Josh Henkin

Be More Human

January 6, 2016 By Josh Henkin Leave a Comment

Kettlebell One Arm Swing

I’m in a great position nowadays. I get to counsel many younger coaches and hopefully teach them the lessons I wish I’d known when I was first starting in fitness. Even so, I keep hearing the same question:

“Which book or program do I use… so I don’t make mistakes?”

I always have to explain that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Mistakes are only a problem if they’re repeated. That philosophy really resonates with me because I grew up in a family of teachers. My mother, father, grandmother, and my aunt were all teachers and professors.

This is why I don’t ever consider mistakes to be a bad thing. In fact, the mistakes I’ve made have helped me become the coach I am today! Through that evolution and experience, my thoughts on “strength training” have changed quite drastically.

I went through several stages of what I THOUGHT strength training was all about:

Lifting as heavy as possible
Getting as tired as possible
Doing the “magical” lifts

If you can name it, then I have probably tried it at one point or another. But, nothing ever felt quite right until now. Now, what I see as strength is actually inspired by the old ideas from physical culture. Originally, exercise was never solely a physical venture, but included the whole person.

Then I realized that the real purpose of strength training was to help people become better humans.

At every RKC and DVRT program, I ask the class, “Do you believe in functional training?” Almost everyone does, but they look puzzled when I ask them to define functional training. Usually I get answers like, “Functional training makes people better in their lives.”

Who could argue with such an answer, even if it is really vague. But, approaching a training methodology in this philosophical way gives us no clear vision. We often forget what makes us human. Yes, people will tell us that we squat, hinge, push, and pull, but a list of such general movements is almost as vague as the term “functional training”!

I ask our classes to think about THE most common movement they all perform. I get answers like squats and deadlifts—but how much of that do you really do during the course of a day? The answer I am REALLY looking for is “walking”! Did you just hit yourself in the forehead? Walking contains elements of many different movement patterns that most people would consider to be part of a training program. I bring up walking because most of our REAL human activities are not singular motions found in the gym, but a combination of simultaneous movement patterns.

I know, we think of walking as simple, while a swing or snatch is complex. Everyone can walk, but not everyone can do a Turkish get-up. Well, lets put it this way—not everyone walks well! To put things in perspective, my wife, a physical therapist, spent a whole semester learning gait analysis (watching and examining how people walk). And most experts agree that there are between six and eight phases to the act of walking. Not so simple, right?

Lifting more for the sake of lifting more doesn’t really do us any good unless it increases our movement efficiency. Renowned physical therapist, Gray Cook, had a really good statement about this type of training:

“In other words, we want adaptable strength that can work in changing environments. Adaptable strength is developed though complex movement patterns, not over-rehearsed, over-coached lifts in a never-changing environment. The athlete, warrior, outdoor enthusiast or physical adventurer embraces change and challenge, while the gym rat needs comfort and consistency for a happy workout.”

How does this idea apply to your strength training? We tend to live in a value system where the heavier weight is the better option, while we forget the benefits of moving to more complex movements.

https://youtu.be/Tqed0CCRhPY

A few weekends ago, I taught a sold out New York RKC. We were discussing the one-arm kettlebell swing, and I asked the class what real life movement it most resembled. People looked at each other, and a few shouted out answers before I simply said, “Walking”. You would have thought I had had a mic drop moment when I gave the answer in that context.

Why walking? Because it includes reciprocal arm swing. This basically means that your arm swings with the opposite leg. This movement pattern happens for many reasons, but we all do it. Walking also requires us to push down into the ground and project our bodies forward. Guess what else walking needs? (Hint: the answer is also one of the biggest reasons that we swing only to chest height and not over our heads.)

I’m not saying that the one-arm swing is EXACTLY like walking, but it involves the same foundational skills required in this very common human motion we perform every day. With this in mind, you might appreciate that the BEST exercise might not be the one that is only heavier, but the one which places a more complex demand on the body and requires us to become better moving humans!

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Master RKC Josh Henkin can be reached at info@ultimatesandbagtraining.com or http://DVRTFitness.com. Josh Henkin is also the author of DVRT, The Ultimate Sandbag Training System now available in paperback and ebook format.

The Best Things You Aren’t Doing With Your Kettlebells

October 14, 2015 By Josh Henkin 5 Comments

Steve Holiner Squat with Mismatched Kettlebells — *Senior RKC Steve Holiner Squats with mis-matched double kettlebells*

Recently, I had a blast teaching the first RKC in Sacramento, California. We had a fantastic group of people—coaches who wanted to learn. We are all coaches, even if that simply means we are coaching ourselves. When I teach RKC Workshops, my goal is not just to teach people great technique, but I also teach why we do what we do. The RKC method is a powerful functional fitness system because of the deeper understanding we have with our drills, along with our detailed techniques.

Is all this information really that important? Isn’t it just about having a great kettlebell swing? While the answers to those questions are ultimately up to the individual, the old saying, “knowledge is power” still holds true. The knowledge from an RKC Workshop gives so much more power and value than most people expect. Each time we teach the deeper explanations behind “just” another clean, swing, snatch or squat variation, it is exciting to see everyone’s eyes light up.

The best part is the realization that powerful results don’t require complicated applications. Using two different sized kettlebells for double kettlebell drills is a wonderful example. Of course using mismatched kettlebells can simply be a way to perform double kettlebell drills when only a few kettlebells are available, but there is also a better reason to train with them: setting up progressions for RESISTING rotation. Many coaches also refer to this as anti-rotational training.

Before we get into the details of anti-rotational training, we should acknowledge that you may already be using some forms of it. Snatches, one-arm swings, presses, and cleans all represent anti-rotational movements. Renegade rows, suitcase carries, and other similar drills are additional variations of anti-rotational movements. Overall, I think one of the BIGGEST benefits of kettlebell training is the number of anti-rotational exercises that can be performed.

According to renowned physical therapist Shirley Sahrmann, anti-rotational training is important because, “During most daily activities, the primary role of the abdominal muscles is to provide isometric support and limit the degree rotation of the trunk… A large percentage of low back problems occur because the abdominal muscles are not maintaining tight control over the rotation between the pelvis and the spine at the L5-S1 level.”

Learning to resist movement decreases the risk of back injury and allows us to move through the hips—the way the body was designed to move. The ability to resist excessive motion also gives us a foundation to progress and learn more complex movements over time. The first and foremost of these more complex motions is rotation. As many coaches have said, “We can’t produce what we can’t resist first.”

Rotational training is really important for punching, kicking, throwing, and almost anything which requires a great deal of power.

With so many different anti-rotational exercise options available with kettlebells, why choose mis-matched kettlebell training? First, it gives us many more progression possibilities. Secondly, it will allow us to introduce the concept of anti-rotation very gradually. Most people struggle when complex ideas are taught in an overly aggressive way. Lastly, mis-matched kettlebells will make some of our classic exercises that much smarter!

Implementation

Instead of just throwing some random weights together, we will start sensibly. This will allow us to meet an individual client’s needs, as well as easily see when they have hit their limit. In general, I find starting with a 4kg difference works well for most people. For example, a good starting place might be performing mixed kettlebell front squats using a 16kg and 12kg.

Next we’ll need a dowel rod, chalk line, or mat line for measurement on the ground. It will give us some important feedback. During a mis-matched kettlebell exercise, we will predominately watch the front and back of the movement to see if the trunk or hips are moving in rotation, or leaning. Many times, the trunk and pelvis will hold still, but the feet will move to compensate for the instability applied to the body. So, placing the a dowel rod along the toes, or lining the toes up to the edge of a chalk line or edge of a mat will provide quick and easy feedback. How much movement of the feet should we allow? My rule of thumb is “really technical”, if you actually need a tape measure to determine the amount of movement, then you are doing fine!

Remember, you will be switching sides, so keep that in mind when programming. The easiest solution is to use even numbered sets and just switch off on each set. However, if we use an odd number of sets, we will typically perform half of the set with the weights one way and switch halfway through.

Progression

You probably guessed that the most obvious way to progress is to add more weight… While that is true, I actually find that increasing the difference between the two kettlebells is even better. For example, if we are doing front squats and start with 16kg and 12kg kettlebells, we have a total load of 28kg. If it goes well and we want to increase the challenge, instead of just going heavier (which we still could do), we might try the same front squat with a 20kg and an 8kg kettlebell. Even though the total weight is the same, the larger weight difference between the kettlebells increases the challenging anti-rotational effect.

Another option is to change the position of the load. If we use this strategy with an exercise like a lunge, we can hold the load low by the hip and simply move the weight to the rack position, or finally overhead. That changing leverage will make anti-rotational challenge harder and harder. Keep in mind, during more unstable drills like single leg deadlifts, step-ups, and lunges, the anti-rotational forces are more difficult due to the instability of the movements.

The overall goal is to eventually move to true single arm exercises. If you have been around kettlebell training long enough, you will probably notice that as simple as one-arm exercises sound, getting people to do them really well is not so simple.

On the other hand, it is also a really cool way to making jump towards heavier loads. For example, double 32kg swings might just be out of reach. But, swings with a 32kg and a 24kg might be very possible. While the weight is quite a bit lighter, working on resisting the rotational forces will not only allow us to build upon heavier loads, but build a stronger and more stable foundation.

As we often say in DVRT, strength is not just what we lift, but what we resist. Try using some of these mixed match kettlebell ideas in your training and let us know how your kettlebell training takes another leap!

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Josh Henkin, Master RKC, CSCS has been a RKC instructor since 2003 and has implemented kettlebell programs for major Division I programs, SWAT teams, and many different general fitness programs. Josh is also the creator of the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system where he is a highly sought after presenter worldwide. He can be reached at info@ultimatesandbagtraining.com or http://DVRTFitness.com. Josh Henkin is also the author of DVRT, The Ultimate Sandbag Training System now available in paperback and ebook format.

3 Ways to Get More from Your Kettlebells

July 15, 2015 By Josh Henkin 3 Comments

Master RKC Josh Henkin Overhead Press

Kettlebells were a big change for me—far beyond just adding swings, get-ups, and squats to my training. The whole concept of kettlebells made me re-evaluate the tools I used and made me reconsider how many tools I really needed to accomplish a specific fitness goal. In many ways, kettlebells got me thinking more about the big picture. Soon, I was solving fitness needs more effectively. I remember when Dragon Door kettlebells only came in three sizes—16kg, 24kg, and 32kg. Back then, most people didn’t consider switching to a lighter or heavier kettlebell to be the default way to make an exercise harder or easier. That’s what I loved about kettlebells in the first place—we were taught to think about them a bit differently, and I want to share that with YOU!

Many people think they will outgrow their kettlebells as they work through various movements and progressions, but I have yet to see that truly be the case. In fact, by not automatically jumping to a different size kettlebell, you will find yourself breaking plateaus and feeling stronger much faster. The following three kettlebell techniques will show you how!

Dead Stop Anything

Since cleans, snatches, and swings are essential in kettlebell training, it’s important to note how to progress these movements. Time after time I am shocked to see how dead stop progressions can change so much about someone’s movements—and how many strengths and weaknesses are revealed.

While the dead-stop technique is definitely beneficial for swings, I find it has the BIGGEST impact on cleans and snatches, because they don’t have any pre-swing to build from the powerful eccentric pre-load. Ironically, since many people love deadlifts for the same reason, I am surprised this technique is not more popular for kettlebell ballistic training. Personally, I have found VERY few people who can double clean two 32kg or bigger kettlebells from a dead stop for sets of five. But, every time I do meet someone who can, the strength transfer to other lifts is pretty amazing!

Stop!

Since many popular fitness approaches are based on completing a workout in a certain amount of time, we often overlook the value of adding specific pauses. The great thing about pauses is that they can add challenge to any kettlebell lift from snatches to get-ups to squats.

It is amazing what the addition of a few seconds pause can do to the weight of a kettlebell. Suddenly, a somewhat light kettlebell can feel MUCH heavier!

But there are more reasons we should use pauses. On a basic level, pauses give us an opportunity to look at our positions and alignment. When people try to fly through their workouts, it’s common to see a loss of proper posture and cheated ranges of motion. Pauses help prevent technique breakdown and also accomplish some of the benefits we discussed in dead stop training. And with pauses, we can hold in a wide variety of positions. There is great value in holding the catch of a clean or snatch, the bottom of a squat, or even specific phases of the get-up. All of these pause examples can help build untapped strength.

Finally, pauses are an opportunity to work on isometric strength, which is valuable but often difficult to add to most fitness programs. Since isometric training is typically only effective in about a 15 degree range of the action, it may not seem worthwhile. But that limitation is a GREAT reason to work on it at both the bottom and top ranges of motion of a given exercise. At the top, isometric strength can do wonders for building great core strength. And the bottom the range of motion is typically where we need the most strength in a lift.

Perform the Underdog Movement!

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to teach an RKC Workshop in China. During the course we always demonstrate and teach “accessory” kettlebell drills. These drills aren’t tested in the RKC, but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. In truth, many of these additional kettlebell drills are just as important as the more popular and tested exercises.

For example, the kettlebell single leg deadlift has amazing transfer to swings, cleans, and snatches. Many people would benefit from performing the single leg deadlift because it builds greater stability and strength in the lower legs, hips, and trunk. It is so easy to catch and correct compensatory movements with drills like the kettlebell single leg deadlift.

Master RKC Josh Henkin Coaching One-Leg Deadlifts at the China RKC — Master RKC Josh Henkin Coaching Single Leg Deadlifts at the China RKC

Bent rows also make this list of “underdog movements”. I’ve heard some people say that bent rows are “too hard” on the back, but I think this row variation is a great foundational drill for all our ballistic kettlebell exercises. Think of the bent row as an alternative plank—if you can’t hold the position with the right posture, then you may not be really ready to produce power.

Rows also help the shoulder joint with all the overhead work involved with kettlebell training. Due to the typical modern lifestyle and training, the muscles on most people’s back sides are typically weaker. While some trainers will say that you just need to include pull-ups in your training to fix this imbalance, our lats are internal rotators of the shoulder and can actually increase the shoulders’ tendency to round forward. Think the shoulders of elite swimmers. Fortunately, bent rows can help many of the muscles which pull the shoulders back.

But there’s a crucial trick—while many people can lift a kettlebell when they row, they might not actually get their shoulder blades to move. We need to see and feel the shoulder blades coming together as you bring the weight upwards. When this happens, we will also sense if you have scapular movement. If you do not have this movement, it can impact your overhead strength and performance.

Since they are important, I don’t want you to just add some of these “other” kettlebell movements, but instead, PRIORITIZE them in your training. The benefits will include increased performance and resistance to injury.

Just Three?

Adding three things might sound easy, but they all take discipline to perform. You may honestly feel humbled by some of the lighter kettlebells you thought you’d bested. But if you truly have the desire to get better, you will never feel like you’ve grown out of your kettlebells after you experience the amazing benefits from these three simple strategies!

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Kettlebells and Moving Planks

June 10, 2015 By Josh Henkin Leave a Comment

Josh Henkin Half Kneeling Kettlebell Press

If you want core strength, the “Fitness 101” answer is that you must do planks. While the plank is a great starting point and should be well established in any fitness program, it is not nearly the end of smart core conditioning. That’s is why there’s a plethora of plank variations—from the innovative to flat-out goofy!

The biggest problem with the plank is that when practicing it, you CANNOT MOVE! The whole point of the plank in the foundational phases of training is to teach the body how to resist movement by integrating the body’s entire chain. But, MOST of the things my clients and I do require movement.

Think of the plank as a reference point. Of course we want to establish strength in the plank, but we also want to use it as a reminder of concepts we want to use in other movement patterns. The beautiful thing about kettlebells is that they allow us to create many different functional variations of moving planks. We need to produce and resist forces at the same time. I will describe three easy ways to use kettlebells to create extremely functional plank variations.

Overhead Pressing

I love overhead pressing because it is basically an extended plank. If we start on the ground and assume a standard push-up position, we have the beginnings of overhead pressing. By simply walking the hands further and further forward, this straight arm plank variation becomes more difficult. And the problem with continuing on the ground is that we will eventually fall on our faces! Instead, by standing and pressing kettlebells overhead we can train that extended plank.

Of course the other beautiful thing about overhead pressing is that it points out any lack of mobility. Both the hips and upper body can cause us to have major compensations because places which lack mobility will usually cause us to recruit stability from an inefficient place. In other words, mobility issues cause compromised movement.

Assuming we have good mobility, there are so many awesome ways to use kettlebells with overhead pressing. I think of these progressions as similar to moving from a standard front plank before adding more side plank elements over time. You will see this progression in how we lift the kettlebells, and how we stand when we lift the kettlebell—or both! Here is a series you can use to progress from easiest to most challenging variation.

Overhead Pressing Variations	Positional Emphasis	Type of Plank
Standing Double KB Press	KB movement	Front Plank
Loaded KB Press	KB movement	Front/Side Plank
Alternating KB Press	KB movement	Front/Side Plank
One Arm Press	KB movement	Front/Side Plank
Military Double KB Press	Body Position	Front/Side Plank
Half Kneeling Alternating Press	KB Movement/Body Position	Front/Side Plank

Frequently Asked Questions:

What about the Turkish get-up? It’s very different from a plank and emphasizes rolling patterns instead.
Where is the bottoms-up press? It’s a personal preference, but I find that the progressions listed above are accessible for more people.
Where are drills like push presses and jerks? These are all further progressions of plank training. When you add speed, you must have a more reactive core—which is definitely more advanced training.

One more note about pressing overhead. Some people may be wondering about the side lean that some trainees seem to use with kettlebell pressing. While I understand the idea of using leverage to help press the weight overhead, this approach does not build the core strength we can develop with the overhead press and may explain the lack of carryover these same trainees experience with other exercises or implements.

Hip Hinge

I have to credit kettlebell training for raising the awareness of the hip hinge pattern. While I had performed deadlifts and cleans in the past, the emphasis on quality of motion was something I really took home from my first RKC way back in 2003.

The hip hinge is actually a more complex plank variation than an overhead press. We can use it to create the pelvic “lock” used in overhead pressing in the beginning phase of the hip hinge. Because the torso changes angles during the hip hinge, the stress on the core constantly changes.

While most people might think kettlebell hip hinging is only for deadlifts, swings, cleans, and snatches, I am really happy to see the re-birth of bent rows with kettlebells! While it’s not nearly as sexy as many of the other kettlebell lifts, it’s probably one of the most important!

The bent row really challenges our core strength and endurance! Most people can’t maintain the proper hip hinge in the bent row without altering their posture. It’s pretty common for people to creep upwards and end their set more upright, or to speed through their bent rows because they don’t have the core integrity to perform them well.

The bent row should be a cornerstone drill for anyone progressing towards ballistic kettlebell exercises. Having the capacity to tolerate multiple sets of the bent row while maintaining the same hip hinge is a great indicator that the lifter really has excellent core strength and endurance.

Having said that, most people will fatigue in the bent row, so combining the bent row and kettlebell deadlift will allow us to introduce more time under tension without causing bad form from exhaustion.

Here is a series of big “bang for your buck” row and deadlift variations for the hips and plank. Again, move from least to most complex…

Bent Row & Deadlift Variations

Bilateral Deadlift and Row

Bilateral Deadlift with Alternating Row

Suitcase Deadlift with Row

Sprinter Stance Deadlift and Row

Sprinter Stance Deadlift with Inside Row

Sprinter Stance Deadlift with Outside Row

Rear Step Deadlift and Row

Rear Step Deadlift with Inside Row

Rear Step Deadlift with Outside Row

Manipulating the body position and which side the kettlebell is on allows us to challenge ourselves beyond just loading. These variations introduce anti-rotational forces, lower leg stability, and many more benefits as we progress. These kettlebell variations allow you to eventually progress and succeed with familiar but advanced drills like renegade rows.

Lunges

You may have expected me address squats next, but I find so much more value in the vital role lunges play in core strength. I know, you HATE lunges, but that’s all the more reason we need to use them. So many of us need MORE lunges in our training. Lunging is much closer to everyday movements like walking, running, etc. than almost anything else we do in the gym. The lunge is a very functional drill!

As soon as we go into the split position, we can almost instantly see where people lose their plank. Remember, the core is not just a fancy word for your abs, but an integration of your hips, and even your feet—one reason that barefoot training became popular.

The popularity of the half kneeling position for overhead pressing should tell us how important lunges are to real core stability and strength. For the sake of this blog post, we will keep things simple and focus on the reverse lunge which is the easiest to progress people. With lunges, we can vary load placement, and direction of the lunge to challenge the movement. For now, we will focus on using different kettlebell loading positions to build some incredibly strong moving planks!

Lunge Loading Progressions

Suitcase Double Lunge

Double KB Rack Lunges

Off-Set Loaded Suitcase Kettlebells

Suitcase Contralateral

Suitcase Ipsilateral

Off-Set Rack Kettlebells

Rack Contralateral

Rack Ipsilateral

Tactical Lunge

Double Overhead Lunge

Overhead Contralateral

Overhead Ipsilateral

This is the REALLY cool part—we are not just building MANY more kettlebell movement variations, but increasingly more meaningful progressions. Changing the intent of familiar, and often underestimated movements gives them new meaning and value.

You will never really outgrow the plank, it evolves over time just like kettlebell training. The purpose of the HKC and RKC are to give you a very strong foundation to kettlebell training. Most people underestimate the incredible value and versatility of kettlebells if they get stuck in the habit of just performing a few movements. But, if you understand that gaining proficiency in one drill opens the door to another, you will find infinite uses and benefits to every drill in your kettlebell toolkit.

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The 3-6-9-12 Program

October 29, 2014 By Josh Henkin 1 Comment

3-6-9-12 for Athletic Training

It is when you feel like you can break.

You have put everything on the line.

Heroes have been made, dreams have been dashed.

It is the fourth quarter. I remember playing basketball that time, the time when everything came down to how you prepared. How well could you execute even though you were shaky, exhausted, and had been competing your hardest for three previous quarters.

The fourth quarter is when you knew if you were really ready. All the theories get tested, only results win! You had to be strong, you had to be fit, you had to be mentally tough.

The idea of the fourth quarter helps remind me what our training should really be teaching us. Being able to hit a PR is awesome, lifting big weights, terrific, but if they can’t be used when we need them the most what is the point?

Sports aren’t the only places where we see the fourth quarter mentality. Overworked parents, stressed out jobs, they all challenge us to find inner and outer strength to perform. Can we do it though? Is it possible to have great fitness and strength?

Can We Have It All?

Having extremely high levels of strength or endurance takes some very specific training. The truth is that most of us are looking for really good levels in both. The reality is we can have it all with smarter programs.

Lifting maximal weights is awesome, but life and sport rarely happens on a platform. The truth is, most activities look at how you can repeat high levels of strength and power. In fact, renowned strength coach, Robert Dos Remedios, considers power endurance and work capacity the KEYS to athletic success:

“I’m often asked about my goals in my conditioning programming and my answer always seems to come back to one thing, WORK CAPACITY. If we can continue to turn the knob up and get more and more out of our athletes we will build their ability to keep pushing, to improve their all-important strength and power endurance. In essence we are assuring that over time, we will also be able to train harder and harder for longer periods of time with greater intensity. Perhaps most importantly, work capacity building sessions helps to forge amazing confidence…this is often the psychological variable that can be the difference between victory and defeat.”

Don’t misunderstand Coach Dos, they lift hard, they lift heavy, but they understand how to combine all the elements to being successful beyond the weight room! Can you do it over and over again? Do you have that fourth quarter strength or do you fall apart? Sorry, a few sled runs and pushes don’t do it either.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting the strength endurance crowd has it all right either. Many people think that to develop strength endurance that you simply have to perform outrageous repetitions or destructive workouts. Unfortunately, so many of these people fall prey to really low levels of strength and the engine to their endurance ends up being quite low. Not to mention the amount of overuse injuries they often incur!

The Smarter Fitness Program

When DVRT Master and RKC, Troy Anderson, shared with a much better way of training I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it myself! Troy is no novice to tough training, having played football, served in the military, competed in strongman, and growing up on a farm in Wyoming, Troy knows fourth quarter strength all too well.

The concept is relatively simple. Four sets, increasing repetitions, minimal rest. Well, that’s nothing new right? The structure of this program has important principles that need to be adhered to in order to succeed.

Each series has four intermittent sets of 3, 6, 9, and 12 repetitions. The lower repetitions are designated for heavier or more complex movements, where nine and twelve allow us to work on other fitness qualities. The key is to only give yourself no more than about 20 seconds from one series to the next. Let me give you a few examples using hardstyle and Ultimate Sandbag movements.

Workout 1:

Kettlebell Single Leg Deadlift x 3, rest 20 seconds
Ultimate Sandbag Clean and Press x 6, rest 20 seconds
Goblet Squats x 9, rest 20 seconds
Body Rows x 12, rest 1-2 minutes

The above workout showed how we got to load a specific movement pattern (the hip hinge) with heavier loads and as we went through the series went to less complex exercises involving other movement patterns. We began with the hip hinge, moved to an vertical press, then squatting pattern, finally a horizontal pull.

The series began with the drill with the most stability when the body was freshest. That means we are still getting elements of maximal strength and not neglecting strength endurance. After the cycle rest 1-2 minutes and then try to repeat. The goal is to hit 3-4 total rounds.

How would other workouts look? Here are few examples….

Workout 2:

Pull-ups x 3, rest 20 seconds
Ultimate Sandbag Rotational Lunges x 6 per side, rest 20 seconds
Spider man Push-ups x 9, rest 20 seconds
Kettlebell Swings x 12, rest 1-2 minutes

Workout 3:

Get-ups x 3, rest 20 seconds
Ultimate Sandbag Lateral Step Cleans x 6, rest 20 seconds
Renegade Rows x 9 per side, rest 20 seconds
Bear Hug Paused Squats x 12, rest 1-2 minutes

During these workouts you should definitely try to use a challenging load. However, you are going to need to make sure you can repeat your efforts and not have too much of a drop off. For example, if you see more than a 20% drop off in weight you can use, the weight was probably too much. The same can be said if you see a 20% drop off in reps you can complete.

Can You Modify 3-6-9-12?

Of course! You can make it more specific to a training goal. For example, if you really wanted more of an emphasis of strength or power, you could make it 1-3-5-7.

Want to build that type of work capacity and power endurance that leads to championships? Take this challenge from Coach Anderson. Take your 3-6-9-12 plan and after each round (completing the entire 3-6-9-12 series) add a repetition to the next.

Example:
Round 1: 3-6-9-12
Round 2: 4-7-10-13
Round 3: 5-8-11-14

You would still take the rest after each series, but you may have to drop a bit of weight.

Will it be a challenge? Absolutely! Is it designed to destroy you? Not really. If you find it incredibly difficult you might find you had been neglecting the fitness qualities that can really help you make that next jump in your fitness.

Fatigue has been shown to be somewhat movement and muscle group specific. By changing the movement pattern we are taking some stress off the system and muscles. In other words, you should be able to continue high levels of work even in spite of some accumulating fatigue.

I know there will be some that argue that strength should be done without any fatigue, to them I say that isn’t the real world. If functional training is meant to prepare us for the sport and every day life then neither is perfect or ideal. You don’t have to sacrifice great training to grow, rather evolve the way you see fitness!

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Are You Really Missing Out?

January 15, 2014 By Josh Henkin 5 Comments

Every New Years my wife feels like we should do something big! To be honest, I am not all that into going out when so many people are liquored up. I ask her, “why do you want to go out so badly?” She often replies, “cause I don’t want to miss out on anything great!”

The same fear that my wife has about missing something great during New Years is the very same emotion that I think many people in fitness experience. How so? People end up doing everything, every training method, they want to have ever training tool, they have to go to every program under the sun. Why? When I ask people why they do such things, it is often, “I don’t want to be left out”.

I find that staggering, but not shocking. I went through that process in my early career as well. Pretty much any new piece of fitness equipment I got it. Any new program, I had to try it! Then something happened. I changed.

I went from having a extremely packed facility full of equipment to rather bare bones. It wasn’t in an effort to be hip or cool, I just started to realize what I REALLY needed and what really helped the people that I trained. Pretty soon I wasn’t worried that I didn’t perform all the “cool” exercises, I had figured out what worked for what person. I learned the dirty little secret that no single exercise is vital, you have to find the right exercise. Since then, I can’t tell you how much better my own training and that of my clients has been.

That is why I find it interesting when people make strong statements like, “you can’t train only with kettlebells!” Hmmm, you don’t HAVE to train with just kettlebells, but can you?

I hear lots of reasons, “kettlebells don’t go heavy enough”, which leads to “you can’t get really strong”, and of course, “you can’t perform THIS so very important essential exercise.”

Instead of thinking of how training with kettlebells exclusively would make you feel limited. I actually believe it would make your training much smarter! Let me explain by dispelling some of these very common myths.

Kettlebells Don’t Go Heavy Enough

Years ago I heard a well respected strength coach make the argument that kettlebells aren’t that powerful because they only go up to 70 pounds (at the time they did) so they aren’t that great for strength. Ironically, a rather strong person is someone who can manhandle a pair of 70’s (32kgs). How do we have both?

The problem is that most people try to compare the weight of a kettlebell to that of a dumbbell or more problematically a barbell. Sorry, trying to compare the weight of a kettlebell to a barbell is almost apples to oranges. Whether is has to do with the independent movement of the kettlebells, to the different weight distribution, or the fact the holding position of the kettlebell is very different from a barbell. In the end we know one thing and that is weight is not all equal.

I might believe that kettlebells aren’t heavy enough if I routinely saw people throw around double 106 (48kg) bells with ease. However, I find that to be a very rare find.

You Can’t Get Really Strong

To be perfectly honest, this is the one that gets me more wound up. Unfortunately, most people totally screw up the governing principle of strength, the overload principle. The idea of the overload principle leads people to becoming consumed with the idea of load. However, that isn’t what the overload principle actually means. The concept is that we have to provide a stress to the body to cause changes greater than the body experienced before.

The reason that most programs fail is they fall into that trap of just load and forget about the many other variables that actually can play a very important role in improving strength. By not having the small jumps in weight available in kettlebells we can focus on these other concepts.

Other Overload Variables:

-Speed

-Load Position

-Body Position

-Range of Motion

-Volume (amount of work)

-Density (amount of work in a given amount of time)

-Direction of Force

-Type of Muscle Contraction

Each one of these concepts could be an article within themselves. My point though is to show how many other variables most programs fail to actually consider. If we look at each and think about how they play a vital role in strength training and program development, we can see that kettlebells can work incredibly well in all these variables and how the weights of kettlebells could be greatly altered in conjunction with manipulating these different ideas.

We often hear the legend of old time strongmen performing incredible feats of strength. Ironically, most didn’t sit there focusing on adding 2 1/2 pounds to a lift. They intuitively used these other methods to manipulate load. The deadlift didn’t really become a staple lift till 1910-1920 when South African Strongman, Hermann Goerner, made it a focused lift. Bob Hoffman of York Barbell Company really popularized the more familiar barbell that we know in the early 1930’s. My point is that these things we consider soooo important to get strong are really rather new ideas. We have seen people become incredibly strong without the luxury of small weight increases or a wide array of weights for centuries.

The Fitness Cynic

I don’t blame people for being more than a bit skeptical about the idea of getting stronger by JUST using kettlebells. However, since Dragon Door helped bring back kettlebells to the modern fitness world, there have been hundreds of real world stories of people getting darn strong!

Some may feel a bit cynical because there was marketing of kettlebells that helped the movement and therefore, their popularity. Few realize that the barbell become popular because Bob Hoffman and York Barbell were advertising and promoting the benefits of barbell training. Why? They wanted to sell barbells, but also because this is what they truly believed, the barbell was a great and powerful tool that could change people’s lives.

A third reason that I think many people have issues with the idea of kettlebell training only goes back to an interesting piece I saw on CNN about social media. The story told of how less and less young people are using Facebook as their primary social media outlet. Why? Much has to do with the fact it went mainstream. When the grandparents started becoming active on social media, it started to become deemed “less cool” by the younger generation.

Now that you can find infomercials on kettlebells, fitness ads using kettlebells, and just about any fitness media that wants to appear cool. I think some people have fallen victim to the idea that kettlebells aren’t cool because anyone can use them. Funny enough, I think that is what makes them a beautiful tool.

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About Josh: Josh Henkin, Senior RKC, CSCS has been a RKC instructor since 2003 and has implemented kettlebell programs for major Division I programs, SWAT teams, and many different general fitness programs. Josh is also the creator of the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system where he is a highly sought after presenter worldwide. He can be reached at info@ultimatesandbagtraining.com or http://DVRTFitness.com.

2 of the MOST Common Kettlebell Mistakes

September 18, 2013 By Josh Henkin 9 Comments

If you train long enough there is one absolute guarantee, you will make mistakes! Most people look at mistakes as a negative, but in fact they teach us so many valuable lessons. We learn what works for us as individuals, we realize that different points in our lives require different types of training, an understanding that our needs change as we go through our journey of fitness will evolve. You see, the only way you actually learn these lessons is by making many of these mistakes.

I hope to save you a bit of time from 20 years of training so that you don’t have to learn all these lessons on your own! When comes to training with kettlebells for the past ten years I have also ran into many trainees that seem to run into many of the same issues.

By writing this article I hope to help you learn from my own experiences. Yes, you will make mistakes, but realize the only really bad mistake is the one you keep repeating! Hopefully I can help you avoid those times of frustration with two of the most common mistakes and result haltering kettlebelI mistakes.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Any time you start something new, it is cool, it is exciting, it is motivating. Unfortunately, just as many times we take a good idea and take it to the extreme. Getting reintroduced to kettlebells for me in 2002 was the first time that I saw pressing weight overhead being heavily promoted as a means of improving health and performance.

Many fitness programs were still touting overhead work as dangerous to the shoulder. However, the RKC focused on many overhead lifts as a means of having a healthy and strong upper body. Overhead lifts were about integrating the lower body, trunk, and upper body in one efficient and highly effective unit.

What was the mistake? Many people went from very little experience of lifting overhead to 90% of their program or more being overhead lifts. I started to see an influx of people with overtraining injuries because like anything good, people tended to overdue it!

What should you do instead? Instead of taking a good thing and going to the extreme, slowly integrate new ideas and exercises into your routine. Nothing wrong with adding 2-3 sets of 3-5 repetitions of a new exercise into your training program. That ends up being about 15 repetitions, instead of 30 plus repetitions that I would see in most new training programs.

Find out how your body responds, see if you are ready to do more or if your body needs more preparation. One of the hardest things for many of us to do is to slow ourselves down. Trust me, patience has the reward of long-term progress and injury free training versus the instant progress many see from just doing something new and stalling early and developing issues!

Not a Balanced Routine

You just read about exercise x, it is the new exercise that basically is suppose to solve ALL your training needs. This is the ONLY exercise you ever need to use a again. What do you do? If you are like most of us, you do as you are told. You focus on this one, okay, maybe two different lifts and POOF, all your training needs are solved!

The reality is that most of us need much more variety, especially earlier in training. Whether you are referencing legendary coaches and scientists like Tudor Bompa that spoke of an “anatomical adaptation phase”, periodization models that spoke of “general physical preparation”, or even old time strongmen that used a wide array of gymnastic and strength training exercises to build a strong foundation before more focused training. In any of these situations, the best coaches and athletes realized a need to prepare the body for more intense training.

I remember many people coming to me so excited to start kettlebell training and when I asked them how much exercise they had been doing most hadn’t done anything with great intensity for some time. Looking at their training they were doing one to three kettlebell exercises. Many times with the same movement patterns.

Here is a common kettlebell routine I would see.

Kettlebell Swings 3 x 15
Kettlebell Clean and Press 3 x 5
Kettlebell Snatches 3 x 10

I am taking some liberties with the programming, but you get the idea. All three have a two legged hip hinge movement, all done explosively. There is no squatting, no lunging, no single leg work, no stability exercises. Two out of the three exercises are overhead movements there is no upper body pulling at all. You start to see such movements are quite unbalanced. How might I change this routine? Here is something I loved to provide with beginners.

Workout 1

Goblet Drop Lunge 2 x 6 each side
Rows 2 x 8-10
Suitcase Deadlift 2 x 8-10 per side
Overhead Press 2 x 5 each side
Front Plank 2 x 30 seconds

Workout 2

Single Leg Deadlift 2 x 6 each side
Assisted Pull-ups (Band or otherwise) 2 x 6-8
Front Squat 2 x 6-8
Get-up Sit-up 2 x 5 each side
Mountain Climber 2 30 seconds

You can see there are two more exercises per routine, but that isn’t the big difference. In each routine we get a far more well rounded movement based program. We place the most challenging exercises first and more isolated or stable exercises later. There is single leg work, balance of pushing and pulling, working different angles, and a compliment of squatting, lunging, pulling, and foundational stability.

Most people make the mistake of over doing or not doing enough for their fitness in the initial stages. A good base of fitness helps prepare the body for more intense programs later on.

One of my favorite stories to illustrate my point is follows the path of a young man. In his early 20’s this well built young man (with limited training experience) told me he hurt his back deadlifting. I asked to see his technique and program. His technique needed a few tweaks, but his program needed far more!

I asked him, “Where did you get this program?” He replied, “It is what elite powerlifters do!” “How long have you been training?” I had to ask, “About six months.” After asking him to repeat to me who the program was for a few times he understood his mistake. I wasn’t trying to embarrass the young man, but rather remind him that following the right program for your current ability level helps you get to higher and higher levels.

If you follow these two simple rules I ensure you that you will have many years of success. It can be hard in this day and age of instant gratification to have the discipline to have patience and honesty with where you are currently starting. However, if you are able to implement these ideas, the rewards are years of successful training with the greater chances of experiencing plateaus and injury!

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Revenge of the Lunge!

August 14, 2013 By Josh Henkin 8 Comments

One is for serious strength.

The other is for firming and toning.

One is for packing on functional muscle.

The other is to sculpt.

One is for increased performance in just about everything.

The other goes well with spandex.

What are these two contrasting things? I am comparing how most people in fitness see squats and lunges. The squat has long been held up as “the king” of lower body exercises while the lunge has often been seen as the token exercise that you do because it is suppose to be good for you. However, you would never dream of emphasizing the lunge over the squat, or would you?

For quite some time I had the above belief, especially during my days competing in Strongman. Real strength was reserved for squats, deadlifts, cleans and such. Why waste precious energy on an exercise that many coaches think we can save for music pumping aerobic classes?

Something interesting began to happen though. As I kept going heavier in my training my body started feeling it. Stiffness, tightness, and little increase in my performance made me begin to wonder if there was a better way to really get strong and fit.

It wasn’t just casual aches and pains, I began to see my recovery take much longer, I saw my training being based around what didn’t hurt that day. How in the world could I go against the gospel of strength training though?

Really only one reason would be good enough to go against such established beliefs, I felt and performed better when I made lunges more of a core lift in my programs! Why? Why in the world would I have started seeing better results from implementing lunges not as an accessory exercise, but a focused lift?

I began to wonder why, after all I can theorize things such as better hip stability, building more mobility, fixing imbalances, hmmm, might be something here.

While I am from the first person to think lunges are worthwhile, is there anything more than my anecdotal evidence though? Is this just some silly controversy I am trying to begin?

A 1999 study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, set out to find different levels of muscle activation by some common lower body exercises. In this study, both squats and lunges were included. The results?

The researchers studied glute max, glute medius, and hamstrings. All three are important in hip stability and power production. According to the EMG activity of 12 trained individuals there were three interesting findings;

“For the gluteus maximus, squats elicited significantly more muscle activation than both the horizontal and vertical leg presses, but showed no significant differences in EMG activity when compared to the other exercises.” (yes including lunges)

“Results for the gluteus medius showed that quadruped hip extensions, step- ups and lunges generated significantly more muscle activation than squats.”

“Finally, for the hamstrings quadruped hip extensions, step-ups, lunges and four-way hip extensions garnered significantly more EMG activity than squats…”

Hmm, isolated study? How about a study where researchers from the University of Arkansas and Eastern Kentucky University looked at muscle activity of squats compared to lunges. The study looked at female college athletes and found, “ that there was no greater muscle activation when performing any of the squat depths to that of the body weight lunge. It was revealed that the body weight lunge did indeed produce more activation in the majority of all muscles analyzed when compared to the three squat depths.”

Why mention the body weight lunge? The real shock here is that the lunge was compared to a weighted squat! That says a lot about the power lunges do possess.

Don’t worry though, all this lunge talk doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the squat. I just want to open your eyes to the often overlooked lunge and maybe have all of us re-evaluate how we implement this great drill.

More Than One Plane

The lunge represents a less stable body position, this level of instability actually causes a lot of often underutilized muscles to turn on. Turning on these smaller muscles (stabilizers) helps build strength in a more indirect route. By improving the whole body stability of the body we develop a stronger foundation in which to develop force and strength. As goes the old saying, “you are only as strong as your weakest link!”

The less stable body positions also represent a highly underutilized form of training, multi-planar. Basically, multi-planar training is when we move in one plane of motion (there are three in natural human movement) and resist motion in other planes.

Even something as simple as walking actually has us moving in all three planes at once, however, we rarely train this in the gym. Remember, we want to connect our strength training to our every day living as much as possible.

What does multi-planar training look like? When we step forward in a lunge we actually are also resisting forces that are pushing us to the side and trying to make us rotate. We can use kettlebells to actually enhance this effect.

Multi-planar training increases stability, makes our nervous system smarter, and yes, can be awesome for improving conditioning. This is something we don’t really get the opportunity to train in our more stable lifts such as squats and deadlifts.

More Than Up and Down

Think of your favorite athlete, look how we do most things in life, rarely in either case do we see movements that are strictly up and down patterns. We are reaching, twisting, moving in all sorts of positions often at once. This is something we can really use the lunge to help improve.

One of the more overlooked benefits of lunging is the fact we don’t just get force when we move up and down, but by lunging in different directions we get some really unique forces acting upon the body. A big reason that knowing the right direction to progress your lunges is important is because we can greatly increase the intensity of a lunge just by changing direction.

For example, when we lunge forward, more of our body must be decelerated as we step forward than when we step backwards. Drop lunging (lunging backwards) keeps our most of our center of mass over our base of support. Huh? Forward lunging is harder than backward lunging because we have more of our body to stop as we step in that direction. This is something we see very often in sport and every day life.

Consider all the various directions we can step when we lunge and you have a wide array of ways to progress and challenge the lunge beyond just the weights you use!

Bring in the Kettlebells

Kettlebells add such a great dimension to the lunge. With all the patterns that kettlebells can create, there seems to be infinite ways to progress the lunge outside of just going heavier. Today’s training video actually features how we manipulate kettlebell holding positions to create some very unique training effects .

Using these strategies allow you to use kettlebells for more than just adding weight to the body. There becomes specific means of challenging the various benefits of lunging.

Since we often program the most demanding exercise (in both coordination and neurological energy) first, you might find that you start prioritizing your kettlebell lunges and then perform some of your squats and deadlifts after. You may even be more shocked that you get better at squats and deadlifts even though you have de-emphasized them.

Once you try these kettlebell lunge variations you might find the lunge having its revenge in your workouts as well!

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References: Also: Dwelly, P., Oliver, G. Blair, H., Keeley, D. Hoffman, H, “Improved Muscle Activation in Performing A Body Weight Lunge Compared to the Traditional Back Squat,” University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA

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Josh Henkin, Senior RKC, CSCS has been a RKC instructor since 2003 and has implemented kettlebell programs for major Division I programs, SWAT teams, and many different general fitness programs. Josh is also the creator of the DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training system where he is a highly sought after presenter worldwide. He can be reached at info@ultimatesandbagtraining.com or http://DVRTFitness.com.