Kettlebell Compound Movements

Men's Health UK graciously asked me to do another article on "unconventional" muscle building methods using compound movements, and when talking with the editor he mentioned that kettlebells are the hottest topic on their forums. Lightbulb.

So here it is:

• Build the body you want with this four-week workout programme

• Compounding your isolation

• In our recent article on the top 10 muscle-building mistakes, personal trainer Chris Bathke lamented the scores of gym-goers who spend every session pounding specific muscles with ineffective movements while ignoring the bigger picture. Escape from your isolation and use his compound kettlebell exercises workout to build full-body muscle fast. "After four weeks not only will your shoulders and back be more injury proof, but they'll look substantially better," says Bathke.

• Programme loading…

• "This type of workout will work shoulder, core, and hip stability that exercises done lying on a bench won't," says Bathke. Do it twice per week for four weeks and choose weights that are challenging but that you can complete with perfect form. Together with chin-up and squat work on another day you'll see good progress.
  
  Sets and reps
  Kettlebell clean and push press: 3x10 each side
  Renegade rows: 3x5
  
  Turkish get-ups: 3x3 reps each side
  
  (Rest 60 seconds in between sets.)
  
  "Each consecutive week add one rep per set until you can comfortably do an extra 4 reps per set, then increase the weight and drop the reps back to the initial level," says Bathke.

• Kettlebell clean and push press

• Begin with the bell in front of you on the floor. Perform a swing and clean the weight up into what’s called “the rack position” with the bell resting in the crook of your elbow between your shoulder and wrist. Next, drive the weight overhead ending with the elbow locked out and arm next to your ear. “Initiate the overhead portion of the lift with a slight dip and leg drive,” advises Bathke. To finish the lift, drop it back into the rack position, then down into a swing and repeat. Try to look as cool asthis guy throughout.
  
  See an example of this exercise here.
  
  Works 
  This movement just about does it all. “The posterior chain is used in the clean portion, while the press hits your pushing muscles. Grip endurance, shoulder flexibility, and shoulder stability will all really be taxed,” says Bathke. 

• Kettlebell renegade row

• Assume a press-up position with each hand on the handle of a kettlebell. Do a full range press-up, then while holding your torso and hips still row one KB at a time. Row each side once. This is one rep. “The goal is to not allow your hips to move, nor your body to twist while rowing,” says Bathke.
  
  See an example of this exercise here.
  
  Works
  “The renegade row is a great movement to work both core strength and horizontal pushing and pulling muscle groups.”

• Kettlebell Turkish get-up

• Start lying on the floor. Bring the kettlebell into a locked out position straight up with your right hand. Your right shoulder should be pulled back into the floor to stabilise the joint. Your right leg will be cocked, with your right foot alongside your left knee. Pushing off your right foot, roll onto your left hip and up onto your left elbow. Push up onto your left hand. Holding yourself up on your left hand and right foot, raise your hips up off the ground, and thread your left leg back to a kneeling position. You should now be in a lunge position, right foot on the floor, and KB locked out overhead. “Make sure that your elbow is not flexed,” says Bathke. “From the lunge position brace your core and shoulder and drive through your front heel to rise up to a standing position.” To complete the movement, simply reverse the process until you are lying flat on the ground again.
  
  See an example of this exercise here.
  
  Works
  Turkish get-ups boost shoulder stability and strength, anterior core strength, and glutes/hamstring/quadriceps. “In other words it works pretty much everything, which is why experts such as physical therapist Gray Cook utilise it with everyone from average Joes to pro athletes,” says Bathke.

Paced Density Circuits for Maximum Fat Loss

Today TMuscle.com published my first article for them. A timely one too, as it concerns fat loss.

Timed Circtuits: Pace Yourself for Mximum Fat Loss

The idea for the concept came from experimenting with two training protocols: Density circuits, and timed sets of the kind used in kettlebell sport. I've found timed sets done at a set rep per minute pace were quite effective for building conditioning, technique, and of course body composition, so just applied the idea to circuit-style training using other tools.

There has been some research published that shows standard weight training circuits producing a huge caloric expenditure, which means you'll lose alot of fat in a short amount of time. Now, this isn't quite the holy grail as these circuits are pretty damn tough. You've got to have something of a strength base and experience with the exercises to maximize results. But for those who have put some time in the gym give it a try and let me know what you think.

I've got some other variations of this protocol for other specific goals for those interested.

Kettlebell in the Age of Quarrel

This past weekend I attended the Kettlebell in the Age of Quarrel 3 day workshop put together by Mike Mahler. Alicia & Peter and AF Performance provided an excellent space for the 30 people that showed up from all over the U.S., Panama, Scotland, Germany, and Canada.

The main theme of the workshop was that there is no one size fits all approach to fitness. In order to achieve your goals you need to figure out what works for you, or have a professional figure it out for you. But we need to understand the underlying principles in order to do this.

Among the main coaches present were Mike Mahler, Steve Cotter, "Stone Cold" Ken Blackburn, Jason Dolby, Andrew Durniat, and John Wild Buckley. And I must thank Mike Mahler for kindly allowing me to attend and help out when needed.

Each of these individuals has a unique background, skill set, knowledge base, and specialty. And together they made a hell of a group to lead a well rounded approach to fitness and well being.

Ken Blackburn lead the dynamic warmup/mobility and agility portions each day - and there were plenty of people dog tired after the initial hour of agility training, and we hadn't even lifted anything yet! Some of this mobility work would be familiar to martial artists, but not generally what one sees trainers do, something I think could use some reflecting upon. People with MA backgrounds tend to move very well and have good mobility and flexibility, so why not incorporate more of what they do?

It is even whispered in some circles that some of Ken's moves were derived from the legendary Jean Claude Van Damme himself!



Mike Mahler's presentations focused on nutrition, supplementation, and how this affects our hormones and ultimately our health. He drew on a number of sources including Dr. Kessler's excellent The End Of Overeating. Mike's main message was derive as much of our nutrients as possible from clean, organic sources, and understand exactly what supplementation an individual may need to our optimize hormonal profile.

Jason Dolby lead and excellent segment on Indian club work for shoulder health on days 1 & 3. Clubs have been around a long time but are highly underrated in my opinion. Clubs have already been implemented into some of my clients training. Try it, your shoulders will thank you.

Day 2 focused primarily on kettlebell the kettlebell sport lifts and assistance work. The group spent a good 6 hours on working cleans, jerks, snatches, long cycle, and related drills. We performed a number of work sets in order to develop technique and show what sort of programming works for various purposes. The coaches made sure to present a variety of approaches to each movement, stressing that certain ways work better for certain builds, and that everyone should experiment and find what works for them. Not unlike powerlifting or any other sport.

We were fortunate to have Andrew Durniat lead the snatch portion. Andrew quite a knowledgeable guy, and has competed in Russia at the highest levels of KB sport, as well as strongman competitions and a winner of the 2009 national grip strength competition. That's him doing the KB and barbell juggling in the video below.

Following KB work there was a panel discussion during which various aspects of programming and periodization, including KB sport work, integrating Wendler's 5/3/1, integrating KBs into general fitness programs, and other concepts.

Following warm ups and mobility work on day 3, Steve Cotter was ready to open some eyes with bodyweight conditioning work derived from Chinese martial arts. Some of the drills had people muttering "no way in hell" but Steve is a great teacher and instructed how to regress each movement so that everyone could do it.

After an hour of this we ended the segment with 50 dragon twist squats. I don't know if many people made it through all 50, but we tried. And we still had the squat segment coming up. Uh oh.

Mike and Ken lead the pressing segment, assisted by John Wild, who's build is indeed well suited to wrestling dinosaurs. Despite having some back spasms John can throw a 150lbs overhead with one arm like you might lift a pencil.

Go ahead an youtube John Wild.

One topic discussed here and in the KB jerk portion is the role of thoracic mobility, and the ability to utilize thoracic extension, the ribcage, and the back in overhead movements. This concept is not very widely practiced in the West, but we could all feel an immediate difference in pressing.

Yet another reason to do foam rolling and other types of back mobility work.

Steve Cotter came back and put everyone through some great squat mobility work. This is something I find every single client needs alot of, and if you sit in a chair for more than a few hours a day you need it to.

Steve ended this portion with a squat drill that consisted of 8 sets of 10 double KB squats with minimal rest. Starting from the heaviest pair we worked our way down each set until we could barely squat our own bodyweight. My legs still remember you Steve, thanks. I guess.

Andrew Durniat ended the day with an exhibition of barbell and kettlebell juggling. He is an admirer of the deep history of physical culture, and digs these sorts of odd lifts and feats of strength. Great stuff and fun movements to play with.

All in all this was probably the best workshop I've attended, and all involved did a fantastic job. I can't express enough how cool it was to spend 8 hours each day surrounded by people so focused on physical culture and fitness - a rare treat in a time of gyms filled with chrome junk and cookie cutter training. I'm already looking forward to the next opportunity to get together with my clan.

Back to Basics & workshop

It's been a couple of busy weeks so please excuse my lack of blogging.
First up today the Kettlebell In the Age of Quarrel workshop is in 2 days. I'm really looking forward to hanging out and learning from some high level coaches for three days. In addition to KB work there will be alot of work on mobility, agility, Qi Gong, animal-based movement derived from kung fu systems, and Indian clubs.

In other words, strategies and methods by which to improve our quality of movement and long term health. Anyone who has been injured or otherwise not able to move as well as they once could can attest to the impact this has on our lives.

It's not about getting ripped, it's about moving and feeling better. Once you do that then fitness can really happen.

In my experience people that have done some sort of martial arts have a kinesthetic awareness that is hard to teach in the gym. Martial arts obviously stresses moving your body without external loading (weights) in a very precise and measured manner.

Not only will you get conditioned and learn valuable skills but create an awareness of quality of movement that is important in daily life. It can be the difference between breaking your wrist or hip after a fall or being able to roll out of it.

I've gone through the car window of a careless driver throwing open their door while biking and came out without a scratch. I'm sure that little incident would have ended badly if I didn't know how to do a rolling breakfall.

Steve Cotter can move. Very well.



And while we're on the topic of moving better one exercise I see done wrong all the time, and which is very hard for many that look "fit" is the good 'ol pushup.

Eric Cressey just did a fantastic little video on how to do this seemingly basic exercise that many people have trouble with. If you struggle with pushups don't worry about how many you can do, but back up and really get your form correct and you'll end up way ahead.

I can't stress enough the multiple benefits of pushups: Core strength, glute activation, pushing strength, postural improvements.

Back Off, Make Progress

Yesterday T-Nation ran an article I contributed to called Get Bigger By Doing Less.

My part was to write a sample week-long program as an example of what to do on a back off (deload) week.

Over the past few years I've really come to appreciate the importance of periodically decreasing volume in order to give our bodies and nervous systems a break so that we can keep making progress and keep from getting injured. Of course that means you have to be training hard in the first place, but that's another discussion.

Most all my programs have some sort of deload built into them, depending on the training status of the person. If it's a 25 year old guy that new to training then he'll be able to go longer without backing off, but for a 50 year old person that has joint issues they'll obviously need to be careful with training volume and intensity.

In other words a person cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to remain healthy, nevermind make progress.

On to the article. Bryan Krahn drops some good knowledge.

1) Going hard all the time never, ever, works

If you try to go hard every single workout, week after week and month after month, you'll end up with a mix of serious and half-assed workouts, and if you don't get hurt, you'll probably burn out completely at some point.

By the end of any given training year, you'll discover you would've been better off taking planned breaks, rather than letting your body and brain decide when you're ready to push toward a peak and when you're not.

2) Your muscles and joints need a break

Not every part of your body recovers at the same pace. You can restore energy substrates in your muscles faster than you can remodel tissue that's been damaged from serious training. Muscles repair themselves faster than connective tissues. And connective tissues might be ready for a serious workout before your central nervous system has fully recovered.

3) Sometimes you get stronger by not training

With full recovery comes supercompensation. With supercompensation come greater gains in size and strength and higher levels of fitness and conditioning. This is why swimmers and runners taper before major competitions in which they hope to break records, and why a lot of serious lifters will describe how they hit PRs right after a deloading phase.

A review published in the NSCA's Strength and Conditioning Journal compiled this amazing list of benefits that research has attributed to tapering:

• Up to 20% increases in strength and power
• Increases in muscle cross-sectional area of 10 to 25%
• Lower levels of stress hormones
• Higher levels of Testosterone
• Better moods during the day, and better sleep at night

4) Training is a marathon, not a sprint

Finally, unloading is just plain healthy, no matter what your age. Along with pampering the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, a phase of relatively easy training is also good for the immune system. Train too hard for too long, and you'll not only feel tired and unmotivated, but you'll also increase your risk of catching a cold or flu.

But if nothing else just watch the technique of that guy doing kettlebell clean and jerks... ;)

Finally EVERYONE should watch this video of Dr. Stuart McGill demonstrating effective core training movements for a healthy back and strong core.

Everyone Is Doing It

Uh-oh, look who jumped on the bandwagon!

Lordy Lordy Lance is joining the Dangerball Cult. Makes climbing L'Alpe D'Huez seem like a piece of cake eh Lance? *wink*

Check out the latest copy of Men's Health for the article.

Relatedly I've been training for a fun little kettlebell competition coming up this weekend. Lifters around the world are going to be participating and uploading video and results - stay tuned for that.

Nothing like a little competition and concrete goals to push you. It really does make a difference, so get out and get involved.

My last kettlebell workout consisted of dynamic warmups and mobility work plus some 16kg kettlebell snatches.

A 5 minute set of snatches with the 24kg (53lb) bell for 30 reps each hand (I had torn the skin of both palms with week before so kept the snatch volume low).

A 7 minute set of 24kg one arm clean and jerks at a consistent 8-9 reps per minute (60 reps total).

2 minutes of 24kg swings for 60 reps
And finished off with some assistance work doing jerks with 2 16kg bells.

Sort of a tapering workout so we'll see what happens this weekend.

The Whole Enchilada

A couple of years ago after injuring my knees and back I rediscovered the importance of mobility, flexibility, and prehab work. I can't stress enough the of importance working on these qualities. Not only has my own health benefited from daily attention, but I've witnessed the condition of clients with some serious aches and pains improve drastically with some dedicated and consistent work.

Myofascial release (massage, rolling on a foam roller or ball), dynamic stretching, static stretching, and mobility work are integral and shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes a day.

In addition to helping you stay pain and injury free, another benefit of this type of work is increased agility. And let's face it, most people aren't impressed by useless bulk. Awesome displays of agility and grace are the real reason we are awed by great athletes.

My friends and colleagues Steve Cotter and Ken Blackburn founded the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation with the goal of spreading effective ways in which everyone can increase these qualities (and more).

Check out this video of Ken demonstrating some agility drills


The amazing Steve Cotter



Granted Ken & Steve are extreme examples, but trust me that incorporating some mobility and agility work into your training will make you look, feel, and move better.

Self Test

The concept of periodically testing one's self ("tameshiwari" in Japanese) is an important aspect of the martial arts, so today when I caught wind of the CrossWorld Meet of kettlebell lifting organized by a Finnish lifter I gave it a go.

There were a number of lifts one could choose from: The classical kettlebell sport lifts of 2 arm jerks and one arm snatches, but also 1 arm jerks and the 1 arm anyhow (get the bell locked out overhead with one arm any way you can). The time limit is ten minutes - the standard time in kettlebell competition.

I chose to do the 1 arm jerk, so after a little warmup I grabbed the heaviest bell in my possession, the 32kg (70lbs) and did the following: 20 w right arm, 20 left, 10 right, 10 left, 5 right, 5 left. A total of 70 reps.

Not too bad considering I haven't been doing alot of training with the 32kg but certainly newbie level in the kettlebell world.

To see how it's done watch this video of world champion Ivan Denisov playing with a 60kg (132lb) bell.

When is the last time you really tested yourself?