Physical Vs Mental Fitness
There is but one way to live life to its fullest- being fit. Understanding the benefits of all-round fitness and knowing how active you should make it easier to improve the overall quality of your life. To help you live better, here’s how you can benefit from mental and physical exercise regardless of your age, sex or physical ability.
When talking about fitness, both mental and physical fitness come into play. More often than not, physical fitness gets plenty of attention, and for a good reason. A healthy body can counter conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, and help you maintain confidence as you age.
However, mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness, and should not be neglected in your self-betterment plans.
Mental fitness means having a brain and emotional health in tip-top shape. It may not necessarily mean training to ace an IQ test, but a series of exercise that helps slow down, decompress and boost a flagging memory.
Aerobics (cardio)
Aerobics involves maintaining an increased heart rate for an extended period of time. Types of cardio exercises include running, swimming, biking, rowing, dancing, and jumping rope.
Strength
Also called Resistance Training. It’s a physical activity with the purpose of increasing muscle strength and mass. Examples include weightlifting, dumbbell and bodyweight exercises.
Balance
This is where you activate your abdominal muscles for stability and control of your body. Balance exercises can include yoga, tai chi and stability ball exercises.
Flexibility
Bragging about how much you can bench is no fun if you have trouble tying your shoes. Flexibility saves you from tight hips, hamstrings, hip flexors and makes you as strong as you can be.
Why you need to be fit and importance of physical fitness
Weight control leads you towards fitness
Along with diet, exercise plays an essential role in managing your weight and preventing obesity. To maintain your weight, the calories you are taking must equal the energy you burn. To lose weight, you must utilize more calories than you eat and drink.
Manage your sugar and insulin levels
Exercise can reduce your blood sugar level and help your insulin work effectively. This can lower your risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. And if you already have one of those diseases, exercise can help you to maintain it.
Feel Happier through fitness
Exercise has been shown to improve your mood and reduce feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. It produces variations in the parts of the brain that control stress and anxiety. It can also boost brain sensitivity for the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine, which relieve feelings of depression.
Better Mental Health and fitness
Regular exercise can have an extremely positive influence on depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more. It also relieves stress, increases memory, helps you sleep better, and boosts your overall mood. You don’t have to be a fitness fanatic to reap the benefits – browse through our site and discover how to reap these benefits.
How to Achieve Mental Fitness
Be positive with yourself and improve your fitness
Affirmation, or positively talking to yourself, involves strengthening neural pathways to bring your self-confidence, well-being, and satisfaction to a higher level. To start, make a list of your good qualities. Remind yourself that you don’t have to be perfect. Set goals for what you want to make better and start small to avoid becoming confused.
Stop Multitasking
Many think that multitasking enables you to get more things done at once, but it creates more problems than it solves. Focusing on one task at a time will improve your concentration and help you to be more productive.
Try Something Different
New practices can also set you on the way to mental fitness. You can fit new approaches into your daily life by trying new foods, new ways to accomplish routine tasks, traveling to new places or trying a new route to the grocery store.
Read More
Reading is great for your brain. Your brain processes every word you read, including this one. Beyond the mechanics, reading helps you visualize the subject matter on the pages before you, and imagine what voices sound like in the written dialogue.
This can also be a great relaxation technique
Top Fitness Tips for Mental and Physical Exercise.
General physical fitness and targeted exercises to improve stability can prevent falls. But so can staying mentally ready to maintain brain health. A sharp mind helps you to think — and stay — on your feet. Join us and learn to strike a balance.
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5 Best Kettlebells Reviewed for Building Strength
The purchasing of a kettlebell is not necessarily a straightforward purchase. There is a lot to consider whether it is right for yourself. Further, in this article, we some valuable information around the history of kettlebells, the benefits, how to choose a kettlebell, and what weight kettlebell is right for you.
Read on
What is a Kettlebell?
Traditionally a kettlebell is made from cast iron that is round in shape with a horseshoe handle. Some Kettlebells now they do come in plastic molds and sand-filled weights. It resembles a cannonball with a handle. It comes in different weights and sizes. It used for strength and fitness exercises.
Kettlebell History
The origins of the modern-day Kettlebell had its first origins 17th century in Russia. It was known as Girya and was shaped like a pyramid. It was not intended at that time to be used as an exercise device but rather as the weight used as counterweight scales for grain and meat
From these humble beginnings, it was identified that it had the potential to become a good piece of exercise equipment to build strength, balance, and flexibility. Over time, the kettlebell shape was refined to look more like a cannonball with a handle along with developed exercises for fitness, stamina, flexibility, and strength.
In the same period, many militaries identified the Kettlebells as an ideal way to build conditioning and strength to there military personnel
Now in the 21st century, some 300 years later, the Kettlebell has not substantially changed its shape. However, there has been some advancement in handles, weight distribution to provide safer and effectiveness of exercise equipment.
In the last 20 years, there has been a resurgence of the Kettlebell as a piece of exercise equipment. There are commonly being used as part of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) training classes. Most outdoor park fitness classes have kettlebells are part of the kit,
In 1948 Kettlebells officially became a sport and has grown globally. Now there are close to 73 countries where there are regular Kettlebell sporting competitions. As yet, it is not an Olympic Sport
Kettlebells vs. Barbells
Kettlebells and Barbells are often compared when they really shouldn’t. They both have a purpose in training and should be used in combination.
First of all, other than the obvious shape difference, barbells have a structure weight distribution, whereas the weight is unevenly distributed within the Kettlebell.
Secondly, there are not many of the basic fundamental exercises that are the same. The Kettlebell exercises are designed to focus on building core strength, co-ordination, and balance, whereas dumbells exercises are focusing on building strength for specific muscle groups.
Did you know?
The core muscle group (abdominals and lower, middle, and upper back) is considered the most important as it is the base support of the complete body. The core muscle group supports the spine, pelvis, and connection between the upper and lower limbs.
The core muscles are used in every part of our lives, from getting out of bed to sitting upright to keeping our balance.
Finally, for the average person, kettlebells exercises are safer, simpler, and quicker to learn than the more technical barbell weight training. The design of Kettlebell exercises is faster and repetitive than barbell training. Kettlebell exercise routines that allow to quickly switching unilateral to bilateral exercises.
The Fundamental Kettlebell Exercise
The first traditional and still the most popular kettlebell exercise is the Kettlebell Swing. There are two forms, one where the Kettlebell is only lifted to eye hight and the other above the head. The later has more susceptible to people injuring themselves.
Most park fitness classes predominately only do the Kettlebell swing exercises.
There are several designed Kettlebell exercises.
Benefits of Kettlebells Exercises
The standard kettlebell swing is one of the few exercises that stimulate all the body rather than specific parts. It exercises the body’s core muscles. One of the key differences to any other form of exercise is that it works both core muscle in an eccentric, isometric, and concentric states.
The swing involves multi-dimensional, vertical, horizontal, acceleration, deceleration, and re-directional forces of the kettlebell swing. causing the complete range of skeletal muscle contractions
With the kettlebells swinging exercises, it requires much control as the weight that is being moved in around 8″ further past your hands, the off-set center of gravity, making it harder to control. The swing motion forces of the kettlebell force body mechanics of the core muscles to work in an elaborate manner efficient manner that much more beneficial than just lifting weights.
Here is a summary of the key benefits for
Full-body Conditioning
Using It kettlebell fitness program is an efficient time as you don’t need to do multiple range exercises to work of different muscle groups
Increase Core Stability
Using the Kettlebell in your exercise regime, it works your core muscle groups in Isometric, Isotonic, Isovelocity, or Isokinetic, Concentric contraction manner, as well as requiring controlled breathing during the intense fitness workout. The Kettlebell exercises provide an all-round fitness improvement program that not only your strength to improve your stability as well as physical body dynamics.
Improved Body Co-ordination
Develops Body Balance
High-Calorie Workout
Typical calorie after-burn rate after the fitness training is between 6-15%, which can last up to the next day.
Cardiovascular Health Improvements
These workouts are a serious cardiovascular workout obtaining the same cardio results in half the time when comparing it to running or cycling due to the nature of the explosive training.
Lower Body Strengthening
It is known that inferior hip flex muscles are one of the biggest contributors to back problems.
Increased Mobility, Movement & Flexibility
Avoids Muscle Bulk
This is not to say, doing Kettlebells will not build muscles, it’s more that the muscle bulk will not appear to the same extent as using barbells.
Kettlebells exercises are not intended to work to bigs weights but build explosive cardiovascular fitness with high repetitions and intense workouts. This type of training boosting testosterone is also known as a metabolic workout.
Enhances Posture
The posterior chain is the set of muscles at the backside of your body. It includes hamstrings, gluteus, trapezius, posterior deltoids, and erector spinae.
The Kettlebells Swing works all the posterior chain hence provide support for a better posture.
Hand Strength
Hand strength is essential on so many fronts. One is it is an indication of your overall health as documents the in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Body Muscle Imbalance
- Natural development.
- Daily activities
- Inactivity.
- Poor posture
Unbalanced training program, eg tennis
There are two main types muscle imbalance, Body and Joint.
With continued long term muscle imbalance can lead to some serious problems resulting in mobility issues and pain. It can also lead to injury to ligaments, joints, tendons, and fascia.
By the nature of Kettlebells swing body and joint muscles develop and strengthen evenly.
Low Impact Training
Less fitness equipment at home
Because they are so compact, and they can easily fit in a cupboard or under the bed. It doesn’t take long to move them to an area you want to exercise. Moving barbells or exercise bike is a big effort to move and put in place.
Fun Workout
At least with kettlebell workouts, you need to think about form while doing it at speed.
It is also like with kettlebells workouts you are doing in a group park environment which is always nice,
Not all Kettlebells are the same. Below is a list of different aspects of a kettlebell when you are looking to purchase or using one. It is essential to choose an appropriate Kettlebell to avoid damaging your hands, wrists, and forearms.
The learn more for each aspect, just expand by hitting the orange icon to the right of the topic.
Kettlebell Material Construction
The molded plastic and sand-filled bags are not designed for the balance as is for cast iron and stainless steel Kettlebells. It is not recommended as a kettlebell substitute
In competitions, stainless steel Kettlebells are used.
Handles: Single or Double hands
The double handgrip is used for the kettlebell swing and other two-handed exercises. Double handed grips kettlebells are recommended if you are purchasing one for home fitness.
Handles: Shapes
It is not recommended to get a triangular or squarish handle Kettlebells as it places unnatural stress on the hands and forearms
Handles: Hand Space
Handles: Grip Shape
Handles: Thickness
The international competition standard for Kettlebell handles is 33 mm and 35 mm.
Handles: Smoothness
Handles: Plastic/Vinyl Coating
Keep an eye out for the plastic/vinyl finished of the handles as they often a seam that makes it uncomfortable,
Kettlebells with feet
We don’t recommend these as they could injure you while doing some fo the rigorous fitness routines.
How many & what weight & should I purchase?
There are several considerations to know which weight to buy for oneself. This includes what state is your basic fitness, strength, whether you are physically big or small.
For the purpose of the article and you are reading this section of the article, I am assuming you would have little experience in using kettlebells. Our recommendation is always going for the lighter weight for the first number of months you refine, improve, and optimize your technique.
Before suggesting a weight, there are two different kettlebell exercises
- Explosive ballistic exercises, including swings, tossing, cleans, snatches, and juggling.
- Slow-moving controlled Grinds including Turkish Get-ups, bent presses, overhead presses, windmills, bent presses
Typically the explosive exercises need a heavier weight than the grind moves. For starting it would be recommended to purchase two kettlebells of different weights
| Condition | Women | Men | ||
| Grind | Ballistic | Grind | Balistic | |
| Out of Shape | 4 to 6kg 9 to 13lb |
6 to 8kg 13 to 18lb |
6 to 8kg 13 to 18lb |
12 to 16kg 26 to 35lb |
| Average | 6 to 8kg 13 to 18lb |
8 to 12kg 18 to 26lb |
8 to 12kg 18 to 26lb |
16 to 20kg 35to 44lb |
| Fit | 8 to 12kg 18 to 26lb |
12 to 16kg 26 to 35lb |
12 to 16kg 26 to 35lb |
16 to 24kg 35 to 53lb |
Do I need to get two of each weight?
When you are starting, and until you get to have an excellent technique as observed by a registered kettlebell trainer, it is highly recommended that you do not do any dual kettlebell exercises. The potential of injury is exponentially increased.
What Is a Pood?
A pood is a Russian measurement of weight. It was the traditional weight of Kettlebells.
1.0 Pood – 16 kg – 35 lb kettlebell
1.5 Pood – 24 kg – 53 lb kettlebell
2.0 Pood – 32 kg – 70 lb kettlebell
Is Kettlebells for everyone?
The one-word answer is Yes,
Our suggestion, kettlebell training should be incorporated with your overall fitness program. Regardless if you are doing dancing, yoga, weightlifting or running. It will supplement the fitness program by ensuring more of muscles groups are being used as well avoiding and body and joint muscles imbalances,
Everyone would get benefit in participating in Kettlebell workouts including;
- Professional athletes
- Home Trainers
- People with a minor back conditions
Kettlebells Product Review
We have come up with the list of popular and kettlebells that would meet your muscle repair and relaxation needs.
We asked physios and gym instructors to review the chosen kettlebells to give us some feedback. The thoughts and feedback products have been incorporated into the analysis.
This review intends to support your decision making to which is the best kettlebells for yourself.
Our recommendations are based on feedback from these professionals that evaluated on the basis of following criteria:
- Material & Texture
- Seamless Construction
- Handle Texture
- Solid Gripping
- Handle to structure ratio
- Exterior coating
- Dynamic swing potential
- Compactness and portability
- Ability to shift hands while in use
- One hand or two hand gripping
- Weight variation models
- Size Variations availability
- Stability
- Balance
- Useability
- Value for money
Price
Range
Rating
Yes4All Vinyl Coated Kettlebells
Starting from
$40
Best Buy
TKO Scratch Free Kettlebell
If you had a towel, it could be a good pruchase
Starting from
$40
Good
Bionic Body Soft Kettlebell
Starting from
$80
Good Buy
Kettle Gryp Adjustable Kettlebell
Around
$25
Not Really Kettlebell
Cap Barbell Enamel Coated Kettlebell
Starting from
$20
Very
Good
Did you know?
The first 45 minutes after exercise is the essential period to re-vitialise your muscles
Yes4All Vinyl Coated Kettlebells
Material: Cast Iron – Vinyl Covering
Weights: Ranges
Color: Color coded for weights
Price: Starting from $40
Pro’s
- Seamless construction offers long-lasting durability
- The vinyl coating protects floors
- Easy-to-grip handle
Con’s
- Rough usage can wear out vinyl coating
This Kettlebell has a smooth, high-quality handle. Engraved with a slight texture, the handle provides a firm and secure grip to aid in high-intensity reps for both men and women. The design also offers access to various exercises. With a flat bottom, this Kettlebell enables upright storage and is perfect for pushups, handstands, renegade rows, and other dynamic exercises.
TKO Scratch Free Kettlebell
Material: Cast Iron – Scratch Free Plastic Exterior
Weights: 8,10 and 15 lbs variants
Color: Black with hints of red
Price: Starting from $40
Pro’s
- Smooth wide-grip, allows shifting while working out
- The scratch-free plastic shell protects floors
- Design enables muscle isolation exercises
Con’s
- The plastic exterior can generate cracks in the wake of falls or rough usage
This Kettlebell also has a sturdy construction. The addition of the scratch-free plastic shell prevents damage to floors and provides extra durability to the internal structure. With a nuanced structural design, you can perform a range of exercises ranging from deadlifts to squats, and full-body workouts to isolate specific muscle groups and work on that dream body.
Bionic Body Soft Kettlebell
Material: Soft-cushion like exterio
Weights:10,15,35,40 lbs variants
Color: Black
Price: Starting from $40
Pro’s
- Soft exterior prevents injuries and property damage
- Its Compact structure is easy to store and aids movement
- Solid gripping handle
Con’s
- The exterior needs more care than most plastic or vinyl coated ones
The Bionic Body Kettlebell comes with an ergonomic handle, that gives you a solid grip. The dynamic weight distribution gives rise to the off-set center of gravity, which is uniquely beneficial for performing dynamic exercises while you maintain an optimal grip and superior balance.
Kettle Gryp Adjustable Kettlebell
Material: Plastic
Weights: Not Applicable
Color: Orange
Price: Around $30
Pro’s
- Super-light and portable for traveling
- Can grip most standard dumbbells
- Sturdy build quality
Con’s
- Not practical for swinging between the legs
- Needs dumbbells to become a useful kettlebell
This predicament is made easy with the innovative Kettle Gryp Adjustable Kettlebell.
It is the perfect accessory for your travel aspirations or gym bag.
Weighing less than one pound, it can grip most standard dumbbells and transform into a contemporary kettlebell instantly.
You never miss working out while on-the-go!
There is a limitation that there a number of Kettlebell exercises cannot be done in a safe manner using this attachment,
Cap Barbell Enamel Coated Kettlebell
Material: Cast Iron
Weights: 10,15,20,40,50 lbs variants
Color: Black
Price: Starting from $20
Pro’s
- Durable enamel coating
- Available in a variety of weights
- Dependable construction is safe to grip and wield
Con’s
- Slightly smaller weight spread
The best aspect of this Gaiam foam roller is that it comes with a 15 minute of “How To” Digital Workout video to assist you in having the productive exercise time. The levels at which it reduces soreness and tensions are quite remarkable and provides ideal comfort to back and legs muscles.
Final Say
Kettlebells have evolved with time. Initially, it was just a simple metal ball casting that had a rudimentary handle, but as the complexity of modern dynamic movements changed these products. Now they feature ergonomically designed handles, better weight shapes, and protective coatings to shield from any potential injury or property damage.
There is a huge range of kettlebells available in the market. This my it nature shows the popularity of kettlebells as training and fitness aid,
The kettlebells in this article have been assessed by our instructors and physios test of effectiveness, comfort, ease of use, durability, and overall design prowess.
We sincerely hope you found this review useful. It is hoped you have gained some insight on Kettlebells. Let us know
Did you know? The average person sweats between 0.8 litre (28 oz) to 1.4 litres (43oz) per hour of exercise
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