Optimal Life Fitness, for health, fitness and a new lifestyle outdoors.

Below are the graphs showing the results from our pilot study at York st John's University. Firstly a big thank you to John Gray for working with us on this and being the brains behind it all. Secondly, although just a pilot study and not conclusive set of results, these graphs do show some really interesting results.

John has taken a look at the initial results and has the following observations:

you appear to sustain high (80-90%)exercise for 4 minutes.
Doing intervals is possible and it appears that it may be possible to tailor, depending on using either time or reps, to sustain a %HRR training zone and therefore develop a specific endurance component.
It seems that you don't reach a steady state after 5 minutes which would indicate that you are working anaerobically throughout, but, due to the length of time the force output can be maintained, this would appear advantageous for developing anaerobic endurance.

"it could be suggested that there appears an cardiovascular and muscular endurance advantage to adding swings and snatch to a kettlebell training routine. From the observations of similar movements with bar and dumbbell, the development of these components might not be possible to a similar degree with traditional weight training methods due to the inability to sustain the force output for a comparative length of time."

John Gray 2008

Last week the Extreme Kettlebell Team went to York St Johns University to start their research into Kettlebell training. We had a great 2 days working with John Gray of the Sports Science Department. Our aim was to start exploring what effects kettlebells had on the human body. This meant that we would have to do some work! Firstly we were maximal tested on the treadmill, to allow us to relate the kettlebell exercises to our maximal output. This pilot study has set up some great studies which we are now setting up and are looking for people to take part. So any EKI's out there reading this who fancy contributing to the UK's first major scientific kettlebell research project should get in touch with us ASAP.


We spent the first day testing the our bodies physically, pushing ourselves to the limits and looking at the heart rates achieved at those limits. This was a great day and although immensely hard we have gained some really interesting results. The next day we woke up feeling like we did when we first used a kettlebell 5 years ago! Stiff and warn out we went back into the laboratories and started working on some initial analysis of the bio mechanics of the kettlebell exercises and their similarities/differences to olympic lifting and dumbbell lifting.



Although currently all the work is just part of a pilot study we aim to have some concrete results by the end of the year. We are also working closely with some athletes and students on studies looking at the effect kettlebells have on performance over time.



Keep an eye out for all the results of the pilot study which will be posted on the forum shortly.

Fitness First Newcastle were the kind hosts of the the first EKI course in Newcastle and what a huge success. We had 18 trainers take part and 18 trainers finished with their full EKI certification. So firstly congratulations to you all for completing the course and secondly it was great to work with such an enthusiastic group of trainers. On a personal level, obviously great to be back up north, but it was also great to see so many trainers from the area taking part. It looks like the north really is loving kettlebells, we already have 20 trainers booked into the Manchester course and it's over a month away.
Highlights for the weekend were definitely the guys challenging each other with the 40KG kettlebell. Turkish get ups and 1 arm presses seemed to be order of the day, with the guys getting up with ease with a 40kg.
With a wide range of backgrounds it was good to see some great discussions and questions coming up. It was also the first chance for the Extreme Team to present some of their research from York St Johns University, the pilot study ran last week produced some interesting results which we'll be posting shortly on our forum, so keep an eye out for this.

Once again thanks to all the group in Newcastle, best of luck with your training and look forward to seeing you on another one of our courses in the near future.

On a sad note, Georgina will be leaving the company shortly as she is moving away from London to the leafy suburbs of Cambridge. I hope most of you have come into contact with George at some stage over the last year and a bit. She has been a complete asset to The Optimal Life Fitness Group and will be hugely missed. Her talents and skills have helped us develop our services and products immensely. Her effort and approach to her role were second to none. We wish her all the best for the future and we hope she enjoys the countryside!

Good luck Weller!

Performance Boxing
Boxing for group training instructors and personal trainers
Performance Boxing designed by Johnny Lewis

The Performance Boxing course has been designed to give the fitness instructor or personal trainer the skills and knowledge to:

- Safely design and implement boxing into group fitness or personal training.
- Display and teach the correct technique and movement for punching and holding focus pads and coaching mitts.

- Communicate positively with class participants and client to create positive relationships that will ensure people will be returning to your class or Personal training session
- Successfully structure group training and personal training sessions and have the skills to vary sessions so participants never get bored of your routines

Who is Johnny Lewis?

Johnny is Australia's leading boxing trainer who has trained five World Champions - including Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu - and who has also been involved in training the Australian Rugby League Team and many NRL and AFL teams.
Johnny's practical techniques for training Australia's greatest boxers have formed the Performance Boxing course.
With Johnny's practical knowledge Corey Bocking who works with us in Australia desinged Performance Boxing and has successfully run this course in Australia for 2 years.

Who is Corey?

Corey is a fitness professional, who has trained many professional athletes' including some of Australia's leading boxers. Corey has worked for two of Australia’s leading Universities and has lectured for the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association presenting their level 1 course.

Course Leaders in the UK & Europe
B.J. Rule and A.J. Philips

With our strong affiliation to 'Peacock Gym' in London we will also be bring along some of the UK's top amateur boxers and possibly even some pro's to present to students.

This is a fantastic addition to our educational portfolio and one which we believe will be hugely successful in the UK.


Course Outline:

Introduction to Performance Boxing
Physical Execution
Learn the key techniques punching and padding
Fighting Stance
Punching Technique
Focus Pad Technique
Hand Wrap Sequence

The Boxing Instructor
Learn how to teach effective sessions and get the most out of your clients.
Communication
Instruction
Interaction

Structuring a Class or Personal Training Session
Learn how to design the perfect session that will give you great results
Group Training Options
Designing a Boxing Workout that Works
Personal Training Options

The Extreme Kettlebell Team have just had a great weekend in London working with a group of 23 fitness trainers from across the UK. The challenging and intense Extreme Kettlebell Instructor course was the order of the day and I think by the end of the weekend all the guys were pretty happy to be finished. Thankfully they were still smiling as you can see on the group photo.

The Optimal Life Fitness Group has launched the first Olympic Weight Lifting Course designed for Fitness Professionals. The 2 day course covers all of the lifts and their assistant exercises. The approach taken is to teach all of the parts of each lift so the trainer has a full understanding of where to start and how to improve. The course also comes with an in-depth manual describing all of the lifts and their component parts.

We have just run our first course this weekend, held in central London at one of our training venues. The course was a huge success, all of the trainers passed the practical and theory assesments. Although a little warn out after 2 days of lifting, the feedback was fantastic. With such a successful course already done, we have announced our second date.
This will be on the 13th - 14th September in London. For more information on this course, please go to the Olympic Lifting section of our website or call our sales team on 02077313133.