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

At the Leisure Industry Week Optimal Life Fitness will reveal two new products that will take the kettlebells inside gym studios - the first time these products will been seen in the UK. The Optimal Life Fitness Team is introducing the 'Female Friendly' bells and the 'Gym Friendly' Kettlebells to their collection.

In addition to the upcoming products Optimal Life Fitness are also holding a massive competition in strength and endurance, the competitors Tommy Matthews and BJ Rule will be going head to head in a girevk style competition to see who can perform the greatest number of jerks in 10 minutes. If you are lucky enough to be attending this year LIW then come see us in the Lucozade Hydro active Fitness arena on Wednesday 26th September at 1.45.

Alternatively if you are unable to attend this year Leisure Industry Week and do not want to miss out on the chance to win products worth over £500 then enter your guess to http://www.olfstore.com/

I am interested in training with Kettlebells, but am worried that I might put on too much muscle and end up bulky and muscle bound. Any advice wouldbe great.
Karen. P-

Hi Karen, thank you for your query.
We get asked this fairly often. However you needn't worry about getting too bulky from training with kettlebells or with any other type of weights for that matter. The truth is that it is really quite difficult to get big (muscle bound) particularly being a woman. Women typically don't have enough of the correct hormones (testosterone) to make them grow, even men find it really difficult to grow a lot of muscle and that is with the right hormones, training and nutrition. Training with kettlebells in conjunction with the right nutritional plan will increase your lean muscle mass (not enough that you will get big or bulky) and burn body fat so that you will end up with a long, lean, fit and healthy body.

BJ Rule

Optimal Life Fitness recently took to the road, hopping across the channel and up to Holland! We have begun to deliver all Kettlebell training and education for Fitness First Holland as well as supplying all of their sites with Extreme Kettlebells.

BJ and Tommy headed out in August to run the 2 day EKI course for a group of Fitness First Personal Trainers. The great news was we were able to teach the course outside in the sun at their head office in Vught.

The group were very enthusiastic and took on board the skills quickly and efficiently. Congratulations to them all for passing and becoming the first EKI’s in Holland.

We are due to head out again mid October to teach another EKI course in addition to the newly developed Advanced Extreme Kettlebell Instructor Course.

For more information on our Extreme Kettlebell Instructor courses, please contact Georgina@optimallifefitness.com.

Tommy Matthews

I'm not all that bothered by official advice, maybe I am - but only a bit; however it is nice when it supports the way you have been working and it validates what you know deep down is right.

"Official advice that 30 minutes of gentle exercise is enough to improve your health has been revised by the scientists who first developed the international fitness guidelines". Polly Curtis, Health correspondent, Guardian.

That's right the boffins who came up with the guidelines that 30 minutes of moderate exercise is enough to keep you healthy back in 1995 have finally revised their guidelines. In a report published in Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association, the scientists have admitted that 30 minutes of gentle exercise is just not enough to maintain peoples health, particularly when metabolic associated disorders and diseases are continuously on the rise.

The new guidelines include:
- 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day is still the minimum, but vigorous as opposed to moderate activity should be 'explicitly' recommended.
- Combining moderate and vigorous days of exercise is better for you
- People should do two weight-training sessions a week
- Adults over 65 or those who are infirm during their 50's and early 60's should also do balancing exercises if they are at risk of falling.

To most of us none of this is ground breaking but it is extremely important. We all know of people who fall behind the excuse that they do exercise and get to the gym 3 times a week and sit on the recline bike and x-trainer for 30minutes and wonder why they don't have the bodies they want- "I am doing what is recommended!", they moan. Well excuses they can make no longer, the truth has been admitted.

In the realms of performance and conditioning it has always been known that moderate or gentle isn't enough. It is great to know that the wider population are now being informed of the truth.

For those of you participating in weight training sessions (free weights I hope), interval sessions, or attending Outdoor Extreme sessions in the park, at least you know that what you have been doing is officially validated- if it hadn't already been by the way you were looking and feeling anyway.

BJ Rule