RKC

RKC Prep: Troubleshooting Snatch Technique

March 8, 2013 By Keira Newton 4 Comments

If you want to improve your technique with kettlebell snatches, this is a good video to watch. It is imperative to know how to snatch before you start banging them out with a heavy weight for 5 minutes. You want to be sure to be prepared for the RKC before you get there, so study this video to learn some inefficient, and even dangerous things that people commonly do.

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About Keira Newton, Master RKC, Level 3 Z-Health, MCT: Keira first picked up a kettlebell in 2005 when her husband challenged her to stop laughing and start swinging. She stuck with the challenge when she realized that she could get an all-in-one workout in a fraction of the time she spent at the gym. Keira was convinced… Read more here.

This Moment Brought to You From Nicole Money’s Soap Box

March 6, 2013 By Nicole Money 2 Comments

This morning I decided to teach the single leg kettlebell deadlift to a very loyal, hard-working kettlebell client of mine. When I told him my plan for his session I was promptly met with, “I’m not doing those. Every time I did them with •insert former trainer’s name here• I hurt my back.”

He was adamant. Single leg deadlifts had injured him and frustrated him so much that he refused to do them any more with his former personal trainer (a certified athletic trainer and personal trainer of more than 10 years). He swore he would never do them again.

I took a step back and asked him to demonstrate this exercise, which, by his account, injured him every time he’d performed it.

He took his “ready” posture, tightened his muscles and leaned straight forward, flexed at the waist and kept his planted leg completely straight. He reached his arm out about a foot in front of him as to pick up an object placed that far away. He teetered a bit, caught his balance and stood back up. He added, “That movement right there hurts my back.”

I smiled.

My reply: “This is going to be a piece of cake.”

Without a boring recount of our session, I revisited the RKC School of Strength lecture about the hip hinge with which all of Shane and my students are very familiar. We patterned the hip hinge, the two leg deadlift and finally the single leg deadlift. We then added bilateral load and then unilateral load. We practiced a bit and then added it to the kettlebell complex I had planned for the morning.

When his session was finished, his response, and I quote, “I really like these. Wow, I feel my ass a lot. This was fun.”My point: kettlebell is an art. It is a discipline. It is a process, has progressions and should not be taken lightly. When used correctly, in my opinion, there is not a more effective tool for overall conditioning and reinforcement of correct movement patterns.

Find an RKC instructor and learn to kettlebell correctly… find one who is also FMS Certified and you’ve hit the pot of gold.

As an RKC, I am committed to continuing to fight the good fight one battle at a time.

Today: RKC 1 — Bad Training 0.

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Nicole Money is a Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) certified instructor, a certified Functional Movement Specialist, and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certified Health Fitness Specialist. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and has been a fitness coach for more than 20 years, working with clients of all ages and activity levels. Nicole co-founded The Edge Kettlebell Gym in Dayton, Ohio and teaches kettlebells to anyone willing to listen! She brings her passion and knowledge to drive students beyond what they thought was possible to reach their fitness goals.

Strength Despite Limitations… by Corey Howard, RKC, CK-FMS

December 14, 2012 By Corey Howard 9 Comments

The RKC is about Strength. Many times we’ve referred to it as a “School of Strength.” After all, what’s better than lifting heavy stuff? In fact many instructors have said the secret to a happy life is lifting heavy stuff overhead! As RKC’s we sometimes base our abilities on a heavy deadlift, pull-up and overhead press. But what do you do if you can’t physically deadlift? What if some anatomical limitation prevents you from pressing heavy stuff overhead? Are you left to a life of spinning classes and pretty little selectorized machines? No!

I am one of these people. I physically can’t deadlift, or squat heavy anymore. I can’t press heavy things overhead on a consistent basis. Don’t get me wrong… I’m a former competitive powerlifter, I love lifting heavy stuff! Due to a nice case of scoliosis I physically can’t put weight on my back, or vertically load my spine, and heavy deadlifting is just not smart anymore. Take a look at a recent X-ray of my spine:

So now what? What do you do for a client like me? Heck, what do I do? I use the tools the RKC and DragonDoor has provided… CK-FMS, Swing variations, Get-ups, and Paul Wade’s Convict Conditioning book. Let’s take a look at these-

CK-FMS – As we all learned from Brett Jones and Gray Cook, we’re only as strong as our weakest link will allow. If we have an active straight leg raise issue, or a stability issue, it adversely affects our performance because we aren’t moving efficiently. Brett once said that for some people the correctives become part of our daily routine, and for me that’s true. I’m always going to have a t-spine mobility issue, and as a result I’ll always have a stability issue. If I don’t make those correctives part of my practice sessions my low back is in pain the next day.

Swing variations – Swings are the foundation of what we do, and there are so many variations. Typically I have two days devoted to only swings. The first is a one arm swing interval variation day, and the other is a heavy swing day. For example I may do 30-40 minutes of one arm swings with a 24k, then later in the week I might perform 2 hand swings with a 48k for 30-40 minutes. One arm swings help with conditioning as well as stability issues due to the asymmetrical loading. The heavy two hand swings are as close to heavy deadlifting as my body will allow, yet work great for building strength in a safe yet ballistic manner.

Get ups – David Whitley says get-ups are essentially the human gate pattern, and he’s right! Get ups allow us to move safely under a load while our body fires in a X-type of pattern. Look at the initial post to elbow move for example, we drive through our bell side glute while posting on the opposite elbow by firing that lat. Everything moves diagonally, just like when we walk. Get ups teach me to move under a load while still providing the much needed overhead stimulation. Ten minutes of get ups do the trick!

Convict Conditioning – When I was powerlifting, I used to have a high and low intensity day. Some powerlifters call it Dynamic and Max effort days. Basically this is a day of lower weight with higher reps to essentially practice the movement, shore up weak links and build efficiency, followed with a max effort day 72 hours later with fewer reps and heavier weight, very similar to the swing methodology discussed above. I have chosen to focus on three bodyweight strength movements; pistol, pull-up and handstand push-ups. Since I can’t back or front squat, the pistol is a safe alternative that still allows me to safely apply a load on heavy days yet still get high rep squat variation practice in on my light days. The pull-up is also a movement that allows me to hang a kettlebell from my foot or a belt to add a load, while practicing a horizontal version on my light days. Finally handstand push-ups are really the only way I can press anything overhead without being crippled the next day! All three movements are easy to modify using the different levels provided in Paul Wade’s Convict Conditioning.

So how does this look in a program?

Day 1: 10-min of light get ups followed by light easy bodyweight strength practice

Day 2: 30-40 min of One Arm Swings

Day 3: 10 min of heavier get up practice followed by heavier low rep bodyweight strength movements

Day 4: 30-40 min of heavy swings

Being strong is an important part of life. It’s how we survive. No matter what physical limitation you have there are resources available and ways to work around almost anything. The last thing anyone should ever do is sit down on a machine, choose a weight, and push out some mindless reps. Grab a kettlebell do some get ups and swings or some bodyweight strength work.

An excuse only exists if you allow it to.

About Corey:

As the owner and founder of Results PT, Corey started the company in 2004 out of his house, with the goal of creating an energizing atmosphere that’s geared toward the client’s success. Since 2004 his vision has grown along with the list of clients, and in 2008 he opened Sioux Falls’s first private personal training studio. Corey has trained and helped many people lose a lot of weight, including a few people that have lost over 100lbs. He also has experience training fitness figure competitors and pagent girls. His clients have been featured in local and national magazine articles, appeared on television, and competed nationally. He originally became a certified personal trainer while living in Minneapolis in 2002 and over the years has created a successful strategy and program that reaps success. He also has experience in competitive powerlifting and loves total body kettlebell workouts that promote athleticism. He can be reached at www.resultsptonline.com or www.coreyhoward.com

1999 Sioux Falls Augustana College graduate. BS in Bs Admin, Soc, Psych.
I’ve been in a gym lifting, training, and learning about fitness since 1992.
After living in Mineapolis, Mn for 5 years my wife (Tricia) and I moved home to Sioux Falls, SD where I started Results Personal Training out of a spare bedroom in our house. Over the course of time it slowly evolved into Sioux Falls’s first private training studio with 2000 sq. ft, of kettlebells, power racks, free weights, a slosh pipe, and many other fun implements.
Former competitive powerlifter
After tearing my left tricep and being forced into early retirement from powerlifting, I discovered kettlebells with some encouragement from Brad Nelson, RKC. And in 2009 I earned my HKC.
In 2010 I went on and earned my RKC.
In 2011 I earned my CK-FMS and became the first kettlebell functional movement specialist in South Dakota.
In 2012 I was an assistant instructor at the RKC certification course. South Dakota’s most Senior ranked kettlebell instructor.
I’ve had clients range in age from 10 to 75, who’s goal range from weight loss, pageantry, increasing a vertical leap, and just fitting into smaller jeans.

Can I Gain Size with Bodyweight Training?

December 10, 2012 By Phil Ross Leave a Comment

I’ve been asked “Is it possible to gain size with Bodyweight only exercise?” The short answer is “Yes”. It’s easier to accomplish upper body size gains with bodyweight training than with lower. Without meeting you personally or at least getting to know you better, it would be impossible to adequately provide you direct program recommendations. However, I will provide some guidelines and concepts.

First, a few “Don’ts”. Do not treat your calisthenics as a quasi-aerobic or simple warm up. Find challenging movements and utilize progressions, as employed in Coach Paul Wade’s book Convict Conditioning. Or view the video version with Max Shank.

Let’s address push-up, for example. I chose those to address, because you can do push-ups, even at the most difficult levels, anywhere and with no equipment. Remember to use progressions and be certain not to skip any levels in your progression. You may form “holes” on your training and hinder your ability to achieve your highest levels. Here are a couple of YouTube clips of me performing push-up variations.

Please make certain that you employ strict technique and do not rush through the movements. The combination of 10 second push-ups and spiderman push-ups have yielded some particularly favorable results.

As far as your legs and lower body are concerned. It is difficult reaching great size with simple bodyweight exercises. Squats and Pistol Squats (Single Leg) movements with result in a great deal of strength, but not a supper amount of size. Why is this so? You are on your legs all of the time and you need to substantially increase the resistive load to stimulate muscle hypertrophy. It’s most easily accomplished with adding weight to your exercises. I prefer kettlebells, because you can use much less weight for attain results than you would have to with barbells or machines. If you don’t have access to kettlebells or if you are adverse to using weights, employ a regiment of plyometric exercise. There is a great deal of plyometric literature and exercise programs available.

Good Luck!

Coach Phil Ross

Master RKC