KettleWorx Day 1

On Friday, I received a kettlebell in the mail with a dozen DVDs. I've always been a "gym rat" kinda girl, never really one to do fitness or aerobic videos in the comfort of my own home. I don't know, I guess I've thought: "man, I don't know why they are talking to me because if I reply they can't hear me" attitude toward personal trainers on the television. Regardless, I figured I should give it a go and began with the first DVDs in the stack: the Six-Week Body Transformation challenge using the KettleWorx kettlebell.

The 10lb bell was actually the perfect size for me. I was a little unsure at first, because I consider myself a pretty strong gal, but by the end of the first workout I was sweaty and could feel that my muscles were a little worked. The first workout was from the Core DVD. The DVDs are well organized, and each week has its own chapter workout. I am a beginner KettleWorx user, so I started with the beginner DVDs. I hate that word: Beginner. In actuality, the KettleWorx DVDs don't use that terminology. So, I guess I'm not a beginner. I'm just going through the body transformation.

I watched the Intro DVD on Friday, and learned the basic holds, positions, and postures for the proceeding workouts. I got a feeling that Ryan Shanahan, the fitness expert and personal trainer to the stars, was from Canada. He told his viewers to make sure to put the cat away, and I laughed. Anyway, this morning I started the Core DVD. Funny thing, really had to lock the cat up. I had to mute the video halfway through because it was repetitious, and I get annoyed with that easily, but the music in the background was actually decent and not too cheesy. Adam turned on his Blade soundtrack for me. The first intro workout was really good, and when the twenty minutes was up, I was glad to be done. I was hot and sweaty, but I felt really good. My lower back is actually a little tight now. I was excited at how Ryan promoted good posture and the importance of keeping the core tight and the hips/back from swinging. It was also really great how quickly the workouts transitioned. I felt as though I were doing a true circuit workout in the gym with free weights, but I was doing it in the comfort of my own home.

Unfortunately, I have some issues from the get-go with the "Fat Free in 42" e-book that came with the KettleWorx kit. I've never been a big proponent for the fat free diet, and I really like my ice cream. I found that some of the diet goals that the e-book sets for individuals aiming for weight-loss were unrealistic at best. It is not a good idea, in my opinion, to all-of-a-sudden get rid of all "bad foods" from your diet. It's not practical, and it sets individuals up for failure. Plus, there is no evidence that a fat-free diet is even healthy! I think it's incredibly important for those using the KettleWorx program to not just do this single routine three times a week for six weeks... because what will they do after that? Those using the program should also be doing aerobic exercises once a day, like thirty-minutes of running, walking or spinning, in addition to the kettlebell workouts. Fortunately, there are more DVDs than just the Six-Week Body Transformation series, including 10-minute workouts, advanced KettleWorx, and Ultimate Body workouts. If I hadn't received these other DVDs, I'd be led to believe that, after six weeks, I should have the perfect body and wouldn't have to do anything else. There is a serious life-changing goal established if you want to lose weight and live healthy. One can't just work out for six weeks and eat fat-free and think their life is better.

I also don't really know what to say about some of the people in the Fat Free in 42 e-book. One woman looks larger than me, and it claims she has 10% body fat (having lost 25% from just using the kettlebell). If she really had 10% body fat, she'd #1) be unhealthy and #2) have crazy awesome ripply 8-pack abs. Even when I'm down to 14%, I look skinnier than the girl in the e-book. Also, the e-book highlights a woman who lost 40lbs... because the pre-photo is when she's pregnant! Yeah... duh, she lost 40lbs because she had a baby. Not a very good example.

So, for the sake of my own sanity, I am going to ignore the advice of Ryan Shanahan about the fat-free diet (I couldn't possibly go ice-cream free for six weeks, no matter how much fat I want to burn off my body). I am also going to be doing other stuff besides kettlebell workouts, but I'm very interested to see if my core tightens up with the addition of this new cross-training. I'm going to track my body transformation using photographs once a week. Let's see what happens :-D!

Photos from day 1:


Disclaimer: I am not planning on using KettleWorx as my only training. I am currently training for marathons and triathlons, so this is only a supplement to my normal training schedule.