senior rkc

Advanced Kettlebell Workout: Forget the Snatch

December 24, 2014 By Beth Andrews 9 Comments

Senior RKC Beth Andrews

Are you a good snatcher? Is your kettlebell snatch effortless and smooth? If you love to snatch try this combo. Add a lunge to the snatch. Your concentration will heighten with the multiple movements. This combo will set your heart rate on fire, scorch your legs and challenge your mind. You’ll actually forget that you are snatching. Start with a light kettlebell to groove the pattern then go as heavy as you can handle.

One of my favorite workouts is to clock in for 15 min. Or my goal would be to do a 10-1 countdown of the lunge snatch and combine it with goblets squats 10-1. As always, form is more important than time or weight. Let me know how your legs feel after this workout!

IMPORTANT:
* This is an advanced combination move for both the Lunge and Snatch technique. Be aware of the hip power and extension throughout the exercise. Make sure your Lunge and Snatch form are spot on before attempting the combination exercise.
** The kettlebells used in the video are official Dragon Door kettlebells I color coded by different sizes.

Watch the video to get the finer points. Have FUN…see you on the other side…

***Beth Andrews is a Senior RKC Instructor, PCC Team Leader, CK-FMS, and Primal Move Instructor. She became the 5th Iron Maiden in 2013. Beth is the owner of Maximum Body Training and has over 20 years of training experience. She also has a successful on-line training business. For on-line training or to host an HKC or RKC certification workshop with Beth, email her at: bethandrewsrkc@gmail.com. For training tips and workouts visit her Youtube channel or her website at http://www.maximumbodytraining.com

Why are you working out?

June 25, 2014 By Jay Armstrong 1 Comment

Seesaw Press 2 - Red Shirt — **Could exercise be fun and help you undo the dysfunction of your daily non-activities?**

Most people treat exercise like it is a bad tasting prescription from the doctor. They HAVE TO do it because someone told them to do it. And what exactly are they supposed to do? Well, of course they need to get into shape, because if they get into shape they will reduce their risk of heart disease, cancer and premature death. At all costs we must avoid death. Bad news happy campers and kiddie troupers. It ain’t gonna happen. For most of us … death is unavoidable.

Here is an alternative plan. Exercise, work out, train, or play with the purpose of feeling better and being able to live life more fully. Make yourself strong and mobile and develop some endurance. As a result of your continued exercise program you should be able to engage in whatever physical activities give you joy.

If you are an American, you probably spend a lot of time at a computer, much of your day sitting at a desk texting, typing, or on the phone, and hour upon hour riding in a car. As a result of these many cumulative hours spent sitting on your all-too-wide and weak butt, you may be ill equipped to engage in many intense exercises for 1 hour, three times per week. This amount of exercise will probably not significantly change your weight. (That is mostly about diet and hormones.) These exercise programs may in fact cause you more harm than good. Furthermore, the thing you most need is to UNDO the damage done by the hours of maladaptation that is caused by sitting.

What kind of bad stuff is happening to your body and to your natural athleticism as a result of all this seated work?

While you are seated your glutes are generally turned off (as are your abs). So when you stand your hip flexors will seem overly tight and your pelvis will tip forward. This puts stress (and excessive curvature) on your lower back.
While working on the computer, your chest is collapsed (adversely affecting your breathing) and your shoulders are rounded forward. This causes your upper back (or thoracic spine) to become stuck and excessively curved in the opposite direction of your lower back.
Your eyes are fixed on a computer screen in an intermediate distance. Your inner ear (responsible for balance and coordinated movement) is not being challenged because your body is not changing position.

So, consider this… Choose some fun and engaging exercises that will help offset or counteract the ill effects of the daily desk job demise.

The kettlebell could be the training tool you have been looking for that will help you begin your rehabilitation. Unlike most exercises on machines in a gym, kettlebell training requires you to stop sitting and stand up. This might be the very first step to improved posture and a better you!

The kettlebell swing, the most fundamental move of the RKC system, includes a strong contraction of the glutes at the top of the swing. This “hip-snap” helps open up the hip flexors and helps teach the athlete to once again contract the glutes during loaded movement. The kettlebell swing and the lunge position of the Turkish getup both work to open up or release your tight hip flexors.

Putting a kettlebell overhead will help mobilize your upper back (or thoracic spine). The kettlebell press, the kettlebell snatch, and the Turkish getup all involve movement with a weight overhead. You must develop a strong, braced posture and a lengthened, erect spinal position to master these techniques. Once your thoracic spine is mobile and you can neutrally align your pelvis, you are well on your way to improved posture and reaching your next level of athletic performance.

Your vision and vestibular system (the inner ear) will be stimulated whenever you move the torso. This occurs when you turn around, bend over, lie down, stand up, etc. The kettlebell swing and the kettlebell snatch both involve a hip hinge and a tipping forward of the torso. This action will provide a significant amount of sensory input to the brain from the vision and vestibular systems. An even greater challenge is provided to your balance and sense of 3D orientation while performing the Turkish getup.

The best exercise program for most people is one that UNDOES the damage caused by lack of daily mobility and the hours of our seated work. Exercise programs must make you feel better, move better, and be able to handle the daily demands of life. If you workout program isn’t fun, you probably will not be able to sustain the practice for a very long time.

Kettlebell training is fun and challenging and is an engaging skill practice. Regular practice of the basic kettlebell drills will help you undo some of the damages of the standard American working environment.

***

Jay Armstrong is a Senior RKC, 6 Degree Black Belt TKD, and Master Z-Health Trainer. The past 30 years have been dedicated to helping others develop confidence through increased strength and pain-free, exceptional mobility. His quest for knowledge continues. He runs The Kettlebell Club in Houston, Texas and can be reached here.

Martial Artists and the Kettlebell Swing

February 5, 2014 By Jay Armstrong 3 Comments

When I encountered the kettlebell, it was love at first swing.

I knew immediately that this was a tool that would complement (rather than interfere with) martial arts training. Traditional efforts in the gym trying to develop big muscles made me strong, sore, and SLOW.

Swinging a kettlebell is clearly not traditional weight training. It will help your martial arts practice if you have the proper technique and a clear understanding of what you are trying to master. Two specific areas of martial arts skills that the kettlebell swing can help improve are:

Tense/Relax Cycling, and
Breath Control

If you feel you have been missing out on strength training or you want to add a different form of cardiovascular endurance training to your routine the kettlebell swing may be exactly what you need. But, the kettlebell swing has even more to offer if you are a martial artist.

Tense/Relax Cycling

Exceptional athletes have the ability to rapidly contract their muscles, or create tension, and then just as quickly release that expression of energy. In fact, one of the things that separates great athletes from good athletes is the ability to create a greater amount tension in a shorter period of time than their competitors and then to more quickly return to a relaxed state. This makes them more efficient. I call this skill the tense/relax cycling skill. This is the ability to rapidly command the desired muscles, and only those muscles, to tense and then to release this tension.

Visualize your favorite professional athlete. Would you characterize their best performances as tense or relaxed? Do you think their impressive performances require no effort? Of course not. They just make it look easy because there is no unnecessary tension.

The kettlebell swing is an athletic skill. It is one that requires tension, muscular control, balance, coordination and significant energy expenditure. This is complex movement pattern that incorporates many practical elemental skills.

As the kettlebell descends down and behind the kettlebell athlete, the maximum amount of force is experienced. The maximum amount of force is presented to the grip and the shoulders and then downward through the posterior chain and into the ground. This moment of maximum exertion (or tension) requires that the kettlebell athlete strongly contract the muscles of the abdomen (or core). The kettlebell doesn’t stay at the bottom position for long. So, this contraction of the core is brief.

The big muscles of the hamstring group and the glutes drive the hips forward and upward to project energy into the kettlebell. As the hips move forward, they must encounter an opposing force otherwise they will move far enough forward to put the lower back into excessive extension. Repetitively doing this will probably make your back hurt.

As the kettlebell moves forward, the kettlebell athlete returns to the standing position. This postural position is referred to as the “plank” position. It is a neutral alignment of the neck, thoracic spine, and lumbar spine. In order to achieve this position, there must be a significant, simultaneous contraction of many muscles. There are few muscles excluded from this contraction. The lats should be strongly contracted to connect the arms to the torso. The abs and core muscles should be strongly contracted to transfer the power from the legs to the arms and to prevent hyperextension of the lower back. The muscles of the legs should be strongly contracted to provide a strong base of support and rooting of the body to the ground. The kettlebell is only floating at the top of the swing for a brief period of time, so this display of high tension is momentary.

How do we improve on a particular skill? Skills improve through focused and intelligent practice. The rate of progress is also related to 1) the frequency of practice; 2) the number of repetitions; and 3) the load or intensity of the practice.

The kettlebell swing provides the martial artist with an excellent platform for improving the tense/relax cycling skill. This is a drill that can be practiced with a large number of repetitions and with great frequency. In addition, the drill is obviously practiced with a load that may sometimes be significant. This all adds up to imply that swinging a kettlebell is an excellent way to improve the martial artist’s ability to rapidly and strongly tense muscles and then just as rapidly release this tension.

Focus on this aspect of the kettlebell swing and you will find you delivery more power in your kicks and strikes. And, your newfound ability to quickly relax will greatly reduce your fatigue.

Breath Control

We have looked at the principle of tense/relax cycling and how a martial artist can use the kettlebell swing to improve this skill. Now, we will look at how the kettlebell swing can be employed to give the martial artist better breath control.

The topic of breathing and breath control could take up several volumes. We need oxygen to provide energy to our muscles and to our brain. Carbon dioxide is a waste by-product of energy expenditure. Breathing is the mechanism by which oxygen is added to the blood during the inhalation phase and CO2 is expelled during the exhalation phase. Both of these are important! Inefficient breathing techniques will cause premature fatigue and adversely affect cognition.

Breath control is an essential skill for everyone but especially for martial artists. Two of the breath control abilities that are required by a martial artist are: 1) a sharp, strong exhalation (or yell) to accompany a maximum contraction, breaking technique, or punch; and 2) the ability to effectively inhale while the core and abdominal muscles are contracted (as they are during a fight).

A forced exhalation through a restriction causes many of the abdominal muscles to contract strongly. Imagine you are blowing up a very stubborn balloon. This is what I mean by exhalation with restriction. This effort develops a tension that spreads throughout the entire body. Yelling simulates this effect and has been used for centuries in martial arts communities. This practice has become commonplace in the world of tennis (among other sports) where many players yell each time they hit the tennis ball. The technique of rapidly and forcefully expelling air through a restricted orifice will help you generate much more tension and power.

It is difficult to inhale when your abdominal muscles are contracted. It is virtually impossible to do so with an inefficient, chest-breathing technique. To breath when your stomach muscles are tight, you must pull the diaphragm downward. Whenever you step into the ring to fight, your abdominal muscles automatically contract to help protect the vital organs behind them. So, you should learn to breathe with these muscles contracted. Even if you are not a martial artist, these muscles contract in the same way whenever you are under stress (at work, at home, or during sports) or whenever you are afraid. Learning to breathe while your abdominal muscles are strongly contracted will improve your endurance whenever your are excited or under the stress of competition.

Both of these breathing techniques are skills. You can improve your breath control abilities through intelligent and focused practice. The kettlebell swing provides an excellent training opportunity to improve these abilities.

The total tension position at the top of the kettlebell swing (or the plank position) is a great time to use the sharp exhalation to generate a bit more tension. And, the quick sniff of air through the nose at the bottom of the kettlebell swing is an opportunity to practice inhalation with braced abdominal muscles.

Your skill will improve quickly if you practice with focus, if there are lots of reps, and if there is significant intensity. The kettlebell swing provides the ideal scenario for all of these requirements.

Workout with Purpose

Often, we are given exercises with the sole purpose of working and strengthening a specific muscle group. Or, perhaps the drills are designed to increase the size of a muscle. While these activities are not necessarily bad, wouldn’t it be better if the purpose of an exercise was to help us improve our ability to perform in a real-world situation or in a sports activity?

The kettlebell swing can be utilized for just such a reason. If you focus on the correct aspects of the technique, the kettlebell swing can improve your tense/relax cycling skill and improve your ability to use your breath to facilitate the development of tension. These skills are essential to all martial artists. I am sure you will see rapid progress if you focus on these goals during your kettlebell swings.

***

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.

***

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.

A Set-Up for Success from a Senior RKC

December 11, 2013 By Cortez Hull 2 Comments

WARNING: This is not going to be your usual RKC blog post. If you are already getting the results you want, then this article is not for you. My words are for someone who is tired of piss-poor outcomes and honestly wants progress.

Throughout my life, I’ve jumped blindly from one type of workout to another in pursuit of such progress. I was kind of like that old cartoon character, Mr. Magoo.

As you might expect, constantly changing my routines without clear plans did not prove effective.

All progress requires change, but not all change is progress. Why did I experience change without progress?

I’ve come to realize that I failed to follow certain essential ideas that separate the GREATS from the mediocre masses. These ideas may be simple and easy to do, but what is easy to do is also easy not to do.

If you are tired of seeing subpar results – or none at all – then read on.

If you are ready for change that is truly progress, then read on.

Idea #1: Decide what it is that you want. Decide your goal!

Zig Ziglar tells a story about a champion archer named Howard Hill, who has NEVER been beaten in open competition. Of the 267 competitions he has entered, he has won 267 times. However, Zig always asserts that Hill can be defeated:

“I’ll bet you that, in a few hours, I could having you hitting a target more consistently than him . . . IF I blindfolded him, spun him around a few times, and moved him before he shot!”

The moral of the story? Even a champion can’t hit a target if he or she doesn’t know where it is.

How can you achieve something if you aren’t clear about precisely what you want?

If you asked the average person to share their fitness goals, you might hear the following comments:

“I want to be healthy.”
“I want to tone my body.”
“I want to get in shape.”
“I want to get stronger.”
“I want to get cut.”

These goals are admirable, but they’re also too vague. How will these people know when they’re healthy, toned, in shape, or cut? They need to define exactly what they want to accomplish. We all do.

My father-in-law once told me a joke about two people who failed to do this: Sven and Ole. (I live in Minnesota, home to many tales about these Scandinavian farmer friends.)

One snowy winter day, Sven and Ole went hunting and managed to get a deer. The two friends struggled as they attempted to drag it back to the truck. Seeing their exhaustion, another hunter approached to offer a suggestion: “Hey, instead of pullin’ dat deer by the tail, try takin’ it by the horns. Dat’ll be easier.” Sven and Ole followed his advice, grabbed the horns, and continued on their way.

After a few minutes, Ole said to Sven, “Ya know, dat hunter was right! Dis is much easier.” Sven responded, “Ya, sure is. But we’re gettin’ farder and farder away from de truck.”

Sven and Ole were doing something that worked, but they were doing it with no consideration as to what they REALLY wanted.

As you take on your own challenge, avoid Sven and Ole-style slip-ups.

Ask yourself: WHAT IS MY CLEARLY DEFINED GOAL?

Idea #2: Once you have your goal, identify why you want it!

Why is this important to you? I don’t mean the superficial why. I mean the deep, EMOTIONAL reason you have for wanting your goal.

Years ago, a buddy’s girlfriend broke up with him. My friend was obviously heartbroken, but with his depression came motivation: he decided to transform his body.

By a few months after the break-up, my friend had gotten a new hairstyle, bought new clothes, changed his eating habits, and dropped a significant amount of body fat. He had even developed new moves on the basketball court. WHY? He knew he was going to see his ex-girlfriend, and he wanted her to regret breaking up with him.

I’m not sure whether she regretted it, but my point is that my friend was able to transform himself because he had a compelling cause for doing so. He didn’t succeed because of a simple desire to see his abs. He succeeded because he had a deep, EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED WHY!

If your why isn’t big enough, your focus and consistency won’t last long.

Ask yourself: WHAT IS MY WHY?

IDEA #3: Once you have your goal and know why you want to reach it, become aware of where you are now.

When we look for particular stores in shopping malls (my local behemoth is the Mall of America), we’re often at a loss until we locate a map with those ever-helpful words: “You are here.”

When we use a GPS or smartphone app to seek directions, we need to know our current location to find out where to go.

Why would beginning a fitness plan be any different?

The act of becoming aware of where you are starting out can be your single greatest tool for further improvement.

Unfortunately, many people neglect to take this step. What a pity! They have no idea of how long it will take to achieve their goals, or if those goals are even realistic.

One such person is a student at the school where I work. Let’s call him Jay. The other day, he came up to me in the hall – the fifth time he’s done so in the last two years. Jay told me that he wanted to get in shape, as he has during every previous conversation we’ve had.

“But this time’s different,” he promised. “I’m serious now, and I need your help.”

I asked Jay what he meant by “get in shape,” and challenged him to specify his fitness goals by writing down some actual numbers. He did so. Once I knew his precise aims, we talked about his reasons for wanting to reach them. The first two of my key ideas in action!

Applying my third idea, I asked Jay, “Where are you now?” He responded with that oft-heard phrase of teenage nonchalance: “I don’t know.” I suggested that he come into the gym so that we could assess his starting point.

Although Jay promised to follow up, two weeks have passed without a word from him. Two wasted weeks in which he is not making any progress towards where he wants to be.

Please, do me a favor: Don’t be like Jay. Don’t let denial or laziness impede you at the very outset of your course. Empower yourself by informing yourself.

If your goal is strength, how strong are you now?
If you want to burn fat, then what is your body fat percentage now?
If you want to perform more work in a specific amount of time, how much work can you do now?

Ask yourself: WHERE AM I NOW?

You’re probably thinking: “It all seems too simple. I already know all of this.”

That may be the case, but there’s a difference between knowing and doing. You may be familiar with these ideas, but are you living them?

Remember:

Formulate your goal. Determine the reasons why you MUST accomplish it. Become aware of what you are doing now.

These concepts are game-changers, with the potential to turn any program from lackadaisical and lackluster into something profoundly powerful. Add them to your program and watch your results improve. Though they may seem basic, their impact will be anything but.

***

Cortez Hull is a Senior RKC, FMS specialist, PCC instructor, and Police Training instructor. He is known as the consummate learner, and is available for program design, HKC workshops, and preparation for the RKC. Email him HERE.