In the spirit of today’s Long Cycle National Championships here in NY, I’m going to kick off my gs kettlebell demos. If you’ve worked kettlebell with your trainer or at your gym, this is going to look radically different.
That’s ok. Don’t panic.
This is coming from more of a kettlebell sport point of view as opposed to an American styled fitness point of view? Why? Approaching with a softer stance and posture is going to allow you to move more efficiently. More efficiency means more time you can spend working under the load. More time under the load means more progress.
There is nothing more functional, nothing more applicable, and nothing SAFER in training than the squat.
End of story. I don’t want to hear it. Scream whatever kind of shearing forces, compressive forces, lower back issues you want to. If you move through your day on two feet on a regular basis, you should be doing some sort of squatting.
You squat every morning getting out of bed, every time you get up from your morning constitutional, get out of the car, up off the subway seat… You squat. Shouldn’t you practice to be better, more efficient and stronger at it? Knee problems, hip issues, lower back problems; there is a variant of the squat that can and actually will help you improve. That having been said, if you have any of those issues, remember, consult a licensed professional before taking on any physically exertive activities. Learn your limitations, how to work with them and get busy improving your strength and mobility.
Pick a sandbag up off the floor. Stand up off a 6” to 12” step repeatedly. Put on a backpack full of books and squat down to touch the floor, stand up, rinse and repeat. Load a bar with your 3 rep maximal load and go to town. Whatever. There is a variant that fits your level in such a way as to challenge your fitness and coordination.
You’re working posture, coordination, legs, hips, back, shoulders, proprioception, balance…The sheer act of walking is a form of reciprocating unilateral squat. So find something, put it on the ground or some place that lends its self to easy loading and PICK IT UP!!
Use the video archive for reference. Work to your capacity and be safe.
100 SumoDeadliftHighPull
10 Deck Squat Ball Slam
75 SDHP
20 Deck Squat Ball Slam
50 SDHP
30 Deck Squat Ball Slam
25 SDHP
40 Deck Squat Ball Slam
Yes, you can hate me in the morning. Suggested loads, intermediate women begin at 30# for SDHP & 10# MB. Intermediate men might want to look at 45# for SDHP and 15# MB. Listen to your body and be honest. Mark loads and time.
For those of you that didn’t catch the Cirbie, refer to last Saturday’s video post and practice before attempting this workout.
2 Pullups
40 Cirbies
4 Pullups
30 Cirbies
6 Pullups
20 Cirbies
8 Pullups
10 Cirbies
10 Pullups
If you can’t do pullups, substitute in Gravitron pullups or lat pulldown. The bottom line is to challenge yourself, but to be safe. Same goes for the load on the barbell you’re using for the Cirbies. Train hard, but train safe.
It’s about time we went back to take a look at some of the underlying principals of our training philosophy. Why do we train the way we do? How can we make our workouts more efficient?
For the next few Thursdays, I’m going to go back over our 10 Foundations. Starting…now.
Part I: Train your body weight.
Start with body weight. If we can’t move our own body weight efficiently through space, what right do we have to be lifting external weight? Become proficient at moving your body through space. Develop, or relearn healthy movement patterns that will decrease your chance of injury and increase your effectiveness in your workout.
If we look at training for athletic performance, you’re not going to see a basketball coach worth his salt putting his players on heavy squats before they can handle themselves on the court. Why should the rest of us be any different?
Life demands athletic performance of each of us every day. I guarantee you, if you learn proper body weight squats, body weight rows and pushes, you will progress at substantially higher rate with increased safety over more traditional training. That way, when you get around to lifting the heavier external loads, you’ll be using you time much more efficiently and see elevated gains as a result.
“Slow down!” “Count to ten” “If you go that fast, you’re just using momentum, not actually lifting that weight!!”
Sound familiar? I’d venture that any one of you that’s spent any substantial amount of time in a gym, or varsity training center has heard that one. The thought is that if the weight moves too much, then it has momentum that takes a portion of the work from you so that, in effect, you don’t have to exert as much through out the entire movement and thus lose the benefit of the movement.
Ok, well…I only have one question. If that load has momentum, where the hell did it come from? A barbell doesn’t have the ability to spontaneously generate dynamic momentum. A dumbbell isn’t going to accelerate its self out of your hand of its own volition. Now, stick with me here, this is the part a lot of hard headed fitness folk out there have a hard time following. If an object you are moving through space has momentum, chances are…YOU GAVE IT THE MOMENTUM IN THE FIRST PLACE.
That my friends is called power development. (Force x Distance)/Time = Power. Time is the speed. You have to move something of weight relatively fast in order to impart dynamic momentum that takes load away from your slow, grinding type of strength.
I give you, the hang squat. This is a plyometric movement, so therefore it has a huge demand and is a very complex movement. So proceed with caution. This is a fantastic movement, but like all others, can be dangerous if you’re not honest with yourself about your ability and fitness level.
Your goal is to go from standing with a barbell held down at arms length into a deep squat with the barbell out in front of you at shoulder height, then back up to standing. You drop down, the bar comes up. You come up, the bar drops back down. Repeat immediately.
Like always, you’re going to see this one on Tuesday, so get to practicing.
Check the left hand side bar. One of the big pieces of feedback I’m getting is in regards to the demo videos. So I’ve added in a video archive of all our past demos to use as a reference for these workouts. Any new videos will appear there as they’re published. Now, on to the workout.
Here it is: 50 medicine ball cleans 6 man makers (choose a challenging weight. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. Push, but be safe) 40 medicine ball cleans 7 man makers 30 medicine ball cleans 8 man makers 20 medicine ball cleans 9 man makers 10 medicine ball cleans 10 man makers
Record time, dumbbell weight and medicine ball weight.
I’m not going to even go into trying to teach an olympic clean via the internet. However, being such an incredibly important with such versatile application, we need to take a look at a couple of variants at least.
We’re leaving the heavy load, one off power behind and focusing on developing whole body coordination, speed, anaerobic conditioning, and stability.
All three examples in the video, all cleans in fact have the same three basic parts.
1st Pull: Knees straighten and the torso maintains a consistent angle to the ground.
2nd Pull: When the knees have straightened, the hips thrust forward with as much power and speed as possible as you shrug the shoulders and high pull.
Catch: The weight should be moving with enough energy that you’ve thrown it vertically. Release your grip, fall slightly back towards the ground and reposition your hands under the weight.
As with anything else, this takes practice. Then more practice.
Be safe, listen to your body and have fun. Now MOVE!
