“Cardio in Disguise”

I know it may come to a shocker to all of you out there in FB world that I’m a huge advocate of kettle bells. (Surprise! Ha). Anyhow, I want to take a short moment to just talk a little bit about what they can do strictly as a cardio and why kettle bell training can be just as effective than your standard stagnant cardio. We all know that strength training sculpts muscle but you still might wonder how lifting weights, or in this case using JUST kettle bell swings can double as cardio. I read a recent short study about some researchers who put two, 10-minute workouts against each other-A treadmill run and kettle bell swings’s-and believe it or not they both found a significant impact on cardiovascular fitness. (They did this by measuring heart rate and oxygen consumption).

As much as I hate to admit, they found the treadmill might zap few more calories initially (only very few)… But, strength training revs up your metabolism so you keep burning calories after you leave the gym. That being said… I am still against stagnant-cardio. Here are some of their stats.

*10-Minute Sessions*

Swings vs. Running

Average heart rate:

Kettle bells-180

Treadmill-177

Average respiratory rate per minute:

Kettle bells-36

Treadmill-38

Calories burned:

Kettle bells-155

Treadmill-171

Now this does not talk about all the added benefits you get from kettle bells. This is strictly a comparison of kettle bell swings’s and a moderate to high pace on the treadmill. When you start adding the complexity of other styles of kettle bell training, including full range of motion, explosives training, power train, and rotational and strength training… You completely will trump any type of cardio you can come up with.

-Stay Fit, Eric.