By: Aaron Guyett, Education Director

How much do you bench?

I can remember this being repeated over and over and over when I was in high school, and there was a good side to this and a bad side to this being such an important thing for many young men...and still is very important for many circles and groups of both men and women.

Excessive movement training is overtraining, whether it is bench press, burpees, kettlebell swings or jumping jacks, especially if you are not incorporating optimum recovery and mobility.

Bench press can add strength, size, and muscle, specifically to your arms, chest and upper body, and there can be great carry over into sports and athletic pursuits. It also can create injury or mobility limitations if not programmed correctly.

We typically recommend dynamic mobility with a warm-up and a more static mobility with your cool down with every workout session. We also recommend doing twice as much pull strength training as your push strength...

Dumbbells vs Kettlebells….

This question pops up all the time from well-intentioned, inquisitive trainees to the person trying to downplay the benefits of the kettlebell. The answer is pretty simple; use both. There...article over. However, if you’d like to know a little more why, then keep reading.

Let’s start with the anatomical differences. The most obvious one being that the kettlebell has a handle with the weight at the end. This creates an unbalanced nature to even simple exercises like squats and presses. Since the weight isn’t balanced on both sides like a dumbbell this creates extra tension pulling in one direction that creates a greater need for stability. This is why the first time you grab a kettlebell of the same size of a dumbbell it feels significantly heavier and more awkward. 

This has it’s pros and cons. Pros being that it creates a slightly different training stimulus. The con being that while the bell is in the racked...