When an opportunity knocks you take it. When an amazing opportunity knocks you take it and hit the ground running. I was asked by Traci Tate, aka ( Mrs. Elitefts) to teach her and her friend Heather how to use kettlebells next time I was coming down to train at the S4 Compound ! ROAD TRIP to London Ohio on May 22-24th, no better way to spend your weekend than to train at the best gym on the planet and "Live Learn & Pass On" your passion !
Starting with the basics, how to hold a kettlebell, there are only two ways to hold a kettlebell, the right way and the wrong way. If you start teaching people how to use a kettlebell and they aren't even holding it properly every movement forward will be incorrect and a recipe for injuries.
THE SWING
Ah yes the swing, pretty simple right ? Well, you may think it's simple but a lot of people still want to muscle that bell and not utilize the proper mechanics to propel that bell which is your hips. It's like a pendulum on a clock really, you accept the weight and push it back up with your hips ! Squeeze the glutes and crack the walnut !
Two handed swings, low one arm swing, one arm swing and alternating swings makes for an interesting beginning ! Without mastering the swing you will never get the clean or snatch, they are all connected.
THE CLEAN
Sounds easy right ? Who knew the kettlebell clean could be so difficult to master. We spend a lot of time on the clean because getting the bell into the rack position for overhead presses and jerks is important. You always want to be in the right position in the rack before pressing the bell overhead or there could be some shoulder injuries ! Different body types makes this difficult and different for some people with breast size, hip flexibilty and co-ordination.
THE PRESS/PUSH PRESS
Press, pretty simple, pressing from the rack, hand in the middle of chest and arm straight up elbow to ear.
Push press, using your knees with a dip to help propel the bell up, allowing you to use more weight or if you are fatiguing you can use a push press.
THE CLEAN AND PRESS/PUSHPRESS
A great dynamic duo not only for strength but also a great workout on it's own. This movement alone is full body and can kick your butt in less than 20 mins, three times a week.
DOUBLE BELLS FOR STRENGTH & ENDURANCE
I demonstrated the double clean and press, double highpulls, double swings, swinging rows, and a few more exercises you can do with double kettlebells. Double your fun, double your workout in half the time. I feel doubles also teach you to be consistent with both arms, lots of people are weaker on one arm, with doubles it keeps you doing the same amount of reps for both arms.
I demonstrated the Figure 8 Hold adding a squat, you would not believe how co-ordinated you have to be for this move and how much of a killer workout it is, great for conditioning and building muscles, quads, obliques, core, you name it, this move touches a lot of muscles.
COMPOUNDS AND CHAINS
Want the best bang for your buck ? Try a set of kettlebell compounds, do 5 reps of the following moves then switch arms and do it on the other side, increase your bell size or reps for a more advanced session. You can pick whatever moves you want and incorporate them into your compounds, there are literally hundreds of different sets of combinations you can put together, this one is my favourite thought, hits all muscle groups and flows together nicely !
Swing/Highpull/Clean/Press/Squat
This is also a great way to perfect your technique, make every rep nice slow and controlled, every rep counts, one rep at a time!
Chains using the same moves except doing one move after the other, makes it interesting to see if everyone paid attention to the names of the moves ! Try this for timed sets or 3 or 4 rounds each arm, one kettlebell, full body workout!
If you find something that you are passionate about you need to share it, you need to pass on what you know and what you learn so other people can also enjoy all the benefits. With Kettlebells not only am I passionate about the sport aspect and competing but also the fitness aspect as a great tool to use for metabolic conditioning as well as strength training.
Traci and Heather did an amazing job learning, there was lots of sweating, swearing, huffing and puffing and they had their eyes opened to a whole new aspect of training! I am confident next time I see these two ladies they will be leaner, stronger and the new kettlebells will have lots of miles on them !
#livelearnpasson #driven #elitefts #strongher #kettlebells
"I want to Inspire, I want people to look at me and say because of you I didn't give up"
You are very inspiring Sheri! Knowing that people can do a little more each time, and helping them believe it, makes a huge impact on someone's self confidence!! I thank you for always pushing me!