partner I was doing nothing but kettlebells.  I  train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, ideally 3-4 days a week, of late that seems to have been cut down a tad, but, when I do train it is typically fairly intense.   I would love to be able to hit heavy barbell work in the way of squats, deadlifts, etc a few days a week(scaling back on my kettlebell work of course ) I just don’t have the time with my schedule.

Well our program has similarities and differences with crossfit.  A similarity would be that workouts tend to be intense and people usually experience a great sense of camaraderie with classmates.  Differences would be that we tend to take a more focused approach to training cycles.  An example would be that currently we have been focusing on heavier upper or lower body 20 minute metcons while mixing in the occasional lighter day to help deload and insure we still maintain a good conditioning base.  The Crossfit approach tends to be less structured.  While I think there is a great benefit in staying inefficient at movements [speaking to the crossfit approach], especially for fat burning, measurable gains in strength or better muscular endurance are typically what we are after in addition to getting more lean.

Absolutely not.  One common misconception is that the workouts get easier and more palatable with time.  I would have to disagree, as I am sure people like yourself or Mike Wilkins a pro MMA fighter would agree.  Listen while I think you should enjoy working out its important to realize you get what you put in.  When a workout become easy it probably means you need to increase your kettlebell weight, or perhaps change your focus of your training to work on some your weaknesses.

In the past we had mostly men with a few of our regular women.  I think that was due to Stout Training Pittsburgh/ Team Renzo Gracie  typical clientele.  Lately classes are a nice 50/50 mix, some days we have even had more women than men.