Kettlebell Resources

The following is meant to be an admittedly incomplete resource for supplemental information on kettlebell lifts taught at this past weekend's Kettlebell Fundamentals workshop at Edge Performance Fitness.

Warm ups, mobility, and flexibility are going to be of utmost importance for most of us, and what most of us that sit most of the day (as I type this) need most.

Here is a good routine from Steve Cotter. Search around for others of his as well.



Russian champion Igor Morozov display the kind of joint mobility that can be attained through years of training.



Now on to the lifting, first up is Steve Cotter breaking down the basic swing technique, including discussion of the importance of the hip hinge, breathing, and developing awareness, relaxation, and efficiency.



Next Ivan Denisov demonstrating clean and jerk (long cycle) technique during a world record setting competition. Might as well learn from the best!

The clean and jerk contains 3 movement we went over: swing, clean, jerk. Although we did push press and not jerk, the two lifts are close in nature.



Denis Kanygin breaks down the clean and jerk technique



This should be enough to chew on for awhile.

The Arnold Madness

A week and a half ago I ventured to the Arnold Fitness Festival in tropical Columbus, Ohio. As you read in my previous post a recurring back injury prevented me from competing so instead I judged the kettlebell sport competition, which turned out to be very enjoyable and not as monotonous as it would seem.

The competition consists of 2 events, the biathlon which is a 10 minute jerk set, followed by a ten minute snatch set, and the clean and jerk (long cycle) event, which is a single 10 minute set.

This is a video of a colleague Londin Winters (on the left in the white tank top), whom I have been coaching for about a month. She stepped up and did a great long cycle set with a 12kg (25lb) bell, hitting 104 reps in 10 minutes with only one hand switch allowed.

Notice the smoothness of movement all the athletes display, which is really what separates good from great performances moreso than strength. The average gym goer or athlete could learn much from this. As I've heard from many collegiate strength coaches the strongest guys in the gym are rarely, if ever, the best players on the field.



Look to improve your movement quality along with other aspects of fitness. It's often more important than strength or endurance when it comes to keeping healthy in the long or short term.

After the competition is when one can really engage in some learning, and this time was no exception. The following is a video of my friend John Wild Buckley hoisting various people overhead with one arm in front of a Mongolian BBQ joint. Needless to say we got some attention from the people inside!

Getting back to movement quality, imagine picking up a 150lb dumbbell and putting it over your head with one arm. Now imagine doing that with something that is off balance and hard to hold onto, such as a person, and you'll have some idea how hard that is. And it's not only strength that makes it possible, but coordination and structural integrity - stability from the foot thru the shoulder.

In other words things people will never develop sitting on a machine, doing curls, or cardio classes. Get on your feet and pick things up.

Intent

Cate Imes, the first American to achieve the Master of Sport rank in kettlebell sport lifting just wrote an excellent piece on intent and why it matters on the AKC blog.

Whether you are brand new to training or can't remember when you started this article is a great reminder of the importance of being conscious of everything happening when lifting. Hopefully we've all experienced what a difference specific cues make in helping us miraculously become instantly "stronger".

Of course it's not that we suddenly became stronger but that we became more aware of proper technique, and specifically what actions our body should perform to efficiently execute the lift. One reason I say leave your ego at the door and use whatever weight is necessary to develop great technique. Once you do you'll quickly leave those that are too proud to learn the fundamentals in the dust.

Why is intent important? First, if you don’t know what you intend to do, then you’ll be going through the motions without any awareness of the necessary mechanics in terms of the appropriate application of energy. You won’t develop a feeling on when you should be powerful or quick , when you should employ tension or relaxation.

If your intent in the beginning is to be smooth and relaxed, then you may not really ever get a feeling for the mechanical requirements for a good lift. Elites look smooth and relaxed, but I don’t believe that they are thinking I want to be smooth and relaxed while they lift. I believe they look this way because they are so good at the movements that they waste no energy performing them. They are quicker than most of us realize. They have laser precision with all the movements.

I encourage you to read Cate's entire post. Though she goes into more detail about how this works in the context of kettlebell lifting the underlying principles apply to just about anything.