Geoff owns a personal training company called Integrated Fitness Solutions. He has logged over 20,000 hours of one-on-one training and has authored several books and programs. Among his most famous are “Kettlebell Burn” and his latest release “Permanent Weight Loss Solutions”.

1) You have been practicing with Kettlebells for a long time. Can you tell us why Kettlebell training is superior to other types of fitness conditioning?

That’s an easy one. Kettlebells are superior because they allow for increased ranges of motion which allow you to do more work per unit of time. And more work per unit of time equals faster results.

They allow you to train for strength and conditioning simultaneously. And when you perform the exercises correctly, you can also achieve new levels of flexibility and mobility at the same time getting stronger. This saves you an incredible amount of time because you no longer have to program in your strength training, your cardio, and your flexibility work. You can get it all in the same package, all in the same workout, all with one tool – the kettlebell.

And if that weren’t enough, kettlebell exercises are joint friendly because they’re not jarring to joints like knees and hips that take a beating in traditional exercise programs. There have also been more than a few people who have healed their bad backs by using kettlebells.

Basically, the kettlebell is like the Swiss Army Knife of fitness. There isn’t anything you can’t do with it.

2) Fitness on the Run clients are busy, professionals who want a workout and 99% want fat loss. What is your advice for them?

Realize that fat loss doesn’t come directly from your workouts. This is where so many people go wrong and why you see so many “fat” aerobic instructors and fitness people with fat rolls. They’re focused on the wrong thing.

Exercise essentially fans the flames for fat-burning that you create internally primarily through eating.

Therefore, focus 80% of your energy on what you eat and don’t eat. That’s where fat loss primarily occurs. Fat loss is controlled by your body’s hormones. Get this right and you’ll put your body in the elusive “fat-burning zone” just walking around.

Then spend 10% of your time on intelligent strength-based exercise. Keep your workout duration short so you can recover. Focus on quality and effort over quantity.

And the remaining 10% on stress reduction, including getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night.

3) Your experience in Olympic lifts is well known. Why not just continue “under the bar”?

Because Olympic lifting is highly technical and the bar forces your body to conform to it, not vice versa like kettlebells. And when you have to force your body to conform to the bar, you’re much more likely to get injured. And injury is the best way to sabotage your fat loss. Kettlebells allow you to correct movement compensations that you have (yes, everyone has them) and are much more gentle on the body than barbells.

4) What would you say to those individuals who want more of an “ab workout”? How about “I need to get more cardio.” Last, “I don’t want to bulk up.”

I would simply ask them “why?”

Why do they think they need more of an “ab workout” or “more cardio” or why they think they will “bulk up”?

Most people base their thoughts on exercise on hearsay, rumor, and innuendo. I can’t blame them – it’s all around them. From there I would educate them.

People usually want more of an “ab workout” because they mistakenly believe that directly training their abs will make them leaner. That’s false. It will make their waists thicker in many cases. The only way you’ll see your abs is to lose the fat from your stomach. And the best way to do that is first through nutrition and second through intelligent program design that incorporates multi-joint exercises. Kettlebell exercises are fantastic for seeing your abs.

Most people think they need to do “more cardio” to lose fat. In fact, “more cardio” is the absolute worst thing you can do to lose fat. Fat storage and fat loss are first and foremost hormonal in nature. They occur from the inside out. The #1 thing that controls your hormones is the foods you eat or don’t eat. Focus on nutrition first, strength training second, and then if you have energy or time, “cardio.” But not just any cardio – High intensity interval training is what will produce your results. But again, that comes LAST.

And only women are afraid to “bulk up.” And that’s just a physical impossibility. Women have 90% LESS testosterone than men. And testosterone is the hormone that makes men bulk up. There are some other reasons too, but that’s the biggie.

5) Why is training for strength so beneficial for all of us – women and men alike?

Because strength is the one ability that all others hinge upon or are based upon. Can’t move? Need more strength. Can’t lose fat? Need more strength. Want to run faster? Need more strength. Want to jump higher? Need more strength.

Now there are different types and “expressions” of strength, but no one will go wrong if they continually train to be as strong as possible.

Finally, and this is what just about every single person training for fat loss misses – when you’re stronger you can do more work. And when you can do more work, you can and will burn more calories. When you can burn more calories – both total calories and calories per unit of time, you’ll lose more fat.

6) Why did you write Permanent Weight Loss Solutions and why is it only $1?

First, I wrote it because pretty much everything I see on the market today deals with the “mechanisms” of weight loss – diet or exercise or some combination of the two. When you seriously think about it, pretty much everyone knows that to lose weight all you have to do is eat less and move more. How many different ways can you say that?

Yet if it’s that simple, how come most people fail? That’s a topic I wanted to explore and that’s what I addressed in “The Permanent Weight Loss Solution.” It’s what goes on inside that determines whether someone succeeds or fails in their weight loss/fat loss attempts.

Second, regarding price, there’s so much “noise” on the market today I just wanted to reduce people’s barriers of entry – which is usually price – and give them the highest quality product I could. It’s really more of a “labor of love” than any sort of revenue generator at this point.