by John Kuzora – Kuzora Personal Training Raleigh

One of my clients came to me last month and asked me if I could take her through Jillian Michaels workout plan from her book Making the Cut. For those of you who are not familiar with Jillian, she is a Team Trainer from the hit TV show “The Biggest Loser.”

Typically this would not be something I would do for a number of reasons. First of all, most of the celebrity trainers I have encountered in the past are more celebrity than trainer. Put bluntly their workouts usually suck.

Second, I’m a big believer in personalizing workouts to the individual. No generic book can give you a program designed specifically for your personal strengths, goals, and limitations.

But Joy is a great person and a great client so I told her I would look the book over and if I didn’t think it was total garbage I would help push her through the workouts.

After looking over the book I was actually pleasantly surprised. It was a program focused on compound weight training exercises done in circuit fashion with cardio intervals at the end of most of the circuits. For those of you who are familiar with my training style this is pretty similar to how I train most clients who have general fitness/body composition goals.

I typically utilize more kettlebell exercises, sled drags, waiter walks, and similar high calorie demand exercises and some of the moves Jillian utilized would be what I consider “entertainment” exercises (i.e. movements that more closely resemble a circus trick than exercise) but overall I was pleased with the contents of the book and agreed to take Joy through the 30 day program.

Here’s where the story gets interesting: Joy wears a heart rate monitor during her workouts that track calories burned. During the course of the 30 day program, the typical workout would take between 45 and 50 minutes and would burn 350 calories. The most she ever burned was 400 calories.

We finished up the program and after a few days off Joy came back ready for a new challenge. She wanted to repeat the program but in my experience repeating the same workout never produces the same results as the first time through so we compromised. Two days a week we would do the routines outlined in Jillian’s book and the other two days we would do kettlebell only training.

Today was our first kettlebell workout and we were both amazed by the results. In 42 minutes (shorter than any of the workouts in the book) Joy burned 444 calories! This is 11% more calories than the hardest workout in the book and 26% higher than the average workout!  Plus I am sure this number will go up significantly because almost 20 minutes of today’s session was teaching proper technique.

If you would like more information about kettlebell training there are many useful and free resources available on the internet. Some of the better sites include:

http://www.mikemahler.com/ – lots of great free articles

http://www.irontamer.com/ – a useful blog and a kettlebell e-book

http://www.dragondoor.com/ – the original kettlebell resource

Here at Kuzora  Personal Training – Raleigh we are offering a “Learn to Use Kettlebells” package that includes:

One 60 minute one on one orientation session ($70 value)

During these sessions you will learn two foundational movements: the swing and the Turkish get-up. With these two exercises alone you will build a strong core, tone and tighten your glutes, inner thighs, and hamstrings, burn calories and bodyfat, and develop strong, healthy shoulders.

Your own kettlebell ($40 value)

Want to try kettlebells but didn’t know what size and weight you should start with? We take the guess work out. During your orientation our trainers will assess your strength and fitness levels and send you home with an appropriately sized kettlebell of your own.

A personalized eight week training plan ($199 value)

After your orientation, we will email you a personalized workout plan you can do in the privacy of your own home.

Three bi-weekly follow-up sessions ($135 value)

These 30 minute follow-up “accountability” sessions will be used to keep your kettlebell fitness plan on track. We will correct and perfect technique on the basic movements as well as teach you more advanced exercises such as the snatch, windmill, and clean & press.

We are currently offering this package for $299. (There is an additional charge for kettlebells over 20 lbs.) This is a great way to learn how to integrate the fat burning power of kettlebells into your current routine.

Contact us today at (919)569-9929 to get started