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

The Trojans Kettlebell Sport Lifting Club is now up and running.

The Trojans are a group of Kettelbell lifters who have come together to train and to improve their techniques, skills and ultimately performance in Kettlebell sport, arguably the toughest sport on the planet.

In myth and antiquity the Trojans were renowned for their strength and resilience. It took all the might of the combined Greek forces in Homers Iliad 9 years to sack Troy. Since this time the Trojans have become a symbol of resilience, determination and strength in the face of adversity.

The Trojan Kettlebell Sport Lifting Clubs aim is to train, learn and compete together, to overcome the metal bells and to thrive against adversity.

Introdcucing the Trojans:

























The Trojans currently train at the One Personal Training studio, at Monument.

Danny was on our Performance Boxing Course last weekend in London. It was good to see Danny again after we'd met him previously on our EKI and Advanced EKI Courses. It's always good to catch up with trainers we've met and it's even better to find out how they are getting on especially when they are doing as well as Danny.

Danny is a 30yr old trainer with 3 kids who works out of Fitness First in Paternoster Square. Danny became a trainer 6 years ago after he suffered a spinal injury at work and decided he needed to learn more about exercise and get himself in shape. Danny started using Kettlebells with other trainers at a City Gym he worked out of back in 2007. He then came on our EKI course in October last year before coming on our Advanced Courses in March of this year.

Danny mentioned on the Performance Boxing Course that he was having great success with a lot of people using Kettlebells and good old fashioned hard work. Via his hard work and methods his clients weight and fat is literally falling off.

Some of Danny's success stories:

One of Danny's main success stories is Joe Ann Horton. She went from size 24 to between a size 6/8 and lost 7 stones in less than 18months. Joe Ann also suffers Lupers disease which makes weight management all the more difficult. Joe Ann's story was so compelling and inspirational she appeared in 'Womens Fitness Magazine' as a success story. Joe Ann says 'Danny Pushed me mentally as well as physically - I was hooked! Danny became my personal trainer and helped me change my life around.
















Another lady was told by her physio that she would not be able to lose too much weight as she would not be able to exercise enough to manage it due to her chronic bad back. This particular lady went from a size 20 down to a size 10.

Danny also trains people in Thai Boxing. He has found that the power increase particular in kicks and knees has improved dramatically since introducing kettlebells and particularly the swing.


Danny himself used to suffer chronic back pain her now uses swings and snatches as staples in keeping his back strong.

Danny is also helping players of Division 2 football team Dagenham and Redbridge to strengthen up during the coming pre season.

The secrets to Danny's success:

Danny says that there are no secrets to the success he and his clients have had with their training. He focuses on hard work keeping the body moving and keeping things fun. Danny utilises a lot of circuits in his approach. A few of the principles Danny adheres to in his circuits are:

for fitness and fat loss Danny moves between upper and lower body exercises and keeps rest periods relatively low. Very similar to the sessions learnt on the EKI course.


Danny uses between 4 - 5 exercises per circuit with anywhere between 2 and 5 minutes of effort with between 60 to 90 seconds recovery between sets of the circuit.

Depending on the client these parameters vary. Danny trains people for combat sports. MMA fighters for example will work for up to 5 minutes (reflective of their rounds), footballers he works for shorter periods but with higher intensity. Beginners will be worked initially for around 2 minutes with a 1 minute break.


Some of Danny's favourite Kettlebell Exercises include the swing, snatch, get up and squat and press.

Danny, firstly we'd like to thank you for talking with us and letting us know how you've been getting on. Secondly, we'd like thank you for coming on the courses, by the looks of things they've really helped! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Danny the Monk
danny_the_monk@yahoo.co.uk

For more details on the Extreme Kettlebell Instructor Course and the Performance Boxing Course, please go to:
http://www.optimallifefitness.com/



















Danny learning the art of a pad technician on the Performance Boxing Course.

Last Saturday the 16th May 2009, we held our first ever Kettlebell Sport Competition. It was probably one of the first in the UK. We had 15 competitors ranging in ages and levels of ability. The venue was St Peters Eaton Square, Church of England Primary School near Victoria Station.

Registration and weigh-in was at 9:30am with the competition proper kicking off at 10am. We had 3 platforms set up with a 'lift' kicking off every 15minutes.

The competition was run according to a 'traditional biathlon' competition with all lifters competing in the jerk first and then the snatch later. Men competed in the 2 bell jerk, whereas female competitors competed in the One arm jerk.

Jerks were the first lift of the day:

At 10am we had Andy Marshall, Tim Joseph and Janke Bornebroek- the big boys taking the stage in the 24kg Jerk. Both Andy and Tim 'survived' the 10minutes with respectable numbers.

































10:15 saw the first battle between the Kettle "belles", Judit Rago, Lauren Betts-Bucke and Katarina Helcmanovska. The One arm jerk allows a one time switch. Katarina really flew out of the blocks in this event.


















At 10:30 on the platforms were Giovanni Sandrono, Mark Lawrence and Tommy Matthews. Tommy won the award for being the most fashion conscience of all the days lifters.



















10:45 saw Richard Bunto, Matej Hocevar and Joe Oliver battle it out. Matej came all the way from Slovenia and he put on a masterclass in the Jerk. Matej is a business partner and trains with Gregor Sobocan in his native Slovenia at their facility the 'Slovenian Kettlebell centre'. It was great to have Matej over and competing and I know that a few of the competitors from the weekend will be keen to reciprocate when team Slovenia hosts a competition in a month.


















At 11:00am it was my turn to compete. I was on the stage with Mark Hill and Olly Chapman. I hit a pb for reps but didn't go as long as I would have liked timewise. I think I may have gone a bit too hard too early- ah well, you live and learn!



















































At 11:15am it was time for the competitors to begin the snatches.

The lifting order was the same as the Jerks.

Andy Marshall and Tim Joseph battled it out for snatching supremacy. With Andy just pipping him in the final seconds of the snatch. This also meant that Andy took overall male honours with a total of 219, just beating Tims combined total of 217.























The battle of the Kettle 'belles' was also decided by the snatch. The girls competed with 12kgs in both the One arm jerks and the snatches. Katarina had a combined total of 311 reps, Lauren 288 reps and Judit 269 reps, Katarina had the highest combined total of all lifters on the day. Both Judit and Lauren at their body weights and with the numbers they reached would have achieved the World Kettlebell Clubs Rank 1- well done girls!


















There were other lifters of mention throughout the day. Matej's performance in the Jerk was a pleasure to see, he's technique showed the rest of us where we need to be. Young Olly Chapman did well as he competed having only attended our course a month ago. Even better was that most lifters throughout the day hit a personal best or two and you can't ask for much more than that.

Overall I was really happy with the day. Most of the Trojans Kettlebell Lifting Club competed. This was a lifting club I initiated when I got back from Greece to ensure as much as anything else that I go some Kettlebell Sport training in. I want to thank especially Tim and Joe, if it wasn't for them over the last few Thursday nights Trojan lifting sessions I know my lifts would have been less respectable than what they were.



















As mentioned above the Slovenian Kettlebell Centre is hosting a competition on the 20th of June that I think a few of us are going attend. Jonathan Lewis and CJ Swaby are hositng the UK Open Kettlebell Championships on the 18th of July. I will keep people informed of these events as we have more information.
BJ Rule

To view the full competition results please go to:
http://www.olfeducation.com/resource/22/

If you're looking for a kettlebell course on the continent then we've got good news for you! Mark, our master trainer in Holland has just set up the new dates for the rest of the year.

Extreme Kettlebell Instructor Courses

Date: Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th of June
Location: Health City Fitscore, Strijen
Time: 09.00 -17.30

Date: Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd of August
Location: Health City Fitscore, Strijen
Time: 09.00 -17.30

Date: Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th of September
Location: Health City Fitscore, Strijen
Time: 09.00 -17.30

Advanced Extreme Kettlebell Instructor Courses
Date: Sunday 24th of May
Location: Health City Fitscore, Strijen
Time: 10.00 -17.30

Date: Sunday 30th of August
Location: Health City Fitscore, Strijen
Time: 10.00 -17.30

If you would like any more information on the courses please email us on info@optimallifefitness.com or call +44207 731 3133

I just recently took some time out to catch up with Phil Wright, who along with his partner Jenny Gwynne has set up an Outdoor and Corporate Training Company- Creating Chaos. Phil and Jenny attended our EKI course last year and Jenny has been back for our Advanced Course. Phil and Jenny in setting up Creating Chaos have an interesting business model which combines Training, NLP and Nutrition.

The following is part of my recent conversation with Phil:

BJ:- I've had a look over your website in your own words tell us a little bit about your business, it's background, length of running, structure, goals etc...

Phil:-· The Company has been going since October last year. Having both spent time in gyms and at the same time a little bored by them, we wanted to put together something that catered for peoples health and well being goals and provided more than just a membership which nowadays, seems to be as much a social statement than it is a great platform for people to learn and improve from. We spent a great deal of time researching statistics for gyms, usage, and everything surrounding them. We base our company on 3 pillars: exercise, nutrition and the commitment to it which can often seem one of the greatest problem areas for many. The greatest focus is on regular outdoor exercise groups. We use a huge range of training methods including kettlebells, free body conditioning, powerbag work, strength endurance and a little bit of boxing. Currently, we run this in Leeds and surrounding areas soon to include York. Our goal is eventually to have a centre of excellence training trainers and providing an active retreat in the Lake District.

BJ:- Creating Chaos- it's an interesting business name, please explain?

Phil:-· Creating Chaos, it stands out a little! Well, when we were thinking of a name, if you’ve seen Cannonball Run and the character that Burt Reynolds is quite good friends with, well, it’s nothing to do with that. Actually, if you heard of the Chaos theory which acclaims that nothing in the world is ever random, in fact, every one thing is a consequence of the initial inputs and stimuli. If we can support people by giving them the right inputs and ingredients then they can create their own chaos.

BJ:- Chaos theory- I like it! What are both yours and Jenny’s backgrounds, previous careers?

Jenny:- I’m still working fulltime as a project manager for the highways agency and have been doing this for a good number of years. Before this I graduated as a biologist and have always had two great passions, music and sport. I’ve played hockey for as long as I can remember and still play competitively. I’ve coached hockey also for a long time as well as competing in synchronise swimming, athletics and a good few number of endurance sports. I love skiing and Phill owes me a holiday as we had to miss going to the Alps this December whilst he got his collarbone fixed. Since the idea of this was born I decided to also complete the Nutritional Therapy course, NLP practitioner and have done kettlebells up to advanced.

Phil:- A mixed back ground. Studied music technology at university and then, for no apparent reason other than needing to repay debts, joined the forces and spent six years serving two tours of the Middle East as an Arabic interpreter and managed to do the paratrooper course. Whilst, prior to the forces, I’d enjoyed football, I’d never really been that sporty and I started getting into more endurance sports during my service. Once I decided to leave I completed the personal training course, then did a host of others including GP referral, functional training, NLP as well as the kettlebell course which we both really enjoyed. (Editors note: that's our course!!)

BJ:- When did the pair of you decide to team up?

Phil:- We decided to team up as, being engaged to marry, we wanted to do something that we were both passionate about and that would give us the chance to spend as much time as possible with each other. Last May whilst walking through the Lakes we actually came up with the idea.

BJ:- Why did you decide to go out by yourselves?

Phil:- At the time, I was working in a gym and managing for an agency of personal trainers. Whilst getting into the industry the management role was ok, it seemed that all that mattered was money and after a series of incidents highlighting that individuals weren’t as valued as bank transfers, it was time to go it alone. As well as going alone, we were keen to provide a training environment that wasn’t full of mirrors, people in lycra and was actually quite relaxed.

BJ:- Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?

Phil:- In 5 years we’d like to be in if not very close to establishing a place in the Lake District. A centre for training for trainers as well as excursions for corporate, school groups as well as families. We want to work with the forces and help improve their training facilities, professional teams as well as non-competitive groups.

BJ:- You've run some pretty hard core races marathons and the like- do you have anything coming up?

Phil:-· We're currently training for a mountain navigation marathon it's called the Wharfedale Mountain Marathon. Jenny has traditionally been a short to middle distance athlete and this marathon is her first which is exciting. We’ll be navigating as well so my map reading skills are going to be put to the test.

BJ:- Marathons scare me, mountain marathons more so. Have Kettlebells helped your training at all?

Phil:-· With us both being reasonably keen runners, we noticed a huge difference once we started using the kb’s. We started to integrate them into our own training programmes and noticed huge differences. In December we became the strength and conditioning coaches for Airedale Athletics and created preparatory programmes for people building up to a 10km road race. The programme was 13 weeks long and we had roughly 20 people on the course. Everyone loved the training which incorporated a fair amount of kb’s and everyone who completed the event walked away with a PB. We were hugely overwhelmed to find such a massive improvement with some people shaving 5 minutes off their existing time. We now have varying courses including fell races, 10km’s and half marathons and have trainers doing these for us.

BJ:- Those results are great- well done!

Phil:- We loved the extreme kettlebell courses and would greatly recommend them to anyone wanting to progress to the next level.

BJ:- Thanks for yoru time Phil, it's been great hearing what you're up to. All the best.

BJ Rule