Don Fitch > Quotes

“This book asks quite a lot of you in your quest to be fit and fierce. Twelve minutes of exercise, though astoundingly short in terms of the benefits they provide, is still not trivial. You are swinging a heavy weight for dozens, even hundreds of times a day. There had better be a pretty good reason why. There is! The kettlebell swing, with its mix of cardiovascular effort and fat-burning, muscle-building, strength-training may well be the best single exercise! Your kettlebell swings reward you, per swing, and per minute: • You look better! Fat loss, muscle tuning, body shaping, booty toning and posture improvement benefit your appearance, just as they improve your endurance, strength and health. • Your body is reshaped rapidly and muscles strengthened by your swings. Flab on your arms is replaced by functional muscle. Flabby thighs become sleek. • Your training makes you smarter. Well, at least helps you think better. Your swings flood your brain with fresh, oxygenated blood and top it off with a dose of testosterone. • Your general physical abilities improve markedly. You are better able to move, to carry things, to pick up kids, to play sports, to make love, to respond to emergencies with strength and endurance. • Your swings help your posture, allowing you to stand tall. The posterior chain, so well worked with kettlebell swings, includes the key posture muscles. • Your training makes your butt look smaller! Actually your butt becomes shapelier, as the gluteal muscles in the buttocks are key lifters of the kettlebell. You strengthen and shape you entire posterior chain. This focused exercise lifts, firms, tightens and highlights these assets. Each swing makes your butt look better! • The kettlebell swing may be the most effective single exercise for your heart. Swinging the weight rapidly brings your heart into the training zone.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Kettlebell swings attack metabolic syndrome head on. First, they build muscle and reduce fat, both keys to the disorder. Fat build up, especially in the abdominal area, can be halted and reversed with kettlebell swings (and the other recommendations in this book). The muscles the swings produce help use up glucose and insulin, both toxic when levels are too high in the blood.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“One of the scarier sitting diseases is osteoporosis, thinning of the bones. Our bones are ceaselessly breaking down and rebuilding. But they need some challenge to rebuild. If all one’s time is spent with skeleton and body supported by a chair, our bones don’t get the activity and load they need to become strong. Like anything else, the rule with our skeleton is “use it or lose it.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Your twelve minutes of daily kettlebell swings could theoretically be done in one 12 minute stretch. Doing so might provide the most cardiovascular benefits, as the session would move your heart rate up into the training zone nearly immediately, and keep it there for some minutes.  These long minutes with your heart in the training zone provide huge cardiovascular conditioning and risk reduction benefits.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Kettlebell swings are a nearly perfect way to use your skeleton; it is totally involved in your task of swinging the weight up out in front of you. Not just bones, but tendons, other connective tissue, and of course, muscles, are challenged and strengthened.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“You should acquire and own at least two kettlebells. They are not cheap, but they still may be the very cheapest and fastest exercise equipment. In terms of a lifelong strength and endurance aid, your kettlebell purchase may be among the best values in your life. Several forms of kettlebells are now available. Probably the best remain the black cast iron bells resembling a cannon ball. Other forms now include various colors, put on with a plastic coating. This coating may degrade with age. Not much degrades a black cast iron bell except rust. Make certain the kettlebell handle is well designed. For a two arm swing, both your hands grip the kettlebell. The handle should be sufficiently long that your hands are comfortable. I hook three fingers of each hand through the handle, with my little finger to the outside. You may try out a number of different weights in kettlebells and graduate to higher weights as your strength builds. They may be purchased in sets with various weights, such as 20, 25 and 30 pounds (9, 11.3, 13.6 kg).”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“A recent Danish study that investigated using kettlebell swings to reduce back pain, started desk workers who suffered work related back pain with 17.5 pound (8 kg.) kettlebells for women and 26.5 pound (12 kg.) for men. Your prime purchase goal for a kettlebell is one that enables your 90-second, 54-swing sessions. The 54 swing target is a goal that you approach slowly. Many people will find a 20 pound (8kg.) weight satisfactory for their 54 swings. As you are building up your time swinging from 30 seconds, to 60 seconds, to 90 seconds(about 18, 36 and 54 swings), your repetitions are more important than the weight. Work your way up to more weight and to more swings. Eventually, a weight of about 20% of your body weight provides a reasonable but challenging lift. A 150 pound man or woman would be swinging a 30 pound (13.6 kg.).”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Kettlebell swing sessions, spaced throughout the day provide a nearly perfect “antidote” to the sitting diseases. Think about it, performing kettlebell swings is nearly the opposite activity as sitting! You can switch from sitting to swinging the kettlebell in five seconds.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“The two handed kettlebell swing is the foundation of all kettlebell exercises. It is very dynamic, involving swinging a heavy weight in a five foot arc, quickly repeated. The quick and continuous movement is very different in look and feel than most strength training. It offers an extremely quick way to be gaining, in just a few seconds, heart healthy cardiovascular exercise along with a body shaping muscular workout.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“For your 12 minute daily swings, you might well end up with one weight, but you may likely want to own a variety of kettlebells for various exercises. A kettlebell’s weight becomes easier to handle and less challenging as you swing it more and you commonly want to move up weights, so determining a favorite weight is an adjustment process. Still, it is possible to have a favorite weight for your daily 12 minutes recommended in this book.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Some people beginning kettlebell swings may start with no weight. Just doing the swings with your hands holding an imaginary weight is a great way to start and develop good form. The box squat where you squat back and down over a 20 inch box is another zero-weight exercise that helps strengthen muscles and prepare you for kettlebell swings. Swinging no weight or very light weight offers virtually everyone the opportunity to gain the benefits of kettlebell swings. Overweight individuals or those who have not exercised for a period are wise to get a feel for the swings with no weight.  Alternatively, a kettlebell of five pounds (2.3 kg) offers new users the feel and form of the weight and handles to grip.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Instead of counting your swings, you can use your mobile device’s clock timer function. I tell my Android device, “set timer for 90 seconds.” When the timer appears I say “start” and it counts down. I know that 90 seconds later I will have done 54 kettlebell swings. When the time is up, I can tell it, “set timer for one hour,” and it will alarm 60 minutes later, reminding me to swing again”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Getting up out of our work chair, say once an hour, to do 90 seconds of kettlebell swings may well serve as the perfect preventive behavior to the onslaught of metabolic sitting disorders. Don’t let your chair and car seat disable you; fight back with kettlebell swings!”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“This concept can seem a little daunting when doing your first swings. These first swings can feel tiring, as I described my first 25 swings with a 30 pound weight. This is not unlike the first minutes of a jog, where sometimes the transition from resting state to vigorous exercise seems punishing. Within minutes of beginning jogging, though, your body adjusts to the new workload and any unpleasantness is reduced. The same occurs with kettlebell swings and soon you realize that your 50th swing feels no more tiring, even less so, than your tenth swing.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“In addition to getting up out of your chair each hour to do kettlebell swings, you may want to incorporate a couple of other stretches for your posture. One common posture goal is to raise the chest, which directly counteracts rounded shoulders and forward head. Commonly, excess sitting shortens and tightens muscles and connective tissue in the chest. These areas need stretching to allow the chest to rise and shoulder to un-round.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“For the young and healthy, kettlebell swings offer a quick and easy way to gain peak physical form and conditioning. Perhaps more than any other single exercise, kettlebell swings build both endurance and strength. For people at mid-life kettlebells swings help keep off fat, build functional muscle and prevent sitting disease. Seniors have in the kettlebell swing the means to maintain vitality, prevent loss of mobility and fight wasting away from loss of muscle and bone by building new muscle and bone. Don’t act your age; keep yourself young and strong with kettlebell swings. People carrying too much fat often have too little muscle. The kettlebell swings help with both aspects, quickly dropping fat while rapidly building calorie burning muscle tissue.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Of course, if you are overweight, you would not aim for 20% of your body weight. You could choose a weight based on your body weight goals. Actually, if overweight, you can get by with far lighter kettlebells because you are lifting additional body weight as you do the swings. Find a weight that allows you to work up to 54 swings. Even using a light weight, 54 swings, 8 times a day will be hugely beneficial in allowing you to lose the unwanted fat.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“The kettlebell swing involves holding the kettlebell overhand with both hands, swinging it behind and back through the legs in a hiking football motion, and then swinging up and out in front, powered by a snap of the hips. The swing momentum slows and stops with the kettlebell up at shoulder level, and then you guide it down again through your legs as you hinge forward.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“As you begin swinging kettlebells and work your way up in weights, your first goal is to avoid injury. You may start out with negligible weight, even no weight, especially if you suffer a back or other condition that hinders the swing motion. If you have access to multiple weights, the first weight you might want to pick up may be 10 pounds. This is light enough to prevent any injuries that might result from swinging heavier weights right away.  Using the guidelines from the next chapter, undertake some swings 12 for your first set. If the 12 repetitions seemed fine, do another set, this time for 24 swings. These swings will seem more difficult than later when you are accustomed to the exertion.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“The kettlebell swing seems a simple movement, and it is. But getting your technique down perfectly while adjusting to different, heavier weights in a progression takes some time. Even before swinging the kettlebell warm up with some exercises that prepare your body for the physical challenge.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Your mobile device also offers apps that chime once an hour (or as set up.) You will find your ability to actually accomplish the swings greatly boosted by having these frequent reminders. It can quickly become a point of pride to do your 90 second kettlebell swing session when you hear the hourly chime. Ignored chimes tend to grate on one, but also motivate to not let another hour pass without quick exercise.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“The great news is that this perfect exercise is open to nearly everyone, of all ages and physical conditions. The motion is natural and replicates (and assists in) many daily activities. The intensity of the exercise is directly controllable by how heavy a weight is swung, and for how many swings.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“In terms of preventing the sitting diseases, getting up out of the chair many times daily to do the exercise is one of the key benefits. Whichever your choice of 12, 8 or 6 sessions a day, you have to get up and actually do them.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“One of the maladies of excess sitting is poor posture. Another is back pain. Especially while working at a computer, sitting tends to drag one down into bad posture, slumped, with rounded shoulders and head forward with a vulture neck. Such posture is not pretty and it causes back pain. To best accommodate gravity, the spine should be pretty much vertical with the head over the shoulders, not way out front. When you are slumped with forward head parts of the back are weakened, others are overstrained. Pressures on nerves and connective tissues are uneven and exaggerated. Back pain results.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“This single exercise, when repeated enough, provides huge benefits in fat loss, muscle gain and cardiovascular conditioning.  Perhaps more than any other exercise, the kettlebell swing helps you slim down, pack on muscle and give your heart a healthy workout. This is why an entire book is devoted to it and to helping you do the swings that will revolutionize your fitness, strength and endurance.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Swinging the kettlebell tones the core and the muscles of the posterior chain, such as hamstrings and glutes. The swing replicates natural work movements of which we used to do a lot more, such as shoveling. The basic lifting motion is part of everyday need, such as lifting a child or hefting a bag of groceries.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“In some ways, kettlebells are astounding. Because of their utter simplicity, they become the most convenient form of exercise equipment possible, amazingly quick and useful. I can be sitting in my desk chair one moment, then on my feet picking up my 40 pound kettlebell the next. In another two seconds I am swinging the kettlebell and just 90 seconds (and 54 swings) later I am finished. I sit back down, huffing and puffing, energized and refreshed.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“Some trainers advocate 2 minute swing sessions, claiming that the 120 seconds of continuous exercise is better for the cardiovascular system as it keeps the heart rate up longer in the training zone. A big advantage of 2 minute swing sessions is that you only need six daily sessions to get your 12 minutes.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“The basic core kettlebell swings at the heart of your new fit and fierce life require some planning and execution. Healthy as they are and quick as they build muscle and fitness, kettlebell swings require effort. The benefits don’t come for free, but from hundreds of kettlebell swings each day.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!

“The entire swing takes less than two seconds; my natural rhythm is 36 swings per minute, about 1.6 seconds per swing. This pace delivers 72 swings in two minutes. 54 swings in about 90 seconds is the basic goal of this book.”
― Don Fitch, Get Fit, Get Fierce with Kettlebell Swings: Just 12 Minutes a Day to Lose Weight, Prevent Sitting Disease, Hone Your Body and Tone Your Booty!