Health Fitness

Your weekly 12-minute kettlebell trip to the fountain of youth

The Fountain of Youth has always existed as a modern metaphor for all things that potentially increase longevity.

This article explores the many exciting aspects of supra-aerobic kettlebell training and its imminent impact on building a stronger heart and lungs, two keys to living a longer, healthier life.

For decades, you’ve been told to go to the gym and exercise for an hour every day, sacrificing your time and energy in an effort to stay healthy and fit. Today we know that this is not necessary. There is a little known technique developed by Dr. Al Sears, as explained in his book Rediscover Your Native Fitness, that involves what he calls Supra-Aerobics. Supra-aerobics are the antidote to the stress and frustration of traditional aerobic and strength exercises.

Supra-aerobics are workouts where you simply pick an exercise you’d like to do and start doing it until you’re out of breath. In this breathless state, where you have built up a large oxygen deficit, your body will send chemical signals to start burning fat for energy. He then backs off on his exercise until he catches his breath and starts to go full throttle again until he is out of breath once again. Work your way back up and continue repeating these cycles for 12-20 minutes at least 3-5 times a week.

Exerting yourself to this point is precisely what strengthens the heart and lungs so that they can increase their capacity. By doing these exercises regularly, your body will respond by building a stronger heart, improving your lungs’ ability to hold more air, and strengthening your muscles. By improving your fitness in this way, you will also live longer. According to Dr. Sears, the supra-aerobic state also causes the body to produce growth hormones. This alone is an important factor in regaining youth.

You can apply this technique to any workout, like running or biking, but its benefits increase exponentially with kettlebell training. By their very nature, Kettlebell Swings and Turkish Get-Up exercises are an intense form of exercise that emphasizes the body as a whole. By adding the supra-aerobic concept to these exercises, you will triple their effectiveness.

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that men and women who exercised with supra-aerobic methods had:

* Lower blood pressure * Lower triglycerides (fat in the blood) * Higher HDL (good cholesterol) * Less body fat

Twelve minutes a day is all you need to start burning fat and get in the best shape of your life.