RKC School of Strength

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ankle mobility

3 Reasons To Train Barefoot with Kettlebells

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Training Barefoot With Kettlebells - Deadlifts

At my gym Restored Strength, it is common to see our members training barefoot during their kettlebell sessions. In today’s society it rare to see people spend time barefoot in their own home or at work. The feet are typically neglected when it comes to training, because most people don’t think that feet need to be trained. But there are a lot of benefits to training barefoot.

Wearing shoes can impact the way we train in many ways. Most shoes come with an elevated heel which naturally puts the feet in a more plantarflexed position. The reason that this becomes an issue when training with kettlebells is that you will have a faulty foundation. You will not be centered on your feet in order to truly push down into the floor to get your entire posterior chain to fire. Another issue with shoes is that they limit the range of motion (ROM) in the ankle.

Training Barefoot With Kettlebells - Goblet Squats

Here are my top three reasons that you should train barefoot:

Better Sense of Body Awareness

Proprioception is our awareness of our body in space and movement. We have many proprioceptors all throughout the body, with a big portion of them located in our feet. When we spend all day wearing shoes, we begin to neglect the proprioceptors in our feet. This is because they are not being stimulated by the ground, they are receiving feedback from the insides of our shoes. Exposing your feet to a hard surface will greatly increase the proprioception in your feet because they are not being protected by a large rubber sole.

Greater Ankle Mobility

During my undergrad studies, I did a research project on the benefits of training barefoot. We found that the test subjects who trained without shoes had a greater ROM in their ankles compared to those who trained with shoes. Having tight restricting shoes can inhibit the ankles’ ability to freely move.

Training Barefoot With Kettlebells: Swings

Increased Foot Strength

When training barefoot, you will focus more on how to firmly plant your heels in the ground as you swing a kettlebell. The foot has 29 muscles. Nineteen of them are intrinsic muscles—smaller, finer muscles. Being able to strengthen the intrinsic muscles will help you develop greater ankle stability and mobility.

To safely train barefoot, you should ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. Don’t let your grip or technique get sloppy because that is a first-class ticket to injury. Gradually introduce barefoot training to your kettlebell practice in order to get the most out of it.

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William Sturgeon, RKC Team Leader, RKC II trains clients at his gym, Restored Strength. Contact him through his website at RestoredStrength.com or follow him on Facebook: facebook.com/restoredstrength

How Are Your Ankles?

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Paul Britt Ankle Mobility

Have you played a lot of sports?

Do you wear high heels?

If so, how do you think your ankles are doing?

I have found that most of the people who I train tend to lack ankle mobility. This can be the first kink in the movement chain, and lead to further issues within the whole body. Ankle mobility issues can lead to knee, hip, and even shoulder mobility issues. These issues can also travel down that same path from shoulder to ankle. To find out what is ultimately causing the use, see your doctor and/or be screened by someone who is FMS certified. If you have pain, see your doctor first to be cleared.

The following is a quick ankle mobility series that we use in our gym. Everyone who trains with me has been screened with the FMS/SFMA and if they have pain have been evaluated by their doctor.

I don’t show it in the video below, but everything starts with diaphragmatic breathing. We will typically breathe for a couple minutes to transition from work/life stress so we can train mindfully.

We start out by foam rolling the shin area. We work the anterior tibialis, the band of muscle on the outside of the shin. We are using small strokes to locate areas that are tender or tight. We then will make several passes over that area.

Next, we roll out our calves. While it is possible to do that with the foam roller, I like The Stick for this. It allows for adjustable tension on the calf, and requires less force to work on any trigger points/tender areas. I tell my students to only use about 7-10lb of force while rolling. If The Stick looks like a horseshoe, you are using too much force.

Then, we move onto direct ankle work. There are two different versions on the video. The first version—the field expedient manner—requires no equipment. It is performed in a half-kneeling stance. If the right knee is up, take your right hand and cup the right heel. The left hand will cover the toes. The goal is to keep your heel planted as you progress through the motion. Utilizing diaphragmatic breathing, apply some pressure on your right knee with the right elbow as you move back and forth through the movement. I find the normal rep range for the best results is about 10 reps per side. Perform this on both sides.

The second version is very similar except that you are using a stick and moving the knee to the outside of it. You only go as far as you can while still keeping your heel flat on the ground.

The last movement is the heel sit. Sit back on your heels with a little bit of a backwards lean. Tighten your thighs and think about driving your shins into the ground, then relax. You should feel your feet flatten out as you perform 3-5 reps of this sequence.

This quick and easy series is beneficial for restoring mobility to your ankles and improving your kettlebell training.

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Senior RKC Paul Britt has been an RKC kettlebell instructor since 2006. He trains clients at Britt’s Training Systems, his award-winning Hardstyle Kettlebell Training Facility in Rockwall, Texas. Paul has served as an assistant instructor at many RKC and HKC Courses, is a Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Specialist (CK-FMS) and works with some of the top Chiroprators in North Texas. Please visit his website brittstrainingsystems.com for more information.