Since its inception, Kinesis has revolutionized the way we approach training in the gym. It is hard to believe that this space-age design has been present for more than ten years in different versions representing the greatest innovative equipment in the world of training and fitness. Thousands of exercisers every day benefit from not only from its unique features, but also the countless applications that this machine enables.
In traditional fitness, the goal is set on the volume of work given by the load and repetitions. Not with Kinesis.
In this article, we will discover the technical specifications that make this equipment so effective and the the application variables that its innovations allow us to obtain in the field of one-to-one training and in the world of small group classes: we will discover all those features that make Kinesis such a unique and fascinating piece of equipment.
Kinesis training, an objective to improve movement
Before examining the technology that is the heart of this working method, we will dwell on the philosophy behind this revolutionary equipment. Training with Kinesis sets the objective and the target on the subject's motor qualities. Thanks to the freedom of movement that this machine allows us to obtain, in fact, attention is paid to how exercises and motor gestures are performed with the aim, thanks to an ever-present overload, of improving their quality in order to make any movement in everyday life more fluid and profitable.
The focus on quality and no longer promotes simply quantity of movement, as with traditional fitness equipment, where the objective is fixed on the volume of work and intensity given by the load (kilograms). This is a crucial element to grasp in order to understand the concept of training that is used with Kinesis and enable full appreciation of its potential: quality of movement more than quantity.
How do you get this effect? Working on the control of the body in motion and on the fluidity of the gestures with an overload that is always present, this means overcoming resistance at infinite angles in three dimensional space .
One of the popular concepts in functional training is core stability, which focuses on training the abdominal corset, to be efficient at controlling and transferring forces between the limbs and environment.
With Kinesis, it is possible to train the core effectively at very high levels by activating it during all fundamental movements, from any angle of the body and in positions from lying to kneeling to standing and in locomotion. Exercises can use only kinesis or include the additional challenges of unstable surfaces and accessories (medicine balls, balance boards, etc.). Let's see now what principles and characteristics can be used to obtain these benefits.
How Kinesis is structured
The home version of Kinesis, called Kinesis Personal, and the version for gyms called Kinesis One at first appear to have a very similar structure apart from the materials used in the manufacture. On closer inspection, there are some important differences.
The characteristics of Kinesis Personal vs. Kinesis One
- Both versions of Kinesis offer a tool equipped with a closed-circuit cable system that enables free movement trajectories in space: this patented system is known as Full Gravity Technology, the closed loop cable system that provides freedom of movement through 360°.
- With the commercial product, Kinesis One, it is possible to increase the workload of each cable using the independent weight stacks in each of the cable systems across 16 levels. On Kinesis Personal the single dial rotates up to level 20 and applies a mechanical resistance to both cables simultaneously. In either version of the product the load can also be increased gradually simply by moving away from the machine to exploit a greater length of the cable (the alpha vertical cable allows you to move away from the base of about 3 meters).
- The great differences between the two versions are found in the type of load and its distribution: - Kinesis One has two packs of weights independent of each other, very similar to the packs of weights of traditional isotonic machines although, with a huge difference: to enhance the focus on the quality of movements and not on the quantity of the load, the plates are not highlighted KG as on traditional machines, but the load levels (from 1 to 16). This is a real revolution as it leads to managing the same movement or exercise by varying it into different levels of difficulty.
- The Home version instead has a central dial that can be turned to vary the tension of the cables, in order to increase or reduce the load on the cables.
- Another key difference is that because the Kinesis One has two independent weight stacks, with different loading possibilities, it enables two people to use the machine simultaneously, performing different exercises with different workloads. In the Personal version, designed for use by one person at a time in the home, the single dial adjusts the load of both cables equally for convenience.
From these characteristics, we can understand the great number of potential applications of this machine but, as we mentioned before, one of the most important is the possibility of increasing the level of difficulty via two independent mechanisms:
- the increase of the overload (plates or dial)
- an increase in distance of the user from the machine to exploit the full gravity technology.
The two principles offer the possibility of perceiving the heaviest workload by performing the same exercise at a greater distance from the base of the cable, thus increasing the activation of the stabilizing muscles and increasing the work of the core to keep the body stable and balanced during the execution of the gesture. It is no longer necessary to focus only on increasing the load of the plates, but it is possible to obtain great benefits in terms of quality of movement even simply by increasing the distance from the machine to perform the gesture.
Kinesis improves posture, stabilizes the core and reproduces the technical gestures of the sport
Thanks to all these innovations, Kinesis is in the fitness market as a revolutionary machine and is adaptable to any type of training, including:
- functional
- sport-specific preparation
- postural improvement
- core stability
Kinesis reproduces the technical gestures of sports
As far as sport is concerned, Kinesis is an excellent training solution as it allows you to perform the technical movement-patterns present in the various disciplines (tennis, golf, swimming, football, etc..) also and especially in sports where there are explosive movements, allowing you to perceive a load throughout the arc of movement of the gesture, allowing in this way to refine the technique of movement. It is a very effective solution that can be included in various specific sports training programs.
Kinesis to improve posture
Moving on to consider posture correction, we observe that Kinesis is very suitable for this type of activity in which the search for balance, flexibility, and stability is fundamental; the use of Kinesis would allow you to perform exercises and movements with a resistance to overcome, so as to optimize the work of those deep muscles, the stabilizers, which have the task of keeping the body in balance and the joints stable during the execution of gestures. Thanks to the design of the cable system it is always possible to perform those fluid and precise movements, typical of this type of activity while maintaining the concentration also on breathing.
Kinesis for core stability
One area in which Kinesis holds a place of honor is that of functional training to improve core stability. Thanks to its structure, it allows workouts oriented towards the execution of natural gestures, which are part of the daily lives of people, increasing the training effect with the application of variable loads from different directions relative to the body to increase the level of difficulty movement in terms of both balance and coordination. An example of an application that brings together these different uses is the use of these techniques in preparation for the winter ski season, in order to strengthen the body by giving it stimuli related to stabilization and then apply this in sport specific movement patterns.
As we have seen, Kinesis is a tool with unique characteristics: it offers the possibility of developing movements in the surrounding space always ensuring the presence of an overload, allowing us to diversify the workloads gives us the opportunity to train two or more people simultaneously, allows us to vary the objective of training based on the demands of the subject, thanks to all these features Kinesis is in effect a functional machine at 360 degrees, it is up to us to exploit all its capabilities!
