Tag build muscle

There are lots of myths and misconceptions about running and muscle building, and doing research online to find the answers you’re looking for can be very frustrating.

Does Running Build Muscle?

Well, the answer can be difficult because too many self-declared experts have conflicting information. What may be true for one person may not be true for the next.

So let’s tackle the more common questions and give definitive answers for each one, so we can settle the matter once and for all.

Does running build muscle? The answer is: it depends on what you mean by “build muscle”. When you run, you use muscles, and those muscles in turn, grow or develop.

Now this development doesn’t mean that your leg muscles will bulk up. What it does mean is that your leg muscles will become stronger, they will look toned, and they will have more endurance.

What muscles are developed by running? When you run, you “push off” from the ground. This extends your ankle and works the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of your calf. These are the muscles connected to your heel bone through the Achilles tendon.

When your foot returns to the ground, you pull up your toes. This works the tibialis anterior, the muscles on the front of your shin.

Does running reduce muscle mass? Running can help you slim down, but it does not reduce muscle mass. It doesn’t burn muscle or use it as fuel.

The only way this is possible is if you’re foolish enough to enter a diet that virtually doesn’t give you any protein at all, while at the same time you perform high intensity workouts for prolonged periods. Now that will really reduce your muscle mass.

But running does tend to prevent any extra muscle gains. This is why a lot of bodybuilding experts counsel against frequent jogging.

How do we explain all those photos of super-skinny runners? The stereotype for long distance runners is rather unfortunate, because we often see stick-thin elite runners in movies, magazines and websites. This has led some “experts” to conclude that running can really make you skinny and reduce all your muscles.

But running did not turn these elite runners into skinny beings. They’re just naturally that way, and genetics is the main reason for it. Crediting running for their slim physique is like thinking that basketball training can make you taller.

And if you see sprinters, you will notice that most of the best ones are truly fit, with muscles that are quite impressive. Check out the female sprinters, and their muscles are truly works of art.

So what does it all mean? Does running build muscle? Well, let’s put it this way: you’re better off lifting weights if you want to build muscle.

Basically, what you need to do is to define your fitness goals. If your first priority is to build muscles, then you have to cut back on your running. The more you run, the more difficult it will be for you to build muscle mass. And you also have to admit that genetics and diet can play a very significant role here. For some people who run, bulking up is possible. For others, it’s not.

If building muscle is your goal, see “Building Muscle for Men and Women” for some great tips to get you going in the right direction.

It’s natural to want to have bigger muscles and if that’s you, this is the perfect time to start bodybuilding and begin taking those first steps. Not only does it look good especially for guys, but it also makes us stronger, more confident and more powerful.

Through body building, overweight men can turn fat into muscle, while skinny guys can bulk up. Either way, you improve your physique when you start bodybuilding.

Learning How to Start Bodybuilding

Making the decision to learn how to start bodybuilding is a good first step, but what comes next? Here are the things you need to know about how to start bodybuilding:

1. Find a good gym. The gym should be near enough to your home or office/school so that you won’t have another convenient excuse not to go regularly. It should also be affordable, and the gym should have complete bodybuilding machines and equipment.
2. Find experts you can trust. Your gym should have professional trainers ready to help you achieve your goals because you won’t be able to learn what you need to know quickly. With a fitness trainer, you can get sound advice instead of having to wade through the massive amount of bodybuilding information online. You will need the help of a nutritionist to assist in planning your diet, while a trainer can help you with your workouts. The advantage of getting a pro to help you is that the diet and workout plans can be customized to suit your needs. You don’t have to follow a generic plan.
3. Stop eating junk. You don’t need a nutritionist to tell you to stop eating fast food, processed food, and junk food. Avoid desserts and greasy burgers, and start making more sensible food choices like supplementing with high quality whole food products like the ones provided by Zurvita.
4. Monitor your actions and results. You need to have a record of everything you do and every food you take. With today’s smartphones, you can easily find an app for that. You can also take full body pictures of yourself so that you can track your progress. By jotting down your activities in a journal, you can make accurate tweaks that can bring you better results. This is important especially if your progress has stalled.
5. Get enough rest. While some people exert too little effort and easily lose patience, others also try too hard and over-train. You need to rest in between workouts. The muscles you stress during a workout should get about 72 hours of rest so that they can have the opportunity to recover and grow. You also need to get enough sleep very night. That means getting 7 hours of sleep minimum.

Once you know how to start bodybuilding, you don’t really stop. It takes quite a bit of time to get the muscles you want, so you need to think long term. Every few months or so, you can re-evaluate your program and make changes so that you can improve your results.

Bodybuilding is about developing good habits so that you can become healthier and stronger. Once you start bodybuilding and developing muscles, you’ll still need to workout so you can keep them; it’s not a one-time deal.

One of the things you need to understand is that trying to build more muscle can take time. We’re not talking about looking like The Rock here. We’re talking about maybe adding 5 to 10 pounds of muscle mass. But the good news is, you can actually learn how to build muscle fast.

What may be slowing down your progress is that perhaps you don’t fully grasp what you need to do to build muscle. Learn to understand the basic principles of bodybuilding and you should be able to learn how to build muscle fast as well.

What to Eat to Build Muscle Fast

Nutrition plays a crucial role in building muscle. Essentially, they provide you with the “raw material” so you can have bigger muscles. So you’ll need to pay attention to what you eat. You have to keep a record, and you have to note down your caloric consumption plus your carb and protein intake.

If you really want to speed up the muscle building process, then you can’t take too much time trying to understand everything you read. It can get very confusing for you, since a lot of online “facts” on the topic are untrue or contradictory. With the help of a nutritionist, you can get a definitive diet plan which you can just follow to the letter.

You’ll also need to look into some supplements. That’s because your diet may not be able to provide you with all the nutrients you need on a consistent basis. If you can’t get enough protein from your food, then you can compensate by drinking protein shakes.

However, supplements can also boost hormone profiles or increase the amount of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which you need for energy. Some supplements contain ZMA or creatine for this purpose. Other supplements can also have caffeine, which will give you the energy you need for your workout.

Correct Bodybuilding Exercises to Build Muscle

This is also a very confusing topic, as there are as many philosophies as there are professional trainers out there. What seems to be a unanimous belief is that you must lift weights if you want to learn how to build muscles.

Again, professional advice can really accelerate your progress, so you may want to look into hiring a personal trainer. For the most part, trainers are of the opinion that the basic exercises can give you the fastest results.

These include bench pressing, deadlifts, and squats. You can also add pull-ups and military presses. These exercises work more muscles in far less time than other exercises.

What you need to avoid is over-training. More is not always better. With over-training, you’ve dealt too much stress on your muscles and this can result in injury, a lack of progress, or the decrease in enthusiasm.

You should also try to spice things up every month or so by changing your workout routine. Simple changing the sequence of the workouts can work.

Finally, you have to improve. The weight you can lift should be more after a month. By improving, you maintain a consistent level of stress on your system.

Rest and Recreation Help Build Muscle Fast

While you toil away on your workout routine, ironically most of your muscle growth happens while you’re taking a rest. It’s during your off-training days when your muscles are recovering when you actually build muscles. This is why you mustn’t exercises the same muscles every day.
Basically, the exercises are “tearing” your muscle fibers. When you rest, your body rebuilds your muscles, and that means they can get bigger and stronger. If you are feeling some pain, you should stop and rest.

You need your rest for your muscles to recover. It’s estimated that muscles need as much as 72 hours of rest after a workout session.

So getting enough sleep is a must. You need to learn to relax, so that your body doesn’t produce too much cortisol which encourages your body to burn muscle and store fat.

If you still don’t get some improvement after following these tips, then a visit to the doctor may also help. You may have an underlying health condition that keeps you from building muscle.

You just have to keep in mind that even with these tips, it will still take some time to get the physique you want. You can’t expect super quick results. You just need to go at it and persevere. At least with these tips on how to build muscle fast you will be able to achieve the results you want in the shortest time possible.

When you’re trying to build muscle, you need to understand that the process involves two stages. First there is the catabolic stage. You want to encourage muscle protein breakdown with your workout, during which your exercises are used to break down muscle protein.

When you do a workout you basically tear your muscle fibers; the workout increases the rate of the muscle protein breakdown. The catabolic stage is when the rate of the protein breakdown is greater than the protein synthesis, which is when amino acids are used to make proteins to maintain or build muscle.

This is followed by the anabolic stage, which occurs when you rest and the muscle building begins. Your body uses the protein and amino acids to rebuild the muscle fibers that were torn.

It’s not enough that you have a nice balanced diet throughout the day and that you take the best pre workout supplement before you work out. For the best results, you’ll also need to use the best post workout supplement that you can find during the anabolic stage, in order to assist in maintaining or building bigger muscles.

What to Look For in the Best Post Workout Supplement

Identifying the best post workout supplement may be quite challenging, but here are some pointers you’ll want to keep in mind:

• Most post workout supplements contain protein, because you need it to build muscle. This just begs the question of how much protein is ideal. According to the latest research, the answer depends on your age. If you are relatively young, you need 20 grams of protein. Your needs increase as you grow older, and by age 70 you will need 40 grams.
• Amino acids will also be helpful in building muscles. It’s best that you consume amino acids all at once rather than spread out over an extended period of time. Research shows that more muscle protein synthesis results from drinking 20-40 grams in one go, compared to the result of taking small sips in a span of several hours.
• Many workout supplements also contain carbohydrates. This may or may not be a good thing, though. Carbs are also used as a fuel for protein synthesis. Supplements with carbs can also prevent proteolysis, which is the deterioration of protein. At the same time, you may want to hold off consuming carbs immediately right after a workout, especially if your workout goal is to burn fat and lose weight. Your body is still burning off fat, and you should encourage this process by tapering off your carbohydrate consumption. Once you take carbs, the free fatty acids being burned for energy are returned to your fat cells.
• Take note of the calories a supplement contains, as well as the flavor. Obviously, the ability to mix easily with liquid is important as well as the quality and the absence of chemicals and artificial sweeteners. Stevia is a good choice for a sugar-free sweetener.

Timing is important when taking post workout supplements. Obviously it should be taken after a workout and not before. But most research shows that protein and amino acids should be taken right after, instead of hours later or the next day – which is technically still “after” the workout.

According to some studies, the nutrient uptake is much greater when you take the supplements within a half of an hour after you work out, rather than after even a few hours have passed. So, when you finish your workout, reach for your favorite post workout supplement and reload the important nutrients that your muscles need right away. By taking it at this “window of opportunity”, you ensure that you obtain the maximum benefits from your post workout supplement.

Sometimes we may find ourselves easily swayed by impressive ads and glowing reviews. If you’re looking for the best pre workout supplement, you need to choose carefully. There are a lot of options available, and picking the right one can be just as challenging as picking the right workouts and exercise programs.

One of the best ways to help you choose the best pre workout supplement is to focus on the contents as they relate to what you want to personally accomplish.

The content labels of specialty pre workout supplements will generally have some, if not all, of these nutrients:

• Arginine. This is an amino acid that maintains hormone and immune function, helps the kidney extract waste products from the body, and even helps your wounds heal. As a workout supplement, it helps because it changes into nitric oxide that boosts your blood circulation and helps blood vessels to relax.
• Beta-Alanine. Working in partnership with creatine, beta-alanine can increase your strength and also enables you to work out longer. It also combines with histidine in your muscles to form carnosine. The carnosine is crucial for muscle recovery and gaining strength.
• Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). These are the combinations of three amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, and valine) popular among workout fanatics. Taking BCAAs can boost your energy and hasten muscle recovery. It also improves your stamina.
• Caffeine. Just as a lot of people need caffeine to start their day, many people who work out take supplements that contain caffeine. Caffeine wakes up the nervous system and it helps to keep fatigue at bay. It can also help you maintain your focus but don’t overindulge. What’s important is not to use products with caffeine on the label because that is synthetic caffeine; use products that contain real plants that contain caffeine such as green tea for an example.
• Citrulline. This is the duo of the amino acid citrulline and malic acid. As a combo it increases the volume of your cells. It also gets rid of ammonia in your body, thereby improving your blood flow and boosting your energy. It’s also a precursor to arginine.
• Creatine. Depending on who you’re talking to, the best pre workout supplement will probably contain creatine, as many fitness buffs consider it a requirement for exercise workouts. It’s probably the most popular supplement of all time for bodybuilders. Creatine works by pulling water into your muscles cells. This gives a quick burst of energy in your body and makes it possible for you to do a few more reps.
• Glycerol. This is converted by your liver into glucose, which your body uses as fuel. A lot of endurance athletes also love glycerol because of its hydrating benefits. It helps you to retain greater levels of fluids in your system, for a longer period of time. Body builders like it too because it improves vascular function; it dilates blood vessels.
• Taurine. It pulls more water for better muscle pump. It also improves the strength and endurance of your muscles, and encourages the production of nitric oxide which then increases the blood flow to your muscles.

For the record, we’re not saying that testimonials are useless when you’re choosing the best pre workout supplement for you. But you shouldn’t just believe everything you read online (or offline for that matter). Read the product’s labels first, find out what it contains and then make a decision that fits your personal workout routine and health goals.

Should You Choose Walking versus Running for Your Overall Health Benefits?

Both aerobic activities are simple to perform and promote weight loss. And both walking and running help regulate a healthy sleep rhythm, elevate your energy levels while awake, and even allow you to maintain healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Running and walking can also be social exercises that you enjoy with friends or family members, and you can take a jog or a hike just about any time of the year, depending on where you live.

Walking is Easier on Your Body Than Running

Just remember that if you choose walking over running to improve your overall health, you will need to walk twice as far as you run to gain the same weight-loss benefits. Running is much more rigorous on your body, and burns more calories. But walking is also much easier on your joints since the impact of your foot striking the ground is lessened.

For Beginners Walking is the Best Place to Start

If you are just beginning some type of dedicated physical regimen, walking is definitely recommended, and you can always build up your endurance and physical fitness to include running in the future.

And in some cases, walking can give you many of the same benefits as running, with less downside. For instance, extensive research taken from the Runners and Walkers Health Study shows that both running and walking equally cut down on your risk of contracting age-related cataracts.

That significant body of information, compiled from tens of thousands of runners and walkers, also showed that runners could expect a reduction in the risk of contracting heart disease by about 4.5% by running one hour a day.

Running Beats Walking for Weight Loss

But those who spent that same one hour daily simply walking cut their risk of heart disease by over 9%. Certainly, walking and running both improve your overall health and fitness much more than if you were sedentary instead. So choose whichever exercise best fits your current fitness levels and situation. And for weight loss, running is definitely the better vehicle than walking. That is because of the increased energy expenditure, elevated heart rate and calorie burn.

Before Walking or Running for Exercise – Check With Doctor First

You should always consult a doctor before adding any type of exercise to your daily routine. But both walking and running are excellent ways to get you up and active, and are low-cost activities which you can enjoy even if you only have a limited amount of time on your hands.

There is no argument that running or walking is much healthier than not doing either, so put one foot in front of the other today and begin to enjoy the heart and total body benefits are that these simple but healthy exercises can provide.

Avoiding Bulky Legs While On a Walking Fitness Program

Because muscles have two different types of fiber, some walking fitness programs target one type of fiber better than the other. To avoid bulking up your legs, you want to follow a walking fitness program that targets slow twitch fibers as they do not grow significantly from their current size.

If you choose a program that targets the fast twitch fibers, you stand more of a chance at building up leg muscle than you may not want as those fibers do have the capability to grow in size.

Follow These Five Steps to Keep From Building Up Bulky Legs:

• When planning your walking course, avoid hills, inclines or stairs. Moving your body vertically emphasizes building up the glutes, hamstrings and calves, which can give you a bulky appearance. Staying on flat land works all of your lower body muscle groups equally.
• Maintain a proper posture by engaging your abdominal muscles and keeping your head and neck centered over your spine. This keeps your weight evenly balanced vertically across your muscles supporting it, thus not working one group more than others.
• Don’t walk with added weight. While ankle and wrist weight do increase the number of calories you burn while walking, the additional weight on your ankles can make your large lower body muscle groups work harder thus developing them more.
• The same advice applies to other things you may carry with you. What you carry in your backpack can add additional weight, so think about what you really need and leave the rest at home.
• How you walk can make a difference. In a proper walk, your foot should land on the outside of your heel. As your step progresses forward, your weight should shift forward and inward to your arch. At the end of your step, your weight should shift to the ball of your foot and then to your toes where you push off for the next step. If you land on the middle part of your foot, you can strengthen and ultimately enlarge your calf muscles.

For Walking or Running Choose Good Shoes

Of course, having a good pair of walking shoes that fit well and support your arch will make walking properly much easier.

By selecting a walking fitness course that works slow twitch leg muscle fibers and following the rest of the above steps, you can safely burn calories and lose weight without having to worry about bulking up your leg muscles. As you lose weight, your toned and well defined leg muscles will begin to show themselves.

If you’d like to get more out of your walking for fitness plan, check out the “Guide to Setting Your Walking Fitness Goals” for more in depth knowledge on the subject of walking for fitness. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for the free MyFitnessNut.com Newsletter to be kept up to date on the latest health and fitness topics.

When you workout, you’ll want to incorporate a good diet for building muscles. But what exactly constitutes a “good diet for building muscle” anyway?

For some people the only adjustments they’ll need to make is to add in additional calories. Those calories need to come from food sources that are proven to build muscles. Common names are high protein diets and weight gain diets. So, it’s not as simple as just adding in additional calories; you need the right kind of calories that also provide much needed nutrients that aid in cell rejuvenation and muscle development.

The Purpose of a Diet for Building Muscles

The entire reason to adopt a diet for building muscles is to make sure that your are providing your muscles with the proper nutrients they need when they are being worked, torn down and in recovery. The nutrients that you feed your muscles will have a direct impact on how quickly and how effectively repair and build up.

Your purpose is to gain weight in the muscle department but at the same time you want to be careful that the calories you are adding are not going to pack the fat on. Nothing can hide muscle definition, and your hard workouts, more than excess body fat.

How Do You Know What a Good Diet for Building Muscle is?

A rigorous weight training workout schedule is taxing on your entire body. By making sure that you fuel your body with the right nutrients you will be helping ensure that you have the energy to start and finish your workout as well as the ability to repair your muscle afterwards.

Since your body uses the protein that you consume to build muscles, you need to eat enough lean protein such as salmon, trout, halibut, cod, eggs, chicken and lean servings of beef, pork or buffalo. These lower fat foods will help you get the protein calories you need while helping you to avoid packing on body fat.

Most people that want to put on weight should eat 500 calories more each day, some a little more, some a little less by 500 calories extra a day equates to about a pound a week in body weight gain. We’re talking about muscle weight gain here so you need those extra calories to be primarily protein.

If you find it hard to eat more protein foods, you can always reach for protein supplements or meal replacement shakes. A couple of shakes a day mixed with milk can easily get you to those 500 calories in extra protein a day mark.

What is The Single Best Diet for Building Muscle Mass?

Due to the fact that people’s body’s and food choices are so entirely different, it’s hard to recommend any one single diet for building muscles. You must have the additional protein but you must also have the many nutrients your body needs everyday. For example, you can’t use protein powders for meal replacement because mostly all that they provide is the protein. You would need a meal replacement shake in this case that provides the many different nutrients your body needs.

A good way to find what works best for you is to experiment a little and try different ones every two weeks or so and see how your body is responding. You can learn more about your choices and what to look for in the article “Why Protein Intake for Building Muscles” and look at http://MyFitnessNut.com for more information on protein, supplements, muscle building and fitness in general.

Do the Kettlebell Clean – But Don’t Let it Burn Baby

In the course of time, there are many unusual beliefs that have been promoted in the name of physical fitness, body sculpting, and health and wellness. Among these is the belief that you have to feel a “burn” with each of the exercises that you do, because if you don’t, then it means you didn’t do your workout well.

Baloney.

The truth is, when you do your workouts, what you should do when you experience a burn, is to ease back a bit on your exertions, because a burn is an alert coming from your body that a possible injury is inching its way to happening, and making a mess of your muscles.

Fortunately, with Kettlebell workouts, there are exercises that are good for keeping muscles tidily toned. One of the more prominent ones for doing so is the Kettlebell clean. To understand more fully, let’s discuss muscle burns first.

Lactic Acid Sends a Burning Message

Have you ever tried exercising regularly? If yes, there’s a good chance that gym instructors, fitness trainers, health and wellness gurus, and even your couch potato friend that you dragged like a wet bag of fertilizer to the gym to be your spotter, have probably screamed at you to “feel the burn!” – inspired no doubt by your sweaty, wide-eyed, panting look of pained desperation for more oxygen and rest.

The truth is, instead of thinking that a burn should motivate you to go harder and faster and to do more, you should start feeling concerned when you start feeling a muscle burn. That’s because a burn is a reliable sign of muscle fatigue starting to make its ugly head seen.

In response to this fatigue, your body produces lactic acid. No, it’s not the same thing that lactating mothers feed their babies with.

Lactic acid is what your body uses to inform you through a burning, heavy feeling in your legs or whatever part of your body has been receiving the most pressure during your exercise, that your muscles are already tired, and could you just give everyone a short break?

Ignore this plaintive plea from your muscles and they’ll hit back with a vengeance: how about a week of being sidelined with sore muscles and even a high fever?

Demonstration of the Kettlebell One Arm Clean:

The Kettlebell Clean and Your Muscles

It’s a good thing that Kettlebell exercises such as a Kettlebell clean are not recommended to be done until you feel that pesky burn. In fact, if anyone tells you that you should, you could hand over one of your Kettlebells to them and tell them to go knock their head with it.

Seriously, do not do a Kettlebell clean to the point of muscle fatigue. Your forearms and your shoulders, which are the primary movers involved in a Kettlebell clean, should not hurt.

Don’t listen to anyone who insists that a Kettlebell clean is meant to make your forearms harder and more sinewy. While it is true that a Kettlebell clean can be fat burning and endurance building, as is the case with other Kettlebell exercises, it doesn’t have to be so rough and tough in execution that you start thinking of Boris and his comrades and wishing they had never thought of converting a crop weighing tool into a piece of fitness equipment.

Remember, when in doubt about how to do a Kettlebell exercise properly, just refer to the Kettlebell workout videos that you get when subscribing to the My Fitness Nut Newsletter found at the top of MyFitnessNut.com. Simply open the page with the Kettlebell Videos on it and scroll down until you see “Kettlebell Clean”. Next, we’ll cover doing the Kettlebell Windmill which you will also find on the videos.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “snatch?” If you say you think of a rough, fast move that takes away something from where it originally was, then you’ve got a good grasp of the typical definition held by many people.

Kettlebell fitness enthusiasts however, would most likely think of something else when they hear the phrase “Kettlebell snatch” and that is: totally powerful, full-body exercise.

You can get rid of approximately 300 calories during a 20-minute snatching session; maybe more depending on your body type. That is equivalent to the calories you expend running for 20-25 minutes at a speed of 6 minutes per mile.

What Happens During a Kettlebell Snatch?

Falling in love then getting engaged is nothing new. In fact, it’s considered as the normal turn of events. But it’s the reverse with doing a Kettlebell snatch because what happens is that, first, you engage yourself in the activity, and then, you fall in love with doing the snatches.

This will happen when you realize all the benefits that you get from such an engagement, you’ll want to do it over and over again.

A Kettlebell snatch features some advanced movements…

When you assume the partial squat position, and you swing the Kettlebell in-between your open legs, you are using your:

• Biceps – the front muscles of your upper arms
• Erector spinae – the lower back muscles
• Gastrocnemius and soleus – the back of your lower legs
• Abdominals – the stomach or core
• Gluteus maximus – the butt
• Hamstrings – the muscles in the back of the thighs
• Quadriceps – the muscles in the front of the thighs
• Latissimus dorsi – the large, triangular muscle in the middle of your back
• Rhomboids – the muscles between your shoulder blades

When you stand up, bringing the Kettlebell with you, you are primarily using your hips.

Your hamstrings, back muscles, and shoulders are still involved, of course, but it is your thrusting hips that provide the power or momentum when you raise the Kettlebell.

If you don’t thrust your hips forward, you risk losing balance and falling down because of the weight of the Kettlebell that’s being raised in an arc by your arm.

Secondary to your hip movements is the support of your gluteus maximus. Your butt muscles tighten up when you thrust your hips, and that’s why when you do a Kettlebell snatch, you end up looking sexy from the shoulders and all the way down.

Demonstration of the Kettlebell Snatch:

Safety Tips When Doing Kettlebell Snatches

If you’re not careful, it’s not that hard to get injured while doing a snatch. To help to avoid injuries, always observe these fundamental tips:

1. Make sure your hands are dry, not sweaty, because a good, firm grip is essential to do proper Kettlebell snatch.
2. Make sure that the size or weight of the Kettlebell you are using is appropriate to your fitness level and gender (see “The Kettlebell Saga: From Farmers to Fitness Nuts” for details).
3. Do not hurry in jerking the Kettlebell from the ground, especially if you are new to exercising with Kettlebells. Follow the “easy does it” rule. You can increase the speed of your movements after you get used to handling the weight and movement you are doing.
4. Maintain the straightness of your wrists during the “catch” part of the snatch, and make sure that your arm is extended.

A Kettlebell snatch makes use of both speed and full body coordination. You can be tempted into going faster and faster, but, again, do your best to do the snatch with moderation until you master it. Your body will thank you for it.

Remember that you can always get the full set of Kettlebell Workout Videos, the ones that go along with the information we’re sharing with you here, when you subscribe to the My Fitness Nut Newsletter at MyFitnessNut.com. In the next article, “Keep Your Muscles Toned with the Kettlebell Clean” (also included in the videos) will give you the next step in developing your own personal Kettlebell workout routine.

The Kettlebell swing is the Elvis Presley of the fitness world. This is because in the same way that Elvis is known as the King of Rock ‘n Roll, the Kettlebell swing is known for being the King of Exercises.

How’s that for cool?

Anyway, doesn’t that phrase just make you smile? “Kettlebell Swing” – sounds like a hot, retro kind of dance, doesn’t it? (Can’t stop thinking about Elvis shaking his pelvis, huh?)

A Special Victory Dance

But enough of the King of Rock ‘n Roll for a moment, and let’s focus on the King of Exercises. If you’re the creative, imaginative type, and you were to think that Kettlebell swings are like a special kind of victory dance, you’d sort of have a good point going.

Only, instead of you and your legs going backwards and forwards, or even sideways like some crazy crab on the dance floor, what you do when swinging a Kettlebell is mostly stay in place, and do your moves energetically while in that same place.

You let your arm or arms (depending on what kind of swing exercise you’re doing) do the energetic movements, but there’s no real pressure on your arms, just like in dancing (unless, of course, you were to do hip-hop-type handstands).

Your feet, especially your heels, would support your weight. Your hamstrings or the backs of your thighs would feel the pressure, contracting and expanding as you squatted or stood. And, you’d also let your hips move forward and backward.

Kettlebell Swings From the Feet Up

Anyway, moving in those ways makes it possible for the engagement of numerous muscles in your body from your feet up to your shoulders. The reason that a basic Kettlebell swing resembles a victory gesture is that the raising of your arm much like what is done by a person who just won a competition is a main feature of the exercise.

There is no leaping or fast leg movements involved, but the effect on your cardiovascular system with all the squatting, standing, arm raising, and hip thrusting is such that after a few repetitions, you could feel that you had just finished a grueling one hour run.

Clearly, Elvis had the right idea when he kept gyrating his hips and raising his arms while performing.

Firm and Strong Butts From Kettlebell Swings

Kettlebell swings are popular because the movements are very simple, and you always have a choice about how much weight you want to swing. More than those considerations, however, are the facts that Kettlebell swings that are correctly performed can really increase the definition of your butt.

Now, why is this important? The butt is at the back, and that being the case, people you approach won’t see it right off, anyway. In other words, you don’t need a well toned butt to make a good impression. Wrong or right?

Wrong.

The fact is, you need a shapely behind to make people think that you know how to take care of yourself, that you value your body, and that you most likely spend time working out, which is good, because you clearly live a healthy lifestyle.

Why would they think all of that just from looking at your butt? It’s because the buttocks are one of the hardest parts of the body to sculpt, and the reason for that is, there is too much fat surrounding the muscles of your buttocks.

So, does this mean that doing a Kettlebell swing can make your butt look leaner and firmer? Yes! That’s exactly one of the great things that Kettlebell swings can do for you – give you a beautiful butt!

Remember, each Kettlebell exercise is a fat blaster. The fat on your butt isn’t immune to such blasting. How many other forms of exercise can deliver on that promise? Bet you’ll have a hard time coming up with an answer, and that’s because Kettlebell swings are the best butt-developing exercises ever, bar none.

Bodybuilding Hip Thrusting Power

It’s the hip thrusting that does it. When you thrust your hip forward while doing the exercise, your buttocks also tighten, firming up your precious gluteus maximus. And while you do that, your posture is also improved, because you cannot afford to slouch or have a rounded back while you’re doing a swing.

Otherwise, your back will hurt, and you run the risk of having an injury. As for your abs, they also tighten when you squat, which helps greatly in sculpting them.

So – great butt, great posture, great abs… aren’t Kettlebells just great?

Kinds of Kettlebell Swings

At this point, we need to clear up an important misconception. See, there are numerous kinds or variations of Kettlebell swings. These are the most popular:

• One-arm or one-hand swing
• Two-arms or two-hands swing
• Alternating arms swing – this involves transferring the Kettlebell from one hand/arm to the other while the Kettlebell is in motion or swinging through the air
• Stalling or pausing-at-the-top swing
• Sideways swing
• Pivoting swing

Now, online, the available information could confuse you, because there are some exercise sites that mistakenly identify and show a Kettlebell snatch as being the same as a Kettlebell swing.

That’s probably because aside from the original swing, also known as the Russian swing, which raises the Kettlebell only up to the shoulders, there’s another version known as the American swing, which raises the Kettlebell over the head.

The American swing can look a lot like a Kettlebell snatch, especially to those who are new to using Kettlebells, so, it’s understandable if some confusion ensues. Still, you shouldn’t let such misleading information take away your interest and enthusiasm about working out with Kettlebells.

What’s important to know is that you don’t have to worry about being misled, because you’re in good hands. More detailed instructions about doing a Kettlebell swing and other Kettlebell exercises can be found in the 22 Kettlebell videos you get (like the demo above) when subscribing to the My Fitness Nut Newsletter at the top of MyFitnessNut.com.

Just keep in mind that Kettlebell swings are basic exercises. On the other hand, Kettlebell snatches are more advanced. Let’s move on to the next section that we’ve titled “The Kettlebell Snatch: Explosive Power in One Go” and find out what snatches are all about.