How lucky are we to have been invited to share our Kettlebell knowledge with the Trainers at Elite Training Systems. The strength and conditioning coaches there are top notch athletes and trainers and wanted some Kettlebell knowledge to incorporate into their programs giving their clients something new, something fun, something effective.
We always start 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 ! (Hard to get some of the "Muscle Heads" to relax on the swing but after a few hours they finally got it)
Two handed swings, low one arm swing, one arm swing and alternating swings makes for an interesting hour ! 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 !
THE PRESS/PUSH PRESS/JERK
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 Jerk, the dreaded Jerk, hard to master and hard to teach. Dip/Drop/Drive, triple D's is how I like to explain it. It's like an olympic jerk, getting underneath the bell, this allows you to use a heavier weight, utilizing your legs and explosiveness to propel the bell up.
THE CLEAN AND JERK
The kettlebell sport move most used in competition, women use one bell men use two bells. Master the clean, master the jerk, put the two together you have long cycle. A great dynamic duo not only for competition but also a great workout, this movement alone is full body and can kick your butt in less than 20 mins, three times a week.
THE SNATCH
If you are familiar with the kettlebell lingo you would have heard the words "I Clean, I Jerk and I have a nice Snatch" a famous saying printed on hundreds of tank tops and t-shirts. The unfortunate part is the Snatch is one of the most complicated moves to master and teach in my opinion, well at least a second runner up to the Jerk.
Not snatching properly can and will result in shoulder injuries, think about the weight at the top being 44 lbs, drop that bell down without absorbing that weight and all of a sudden you have about 70 lbs of torque and bam, your shoulder is tugged, resulting in injuries. So, with the snatch you have to bring it up the tube and down the tube, accepting that weight at the bottom into a swing and propel back up with the hips. The decent on the snatch is very important, lead your elbow to your chest, and accept the weight at the bottom do not drop the weight, keep your arm connected on the back swing. It is really tough for people to master the snatch, here is a quick video of a snatch, watch how I accept it into a swing at the bottom, this bell is 44 lbs.
We asked the guys what they really wanted to take from the workshop and the main answer was Metabolic Conditioning.
So, The Swing Squat it is !
This move is collectively becoming my favourite exercise and I am sharing it so much I have people from all over the globe trying this move. Jeff one of our students had never been able to get his heart rate up over 160 bpm, well the swing squats worked for him, one round and his heart rate got up to 180 bpm, he was sold.
Different than the swing, you lift the bell at the same time you squat, here is a demo video, I also like to super set this move with some drop squats, a great duo and a good challenge for one minute.
DOUBLE BELLS FOR STRENGTH & ENDURANCE
We demonstrated the double clean and jerk, the double snatch, double highpulls, double swings, swinging rows, pushups and a whole bunch 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.
This set was 30 seconds of swinging side rows superset with highpulls.
KETTLEBELL FITNESS
We asked everyone what else they wanted to learn or see. We had requests for fitness moves, workout routines, different ques, and strength programming.
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/Snatch
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!
STRENGTH PROTOCOL
Next we demonstrated the protocol Ken used when he first started training with kettlebells, he got lean, shredded and well conditioned. He had a pair of kettlebells and trained in our back yard for a summer, this is what he did.
Military Press 5 x 5
Renegade Rows 5 x 5
Double Swings 5 x 5
Double Bell Rack Squat 5 x 5
There were lots of other demo's we did but I think you get the picture, this was one of the best workshops we have ever done, all attendees were Elite Trainers and Athletes. The guys were getting tired and had sore hands by the end but all in all it was a great day.
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 are we 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. They are great for any age or body type and can be used in a very limited space, use them at home or on the go, have kettlebell will travel.
Here are my top ten reasons to use kettlebells.
Kettlebell Education, your welcome.
We left the group very humbled and had a ton of fun, made some new friends and hope to get invited back to ETS to share more knowledge and perhaps some "Big 3" workshops in our future there.
"I want to Inspire, I want people to look at me and say because of you I didn't give up"
"Live Learn Pass On"
#teamelitefts #powercouple #driven #kettlebellsport #passiontrumpseverything