squat

RKC Kettlebell Hinge Analysis

July 2, 2014 By Mike Krivka 5 Comments

OVERVIEW
There are six basic movement patterns : Push, Pull, Squat, Hinge, Carry and Groundwork (i.e. Turkish Get Up, Rolling, etc.). A thorough understanding and utilization of these movement patterns will make you an exceptional athlete, a better rounded coach or trainer, and will allow you to move and grow old gracefully – which are no easy tasks. Tens of thousands of words have been written in regard to Pushing, Pulling, and Squatting; of late the Hinge, Carry and Groundwork have started to get some well deserved attention as well. Among all of the writing there are some real gems of information and guidance as to how to effectively implement the movements and safely execute them. One area that is referenced a lot, but not clearly defined and explained, is the Hinge. The Hinge is the basis for most of the Kettlebell techniques as well as the foundation for the barbell Deadlift. While it is being taught and practiced by athletes and clients every day there are still some issues with executing it safely and efficiently. The following several paragraphs are my attempt to clarify some “gray areas” regarding the Hinge.

A HINGE IS A HINGE… OR IS IT?
There is a lot of confusion as to what a Hinge is and what isn’t. If you spend any time on YouTube (and I do) you will see a wide variety of examples what people are doing that looks like a Hinge but in reality is something completely different. Let’s define the Hinge first and see if we can identify where people go wrong. First – a Hinge is not a Squat (but the Squat has a Hinge component; we’ll get back to this later on). The Squat requires maximum flexion of the Ankle, Knee and Hip and puts the butt parallel or below parallel. Second – the Hinge is not bending over or what some people call “The Sippy Bird”. Bending over requires that the Hip flexes and the head travels forward over the toes. This type of Hinge presents itself with people who are trying to “pull” the Kettlebell or Bar. Third – the Hinge is not done with a straight back – meaning upright, but a flat or neutral spine. When you do the Hinge, the backin its entirety, needs to stay neutral or flat in order to not only protect it but to “stack” is so that you can transfer power through it.

So we have three things that the Hinge isn’t – so what is it? The Hinge is a loading position that allows you to maximally translate energy from the ground via a ballistic extension of the ankles, knees and hips. This ballistic extension can then be translated into movement of the body or a secondary object like a Kettlebell. There are a laundry list of variables that will affect the volatility of your Hinge (and yes it should be a “violent” extension” but I’m going to save that for another RKC Blog posting). What I want you to imagine that the Hinge should be the position you feel that you can get the most drive or explosion out of. Think “jumping over a building in a single bound” and you’ll get what I’m talking about.

LEADING WITH YOUR HEAD
Here’s the nitty gritty about the Hinge: it’s all about initiating, generating power, and transferring power. And guess where the biggest errors occur? You’d think it’s with generating and transferring – but it’s actually on the initiation. You see when most people do the Kettlebell Swing (or Clean or Snatch for that matter) they explode out of the Hinge position leading with their torso and head (back to that Sippy Bird” thing). Don’t believe me? Then try the simple test outlined in the video below. The first demonstration shows the athlete trying to pull their way out of the Hinge position. This position is so weak that light pressure on the head stalls the whole body. The second demonstration shows the athlete driving up from the ground using their legs and finishing with a powerful Hinge movement. The presence of my hand on the top of the athletes head doesn’t deter them at all.

What you are going to find is that many of your athletes and clients are paying lip service the Hinge but are actually generating power through their lower back and acceleration of their head. It’s going to startle many people when you are able to stop them dead in their track with gentle pressure on their head; careful when you try to demonstrate this because you can easily tweak someone’s neck or back if they try to “fight” their way through the obstruction. Here’s the thing – you can train the Hinge in this manner and get reasonably strong and stay injury-free for a long time. But… and it’s a big one… you are not going to be able to generate as much power as you could if you don’t learn to initiate and follow through with the Hinge from the ground up.

Think about the Hinge this way: the best way to generate power is from a fixed object outward or upward (like the ground). If you are initiating your Hinge by driving off the ground with an explosive push from your feet, the force will be transferred though the ankles to the knees, the knees into the hips, and ultimately into the Kettlebell. This is generating power in one direction. If you are inadvertently generating force by using your lower back and head (once again think “Sippy Bird”) then you have force being generated both upward towards the head and downward towards the ground and only a percentage of that will be able to be transferred into the Kettlebell. Once again – watch the simple hands-on test and cueing that I demonstrate in the video and you’ll see that the most efficient and powerful way to create force in the Hinge is through initiating through the ground up.

WISDOM FROM A MASTER
Marty Gallagher is a master in the realm of strength. He has made a career out producing world record holding athletes, writing about the iron game (have you read his opus “The Purposeful Primitive”?), and working with Tier One Special Operators. To say he knows what it takes to be strong and get strong would be an understatement. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting down and talking about strength training with Marty on a couple occasions and I always come away with insights that are light years away from where I currently am. For instance, we were talking about Barbell Deadlifting (DL) and how many of the current crop of DL’ers you see start way too high and are facing down when they initiate the movement. Sure, you can get the bar moving there but you’re never going to reach your potential using that technique; not to mention you are putting unnecessary stress and strain on your back. According to Marty the best “pulling position” for the Barbell DL is the shins and the torso at almost the same angle – this allows you at to drive off the ground with the legs (squatting) and then transferring the load into the Hinge to complete it. Once again – the Hinge completes the movement; it’s not the whole movement.

So how does this apply to the Hinge in regards to the Kettlebell? Directly! Do not pass Go, do not collect five hundred dollars! While pulling a heavy barbell Deadlift and performing a heavy Kettlebell Swing may look radically different they have a lot of similarities (and several differences). If you look at the Hinge from this perspective it will radically change how much more force you can generate (using the biggest muscles and drivers in your body) and will lessen your reliance on using your arms to move the Kettlebell. Several things that make a difference between the two are the position of the load during execution. The barbell has no choice but to stay in front of the shins during the movement; this will change not only the loading but also affect the angles of all of the major joints. With the Kettlebell you have much more latitude for positioning the load (those pesky shins don’t get in the way) and you can put it between and behind your feet to allow a more direct and powerful loading of the hips, glutes and hamstrings.

Don’t let my explanation of the positioning on the barbell Deadlift and Kettlebell Swing confuse you! The point I am trying to make is that when you are practicing a technique that utilizes the Hinge the key factor is how you are initiating the movement. Are you driving through the Hinge from the ground up or are pulling through the Hinge with your arms and head? There is a HUGE difference and the results are profound…

CONCLUSION
What I’ve outlined above may be common knowledge to some and, even after a video and over a thousand words, will still be a mystery to others. That’s okay! Watch the video, re-read the above post and see if you can work out the specifics on your own or via experimenting with your athletes or clients. The purpose behind the test I demonstrated is not to frustrate or confuse you – it’s to show you a simple and effective way to ensure that your athletes or clients are using the safest and most effective way to generate power for Kettlebell ballistic techniques.

Thanks for your time and attention and I look forward to your feedback and questions!

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About Michael A. Krivka, Sr. – Senior RKC: Michael A. Krivka, Sr. is a Washington, DC native who has been involved in Kettlebell training for over a decade and is currently an RKC Team Leader and member of the RKC Board of Advisors and the RKC Leadership Team under Dragon Door (where he has been listed as one of the top reviewed RKC’s in the world for the last five years). He is also the author of a bestselling eBook entitled “Code Name: Indestructible” and is in the process of finishing up several other eBooks on Kettlebells, body weight, and the integration of other tools into an effective strength and conditioning program. Mike has traveled extensively throughout the United States teaching Russian Kettlebells to military (USMC, USN, USA and USAF) and law enforcement personnel (FBI, DEA, USSS and CIA)… read more here.

…It’s Only the HKC!?!?

March 18, 2014 By Mike Krivka 5 Comments

I’ve had the honor and pleasure to attend pretty much every certification that Dragon Door has offered for over a decade and I’ve always been impressed with the extremely high quality, professionalism, and thoroughness of each and every one of these events. The quality of the instruction and the enthusiasm of the attendees are unparalleled. So when I heard a recent attendee at an HKC certification make the comment “Why are you being so picky? It’s only the HKC?” I had to respond; but only after I was able to excuse myself, get a drink of water and splash some cold water on my face, and come back and address the question with a level head and something approaching my normal blood pressure…

Introduction

The HKC is comprised of a full day of instruction on three tremendously powerful, important and effective techniques:

Kettlebell Goblet Squat
Kettlebell Swing
Turkish Get Up

A whole day to cover just three techniques?!?! Yes–and even with a whole day to cover them, and a handful of variations, you are still only scratching the surface on how to use, apply, and perfect them. These three techniques will make a huge difference in you and your client’s strength, mobility, athletic ability and longevity. While at first glance they seem to be simple to execute and master you will quickly realize that to truly understand them will take thousands of repetitions and hours and hours of work. At the end of the day you will not only be able to safely and effectively know how to execute these three key techniques, but more importantly you will be able to spot good and bad technique, sequencing errors, and weak links in these core movements.

The Heart of the RKC

The HKC is the heart of the RKC. It is the strength, conditioning, and mobility foundation that it creates that will allow you to move onto more technical and challenging techniques. Without the understanding of the Swing, Goblet Squat and the Turkish Get UP being successful at the RKC would be impossible. The bedrock that the Snatch, Clean, and Military Press are built upon is the HKC–and they are also the foundation that the RKC II is established upon as well.

I have heard the HKC referred to as “RKC-light” or the “mini-RKC” and this is far from the truth. The HKC introduces three essential movements that set the foundation for more advanced ballistics and grinds as well as preparing the athlete to understand how to generate, absorb, and redirect force; key and game changing principles that are essential to high-level performance. The HKC is anything but a “light” version of the RKC–it establishes the awareness of a high quality movement baseline that will follow the athlete from the gym to the field, court, or streets.

Dan John, one of the most sought after and influential strength and conditioning coaches of our era, changed the paradigm for the composition of a complete training program from the time honored “push, pull, and squat” to something much, much more. According to Mr. John an athlete needs to train in the following six areas:

Push
Pull
Squat
Hinge
Carry
Groundwork

When assessing where athletes come short in their training programs, in other words, trying to figure out where they have gaps in their training, you need to look at what they are doing and what they are avoiding. Consistently you will find that most athletes are able to rattle off their Bench Press and Squat numbers but start to mumble when you ask about the rest of their training program. They are invariably short in their Pull, Hinge, Carry, Groundwork, and (quality) Squat movements.

So what does this have to do with the HKC? Everything! If you were to augment the athletes (or your clients) training program to include more quality work in Squatting (Goblet Squat and variations), Hinging (Kettlebell Swings and variations), and Groundwork (Turkish Get Up and variations) you would make a huge and lifelong difference in how they move, perform, and recover. Filling in those gaps would make that much of a difference in the short term as well as having a huge impact on how the move and feel in the coming years. NOTE: I didn’t address the weakness in the Pull movement but that can be easily filled by Pull Ups (think Convict Conditioning) and by Farmer Walks (do a search on YouTube; there are lots of good examples).

Who Should Attend the HKC?

If you are truly interested in improving how you move, feel and perform as an athlete you need to attend the HKC. Even if you have no intention in ever teaching someone else how to use a kettlebell, but odds are you will share this newfound knowledge, you should attend. If you are interested in making a huge dent in your weaknesses, be they strength, mobility, or conditioning, then you need to make the investment in yourself and attend.

If you are a coach or trainer that is looking for a way to “round out” your athletes or clients then the HKC is the answer! Most athletes will hide between the movements that they are comfortable with and have no interest in learning new movement and loading patterns unless you can demonstrate and explain the benefits behind doing Goblet Squats, Kettlebell Swings, and Turkish Get Ups. Attend the HKC and you will be armed with this knowledge and much, much more.

If you are in the Military, Law Enforcement, or Fire/EMS service then you are desperately in need of a fast, efficient, and powerful training program that meet the physical demands of your profession. The foundation created by Goblet Squats, Kettlebell Swings, and Turkish Get Ups will go a long way in keeping your body in peak physical condition to be able to perform your job at a high level and return home, safe and sound, at the end of your tour, shift, or rotation. Because of the time commitment that all of these professions require you need to have a training program that will allow you to train efficiently as well as have carryover into your day-to-day tasks–you would be hard pressed to do better than the information that is presented in the HKC.

If you are a “Coach Potato” or “Weekend Warrior” then you can benefit more than you can imagine. This minimalist approach to training can augment, compliment, or out and out replace your exiting training program; and if you’re not doing any strength and conditioning training on a regular basis then this is a great place to start. With these three powerful techniques you can lose fat, gain muscle, move better, feel better and add quality years to your life – and have fun doing it!

Conclusion

If you are interested in improving how you move, feel, and perform then I strongly suggest that you look at the HKC as the answer to your strength and conditioning questions. The training that you will receive at the HKC is an investment in your health that will pay dividends for the rest of your life. It will be an experience that will change your concept of what effective training is and set a foundation for additional skills that will make you stronger, more mobile, and more effective in your sport of choice; even of your sport of choice is “life”.

Still not sure if the HKC is for you? Then I challenge you to get on the Dragon Door website and reach out to an HKC in your area, or anywhere, and get their feedback on the training they received and how it has impacted their lives. I think you will be surprised on how excited they are about the experience and how much that one day has influenced their training and their lives.

NOTE: If we ever get the chance to meet face to face, and I hope we do, please don’t ask me who said “It’s only the HKC!?!?” I have been sworn to secrecy and I can’t tell you who it was. That doesn’t mean I can’t send you a link to a website through an anonymous email account though… just kidding! My lips are sealed!

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Troubleshooting the Squat with Master RKC, Keira Newton

July 3, 2013 By Keira Newton Leave a Comment

The Goblet squat and the Front squat are two of the most important, and most neglected of RKC exercises. In this video, Master RKC Keira Newton demonstrates with student Brittany Branch where some problem areas typically are—and how to fix them.

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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.

Are You Making These Mistakes With This Key Kettlebell Drill?

May 1, 2013 By Phil Ross Leave a Comment

Picture courtesy of Cathy Raimonda, HKC

The Kettlebell Front Squat is a key movement directly applicable to virtually every sport and to ALL sports requiring explosive power and strength positions. The squat is also essential to everyday life. Picking up our child, carrying suitcases, getting up out a chair – to name a few. Many people believe that they can’t squat. However after one short lesson they realize that they can. In most cases, if you can sit on a toilet you are able to squat. We utilize an active negative method of pulling the hips into the squat position. Barring any severe deficiencies or physical limitations, this method has remarkable results – usually the first time it is applied!

Why is the Kettlebell Front Squat such an essential movement? The strength gains from the Kettlebell Front Squat experienced in the legs, hips and especially the core are greater and with a significantly lighter load than required with the back squat. When considering Sports Performance and General Fitness, there is a breakpoint where the training required and the muscle size created actually hinders your performance. For example, if squatting 400 lbs. helps you reach a 10.4 second mark in the 100 meter dash, squatting 450 lbs may not necessarily bring your sprint down to 10.2; you may actually become slower!

Yes, your squat will increase, but your hamstrings and hips will become tighter thus slowing your movement. The aforementioned numbers are arbitrary. There are far too many variables in individuals and sports to effectively assign exact numbers. In order to provide accurate assessments, experimentation needs to be conducted on a case by case basis. However, I will add one caveat; if your goal to have an extremely heavy back squat and you are a powerlifter, you need to perform heavy sets of traditional, back squats. Even though the Kettlebell Front Squat (KFS) will help boost your back squat numbers, you still need to perform the actual movement that you are competing in.

The Kettlebell is placed in front of you, whether bottoms up, racked or bottoms down. Compression and core activation is required to stabilize your truck and and your spine. Compression, tension and an active negative are all employed as you inhale and pull yourself deep into your squat. The spine is kept long and strong with no “tail tuck” as you get to the bottom. A quick, short and forceful exhale shoots you upward to the fully locked position. The strength of your upper torso is also required/developed to hold the Kettlebell(s) in place as you perform your KFS. Proper power breathing and expansion of your intercostals and serratus, not to mention the development of your pectorals, forearms, biceps and triceps. The muscles that comprise latissimus dorsi are recruited to keep your back straight and strong to handle the load in front.

As far as actual weight is concerned, you have to use considerably less weight with a KFS than for a back squat with better results and less chance of injury. On the back squat, the object is to break parallel with the greatest amount of weight possible on your back and then stand back up into the upright position. One’s back is compromised from having to bend forward to get lower and the hips are also overloaded due to the wide stance. This position does not aide you in developing the strength and proper neural pattern for strength development. On the other hand, the proper execution of the KFS lends itself to activating the Central Nervous System to develop incredible strength the legs as well as in the core/stabilizers. By keeping the spine long and strong, you develop a “Tower of Power” enabling you to move resistive loads and push with your whole body.

I could go on and on about the Kettlebell Front Squat, but I’m sure that you only have a limited time to read! You need to get in there and start practicing your KFS! Substantial gains in your leg strength, increased your cardiovascular capacity and explosive power development, while creating a healthy spine and a pair knees, are all benefits of the Kettlebell Front Squat.

Get Strong and Stay Strong!

Coach Phil Ross, Master RKC

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About Phil Ross, Master RKC, 8^th Degree Black Belt, Specialist in Bodyweight Strength and CK-FMS Certified: Phil Ross’ name is synonymous with Martial Arts and Fitness. He is known as the area’s Kettlebell King and has successfully competed on the National Level in… Read more here.

How to be Zombie Fit—Not Zombie Fodder

January 23, 2013 By Andrew Read 5 Comments

Rule # 1 Cardio - Zombieland

The world isn’t black and white. It’s shades of grey. As kids we all see things very black and white – good and bad, yes or no, like or dislike. But as we age and gain some perspective we start to see things from multiple viewpoints and this empathy allows us to deal with the many compromises that are needed to successfully navigate all the various relationships we have from family to work.

But shades of grey don’t stick in your head like black and white messages do.

Squatting hurts your knees is a great example of a very black and white saying that has sadly stuck around for years beyond what should have been its use by date.

The one that ticks me off the most though is that cardio makes you weak. It’s funny; because when I was in the military we believed that cardio made you a more effective soldier. When I competed in martial arts tournaments almost qualifying for the Olympics we believed that cardio made you a better fighter too. But somehow people who stand still and only lift weights tried to get it in our heads that cardio is bad for you.

Recently I have been on a yearlong experiment to blend strength training with cardiovascular work. Initially this was a bit of a joke. You know, “the first rule of Zombieland is cardio” and all that. But as I started travelling down that path more and more I became more and more determined to prove the detractors wrong. Fitness, actual move-your-body-all-day long-fitness has been prized by warriors since time began. And that people were now saying it was unnecessary grated heavily against me.

In the RKC we have the expression “to press a lot you must press a lot”. It’s pretty self-explanatory and says succinctly that if you want to press heavy then you need to press with both volume and load to be successful. But somehow when we wanted to reverse engineer something like running fitness instead of being told “to run a lot you must run a lot” we got this confused message that implied deadlifting more would make you run better. I’m not sure if anyone else watches marathons but the Kenyans who win don’t look to me like they have big deadlifts!

So to see if you could get that kind of fitness I created a plan that would force me to see if I could have both strength and cardio. I spoke with my editor at Breaking Muscle about an ambitious plan to go from standing still lifting weights to completing an Ironman triathlon (3.8km swim, 180km ride, 42.2km run) in twelve months. Unfortunately for me she loved the idea, which meant I had to figure out how to get in the kind of shape that would allow me to complete one.

And so I began.

I ran a bit, I swam a bit and I rode a bit. Gradually those distances started to increase, as did the number of times per week I could sustain that kind of training. I’ve had all sorts of problems during training from numerous muscle tears to being hit by cars but I’m now at the point where I am coping with about twenty hours of endurance training per week. While my lifts in the gym suffered greatly to begin with, and still do a little due to the always present fatigue in my legs, they’re back close to what I was lifting before starting all this. My pull up and push up numbers are good (dropping some weight helps with those tremendously). And most importantly distance of any kind no longer scares me. My regular Saturday morning run is longer than a half marathon – I’ve got enough gas in the tank to out run any horde of zombies now.

The first lesson I learned also was one of those often laughed at RKC jokes – “to have strength endurance, first you must have strength”. Well, if you replace strength with the word speed you end up with the same thing. To go long quickly you need speed endurance. The way to gain speed endurance is to run both far and fast, just like in our pressing analogy, except this time we’re replacing the load you lift with how fast you run.

My weekly running consists of:

Two easy moderate length runs of up to forty-five minutes (think of these as the “light” days in Rites of Passage – a way to build volume without breaking your body down at all).
One hard day of speed work (I need to emphasise not sprints, but faster than race pace work. This is like a heavy day and has a big recovery cost on the body and should always be followed by an easy session such as one of the moderate forty-five minute runs).
A long run of up to three hours. (Again, treat this like a heavy day and make sure that the next run is short and easy).

My strength plan is KISS perfection:

Day 1

Squat 3 x 5
Handstand push ups + pull ups 3 sets of AMRAP
Extended push ups + extended pull ups 3 sets

Day 2

Deadlift 3 x 5
Handstand push ups + pull ups 3 sets of AMRAP
Extended push ups + extended pull ups 3 sets

The extended sets are done following a concept I first got from Jerry Telle where you start with the worst leverage and then gradually progress to the strongest. So start with close grip push ups for max reps, then rest about ten seconds and go to shoulder width push ups for max reps, then to wide push ups for max. For pull ups start with wide grip pull ups for max reps, then shoulder width for max reps, then shoulder width chins, then finally close grip chins. These are a great way to build some muscular endurance without adding much size – vital to keep weight down if your goal is to travel fast.

(I also need to add that normally I would perform some abdominal/ core work but I have a strained hip flexor right now and I’m avoiding stressing it as much as possible. I would follow the same sort of format though in going from a harder version of an exercise to an easier one such as hanging leg raises to lying leg raises).

I would add that if I were training just for an event like a Tough Mudder I could easily add in one or two more weights sessions. However on top of my running I also ride and swim and two is the number I can still fit in without seeing performance drop off.

Because I’m doing so much fitness work I don’t need swings or snatches. I hate to break it to you all, but unless you’re a novice runner or completely inexperienced with weights (like many endurance athletes) neither of those will make you a better runner on their own. You need to combine strength training with running and run both far and fast.

And when the zombies do come….

I’ll see you next to me while we laugh at all the cardio haters who didn’t make it.

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Andrew Read

Andrew Read, Senior RKC, is head of Dragon Door Australia and Read Performance Training. Recognised 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.