Tuesday 11 October 2011

There is no spoon


1 - I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that.

2 - Styles tend to not only separate men - because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, if you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely? Now, that way you won't create a style, because style is a crystallization. That way, it's a process of continuing growth.

- Bruce Lee.


Bruce believed that there was only one way of fighting, and the separate martial arts or subdivisions of styles were merely parts of the whole. The same can be said about strength & fitness; or just 'exercise'.


All forms of exercise are merely stresses being applied to the body in different manners. Cardio tends towards applying rapid movement with little resistance, strength training tends towards applying slower movement with high resistance. Isometric work applies static stress using varying levels of resistance – anything from bodyweight to whatever you can take. Plyometric work utilises dynamic movements with varying levels of resistance to adjust the amount of stress applied to the body. All exercise is just applying stress to the body in different ways. Do not get hung on one method. Apply movements. Use static postures. Vary resistance from nothing to a lot. Be dynamic. Be slow & steady. Isolate. Compound. Combine.


There is no one form of exercise. Merely indefinite methods of applying stress to the body. Make use of all of them to truly set your body's potential free.

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT


Thursday 15 September 2011

Want results? Train with intensity.


All too often I see people training, doing the right things, but they fail to get any results and wonder why. The answer is not what they are doing, but rather how they are doing it – specifically; without intensity. It doesn't matter if they are swinging a kettlebell, deadlifting a barbell or undulating a rope – without intensity you may as well be watching paint dry. Okay sure, it's better than nothing, but only marginally so. The accepted definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. What should you change? The intensity! Start with learning the techniques are perfectly as you can, then make sure you are (and are going to be) consistent with it, then apply the intensity. Too many people exercise just by going through the motions. Most people do not even know how to push themselves hard enough – largely because they never have. Train like you mean it. Train like a bear is chasing you. Train like you're swimming for the shore in shark-infested waters. But don't be the nut who goes wild, throwing the weights around like a crazed gorilla in an ego-induced machismo fit. Practice perfect form with intensity. That's the 3 things you'll need: 1 – technique (perfect form), 2 – consistency (practice), and of course, 3 – intensity.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Thursday 1 September 2011

Occam's Razor

People make things more complicated than they need to be.

When it comes to losing fat, gaining muscle, improving athletic performance, or anything similar, there's certainly no shortage of methods out there, and people trying to sell them, promising you amazing results. The more complex they can make their methods, the more 'scientific' they seem, and through a leap of false logic, the more credence we give them.

Look back 100 years. There were plenty of people in fantastic shape, and they didn't have half the dietary & exercise science that we do now. (People like Arthur Saxon had never even heard of the food pyramid, fad diets, aerobics or toning...).

My philosophy is to keep things simple. At BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym I use the simplest methods which often elicit the best results. I don't have a diet that requires a degree in nutritional science to work it out. I don't have a training plan that Einstein would have difficulty following. Yet I can lift another human being above my head with one hand.

Do not be fooled by bells & whistles. The more complex something is, the more chance it has of falling apart when the going gets tough. The simplest methods are often the best. Using the simplest method to a goal is efficient. The more efficient you can become, the better you can apply yourself to any given task. The better you can apply yourself, the more you can challenge yourself.

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Thursday 12 May 2011

Free Kettlebell Mini-Workshops


On Saturday the 21st and 28th of May, at 10:30am I will be holding FREE kettlebell workshops at BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym. Designed for people with little to no experience with kettlebells, although everybody is welcome!


Kettlebells are weights that look like a ball with a 'kettle'-like handle. They come in weights usually ranging from 4kg upwards. The exercises performed will differ from what people are used to, being movement-based, rather than muscle-based. In other words the exercises are compound movements – they involve more than one muscle and more than one joint to perform. You use your muscles and joints as they were designed to be used, in concert with each other rather than in isolation. Kettlebell workouts are generally timed based (well, they definitely are in my gym!), which gives you a great cardio workout at the same time.


If you have never used kettlebells before and are curious, then these free workshops are for you! If you have used kettlebells before, this is a great opportunity to better your understanding of the movements and polish up your technique.


The mini-workshops are one hour long, giving you enough time to cover off the basic principals of kettlebell lifting technique, get to perform the movements safely & effectively, and with just enough time to test them out in a short workout.


The mini-workshops are free for anyone and everyone. Booking is not essential, but is recommended to avoid disappointment as spaces are limited.


Contact me on 07513-994-672 to book in!

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT




Monday 9 May 2011

Can't Squat, Won't Squat

Recently I went into a small but commercial gym to assist a friend of a friend who was struggling with what to do in the gym. For background, she had been going to the gym regularly for years, using the typical machines – seated tricep press, lateral pulldown, pec deck, leg extension, hamstring curl, ab crunch and the abductor & adductor machine. I introduced her to movement, as opposed to muscle, orientated exercises – specifically squats (and later on, deadlifts as well as kettlebell swings). Now I know it's easy to get stuck in your own world and forget that other people are different, but this time it really stood out. I was shocked and amazed at how someone who has been going to a gym and working out several times a week religiously for many years, just had no idea how to squat or deadlift. Even though these are fundamental, natural movements – there was nothing natural about her movement. It took pretty much her entire session to learn to do a fairly passable squat, something clearly foreign to her.


Now I try to keep an open mind. I tell myself that commercial gyms have their place. They offer an easy, cookie-cutter homogenised way to get sedentary people moving. Getting people off of the couch and moving is a good start, a great start even, but at what cost? Commercial gyms were born out of the bodybuilding era. People admired these superhumans, who came to epitomise health, strength & fitness – rightly or wrongly so, which gave birth to training facilities for ordinary people to train in similar fashion, in an often vain attempt to emulate the bodybuilders. Gradually free weights were replaced with machines designed for isolation (a necessary tool for bodybuilding), and for health & safety (an unnecessary evil designed to strip us of common sense and dignity). Now we are left with a world where people exercise every day in this environment, and as a unwanted and often unknown side-effect, lose the natural body movement they learnt not long after birth along with walking & talking.


I guess that's where people like myself fit in. Most people take small steps, not leaps and bounds. Years of living in the rat race have ruined our bodies in terms of health, fitness, strength & mobility. Globo-gym offers the rats their first step out of purgatory and towards the light. Not into the light, but towards it. Find an instructor who understands movement and learn from them. I don't care if you're a bodybuilder, an athlete, a cross-fitter, a functional training fan, a weekend warrior, an MMA fighter or a soccer-mom. Learn how to move correctly and you will get so much more from your training.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Monday 21 February 2011

Nutrition - who to believe?



Nutrition is often confusing. One day something is healthy, then the next it is not. One day a certain food causes health problems, the next it doesn't, and is recommended and promoted. The problem is there are so many studies on nutrition; whom do you believe?

Well the truth is it is very rare for every single study on a subject to be in agreement. There are always a few that sit in direct contrast to the majority of the studies. So it is never a good idea to suggest broad conclusions or recommendations based on a few select studies. If you pick & choose the studies that suit your point of view, you can prove just about anything you would like about nutrition. Many studies about nutrition use animals as subjects, and drawing conclusions about human health from animal studies can be very misleading. 

If a certain study 'proves' something is unhealthy, and you are or know of someone who does very well on that something, the study is not definitive. Sure, there can be a general rule that 'generally' applies to 'most' people, but to blindly accept information just because someone tells you it is so is ridiculous. How often can you find people with recognised qualifications disagreeing with each other? So even if you have been taught something, it doesn't make it correct. Besides, how do we know that something has been proven? Because someone tells us it has? Come on people, think for yourselves.

If a qualified and recognised expert tells me something is unhealthy, I want to know why he think that. I don't want to hear that he knows because someone else told him. I don't want to hear it is because he read it in a book. I especially do not want to know it is because he read an article on the internet. I don't even want to hear that he knows because he has a qualification in that field. I want to hear that he tried it personally for long enough, with no other variables changing at all, and it showed enough significant results for him to come to his conclusion. 

This doesn't mean you shouldn't listen. Listen to everything. Listen to everyone. Read, research & most importantly question. The more information you have, the better equipped you are to reach a conclusion. But don't do it just because someone else told you - regardless of who that person is.

For every person who tells me something is healthy or unhealthy, or for every study I see that tells me something is healthy or unhealthy, I can find a person and a study to refute them. More often than not I can find a person who is a living example that disproves most 'known facts' out there. So until someone tells me something is healthy or unhealthy for ALL of the people ALL of the time, I will continue to question everything that is put before me. I will continue to be my own study, and see how things affect ME in the real world, rather than how they affected 6 rats in a laboratory test in 1969. I will continue to challenge everything, and so should you.


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Friday 28 January 2011

Scaremongering




Too many people get caught up in the details, and lose sight of the big picture.

Recently I was told and then later saw) someone put out information about soya milk containing high levels of aluminium, and related it to taking 5 birth control pills a day. What an absolute load of garbage! Yes, soya milk does contain aluminium, but so do a lot of things. Human breast milk contains aluminium. Aluminium is the 3rd most abundant metal in the ground, so it can be found in almost any food. We put it into our water supplies to give the water a clearer 'clean' appearance. It is used as a raising agent in baking, tea has suprisingly high levels of aluminium, as does toothpaste, aspirin and antacids, the list goes on.

 Yes, soya milk has higher levels than cow milk, but the amounts and the effects have been greatly exaggerated. The UK's government Health Protection Agency states "Children exposed to aluminium are not expected to show greater sensitivity compared to adults" and "Little information is available regarding whether aluminium causes cancer in humans. Data from animals studies have shown that it is not thought to cause cancer in animals". The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA, now called Food Standards Australia New Zealand, FSANZ), measured the aluminium intakes of Australian infants as part of the Australian Market Basket Survey (which is now known as the Total Diet Survey ).  It was found that although soy based infant formulas contained higher levels of aluminium than other formulas or breast milk, the estimated aluminium intake was still well below estimated safe levels. Interestingly enough in the past 2 years the UK has relaxed the laws and allowed a greater use of aluminium in products we consume. Basically because of the widespread distribution of aluminium compounds through food, drink and even the air we breathe, exposure is unavoidable. 

Sure, we should do our best to reduce the aluminium content in consumption as it is not an essential part of our diet, but it is also worth bearing in mind that there are no definitive links between aluminum exposure through infant formulas and immediate or delayed toxicity in healthy infants. Better safe than sorry - yes; but people tend to see correlations where there are none, and then draw conclusions based on bad science and logical fallacies.

But here is the bottom line - unless you are eating aluminium foil, you don't really have anything to worry about. However if you are still concerned, just make sure you are getting calcium & magnesium in your diet and you will be fine. They block the aluminium.


Challenge everything, Especially yourself.

 Alex Kay Grimmer

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Kettlebell class special offers


If you have not yet tried kettlebells, come along to a BodyQuest class,

YOUR FIRST SESSION IS FREE!

If you are an existing class client and you bring along a new friend,

YOUR SESSION IS HALF PRICE!

What are you waiting for? Book in now!

Classes are currently:

Monday evenings at 8pm

Tuesday & Thursday evenings at 7pm

Saturday mornings at 9.30am


Coming soon.... Tuesday & Thursday morning classes!


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Wednesday 19 January 2011

BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym is officially open!



BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym has now officially opened! For the past few weeks I have been working day & night to turn a rubbish-filled derelict building into a full-time strength & conditioning facility. It was hard work but definitely worth it! 

Kettlebell classes are currently:

Tuesday & Thursday evenings at 7pm

Saturday mornings at 9:30am

Classes are open to all, but it is best to book a place to avoid disappointment.

I will be adding more classes to the timetable over the next few days - watch this space!


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Coming soon... BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym!


I am pleased to announce that within the next week or so, I will be opening my own dedicated training facility! 2010 ended on a sad note, when The Iron Den Studio I was working out of closed it's doors, forcing me to find a new venue for my classes & clients. However, sometimes being forced to take action is just the kick in the butt you need.


Initially BodyQuest will continue as a personal training and group session facility, but later this year will open an area for members to come in and train using BodyQuest tools such as kettlebells, Olympic lifting platforms, tractor tires, sledgehammers, ropes, jumping platforms, pull up and dipping bars... and more!


This is going to be a year of taking action, and I am really looking forward to the challenges it will bring. I will be pushing for everyone to achieve far more this year than they ever thought possible. If you are looking for functional fitness, strength, endurance, mobility and cardio that just won't quit then get in touch. I guarantee you twice the results in half the time!


Watch this space for details of the new gym!


Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer


Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT