#1 Tip for Getting Stronger with Kettlebells

Often, when I’m out and about – whether that’s running errands during the week, at an event of some kind for one of our kids during the weekend, at church or a related event or gathering, etc…

I’ll be making small talk, and we get to the “what do you do for a living” part.

I tell people I’m a gym owner / personal trainer / fitness pro, and a good percentage of the time, people ask something along the lines of:

“What’s your #1 tip for XYZ (insert fitness – related goal here?”

Typically, if the question is something related weight loss, I’ll say that my #1 tip is that I don’t have a #1 tip! Because truly, it’s a lifestyle – those little habits and decisions you make daily with your diet, activity, recovery, etc.

When it comes to getting STRONGER though, I think I do have a #1 tip (for more intermediate / advanced trainees especially).

That number #1 tip for getting stronger is:

Do NOT train to failure.

This is such a common mistake, because people think that the harder they push, the faster they’re going to make gains, and that they will get stronger quicker.

What ACTUALLY happens though is when you train, you’re not only training the muscles, but you’re training your central nervous system as well. The problem with trying to failure is that it is very hard in the CNS, and it really are interferes with your recovery ability. You can develop the bad habit of missing lifts. Training to failure needs to be avoided if you want to keep making progress and avoid burnout. You can train just short of failure and get very very strong.

That’s it for my #1 tip for getting stronger. It’s not the most fancy or complex advice, but if you do this one thing consistently, it will dramatically improve your results. If you’re looking for help with reaching your fitness goals in 2022, check out our website at https://forestvancetraining.com to learn how you can sign up to try our program today!

-Forest Vance
Master of Science, Human Movement
Owner, FVT Personal Training – Sacramento, CA
Over 40 Training Specialist
Kettlebell Expert
ForestVanceTraining.com
KettlebellBasics.net

GOAL SETTING FOR 2022

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GOAL SETTING FOR 2022

Have you taken time to think about your goals for 2022?

Probably because of all the years I spent playing competitive sports, I like to plan my kettlebell training – and fitness goals in general – around the seasons.

During the winter, I focus on getting as strong as possible.

In the spring, my focus is shedding body fat and looking lean.

Summer and fall, all my energy goes towards performance – maybe peaking for a kettlebell re-cert or a big race.

I’ll typically take a couple / few weeks for recovery / “de-loading” around the Holidays, then repeat the cycle.

This kind of planning is 100% going to get you better short AND long term results out of your training.

Whether you sign up for my 28-day KB Challenges, follow any of my KB training plans, or get some kind of plan or program somewhere else, the main take-away in today’s message is have a plan. It will help you with getting the best results AND staying injury free!

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-Forest

1000 Calorie Kettlebell Workout

The Holiday season is upon us!

I want to help you AVOID what’s happened to me in the past around this time of year. I’ve also seen this happen with countless clients:

The week of Thanksgiving hits, and we sort of mentally back off our fitness program. It’s basically five or six weeks of just kind of eating whatever, and working out inconsistently. We end up gaining a few pounds in the process. Then when the New Year rolls around, we re-fire up, and get back into a routine. But let’s face it: losing weight is an effort! So it takes us a good 60 or 90 days just to get back to where we were mid-November. By that time, we have Spring Break coming up, and the cycle repeats itself!…

Instead, here is what I suggest:

Continue with your regular workouts over the next few weeks, maybe even adding in a few extra calorie-buring sessions like the one I’m sharing with you today. Enjoying your special food and time with family, but make an effort to eat reasonably healthy. Maintain your fitness over the last few weeks of 2021, and then you roll into 2022 not having missed a beat!

…then we can maintain through the Holidays, maybe even make a little bit of progress!, and not have missed a beat come the New Year.

Here’s your 1000 Calorie KB Workout to start the Holiday season strong:

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1000 Calorie Kettlebell Workout

1 – 15 minute full-body warm up – joint mobility, self myofascial release, dynamic stretching

2 – Kettlebell / Bodyweight Circuits – The following pairs of exercises are to be done as circuits: do A1, go immediately to A2 without resting, rest for about 30 seconds, and repeat. Repeat this pattern for all three pairs:

A1. KB squat – three sets, 8 reps
A2. Inverted Row – three sets, 12 reps

B1. Push-up – three sets, 10 reps
B2. KB swing – three sets, 15 reps

C1. KB Press – three sets, 6 reps / side
C2. Lunge – three sets, 10 sets / side

3 – Run / Walk 5k (approx 3 miles)

If you are not into running, you could also do about 45 minutes of medium intensity biking, swimming, rowing, etc.

4 – Finish with 15 minutes of stretching / core work / yoga poses / etc

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I want you to avoid what’s happened to me in the past around this time of year. Continue with your regular workouts over the next few weeks, maybe even adding in a few extra calorie-buring sessions like the one I’m sharing with you today. Enjoying your special food and time with family, but make an effort to eat reasonably healthy. Maintain your fitness over the last few weeks of 2021, and then you roll into 2022 not having missed a beat!

-Forest and the FVT Team
KettlebellBasics.net
ForestVanceTraining.com

PS – Try our 3-session PT Jump Start program for help staying on track during the Holiday season, drop us a line at this link for more info -> https://www.forestvancetraining.com/contact

Details on Holiday Boot Camp series at FVT

We are running a special Holiday boot camp series, starting November 27th, 2021 at 9am!

These workout will be done in “Hybrid” format – we’ll have an in-studio workout with live participants, PLUS online / Zoom participants joining in at the same time!

This is a test / pilot program to see how the new format goes, with a total of four workouts planned for:

Saturday, Nov 27th at 9am

Saturday, Dec 4th at 9am

Saturday, Dec 11th at 9am

Saturday, Dec 18th at 9am

If we get solid attendance and all goes well, we will continue to offer 9am Saturday boot camps into 2022.

There are two sign up options:

1 – $60 / month on EFT guarantees your spot every Saturday (limited to 12 in-person participants to start – WILL likely fill fast, best option to lock in your spot!)

2 – $20 drop-in at the door (availability NOT guaranteed; first-come-first-serve day of workout)

Send us a message to sign up now.

-Forest and the FVT Team

9am Saturday Boot Camp – Starts Saturday, Nov 27th

Boot camp is back at FVT for the 2021 Holiday Season!

Join us on Saturdays at 9am to burn extra calories and stay on track with your fitness.

This special program kicks off Saturday, Nov 27th and runs through the end of the year.

Open to current and new clients alike.

Reply to this message with the words “SATURDAY BOOT CAMP” to reserve your spot today!

-Forest and the FVT Team

Saturday Boot Camps at FVT

The Holiday season is fast approaching!

So that you can burn some extra calories and stay on track with your fitness, we are kicking around the idea of doing a “hybrid” boot camp on Saturdays at 9am.

See, we currently offer a 9am boot camp on Zoom. What we’d do is open up a few in-person spots so that people could come in and do the same workout at the studio as well!

This would be a pilot program that we’d run for a few Saturdays over the coming weeks of the 2021 Holiday season. If it went well, we would potentially also continue into 2022.

This would work great as an add-on for current clients who are already doing workouts at the studio each week, and want to get some extra bonus work on the weekends.

It would also be open to new or returning clients who just want to join us for a fun, heart-pumping, calorie-burning workout on Saturdays at 9 am.

Space would be limited to allow for safety and comfort of all participants.

If you are interested, reply back to this email with the words “Saturday Boot Camp”, and I will add you to the interest list. If we get enough people who want to sign up, we will make it happen.

Thanks, and hope to hear back from you! –

-Forest and the FVT Team 

the “Holiday Hold ’em” Plan

Happy Monday!!

I just back from a trip to Louisville, Kentucky.

I was there for a mastermind meeting with my business coach and some other industry colleagues. I am a big believer in coaching! Just like I coach men and women over 40 to get strong and lean with kettlebells, I have coaches in fitness, business, and other areas of life to help me be the best that I can.

On my trip, I also had some hot chicken for lunch one day that was the BOMB:

I’m not used to eating like this, so I felt pretty sick after eating it for a while, lol… BUT, it was so tasty, that I have to say in this particular case, it was worth it!! ????

The epic hot chicken meal got me to thinking: The Holiday season is right around the corner, and the vast majority of us might be consuming a few extra calories here or there.

BUT, the LAST thing we want to do is go BACKWARDS on our fitness goals over the next two months.

So what we can do?

One thing is to allow yourself some leeway in eating things like hot chicken, or whatever else you want to enjoy. You CAN eat these kind of meals once you truly understand how they fit into your dietary “big picture”!

The other thing is to stay on track with your training schedule, or even kick it up a notch.

Hopefully you’re already doing a good three or four workouts a week. This is your base. If not, start right away. Whether you come work out with us in person at our Sacramento studio, or you do some of my at-home kettlebell workouts, or combination of both, three or four 20-45 minute workouts each week is something that should be do-able for everybody. No excuses!!

You can also add in a bit of extra cardio on top of your current training plan. This is what I will be doing. For example, if you could do three extra sessions a week and burn 500 kcals at each, that could be a great “buffer” to help mitigate some of those extra Holiday foods.

(It really depends on your goals as to the exact type of cardio that you do. I personally like a combination of low intensity training like hiking or rucking, and sprinting. Check out the plan at THIS LINK for an awesome program to help you incorporate sprints with your kettlebell workouts!)

To sum up, the main point of today’s post is really to get you thinking about your strategy for holiday fitness. If you are mindful and have a plan, you can maintain – or even make gains! – in the traditionally challenging time of year for your health. Start planning now!

Train hard, talk soon –

– Forest Vance

Master of Science, Human Movement

Kettlebell Expert

Over 40 Training Specialist

KettlebellBasics.net

ForestVanceTraining.com

Can you “exercise off” a bad diet?

If you work out hard enough, can you “burn off” that weekend of off-the-rails eating?

Seriously, what are your thoughts?

Ponder this:

It would be hard to do a higher calorie burning “workout” than running a marathon, wouldn’t you agree?

I mean, you’re lacing up your shoes and running for TWENTY SIX PLUS MILES!

You would think that kind of massive effort would result in at least a little bit of weight loss, right?

Well, it turns out that running a full marathon burns just 2600 calories:

That might sound like a lot, but consider this:

You actually need to burn at least 3500 calories to lose a single pound of body fat.

Which means that running 26.2 miles doesn’t even burn enough calories to melt ONE MEASLY POUND!

Add to that, hit up the pizza place or burger joint, along with a couple / few beers to “reward” yourself for a job well done,
and you’re easily erasing all of your hard work.

The bottom line is, if you want to shed body fat, you need to train AND eat right to get the results. There is no way around it.

If you’re looking for a diet plan that that’s based on sound science AND a track record of client success, I recommend you check out FVT. Fill out our contact form at the link below to try our 3-session PT jump start today: https://www.forestvancetraining.com/contact

-Forest and the FVT Team