OOOH! REALLY???!!!!!

Are we attracted to this? Is this the way of choice? I think NOT!!!! Notice the title "It's Hip To Be ROund"
Enough already! It is unhealthy, and unnecessary, end of story......PS Which one do you want to be???

NoticedIt’s Hip to Be Round Published: August 12, 2009
THIS summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora. Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

In truth this get-up was pretty much the unvarying male uniform last summer also, but this year an unexpected element has been added to the look, and that is a burgeoning potbelly one might term the Ralph Kramden.

Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately, or at least it is in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, the McCarren Park Greenmarket and pretty much any place one is apt to encounter fans of Grizzly Bear.

What the trucker cap and wallet chain were to hipsters of a moment ago, the Kramden is to what my colleague Mike Albo refers to as the “coolios” of now. Leading with a belly is a male privilege of long standing, of course, a symbol of prosperity in most cultures and of freedom from anxieties about body image that have plagued women since Eve.

Until recently, men were under no particular obligation to exhibit bulging deltoids and shredded abdominals; that all changed, said David Zinczenko, the editor of Men’s Health, when women moved into the work force in numbers. “The only ripples Ralph Kramden” and successors like Mike Brady of “The Brady Bunch” had to demonstrate were in their billfolds, said Mr. Zinczenko, himself a dogged crusader in the battle of the muffin top. “But that traditional male role has changed.”

As women have come to outnumber men in the workplace, it becomes more important than ever for guys to armor themselves, Mr. Zinczenko said, with the “complete package of financial and physical,” to billboard their abilities as survivors of the cultural and economic wilds.

This makes sense, in a way, but how does one account for the new prevalence of Ralph Kramdens? Have men given in or given up? Are they finished with asserting the privileges that have always accrued to men. Or is the Ralph Kramden Barack Obama’s fault?

Hipsters, by nature contrarian, according to Dan Peres, the editor of Details, may be reacting in opposition to a president who is not only, as the press relentlessly reminds us, So Darn Smart, but also hits the gym every morning, has a conspicuously flat belly and, when not rescuing the economy or sparring with Kim Jong-il, shoots hoops.

“If we had a slob in the White House, all the hipsters would turn into some walking Chippendales calendar,” Mr. Peres said. Instead, the streets of Williamsburg are crowded with men who are, as he noted, “proudly rocking a gut.” Mr. Peres’s magazine has a term for these people: the new “poor-geoisie.” But the people lining up for $13 lobster rolls at the Brooklyn Flea last weekend hardly looked as if they were worried about making the rent.

“I sort of think the six-pack abs obsession got so prissy it stopped being masculine,” is how Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out, explains the emergence of the Ralph Kramden. What once seemed young and hot, for gay and straight men alike, now seems passé. Like manscaping, spray-on tans and other metrosexual affectations, having a belly one can bounce quarters off suggests that you may have too much time on your hands.

“It’s not cool to be seen spending so much time fussing around about your body,” Mr. Hicklin said.

And so guys can happily and guiltlessly go to seed.

Women have almost never gotten a pass on the need to maintain their bodies, while men always have, said Robert Morea, a personal fitness trainer. (Full disclosure: my own.) It would be too much, he added, to suggest that “potbellies are suddenly O.K.,” but as lean muscle and functionality become the new gym mantras, hypertrophied He-Men with grapefruit biceps and blister-pack abs have come to resemble specimens from a diorama of “A Vanished World.”

“When do you ever see that guy, anyway?” Mr. Morea asked, referring to those legendary Men’s Health cover models, with their rippling torsos and famished smiles. “The only time you really see that guy, he’s standing in front of an Abercrombie & Fitch store.” Perhaps, he suggested, there is really only one of them. “It’s the same guy. They just move him around.”

I am Living on the EDGE!!!!

As I realize I have not been blogging lately I feel the need to catch you up to speed on what I have been up to lately...

First off, the Va. Beach kettlebell workshop was awesome!!! We had a great turnout and the participants were very eager and showed great form as they swung the bell and "got down" with their bell during the get up!!!

Since the workshop, things at Rapid Results Fitness just keep getting better and better. Let me tell you why: I have to say for starters, I think I have the best members and clients ever, really! Why? Because if they are not giving their best in effort in class they are giving positive reinforcement to their neighbors in class. Moreover they just seem to get it... They realize the mind and body connection. At Rapid Results Fitness the workout environment is just plain fun!!! The camaraderie is fantastic!

Here is the best part lately, my clients are talking!!!! "What do you mean", you ask? They are seeing results and best of all they are sharing their experience with others!!! YEA!!!!!! It just makes me so happy to hear them one by one share tidbits of improvement, aahah moments, and real life achievements. I couldn't be more proud of each of them.

They have shared experiences and revelations that they each exclaim was a direct correlation to kettlebell training with Rapid Results Fitness. When I hear these words, it makes me thankful for every moment of what I do as an instructor.

So to them, I am grateful. The members motivate me as much as I may motivate them. We are in this together!!!! And to all my buds at RRF, "LIVE IN THE REP YOU'RE IN"!!!!! :-)

Oh, PS The Title " Living on the EDGE" is what I am doing lately too.... Experiencing, Discovering God Everywhere!

Kettlebell Workshop in Virginia Beach

I will be giving another Introductory Kettlebell Workshop in Virginia Beach, VA, on Saturday, July 25.

This two-hour workshop will cover basic kettlebell exercises. My workshop will show you how to use your body safely, effectively and efficiently. You’ll be amazed at what this universal tool, the Russian Kettlebell, can do with your body both in strength training, core conditioning and cardio without any impact to your joints!

Kettlebells will give you a metabolism boosting workout in less than an hour three times a week with some amazing results!

Come experience it for yourself! For more information or to register, please click here.

Get Ups At 10,000 Feet!!!!!

Below is an email I received from one of our very own members at RRF, Duncan
(his wife, Lucia also trains with us as well :-)). He has been doing kettlebell training with us for over a year now, I believe. Look at his amazing pictures and his words about training with kbs.... Awesome story and real life experience! I truly believe kb training improves your quality of life in MANY ways! Check it out!!! Ps Duncan is even wearing his Rapid Results Fitness T-shirt while skydiving! Duncan just took it to the next level! WOW!!!

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Betsy and Kevin,

I just wanted you to know that kettle bell lifting and everything you teach at Rapid Results comes in handy in unexpected ways! Last weekend (as I was telling Kevin on Monday), I went on my very first skydive (bet you haven't done that before, have you Betsy? I dare ya...!).

You can download a few pictures by clicking on the link (I'm still waiting for the video to arrive!).

Okay, although I really WASN'T doing Get-Ups way up in the sky, I definitely feel that the core strength and mobility work that you have us do each week has made me feel more confident, more self-assured, and more at ease, even jumping out of a plane! The experience was both nerve-wrecking and awesome at the same time--an unlikely combination of peak emotions, but I'm glad I did it (or maybe I should say, got it out of the way...).

I definitely feel that your work has helped make me feel better, functionally stronger, and more capable in day-to-day situations, which has really improved my quality of life. So I just wanted to say thanks to you both for all that you do each week! You're the best!

Cheers,
Duncan

Images from Workshop at Albemarle Pliates & Yoga

We had a great turnout at Albemarle Pilates & Yoga on July 12. What a wonderful bunch (16) of folks! They took to kettlebell training like fish to water! I was impressed with how well they picked up the movements. We also got to do a little training outside, always a good thing! We learned the turkish get-up outside on Cindy's swank outdoor yoga/pilates area. It was hot, but most everyone accomplished a get-up with a shoe balanced on their fists. Great class! Thanks to all who attended! You made what I do most rewarding! I am grateful for the opportunity to share what I love! Teaching individuals how to use their body safely and implementing training with the kettlebell!!!

Can You Get Fit In Six Minutes A Week??

Read this in the NY TIMES, and it makes sense to me especially when I think about kettlebell training and the awesome effects of this form of training which provides simultaneous strength, cardio and core conditioning!!! When one thinks of this kind of training which demands mind and body working together one can not discount the fact that EFFORT MUST be involved! Do not confuse this with working toward PAIN. However, EFFORT does not mean EASY either! One must train with maximal effort to get the desired adaption from the body! Read this and ponder! I am off to the the beach for some Fun in the Sun--- a little surfing, shell collecting, beach football, lounging by the ocean, and of course kb workouts in the sand with the glorious sights and sounds of the surf! I CAN NOT wait! All the best, Betsy

June 24, 2009, 12:26 pm
Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?
By Gretchen Reynolds

A few years ago, researchers at the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Japan put rats through a series of swim tests with surprising results. They had one group of rodents paddle in a small pool for six hours, this long workout broken into two sessions of three hours each. A second group of rats were made to stroke furiously through short, intense bouts of swimming, while carrying ballast to increase their workload. After 20 seconds, the weighted rats were scooped out of the water and allowed to rest for 10 seconds, before being placed back in the pool for another 20 seconds of exertion. The scientists had the rats repeat these brief, strenuous swims 14 times, for a total of about four-and-a-half minutes of swimming. Afterward, the researchers tested each rat’s muscle fibers and found that, as expected, the rats that had gone for the six-hour swim showed preliminary molecular changes that would increase endurance. But the second rodent group, which exercised for less than five minutes also showed the same molecular changes.

The potency of interval training is nothing new. Many athletes have been straining through interval sessions once or twice a week along with their regular workout for years. But what researchers have been looking at recently is whether humans, like that second group of rats, can increase endurance with only a few minutes of strenuous exercise, instead of hours? Could it be that most of us are spending more time than we need to trying to get fit?

The answer, a growing number of these sports scientists believe, may be yes.

“There was a time when the scientific literature suggested that the only way to achieve endurance was through endurance-type activities,” such as long runs or bike rides or, perhaps, six-hour swims, says Martin Gibala, PhD, chairman of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. But ongoing research from Gibala’s lab is turning that idea on its head. In one of the group’s recent studies, Gibala and his colleagues had a group of college students, who were healthy but not athletes, ride a stationary bike at a sustainable pace for between 90 and 120 minutes. Another set of students grunted through a series of short, strenuous intervals: 20 to 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the students pedaled hard again for another 20 to 30 seconds, repeating the cycle four to six times (depending on how much each person could stand), “for a total of two to three minutes of very intense exercise per training session,” Gibala says.

Each of the two groups exercised three times a week. After two weeks, both groups showed almost identical increases in their endurance (as measured in a stationary bicycle time trial), even though the one group had exercised for six to nine minutes per week, and the other about five hours. Additionally, molecular changes that signal increased fitness were evident equally in both groups. “The number and size of the mitochondria within the muscles” of the students had increased significantly, Gibala says, a change that, before this work, had been associated almost exclusively with prolonged endurance training. Since mitochondria enable muscle cells to use oxygen to create energy, “changes in the volume of the mitochondria can have a big impact on endurance performance.” In other words, six minutes or so a week of hard exercise (plus the time spent warming up, cooling down, and resting between the bouts of intense work) had proven to be as good as multiple hours of working out for achieving fitness. The short, intense workouts aided in weight loss, too, although Gibala hadn’t been studying that effect. “The rate of energy expenditure remains higher longer into recovery” after brief, high-intensity exercise than after longer, easier workouts, Gibala says. Other researchers have found that similar, intense, brief sessions of exercise improve cardiac health, even among people with heart disease.

There’s a catch, though. Those six minutes, if they’re to be effective, must hurt. “We describe it as an ‘all-out’ effort,” Gibala says. You’ll be straying “well out of your comfort zone.” That level of discomfort makes some activities better-suited to intense training than others. “We haven’t studied runners,” Gibala says. The pounding involved in repeated sprinting could lead to injuries, depending on a runner’s experience and stride mechanics. But cycling and swimming work well. “I’m a terrible swimmer,” Gibala says, “so every session for me is intense, just because my technique is so awful.”
Meanwhile, his lab is studying whether people could telescope their workouts into even less time. Could a single, two- to three-minute bout of intense exercise confer the same endurance and health benefits as those six minutes of multiple intervals? Gibala is hopeful. “I’m 41, with two young children,” he says. “I don’t have time to go out and exercise for hours.” The results should be available this fall.