RKC School of Strength

Official blog of the RKC

kettlebell press

Three Ways to Reinforce Tension

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William Sturgeon Kettlebell Swing

We commonly coach our clients to create tension with cues such as “brace the core”, “tighten the glutes”, “crush the handle”, etc.  These phrases can help get clients to create tension in their lifts. You may see the specific group of muscles tighten, or a change in your client’s face when you ask them to create more tension.

Deconditioned clients are often unable to create tension through a specific area at first. It’s important that we spend time teaching them certain drills and use different cues to help them find the ability to create tension. It can be challenging to teach people how to apply tension during a lift.

Why Reinforcing Tension is an Important Skill to Practice and Teach:

Tension Keeps You Safe
Ballistic movements like the kettlebell swing require that we move rapidly—and if the movement is done incorrectly it can lead to injury. Kettlebells are not unsafe tools—users with bad technique are unsafe. Placing an emphasis on stressing the muscle with tension will allow you and your clients to work on technique without irritating the joints as much.

Tension Builds Strength
Your muscles recognize tension, not load—this is why we should focus on contracting the muscle before and during the exercise. Using “time under tension” (TUT), you can stimulate the muscle for greater growth. The denser the muscle, the stronger the body. Producing more tension throughout your lifts can also help generate more force.

Tension Stimulates Muscle Growth
Creating mechanical tension is one the of the primary factors associated with muscle growth. Mechanical tension is created by stressing the muscle throughout its full range of motion during an exercise. The phrase “time under tension” (or ‘TUT’ as referenced in the paragraph above) relates to the amount of time we’re stressing the muscle during an exercise. The more tension created during an exercise, the more muscle that will be recruited to perform the task. In turn, this gives the muscle a greater growth stimulus.

Drills That Teach How to Create and Reinforce Tension:

Hardstyle Plank
The RKC Hardstyle plank is the traditional plank’s older, much cooler brother. While a traditional plank is good for teaching a client to engage or brace their core, the client can still perform it poorly or fall short of the correct amount of tension we are looking to create. The Hardstyle plank creates a lot more tension than a regular plank. Most regular planks are held for 30 seconds or more, but the more intense Hardstyle plank is held for a much shorter amount of time maximizing the body’s full strength potential.

How to perform the Hardstyle Plank:

Isometrics
During isometric exercises, the muscle tenses but its length remains the same. A good example of an isometric exercise is an RKC drill we use to help pry open the hips. We place the client in the bottom position of a kettlebell goblet squat, then ask them to create a great amount of tension while forcing “prying” the hips out—all while keeping the hips in place. This powerful drill can help your clients find their glutes while understanding the amount of tension they need to create at the top position of their squat.

How to Perform an Isometric Hip Prying Drill

Time Under Tension
Time under tension is one of the greatest tools for helping our clients create or reinforce tension. Coach the client through a “grind” exercise—such as a kettlebell press—during a set amount of time. The kettlebell press can be performed and progressed in many ways, though most people will immediately want to just increase the weight. But, if we apply “time under tension” to the kettlebell press, we can make a lighter kettlebell feel far heavier. This can help a client spend more “time under tension” while safely finetuning their technique.

The Time Under Tension Kettlebell Press

 

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William Sturgeon, 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

A One-Size-Fits-All Solution for Problematic Kettlebell Presses

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Master RKC Andrew Read Performs a Kettlebell Bottoms Up Press

The learning and skill continuum that begins at HKC and progresses through RKC and RKC-II follows a fairly straight line. We begin with patterning exercises in HKC—two hand swings, the goblet squat, and the get-up—before progressing to one handed variations on these themes such as the clean and snatch, and the double kettlebell front squat at the RKC. The work done on the get-up lends itself to pressing and snatching which in turn leads to the double push press and jerk as well as the windmill and the bent press at RKC-II.

At RKC-II, people usually face one of two problems, either their thoracic mobility is poor and they struggle with the double overhead work (as well as the windmill and bent press) or they struggle to get their heavy press. As much as the old RKC saying, “To press a lot, you must press a lot” does ring true for many, it may also lead to bigger problems down the line.

About a year ago I wrote an article for Breaking Muscle (Single Kettlebell Ballistic Complexes: How to Save Your Shoulders and Still Work Overhead) which explained the three different types of AC joint set up that people have, as well as possible ways to train long term without damaging yourself. But that still doesn’t help us with the heavy press goal if we’re on our way to RKC-II, does it?

When I wrote Beast Tamer, I outlined many different press plans that could help you get through a sticking point in your press training. I’ve learnt a bit since then and want to outline a plan below that will help you get through your sticking points without risking injury.

What we need is a drill that gives us the same feel as the heavy press and the same effort—all without placing the same strain on the AC joint. This is where the bottoms-up press (BUP) comes into play. The BUP is an interesting drill. Interesting in that I have used it as a one-size-fits-all solution for a variety of problems with the press. Not gripping the kettlebell tightly? The BUP will fix that. Not staying tight in your press? The BUP will fix that too.

The BUP is ideal for our needs as it teaches great form while forcing you to use less load. That may sound problematic, but the body doesn’t register how much you lift, only how much tension you generate. If your form is even slightly off, the kettlebell will fall. This is what makes the BUP ideal as a learning tool. It is automatically apparent what needs to happen and where the point of failure is.

Imagine that the fulcrum (center of rotation) for this movement is not the delicate AC joint, but instead a point midway between the deltoid and the elbow—essentially the middle of the bicep. By focusing on having your elbow move around that point while doing a BUP you will teach your whole body to engage during the press. Likely you will find this feels significantly different to what you have been doing when overhead pressing.

One of the things to keep in mind in relation to the BUP, is that it has a great effect up to a point. I don’t believe that past 32kg they do much to boost your press as the skill becomes its own lift. Prior to that they can be a valuable tool to teach you tension and alignment. Do not make the mistake of turning the drill into an exercise. The goal is never to have the best BUP in the world, rather to use the BUP to build your press.

Low reps are a must with the BUP, as the CNS fatigue from the high grip demand is intense. 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps seem to work best prior to your limit presses for the day.

The other side of this equation is that healthy shoulders are not built from pressing alone. For every push, you must have at least one set of pulling to counteract it. While the pull up is usually the choice of functional trainers, I’ll caution against it as the lat also acts as an internal rotator of the arm, so if all you do are presses and pull ups you’re just as likely to end up with bad shoulders as if you only did presses.

At RPT, we use a variety of weighted mobility drills to achieve healthy shoulders. Here’s how a press workout might look:

Lying dislocates with weight – 3 sets of 10 reps. Paired with push-ups for 3 sets of 10-20 reps.

BUP – 2 x 5 at 50%

Y-T-Row – 2 x 5-5-10

BUP – 3 ladders of 1-2-3 reps combined with easy light two-hand swings in between to help shake the tension out.

Perform a rear support—think of it as a face up plank—for 60 seconds and then do a get-up on each side. Perform three super sets of this as a final shoulder health practice. Make sure to stretch after and “unglue” all the tension you’ve built up in these muscles during training. Pay particular attention to the triceps, lats, traps, and shoulders.

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Andrew Read, Master RKC, Author of Beast Tamer, is head of Dragon Door Australia and Read Performance Training. Recognized as Australia’s leading functional strength trainer he is a regular contributor to Blitz, Inside MMA, International Kickboxer, Oxygen, Ultrafit and Breaking Muscle. His coaching background spans nearly twenty years having worked with many Olympic and world championship level athletes.