BJ AND KORI BLIFFERT HEADS FOR SUNNIER CLIMES IN FRISCO TEXAS, WHERE KETTLEBELL TRAINING IS THE TRADEMARK OF THEIR THRIVING PERSONAL TRAINING FACILITY, FULL THROTTLE ATHLETICS
By Jonathan Widran
In May, BJ Bliffert, who co-owns Full Throttle Athletics in Frisco, Texas (just north of Dallas) with his wife Kori, traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia for an intensive ten day training camp with world champion athletes and coaches who specialize in working with the kettlebell—a steel weight (resembling a cannonball with a handle) that is used to perform explosive exercises that combine strength, cardio and flexibility training into a single training session. The kettlebell is also one of the predominant training tools in Military, Law Enforcement and Fire Fighter Academies.
Though this is the first time the Blifferts have gone to the country that developed and uses the kettlebell for fitness, military and sport training, the unique apparatus has been a core part of the small group personal training, boot camp and their newly formed Girevoy Sport Club training offered at Full Throttle since they launched in 2008. Theirs is also the only facility in the region to offer Authentic Russian Kettlebell training, and BJ and Kori share their expertise with the world in the Kettlebell Training chapter they wrote in the international best selling anthology book “Total Body Breakthroughs: The World’s Leading Experts Reveal Proven Health, Fitness & Nutrition Secrets To Help You Achieve The Body You’ve Always Wanted But Couldn’t Until Now!”
BJ first became interested in the kettlebells in his first few years as an in home personal trainer in Milwaukee after graduating with a degree in Fitness Management from Carroll College in Waukesha. After reading some magazine articles by a Russian author who was touting how kettlebell training was used and had helped the Soviet Armed Forces achieve very high levels of fitness, he got one and quickly realized the claims were true. These high repetition workouts with as little as a 35 pound kettlebell produce incredible results because every workout was the equivalent to a full body workout. He began integrating them into his clients’ training and they began quickly achieving the same results he did: increased strength, reduction in body fat and increase in cardiovascular function.
BJ found that with the use of kettlebell training, he could achieve, often times, in less than 15 minutes what it would take an hour to do with conventional weights and cardio training. Because his business was mobile for the most part, centered in the home gyms of clients’ homes, he loved the fact that the kettlebell was a versatile tool he could take anywhere. They range in weight from 8 to 48 kilograms, or 18 to 106 lbs. Most men will use a 16-24kg kettlebell and most ladies, a 12-16 kg kettlebell bell.
The way BJ and Kori got to Frisco, involves a phrase most Midwesterners know and put up with year after year: bad weather. “It was November 2007 and it started snowing early in the year,” says BJ, “the kind of heavy, wet snow that is hard to drive in. For years I had to deal with it as I drove to clients’ houses. Kori and I had been married for several years and had talked for a long time about moving someplace with a better climate. This proved to be the last straw. We went down for Christmas to visit Kori’s mom for five days and before we left, we had put an offer down on a house. We learned our offer had been accepted while sitting on a runway in Des Moines, IA, because there was too much snow to land in Milwaukee. We knew we had made the right decision.”
Moving to Texas and following their dream of creating their own facility, The Blifferts found a space and built it to their specifications. They built their early clientele largely by word of mouth and because they offered something unique and their clients were achieving results at a rapid pace. BJ says that he and Kori have made the kettlebell a core part of their training at Full Throttle Athletics because of its incredible efficiency and the full body workout it achieves.
“All of the kettlebell movements are full body systemic movements,” he explains. “Everything you do with them will tax the full body as one single system, including different swinging and squatting movements in our fitness classes. In our new Girevoy Sport Club we practice and test the three movements involved in the sport of kettlebell lifting, kettlebell snatch, the kettlebell jerk and clean and jerk. The snatch involves moving the bell in a swinging position between the legs to over the head in one movement. The kettlebell jerk is where the person is supporting one or two bells on the chest and using the legs to drive the bell overhead to a locked out arm position. Finally, the clean and jerk is where the kettlebell is moved from a swinging position from the legs up to the chest, and from the chest over the head. Many people don’t realize kettlebell lifting is an actual sport, even if you have no plans to compete, it’s a great way to increase your fitness on all levels. This is how the kettlebell is integrated into the military and law enforcement training in Russia.”
BJ adds that his expertise with kettlebells and learning himself from experts over the past 10 years, and traveling to Russia, the kettlebell’s homeland, makes the training his clients receive with them at Full Throttle Athletics superior to the kind other kettlebell trainers/coaches claim to offer. According to him, what most trainers do is simply substitute the kettlebell in an exercise a client would normally use a dumbbell for. He puts Jillian Michaels of TV’s “The Biggest Loser” in this category.
“Truth be told,” he says, “you’re probably better off using a dumbbell for these exercises, these trainers buy a book are watch a few YouTube clips and think they can teach this. In turn they often injure clients thus hurting the reputation of this awesome tool” The beauty of the kettlebell is its shape and the fact that it can be used to perform long sets of coordinated full body movements. By using this tool the way it is designed, Full Throttle’s clients get a great workout in a short amount of time – and truly build some serious fitness.
At first glance, Full Throttle’s Athletics’ services (semi-private personal training, personalized boot camps, Kettlebell Training and Youth Athletic Development) seem pretty typical, but when asked BJ explains, “We try to break the mold for every service we offer. In most cases the first step is an assessment, consultation or an orientation and based on that and their personal goals we can figure out which service best fits their currents needs. We view ourselves as Fitness Professionals, not trainers, so it’s all about doing whatever best suits our clients needs not simply increasing membership numbers.”
“Some clients come to us thinking they need our boot camp service—but upon further review and assessment, they may not quite be ready for that physically,” he adds. “As professionals we’ll recommend personal training to start, because this is what they need, we’ll then transition them into the larger groups as their fitness improves if they choose. Our boot camp definitely offers an intense workout. Most envision a drill instructor type trainer in front of the room barking out commands at people even when they’re severely fatigued. This is where we draw the line, we ensure that everyone uses proper exercise techniques and slows down when necessary to avoid potential injury, more is not always better in terms of exercise”
Full Throttle Athletics’ semi-private personal training works with small groups of people, each client has a binder containing their custom training plan. With sheets to fill out to chart progress the professionals can adjust a clients program as needed to obtain their goals. The boot camps have 20-25 people at once, doing essentially the same workout. But there’s a twist, each workout is broken down into three specific levels of difficulty, clients perform the level of difficulty matched to their current fitness level, because of this BJ prefers to call their boot camp “large group personal training”. There are up to three trainers on the floor for every boot camp session so that at any given time, every client experiences one on one attention.
When asked who his specialized services are for, BJ responds, “We work with highly motivated people and help them achieve their goal in a converted warehouse facility that is designed to feel more raw and real than fancy and cozy. Our goal is to help people in our community get more fit and build the healthy bodies they want to have. Everyone wants to lose that last ten pounds and get back in the game and feel the way they felt back in college, we work with the people who want to take action and make it happen. We work with people from across the spectrum, from elite level athletes who train with us to de-conditioned people getting off the couch for the first time in their lives. You just need to to “want it. We recently launched a Youth Fitness and Athletic Development Program as well”
A client BJ is very proud of came to him at the age of 18, weighing 270 lbs. and wanting to take control of her life. Sometimes just walking from her truck to our front door was a workout. “Now she’s down to 200 and will be competing in kettlebell sport competitions.”
The newly formed Girevoy Sport Club at Full Throttle is extremely unique. This is for people with competitive and non-competitive goals who just want to train with kettlebells as they are used in Russia, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Using the same techniques used overseas these athletes and clients will build extremely high levels of fitness and lean, strong bodies. Some may choose to compete on a local, national or even international level. BJ has goals to help build this unique sport in the USA on a grass roots level. To further this goal Full Throttle hosted a two day IKSFA Kettlbell Training Camp on July 9-10 by flying in the same coaches he and Kori just traveled to Russia to train with.
