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We know America’s fat. What are you going to do about it? You can start by being in shape. Then people will come up to you and ask you how you got in shape. You can either teach them the right way, or tell them to go to Tastefully Driven and read all the posts by Parth Shah.

Or, if you decide to teach them, you can tell them to SWING!

No, I’m not crazy. I’m serious. I was thinking about this a lot the other day. I thought to myself, ok, so the basics are pushups, pull-ups, situps, and running, but what if people are not able to perform those movements?

Go out on the streets and look around you. Count up all the people you see who look like they can do a push-up. You won’t see many people.

So what can extremely obese people do? They can swing a kettlebell, dumbbell, a paint can, a milk jug, or their hands. Seriously. The implement doesn’t matter. It’s the movement that matters. Before I continue, please watch this video:

Ok, so in the first part of the video, we saw my first trainee and good friend Dominic (Dom) performing the kettlebell swing. When he first started, his form was worse than the guy in the second half of the video, Deeraj (D-Raj). But he soon became an expert himself and was able to teach his friend, and my second trainee, D-raj.

Why You Should be Doing Swings

The Swing is a movement that has the greatest carry over to daily life, especially for those that have mobility issues. Anyone who is more than 30 pounds overweight will have a difficult time performing the basics: pushups, pull-ups, running, and sit-ups (with the exception of Bud Jeffries and athletes in general).

So what can we do as a collective, health-minded community, for the sedentary, 30+ pound overweight person looking to drop some weight? Help them with their daily mobility. Get them to use the muscles they use in daily life: the posterior chain.

The posterior chain is composed of the hamstrings, hips, and lower back. This collective group of muscles are important for not only athletes who need them for explosive movements, but also for the lay person who needs to lift things off the ground, walk from one place to another, sit down and get up, and climb up the stairs. You have no idea how often you use the muscles of posterior chain in your daily life.

Here is an activity for you right now. For a 24 hour period, go about your daily life, and jot down all the activities you do. If you’ve sat down on the couch, then have gotten up, write that down. If you’ve lifted boxes out of the trunk of you car and have carried them up a flight of stairs, then write that down as well.

Recently, my grandparents came back from India. The thing with Indian grandparents is that they pack everything they can possibly pack into their suitcases. The weight limit right now is 50lbs, and so my grandparents packed 50lbs of useless garbage into three heavy duty suitcases that were double the size of my torso. Not that I’m trying to show off my strength here, but I scaled all three of those suitcases up a flight of stairs (I live on the second floor of two-family house), in less than five minutes.

Lets try to figure out what muscle groups I was working here:

1.Pulling the suitcases out of the trunk: lats, lower back, hamstrings, core
2.Carrying suitcases up to stair steps (because wheels were broken): Shoulders, core, lower back
3.Carrying suitcases up the steps: shoulders, core, lower back, hips/glutes, hamstrings

What is the one bodypart you see most there: lower back.

What is the one bodypart people don’t work in the gym as much as they should be: lower back.

What kind of injuries are most common in overweight and obese people: lower back.

Do not tell me you still don’t know why you should be performing swings.

Practicing the Swing

You can use any implement you want with the swings, but start off with just the movement. Go back and study the first half of the video in which Dom is performing the swing. Notice how low the hips are at the starting position, and how he straighten out his entire torso as he swings the kettlebell as far as the momentum will take it. Then notice how straight his back is throughout the entire movement. Notice the role his knees and lower legs play in stabilizing his body. Finally notice the hip thrust he uses. That is what will give him power and explosiveness for sports and pulling heavy suitcases out of trunks.

Once you’ve mastered the movement without any weights, go ahead and fill a milk carton with water and practice the movement. Once you get comfortable with that, search for heavier implements that come with a handle. I found a whole bunch of small weight cans in my garage that weigh 3-5 lbs. Practice with those. Finally move on to dumbbells, and progress to kettlebells.

Advanced Training Routines

Here are some advanced routines for working with the swing:

Routine One: (This is the routine that was filmed in the video you saw earlier).

• Bodyweight Squats - 50 reps
• Kettlebell Swings (each arm) - 20 reps
• Push-ups - 15 reps
• Kettlebell Push Press (each arm) - 10 reps

I challenge you to beat Dominic’s time on this workout – 10:14.35

Routine Two:

• Paint Bucket Carry to the end of the Driveway (These were full-sized cans. Heavy).
• Medicine Ball Throws and Sprint Back to front of the Driveway (Or end, depends on where you started)
• 10 Alternating KB Swings (Switch hands on top)
• 10 Pushups + Power Clean (Perform a pushup with both hands on barbell, then perform a power clean on the way back up)
• Run With Medicine Ball to end of driveway
• Walk back with Paint Buckets

Dominic’s time – 3:22.96

Good luck! And if you actually do beat Dominic’s time, send me a video of the workout to shah@shahtraining.com

About the Author

Parth Shah is a Strength and Fitness Consultant specializing in developing practical, sustainable fitness solutions for his clients. He is currently going through his own personal physical transformation. His thoughts, ideas, and philosophy can be found on his website, ShahTraining.com. (Feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/shahtraining/UQuk)

This is the first of a series of monthly Ask Adam columns where you can ask expert Adam Gilbert anything about health and fitness.  If you have a question for Adam, you can send it to support [at] tastefullydriven [dot] com.

Adam - is it better to eat a meal before or after I workout?

Both. Here’s why:

Back in the day, people thought they should train on an empty stomach in order to burn more fat but that has turned out to be false. In fact, your body needs some glucose (blood sugar) for fuel in addition to what it can use from fat stores when working out. If you don’t have any blood sugar available, your body will eat its own muscle in order to convert them into glucose.

Low blood sugar will also make you tired and sluggish during your training session. For these reasons, I suggest you eat something 45 minutes to an hour before training: you’ll have more energy and endurance to work harder, burn more calories,
and improve your muscle tone.

After training, during a period known as the golden hour (45 to 60 minutes after a workout), muscles absorb the most nutrients, and glycogen, an energy reserve in your muscles, is replaced the most efficiently. You don’t have to have a huge meal but you should eat something with both protein and carbs in it for best results.

Next time, we’ll talk about some good pre workout and post workout meals!

About the Author

Adam Gilbert is the founder, owner, and Chief Body Tutor of MyBodyTutor. MyBodyTutor believes (and knows) consistency is the key to your health and fitness. Unfortunately, it’s just too easy to make excuses and procrastinate. MyBodyTutor helps you stay consistent by providing daily and personal accountability like no other company in the world.

I am actually quite surprised when people ask me how one can get in shape using just calisthenic exercises. But I guess if people didn’t ask that question, then I’d be out of a job. So now I’m going to do something that will surprise people. I’m going to reveal to you guys a source of information concerning bodyweight training that will open up your eyes and ears: the military.

That’s right! Look to the military for information on how to get big, strong, and fit using just your bodyweight. What do you think they all do during basic training? It’s all about calisthenics, running, calisthenics, swimming, calisthenics, log lifting, and more calisthenics! Over 80% of basic training involves pushups and pull-ups. And if you think a military guy is scrawny, then I think you’d better get your eyes checked.

There are four main components to military fitness: running, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. Setting up your own military fitness program is rather simple:

1. Test your fitness. Time your 1.5 mile run, maximum push-ups in a minute, maximum sit-ups in a minute, and maximum pull-ups in a minute. If there are some exercises that you are unable to perform, then search for easier variations, and start from there.
2. Start off with training two to three days a week. Start off with three sets of each exercise. The number of reps you perform in each set will be determined by your previous fitness test. For example, lets say you were only able to perform 10 pushups in a minutes. Simply divide this number by 3 (for 3 sets), and start from there. Strive to add one more rep each workout. After your pushups, situps, and pull-ups, go out for a run and call it a day.

I won’t be providing a sample routine this time. The idea here is to learn on your own. Start with the basics, and get into the habit of consistency.

About the Author

Parth Shah is a Strength Consultant based in New Hyde Park, New York. He has just started an online personal training service through his website, Shah Training.

Over the past few weeks we’ve shot a bunch of videos demonstrating the amazing Altus Athletic products that we carry in the Health and Fitness Store.  Each of the following items are extremely simple and affordable products that you can use anywhere to get a full body workout in minutes.  A majority of the items can be purchased for between $10 - $20!

The Body Ball

Weighted Jump Rope

Push Up Stands

Power Medicine Ball

Back and Chest Expander (Resistance Bands)

Dual Exercise Ab Wheel

Chin Up, Push Up, Sit Up Bar

Guest post by Parth from Shah Training

The problem with me is that I adapt to my workout extremely fast. This is the reason I keep trying to come up with different ways of working my body. The second biggest problem that I have is that I am extremely limited to the equipment available to me. Last week I presented you guys with the video I made featuring four of my favorite one-arm dumbbell exercises.

There was a second part to the video featuring the following workout:

Perform as Circuit:

One-arm Dumbbell Clean and Press 3×20 for each side
One-arm Dumbbell Overhead Squat 3×20 for each side
One-arm Dumbbell Windmill 3×20 for each side
One-arm Dumbbell Swing 3×20

I adapted after a few times of performing this workout. So then I began thinking of ways of taking it to the next level. I remember reading somewhere about hybrid lifts. Hybrid lifts are lifts that combine two to three exercises that flow well together. I realized immediately that all of these exercises can easily be thrown together to form a hybrid.

Hybrid Exercise One: One-arm DB Clean and Press + Overhead Squat

Perform a clean and press with one arm, then while keeping your arm extended over your head, perform a squat.

Hybrid Exercise Two: One-arm Dumbbell Swing + Overhead Squat

Perform a one-arm swing, then while keeping your arm extened over youer head, perform a squat.

Hybrid Exercise Three: One-arm Dumbell Swing + Windmill

Perform a one-arm swing, then while keeping your arm extended over your head, change your foot positioning and perform a windmill.

Hybrid Exercise Four: One-arm DB Clean + Press, Overhead Squat, + Windmill.

Perform a one-arm DB clean and press, go into an overhead squat, come back up, change your foot positioning and perform a windmill.

The Routines

Now this is where things get a little complicated. Because these are hybrid lifts, I think that you should start out with doing only one or two in a workout. Work up to 3×20 on each side, then slowly add in other exercises. If you wanted to construct a schedule using these exercises, I suggest only performing them twice a week. So here is what the schedule would look like:

Workout One:

One-arm DB Clean and Press + Overhead Squat 3×10
One-arm Swing + Overhead Squat 3×5

Workout Two:

One-arm Swing + Windmill 3×10
One-arm DB Clean + Press, Overhead Squat, + Windmill 3×5

Give these workouts a try and get back to me!

About the Author

Parth Shah is a Strength Consultant based in New Hyde Park, New York. He has just started an online personal training service through his website, Shah Training.