Studying the history of fitness should be done with an eye toward making us better today. When so much of the industry wants to say things like “it has always been done this way,” We should ask the question, “has it?”

A great example of the nostalgia we have in fitness is the clean. When we think of powerful strength exercises in the weight room, the clean ranks high on the list. Barbell cleans are strongly defended as one of the most functional exercises one can perform, but in the history of strength, cleans have rarely have been exclusive to barbells.

A bit over a hundred years ago, weightlifting competitions were very different. There were eight events that athletes competed in:

• Right arm snatch
• Left arm snatch
• Right arm jerk
• Left arm jerk
• Right arm swing
• Left arm swing
• Two-arm press
• Two-arm jerk

Compared to today, weightlifting a century ago was a totally different sport. We have gone from eight lifts to two, and the techniques and implements have radically changed, as well. For example, it wasn’t uncommon to see athletes split clean a weight instead of the squat clean that many think of today. This means that the modern clean is maybe 70 years old. In that time techniques, equipment, and intent has changed quite a bit.

The Evolution of the Clean

With that historical evolution in mind, what is a clean? Originally, the definition of a clean was to bring a weight from the ground to the chest without touching the body. Some competitions then allowed a Continental clean, in which the lifter rests the weight on their body as they raise it. In fact, cleaning implements like logs, stones, and kegs generally require a Continental clean, not the Olympic style we see most often today.

Is one better or another? Do they provide different stimuli? Having competed in both weightlifting and strongman, I would argue that being able to clean many different implements, using different styles, introduces a diversity of movement that better represents functional fitness. Every type of clean and implement we use teaches us something unique.

One would think that anyone who can clean a barbell can be successful at any other form of clean. But that isn’t necessarily true, when it comes to cleaning steel logs, stones, tires, and sandbags. These objects require unique ranges of motion and muscles you may not have known you had. The benefit is that the more broadly you train your body, the better the carry over to things in real life.

So what should you clean besides barbells? And how should you implement those objects in your training plan? I believe that tools besides the barbell don’t get the same respect mostly because we don’t put the same thought and programming behind them. Let’s get started!

The Advantages of Cleaning Odd Objects

Of all the implements I have lifted over the years, my favorite has become the sandbag. I come back to it time and time again, mostly due to the many different ways you can use the same implement. The second reason for my fondness for sandbag training is the love that many old-time lifters had for them.

Sandbags have a long history with martial artists and wrestlers in building their dynamic strength and legendary endurance. In John Jesse’s Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, he observed:

“Some of the old-time strongman wrestlers would shoulder a 180-220lb sack of grain to the shoulder with one hand and then walk several hundred yards with the bag on their shoulders. A few were capable of pressing the same bag overhead with one hand after bringing it to the shoulder.”

Versatility

What makes the sandbag such a great tool to clean? You might expect me to speak about instability, but that is a really misunderstood concept that I will explain later. What makes the sandbag such an amazing tool is the many different ways we can perform the clean using just one implement, engaging the body in many different ranges of motions, postures, positions, and angles.

All this is not to say that the barbell clean is a bad exercise. But it has limitations as a functional exercise, because all of the power and strength is developed in the same position, and with a perfectly balanced tool.

Leverage

The biggest difference that one will find with a sandbag is the leverage. This element messes with many lifters more than instability. When you grab a barbell, you hold onto the weight right through the center of mass of the object. As your hands move, the weight moves with you. When you clean a sandbag, your grip is offset from the center of mass of the object. This becomes more dramatic as you get to heavier sandbags.

This also makes squat cleaning a sandbag of any significant weight very challenging. The difference in leverage makes it very hard to get underneath the weight, so most have to create a longer pull. This increases emphasis on the posterior chain and explosiveness of the body.

Force Absorption

We acknowledged that the barbell clean occurs in the same stance, using the same positions, with the load moving along the same line all the time. Such training is called “functional”, but in real life, such things rarely happen. More times than not, we have to create great force in a wide array of positions and postures. More importantly, we also have to learn how to absorb force in the same way.

Progress Movement Without Changing Load

The sandbag offers so many different ways to progress any exercise. Most people see changing the actual load of the sandbag as a drawback, but that is only true if you approach the sandbag like a barbell. If we look at the unique nature of the sandbag as an implement, we find many options to create smarter movements and make the same weight feel heavier. In fact, this is a very old-school technique. When metal was very expensive, it wasn’t practical for athletes to have dozens of weights in tiny increments. Using a variety of methods to make the same weight feel more challenging to lift was a great asset and problem solving strategy.

One of the most frustrating things for lifters is when they are taken out of their element. When we take them away from perfectly balanced environments, people really learn a lot about their movement and functional strength. A simple way of accomplishing this is by changing how we hold and position the sandbag during our lifts. Here are some of your options:

How to Program Sandbags Into Your Training

I honestly believe that the lack of use of sandbags in strength training comes from not knowing how to optimize their progressions and programming. People try to use them like barbells, and well, they aren’t barbells. So how do we take advantage of their unique benefits? 

Since each type of sandbag clean offers a different stress, that also means their intensity can change. So we can take the idea of periodization, and simply apply it using the following variables as guidelines. These will be relative to your fitness level, but here are some good standards to shoot for:

Men

• Heavy: 100lb +
• Light: 60lb

Women

• Heavy: 60lb
• Light: 40lb

Heavy: Bear Hug clean

Moderate: Sprinter Front Loaded clean

Light: Lateral Step clean

Instead of trying to change the load of the sandbag to adjust for accumulating fatigue during a workout, we can change some of these other variables. So, a sandbag clean series in a workout could look like the following, without ever changing the load. In this case, we move from the most complex to the simplest.

• Set 1: Max lunge clean
• Set 2: Rear step clean
• Set 3: Walking cleans

Break Free of the Barbell

The options for movement variation with a sandbag are immense. Hopefully, the ideas presented here capture your interest and motivate you to add sandbag cleans to your training. If you do, you’ll find that we can actually make training more specific to an individual, and remove much of the cookie cutter approach that frustrates so many people. Even in group training, we can cater to the specific needs of the individual, by providing better movements.

More unconventional methods to get better at life:

Firefighter Training for Real World Fitness

The post Take Your Cleans Beyond the Barbell appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As someone who has competed, loved, and used Olympic lifting, it may surprise you that I often wonder if those just looking to be “fit” really need it. Is it really functional for the goals of most people? We need to understand why Olympic weightlifting has been used by non-Olympic lifters over the years. If we don’t, we fall into the trap of doing stuff because it simply looks cool. Sadly, cool and effective aren’t always the same thing.

Iron Game History

I fully expect, if you love weightlifting, that you’ll defend it with all your heart. But one thing you can’t say is, “we have always done it this way.” Some of the strongest athletes never did Olympic weightlifting as we know it. Many will tell you that Olympic weightlifting has been around almost as long as civilizations themselves, but the lifts we think of today were really established around 1928. That means weightlifting as a sport has been around less than 100 years.

As Chance Morgan writes:

“Strength training is not a modern invention. Egyptian tombs show pictures of lifting bags filled with sand and stone swinging and throwing exercises… dumbbells originated in the 1700’s when a rod was placed between two church bells. When a clapper was removed from the bells, they became silent, or dumb, hence the word dumbbell. Indian clubs, which resemble a bowling pin and kettle balls (cast-iron balls with a handle), were popular in the early 1800’s.”

Relative to the history of strength training, weightlifting equipment hasn’t been available very long. Even the barbell just over 100 years old. Iron historian Jan Todd explains:

“Although professional strongmen apparently found individual metal workers who created spherical dumbbells and barbells for their shows, the average man who wanted to emulate these show- men had difficulty finding weight training equipment. In America, that problem was finally solved by Alan Calvert of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who founded the Milo Barbell Company in 1902.”

Interestingly enough, Calvert’s invention wasn’t the plate-loaded barbell we use today, but rather the spherical, shot-loaded variety. In fact, Calvert was against such equipment, even though he would begin to sell plate-loaded barbells later. He wrote:

“The principal defect of bells that load only with plates is that they cannot be increased in weight except in jumps of 5 lbs or more. In order to practice weightlifting safely and successfully you must have a bell that can be increased one ounce at a time if necessary—and this alone makes it unwise to use a bell which loads only with iron plates.”

One of the lessons we should take from history is that ideas evolve and change. Olympic weightlifting may have to go through the same to meet the real demands of people. “Old-school” training is not quite as old as we often like to believe. 

Why Weightlifting?

It may seem like a silly question, but it is something that should be asked of any training tool you use. If the answer is “get strong,” or “be more powerful,” that is far too vague. When someone responds in such a manner, my next question is, “ok, but is there a better way of achieving that goal?” 

If you love Olympic weightlifting, that’s awesome. But besides sharing your love of an activity, why should others do it? And is it right for them?

I was going to dig straight into the textbooks and give you a very boring answer to this question. Then I thought, why not first see what real coaches say to the benefits of Olympic lifting? I found many great answers, touting benefits such as speed, power, coordination, balance, accuracy, and to activate more muscle fibers than anything else. If weightlifting does all that, how do you not want to go out and hit some clean and jerks and snatches? 

Does Weightlifting Do All that?

Once we delve a bit deeper, we realize those claims may not say anything meaningful. A literature review¹ on the role of resistance training on the ability to change direction found that:

“The training studies in the literature that have utilized traditional strength and power training programmes, which involved exercises being performed bilaterally in the vertical direction (e.g. Olympic-style lifts, squats, deadlifts, plyometrics, vertical jumping), have mostly failed to elicit improvements in [change of direction] performance.”

Is it possible that the power generation we often tout for Olympic lifts doesn’t magically transfer to many powerful activities? Is it possible that Olympic weightlifting gets a bit of an over-rating for building functional strength?

What about some of the other attributes given to weightlifting? I hear “balance” all the time, but most don’t realize there are different types of balance, or even what balance means. Balance has been defined as:

“A biological system that enables us to know where our bodies are in the environment and to maintain a desired position. Normal balance depends on information from the inner ear, other senses (such as sight and touch) and muscle movement.”

The evidence of balance development is scant. A study of athletes found female gymnasts and soccer players exhibit very similar balance skills.² Others have contended that balance is something we form very early, and may be fixed around age 8.³ What many of us think of as balance is really “dynamic stability,” which can be improved in training and is something that should be a focus of power based training.

We get very attached to ideas without really understanding them. Does Olympic weightlifting have benefits? Absolutely, from decreasing body fat, improving some cardiac factors, and yes, some specific types of power. Yet there are qualities that we don’t get from weightlifting that could be of even greater benefit to many.

Not Everyone Is Built for Weightlifting

If there are benefits to Olympic weightlifting and it can be a fun activity, why would you not use it? The problem begins when we believe everyone can have the same success and achieve the same benefits with weightlifting. When many people point to great Olympic lifters and what they are able to do, they often fail to realize that they were usually identified early on as possessing specific traits that would allow them to be great at the sport. World-renowned spine specialist Dr. Stuart McGill points out:

“Olympic lifting must find the lifter. Not the other way around, given the special anatomical gifts needed to lift with efficiency and injury resiliency. The flexibility required in the hips and shoulders in many cases is a gift from your parents. No matter how much stretching is attempted, some will never have the hip and shoulder socket anatomy to deep squat and support a bar overhead.”

The point is that there are many considerations to determine if Olympic weightlifting is the best strategy. As much as I loved Olympic weightlifting, I had the realization years ago that my clients wouldn’t all achieve great results with them. There were qualities I wanted them to still benefit from, but there has to be a better way.

Effective Alternatives to Olympic Weightlifting

As a coach or an athlete, we should all have the goal to always maximize benefits with minimal risks. That core belief led me to search for better ways to get the results I wanted for my clients. Here are some of the answers I found:

Kettlebells and Sandbags

What first attracted to me to kettlebells was the beautiful simplicity of the training. Their effectiveness led me to explore another ancient training tool, the sandbag. Most would throw kettlebells and sandbags into the category of nice add-on tools, but I consider them foundational. No, they don’t shine like that expensive barbell and no, they may not allow you to live your dream of standing on the Olympic platform. However, kettlebells and sandbags deliver incredible results.

Their design may appear simple, but as DaVinci said, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The fact these tools can be implemented immediately and effectively doesn’t make them less sophisticated, it makes them more useful. Their simplicity also allows them to be more accessible to more people. The mobility and orthopedic issues some may see in classic Olympic weightlifting aren’t an issue with these tools.

Sandbags and kettlebells challenge balance, coordination, and athleticism, perhaps even more than Olympic weightlifting. The barbell is the most balanced and stable lifting implement in the gym, outside of machines. The weight distribution and independent motion of kettlebells, and the shifting and unique leverage of sandbags, challenge these fitness qualities more than a perfectly balanced implement.

One of the main reasons kettlebells and sandbags have not enjoyed the popularity of the barbell is the fact that barbells go heavier. But the raw numbers can lie. The early research on these tools shows that, even at lower loads, they are able to produce training effects very close to that of barbells of much greater load.^6,7 The added dynamic challenge of kettlebells and sandbags means you don’t have to go as heavy. You are far more likely to find people that can clean 225lb than people that can clean double 48 kg kettlebells (212lb), or even a 150lb sandbag. The fear of these implements not being heavy enough isn’t a reasonable one.

Most people find these tools limiting because they try to mimic their barbell training with them. But they aren’t barbells, which means they offer unique options, such as changing planes of motion, body positions, and load placement. Ever perform a frontal plane clean? How about a rotational snatch? Our body moves in three dimensions; shouldn’t our training engage all of them?

Sleds and Carries

We tend think of activities like sleds and carries as simply conditioning tools, but they offer more than that. Dr. McGill again:

“Exercises are tools to get specific jobs done… Usually the best exercise is the one that creates the largest effect with the minimal risk to the joints. If the purpose is to create hip extension power, then exercises such as weighted carries and sled drags have to be considered.”

Do carries actually improve your strength? One study found something interesting with the impact of faster farmer’s walks:

“The farmers lift may be an effective lifting alternative to the deadlift, to generating more anterior-propulsive and vertical force with less stress to the lumbar spine due to the more vertical trunk position.”⁴

One of the qualities that is easy to overlook in the above statement is the idea of “anterior-propulsive” forces. This is a measure of force that we use during activities like walking. In other words, we aren’t just learning to move up and down, but in a manner that really does meet human function.

And sleds aren’t there just to make your heart jump out of your chest. Research has found some impressive results for heavy sled pulls that have implications beyond the vertical jump or linear speed:

“… the heavy sled pull may improve acceleration sprinting performance in many athlete types and the ability to break and make tackles in contact sports such as American football and the rugby codes.”⁵

Better Tools for the Job

These are just a few ideas that allow us to access the tremendous benefits of Olympic weightlifting without its potential drawbacks. Not only can we get results, we can enhance the training experience and find new ways to progress our functional training. We can find better balance between risk and reward, and develop training programs that not only kick out butts, but truly make us better!

If your goal is health, don’t become an athlete:

Sports Do Not Equal Health

The post Do You Really Need Weightlifting? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The big three areas that keep people from progressing in their training are backs, knees, and shoulders. Unfortunately, most people think that they are all distinctly different issues. But when you understand natural movement and what we are really trying to achieve with functional fitness, you see that they can be very much interconnected.

A great example is the innovative work of Thomas Myers. His work is yielding invaluable information about natural movement, and concepts like his “spiral line” are changing how we see training, even with some classic movements. What Mr. Myers shows with the spiral line concept is how interconnected the parts of our bodies are; how our right foot is connected up to our left shoulder through a specific sequence of communication through the body. Without making things complicated, it means that your shoulder, back, or knee problem may be the result, not the cause of the problem.

Understanding such information allows us to target very specific drills to solve a lot of issues at once. A lot of common ailments can be addressed by one of my favorite kettlebell drills, the windmill. The windmill probably isn’t new to you, but I want to change your perception of the potential of this movement.

Windmills Connect the Spiral Line

Before we delve too deep, let’s clarify some misconceptions about the windmill.

1. The benefit doesn’t come from “stretching” the shoulder.
2. The windmill isn’t a yoga triangle.

The windmill is so much more than a mobility drill. Properly performed, it will build functional strength. I’ll admit it, I used to think the windmill was nothing but a manlier way of approaching flexibility training. But the more I learned about the body, the more appreciation I have gained for the windmill.

One of the reasons I think the windmill is such a powerful drill is because it is one of the few that represents the spiral line that Mr. Myers refers to in his book, Anatomy Trains. If we can build a better connection of the foot, lower leg, hip, trunk, and shoulder, we end up alleviating, or at least greatly reducing many of the problems that plague many of us. Building these strong connections is how we resolve dysfunction, which is often the reason we end up with that fitness goal-killer: pain. 

A Hip Hinge for the Frontal Plane

One of the unheralded benefits of the windmill is that it allows us to train the hip hinge pattern in the frontal plane. Our bodies are supposed to move in three dimensions, but most strength programs only focus on one. Expanding our ability to move and be strong in more planes of motion means a greater carryover to life and sport.

Typically, we think of movement training being one thing and strength being another. But the truth is that real functional fitness combines both elements of movement and strength to have a synergistic effect on our bodies. In fact, one study on performance and injury prevention in firefighters showed a greater degree of positive training effects with a movement-based program than a conventional program.¹

Most would think of the low windmill as a beginner exercise. Deeper examination shows a variety of benefits resulting from what amounts to a frontal plane deadlift. Challenging what we can do straight up and down and what we can do at varying angles is very different. As Thomas Myers states:

“The fascial system is better trained by a wide variety of vectors—in angle, temp, and load… Loading the tissue one way all the time means it will be weaker when life—which is rarely repetitive—throws that part of the body a curve ball.”

The windmill is a wonderful representation of those ideas and so much more. I have found the three-level approach in the video below to be an effective way to progress the windmill so that you move, feel, perform, and live better.

Can’t get enough kettlebell training?

Make Turkish Get Ups Your Best Movement

Reference:

1. Frost, David M., Tyson AC Beach, Jack P. Callaghan, and Stuart M. McGill. “Exercise-based performance enhancement and injury prevention for firefighters: Contrasting the fitness-and movement-related adaptations to two training methodologies.” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 29, no. 9 (2015): 2441-2459.

The post The Shoulder Cure Exercise appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Over time, I developed a strong affinity for some specific kettlebell drills. While many were falling in love with the swing, I couldn’t find anything better than the kettlebell snatch. Below I’ll discuss the utility of the snatch, and how to build a strong foundation for performing this movement.

The Kettlebell Snatch as a Movement Screen

Corrective exercise is a hot topic, and exercises like the kettlebell snatch provide a ton of feedback on your movement capability and where some of your needs lie. Novices may not necessarily jump right into kettlebell snatches; however, if you have been training for a while and want to know why certain movements and workouts aren’t working for you, the kettlebell snatch can be a useful tool. It can tell you a lot about these areas:

• Core Stability: At the beginning and the end of the kettlebell snatch are two important plank positions. People often forget this concept and lose control of their core. Properly establishing a good beginning and end are essentials in successfully performing the snatch.
• Overhead Mobility: People with poor thoracic mobility continue to try to knock out overhead movements, and then blame the exercises for bothering their shoulders. The overhead position of the kettlebell snatch is both an extended plank and shoulder mobility screen; you should be able to attain the position in the video below.
• Core Strength: Most times, we think of core strength as the ability to perform planks and resist forces forward and backward. But in the kettlebell snatch, we have forces trying to rotate us. The kettlebell snatch is a great 3-D core exercise and we have to not just watch movement forward and backwards, but side to side and in rotation as well.
• Hip Hinge: A well-executed kettlebell snatch looks effortless even though great power is being exerted. This is achieved from the proper execution of the hip hinge. The correct movement pattern allows you to use the glutes and hamstrings to create power, and avoid placing the emphasis on your quads, back, and arms.

The Swing vs. the Snatch

Swings and snatches have long been connected in the new kettlebell world; however, there are some distinct differences. Let’s examine how swings and snatches impact one another and if you should be using one to help the other. 

When learning how to do a proper snatch, many people are taught that “a snatch is a swing that ends up overhead.” While this sounds simple, becoming successful with snatches requires you to get you out of the idea of a swing. Even though both use a strong hip hinge to produce the movement, the swing has more of a horizontal component than vertical path of the snatch.

In the snatch, the weight must go up, rather than out. This mistake of letting the bell swing out causes issues such as the infamous smack on the wrist, or pulling the lifter backward as they try to catch the top of the snatch. Kettlebell expert Joe Chalakee discusses the difference:

“The swing is an arcing motion, the bell goes back between your legs with arms straight and, for simplicity, the bell swings to chest height. The path is an arc or curving motion. A snatch is what I refer to as a vertical pull. The bell is going as close to parallel to the body stopping with one’s arm locked out over head in one uninterrupted movement.”

Here are some points to remember when transitioning from the swing to the snatch:

• As in the swing, the movement starts by hiking the bell back between the legs.
• As it comes out, pull the bell up vertically with your arm close and parallel to the body. The pull is from the elbow, meaning you lead the bell up with the elbow.
• Finish with the arm locked out over head.
• To bring the bell down for the top, it’s not a toss and catch into a swing. It’s a fast pull down of the bell from the locked out position. The pull down starts with the elbow.
• Don’t worry about the bell, it will fall over on its own. Just lead it to the back swing. The bell will feel “lighter” than its actual weight and easy to control.

Build a Foundation for Snatching

Like any exercise program, you need to build a foundation. A strong base for kettlebell snatches requires both using other exercises to teach the qualities of a snatch, and introducing the kettlebell snatch wisely into your training so you don’t experience shoulder discomfort from overzealous training.

The best way to build your kettlebell snatch is not snatching over and over again. Instead, you can build skills and train by using exercises that teach components of the movement. Starting your training by snatching it is like a running a marathon before you jog a mile.

Kettlebell Clean and Press

Besides the snatch, the clean and press is my favorite kettlebell drill. The clean will teach you how to build an explosive hip hinge while moving the weight in an upward motion, which will translate to the snatch. The clean also teaches you how to graduate force. Instead of trying to snatch by using all of your might to lift the weight, the clean will help you find the right amount of force. The trick is to find a weight that will make you want to use your lower body to lift it, not your arms.

The snatch and the swing create long lever arms on the body, which can potentially cause problems in your low back and shoulder. Learning how to properly absorb force with a shorter lever arm, as in the clean, can provide a safer method to identify problems and teach better movement habits.

Need a kettlebell clean tutorial? 

How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Clean

Understanding how to press a kettlebell overhead can go a long way in making the snatch more successful. Catching a big weight overhead can be intimidating, which often results in the loss of proper positioning and posture. Learning how feel confident and stable while holding weight overhead is of paramount importance. 

The overhead press also teaches two important concepts. First is idea that you aren’t trying to lift the weight with your arm, as much as apply force into the ground. When you master that concept, you tend to avoid “yanking” the weight. Second, you learn how to brace and use your upper back to absorb the force instead of the low back and shoulder. You shouldn’t feel your shoulder on a properly-executed snatch.

Body Saw and Tactical Lunge

The body saw teaches correct core bracing through the creation of tension and linkage through your extremities. This is a key skill to learn in performing ballistic kettlebell drills with maximal efficiency. The body saw also teaches you how to use your lats. This is a powerful tool for improving performance.

At first glance, the tactical lunge doesn’t seem very relevant to learning the snatch. But since the snatch is a hip hinge, you need hip mobility. Lunging of any kind can help you identify issues with hip mobility as well as improve it at the same time. Hip hinging also requires glute and hamstring activation, and the reverse lunge helps you quickly identify if you are using these muscles or lifting with your low back.

The fun part of the tactical lunge comes in when you start passing the kettlebell through your legs. Adding in the pass challenges your hip and core stability, as well as your power production and posture. This simple-looking drill will identify movement imbalances and an inability to create stability and power at the same time.

Kettlebell Snatch Skill Drills

The exercises above will help you develop the strength and stability foundation for snatching. But there are some very important skill specifics to consider as well.

In the video below, we show the problem with a snatch that is too much like a swing. Coach Chalakee then describes a great cue that teaches the proper motion and positioning of the kettlebell snatch. Finally, we show how you can use a high pull as an iterative step toward the full motion of the snatch.

A Simple Tool for Complex Benefits

The beauty of the kettlebell snatch is that it is attainable for anyone. As Pavel Tstsouline once wrote, “kettlebells are the working man’s Olympic lifting.” That doesn’t mean that it isn’t sophisticated or challenging, or doesn’t require proper technique. Rather, you don’t need to commit expensive equipment, tons of space, or decades of practice to experience the benefits.

Kettlebell snatches can provide far more than the conditioning tool that many relegate them to. Nailing the technique and building efficiency will allow you to take advantage of the unique attributes and advantages of the kettlebell snatch.

Ready to double the fun? Try some double kettlebell snatches:

Turbo Charged Kettlebells: High Pulls and Snatches

Headine photo credit: Towne Post Network on Flickr | CC BY 2.0

The post The Kettlebell Snatch: A Simple Tool for Complex Benefits appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

With growing commitments and less time to train, I realized that my gym would have to be at home. I worried it wouldn’t be possible to train effectively without a big facility. Then I remembered a concept from Pavel Tsatsouline, known as a “courage corner.” As Pavel described:

“The Red Army, too pragmatic to waste their troopers’ time on pushups and sit-ups, quickly caught on. Every Russian military unit, even outposts remote as the Mars, has a gym. For some strange reason, maybe because it makes your sweaty basement dungeon look like a yuppie health spa, it is called a ‘courage corner’ (I wish it was a joke). Every courage corner, including the permafrost crusted cave in one of the units I served in, is equipped with K-bells.”

His description of courage corner took me back to my best days of training. When I was in high school, we had a makeshift gym in the basement of the school. The old pipes that ran through the room made the summer heat unbearable and and froze us in the winter. It was bare bones, with rusty old free weights and a few machines like a leg press and pull down unit. But it wasn’t the tools that mattered. It was but the training, the focus, and the effort – very much like what Pavel alluded to with the courage corner.

It’s not how flashy or fancy your facility is. It’s what you do with the tools. [Photo courtesy Pixabay]

The Essentials for a Home Gym

When I began to prioritize what was important in my training, I created my own courage corner. None of this motivation came from the idea of trying to be “cool,” hardcore, or a minimalist. Rather, I wanted to find the most effective means of training that complimented, not dominated, my life.

I quickly found myself streamlining key concepts and tools. I got rid of a lot of the novel training devices, and the elements that stayed had to fulfill some requirements:

• Create a unique training stimulus
• Can be used in a large number of ways
• Helps to teach better movement
• Trains all-around fitness qualities.

Streamlining my courage corner made accomplishing my fitness goals at home a reality. So what made up my own courage gym? I placed heavy emphasis on the following items:

• Kettlebells
• Sandbags
• Bands
• Pull up bars
• Suspension trainers
• Medicine balls.

What I found interesting about this set up is that this is how many progressive gyms are organized. You don’t have to own much equipment to have an innovative gym. When you focus on the tools and techniques that matter, you will avoid the extra “toys” that end up collecting dust. Unless a piece of equipment is profoundly going to change how I train, I leave it for someone’s else’s courage corner.

You might notice that I left out two items: a squat rack or barbells. The main reason is that neither fulfills my prerequisites above, especially the ability to create a unique training stimulus. The strength you can build with the tools mentioned above is just as good, if not often better than with a barbell.

In any gym, especially at home, space is one thing you can never replace. Troy Anderson performed an interesting calculation in floor space required using barbells compared to kettlebells and sandbags. According to his calculations, non-barbell related equipment (dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags) requires approximately 24 square feet of floor space versus 42 square feet for the barbell training area.

Another concept you can’t forget when training at home is your return on investment. When you spend a dollar, how much do you get in return in training effectiveness? As a powerful example, an Olympic bar and 160 pounds of bumpers runs about $450. That same cost could yield two 35 pound kettlebells, two 53 pound kettlebells, and a small and medium sized sandbag. I’m not great at math, but six pieces of powerhouse equipment versus one seems like a win to me.

Fitness Professionals Train At Home

When I first embarked on my home-training adventure, I often wondered what others would think. That maybe I wasn’t as serious about my training, or that training at home was nice, but when I wanted to get really strong l’d have to return to the gym.

A funny thing happens as you get older. You may wonder what others think, but the reality of your own life keeps you moving forward. I’ve seen more and more high-level coaches use home training as a means to stay on track and improve their training. Mike Yudin trains many high level athletes, and says that with the great functional fitness tools we have nowadays, training at home can be even better than the gym. He says:

“I chose to build my own home gym instead of going to a regular box gym for a couple reasons. Number one, box gyms are always so packed and it takes forever to use the equipment you want. Number two, most of the equipment Is dominated by machines with some free weights but again you have to stand in line and wait. That makes your hour workout turn into a two hour workout (not very efficient). The equipment I want to use; Ultimate Sandbags, TRX’s, kettlebells, battling ropes, Sleds, Jam Balls, etc. are not in most big box gyms. … And last but not least I don’t have to drive anywhere to workout, I could just do it from the comfort of my own home.”

Coach Yudin isn’t the exception. The idea of home training is becoming more and more popular. Kevin Larabee, strength coach at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, often finds himself training at home as well. He says:

“Lifting at home provides me the opportunity to get in a fantastic training session without the distraction of a shared gym or weight room. I become extremely focused on what I am doing, while listening to only the music I want to listen to, and focus on the best “bang for your buck” movements to continue to challenge myself with limited equipment while progressing with my strength goals.

When building the home gym I did it piece by piece focusing on equipment that had a wide range of uses. I started with a TRX, chin-up bar, bands and Valslides. Month by month I added kettlebells, Ultimate Sandbags, ropes, weight vests and an Airdyne. I have been having the best training sessions of my life!”

Your Fitness Needs Are Less Than You Think

You don’t need a fancy gym membership to get fit. With two in three adults in the U.S. being overweight or obese we need to make a change in how we approach fitness. There is no reason that fitness needs to be expensive, inaccessible, time consuming, or out of reach for anyone to attain. Hopefully this article will inspire you to think differently about what you truly need to reach your fitness goals.

If you want creative implement training at home, look no further:

Of Muscles and Might: The Workman’s Conditioning Program

The post Courage Corner: Leaving the Big Gym for Better Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When you do anything new, you can learn a lot of lessons not just as a student, but also as a teacher. I saw that many students needed to slow down, focus, and be more thoughtful about their movement. I realized they would reap greater benefit from skilled practice of a few exercises, rather than just learning a large number of exercises.

Those few exercises became the six that we see in today’s curriculums: 

• Goblet squat
• Turkish get up
• Swing
• Front squat
• Snatch
• Clean and press

Reducing the number of drills was a smart move. I see students now emerging with greater skills than I possessed after attending my first course. However, the downside is that people think the value of kettlebells lies in only a small number of exercises.

The truth is, owning those foundations allows you to add deeper layers to your movement and strength practice. Adding these more advanced kettlebell drills to the foundational exercises you already know will broaden the scope and enhance the core of your training.

Renegade Rows

Renegade rows expose weaknesses in stability and strength like few other drills. Any exercise that can make you feel absolutely spent after just five reps must be doing a lot to your body.

Renegade rows are an amazing plank, work cross patterns, stabilize the shoulder, self-correct bracing, teach how to pack the shoulder, and develop force through the whole body. See, I told you they achieve a lot. You need to make them a constant in your strength training practice, not a drill that makes the occasional cameo.

Single Leg Deadlifts

Single leg deadlifts are good accessory work for swings. They require lower leg, pelvis, and core stability in an unstable load pattern. All these qualities are essential for optimal performance in the swing. We can hide compensations in these three areas during a regular swing, but they become highly exposed during the single leg deadlift.

If for no other reason, you should do single leg deadlifts because they don’t lie about your movement. People think of them as only a “stability” exercise, but stability and strength are interrelated. How much strength do you think you can demonstrate if your stability is terrible?

Heavy Single Arm Squats

Heavy can be a relative term. I define heavy as a weight that you could do five, maybe six, but not seven repetitions in a row.

Why heavy single arm front squats as opposed to doing doubles? Because they train both strength and stability. Spinal expert Dr. Stuart McGill speaks at great lengths about the value of learning to resist movement as much as producing it. Few drills allow us to do both under an appreciable load like single arm front squats do.

If done correctly, you are not just squatting up and down, but resisting rotation. Watch the pelvis, feet, and torso when performing heavy single arm front squats. Often you will feel or see a weird “wiggle” or even the complete inability to resist these forces. That means your body has more strength “leakages” than you may have thought. Oh, and these single kettlebell squats will drive up your squat numbers, too.

Windmills

If you already do get ups, you might not see the need for windmills, but there are differences. The most obvious is range of motion. The standing position in the windmill allows us to get far deeper into our lateral system. This not only serves as an important dynamic stretch, but also lights up one of the most important muscle groups in our body, the obliques. Weak or dormant obliques can wreak havoc in your movement and decrease your ability to develop full-body strength.

Windmills are sly in that they teach us how to perform a hip hinge in something other than the sagittal plane. The sagittal what? We have three planes of motion, and in movement outside of the gym we regularly use all three. Unfortunately, most gym-based functional fitness programs only work the sagittal plane, which means they aren’t all that functional. Performing windmills is a simple way to work the hip hinge in a different plane of motion.

Alternating Presses and Rows

Athletes are often shocked at how much their trunk gets torched during these motions. These drills are great for those who want to improve their pressing, squatting, and deadlifting numbers.

Cross-patterning exercises like dead bugs and crawling are great for the nervous system and teaching the body real-life movement. One of the simplest ways of applying these same concepts to strength work is by integrating alternating arm movements into presses and rows at different positions. These exercises also show areas in which people are compensating and losing the tension that helps them develop great strength. 

Functional Training Uncovers Weakness

I am recovering from three recent spinal surgeries. My focus on finding weaknesses in my movement has caused my recovery prognosis to go from two years to one after just three months of smart training. To shave off nine months of recovery in just three months of training is a powerful thing. 

These exercises complement the core kettlebell movements. Integrating them into your training plan will help you find and fix the weaknesses in your own movement, and give you a truly functional training system.

More on the Magic of Kettlebells:

• The Kettlebell Swing: Mindful Prescription for Low-Back Rehab
• Power, Precision, and Balance: A Triple-Threat Kettlebell Workout
• Grip It: Coaching Cues for Stronger Kettlebell Lifts
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Teaser photo courtesy of Craig Marker.

The post 5 Kettlebell Drills to Add Real Function to Your Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

That’s the biggest question I get when counseling younger coaches. I always have to explain to them that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Repeating them is the problem. The mistakes I have made have helped me become the coach I am today. Through that evolution and experience, my thoughts on strength training have changed quite drastically.

What I now see as strength was inspired by the old idea of physical culture. The original idea of exercise was never solely a venture of the physical, but the whole person. The real purpose of strength training was to help people become better humans.

What Is Functional Training, Really?

At every program I teach, I ask our class, “Do you believe in functional training?” Almost everyone nods or raises their hands. But when I ask them to define functional training, I mostly get puzzled looks. After some prodding, I’ll get answers like, “It makes people better in their lives.”

Who could argue with such an answer? But it’s actually pretty vague. That philosophical manner of approaching a training methodology leaves us with no clear vision of functional training. That’s because we often forget what makes us human. Yes, people will tell us we squat, we hinge, we push, we pull, but such a list of general movements is almost as vague as the term “functional training” itself.

The Most Functional Movement of All

Next, I ask our classes to think about the most common movement they all perform. I get answers like squats and deadlifts. But really, how much do you do that during the course of a day?

The answer I am looking for is walking.

Did you have that hit-the-forehead moment? Me too. If we look at walking, we have elements of many different movement patterns that most would mention as part of a training program. I bring up walking because most of our real human activities are not a singular motion that we would find in the gym, but a combination of many movement patterns. 

I know, walking is simple, but a swing or snatch is complex, right? Everyone can walk, not everyone can do a Turkish get up. But not everyone walks well. To put things in perspective, the snatch is considered one of the most complex lifting exercises, and has five phases. Yet most experts will tell you there are 6-8 phases that constitute the act of walking.

What we consider the simple act of walking requires stabilization in all three planes of motions at once, as well as single leg transition and reciprocal arm swing (each arm swings with the opposite leg). Walking requires us not only to push down into the ground, but also to project our bodies forward.

Drills for Better Human Movement

The movement progressions in the video below do not just make you stronger in the gym, but help you toward the goal of becoming better moving humans. For this video, we are going to look at the hip hinge and lunge, two powerful movements that have strong correlations to the complex and fundamental concepts of walking, sprinting, and jumping.

The Next Evolution of Your Training

How does this apply to your strength training? We live in a value system where heavier weight is always considered better, and forget what more complex movements can do for our bodies.

But lifting more for the sake of lifting more doesn’t do us any good unless it increases our capability. Dr. David Frost, a researcher at the University of Toronto, came up with a great philosophy at the NSCA TSAC conference: “Keep the standard, change the condition.” He proposes that the goal of training is to learn how to perform the standard of a movement pattern. Once the movement pattern is established, the goal becomes to challenge our ability to maintain the movement pattern under a variety of conditions.

You may recognize many concepts here, like load, speed, and range of motion. Other concepts may be less familiar, like load position, body position, and plane of motion. These variables allow us to create drills that challenge normal training conditions, and improve the qualities that make up our fundamental human movements.

More Ways to Move Better:

• Your Movement Needs an Upgrade: How to Reboot Your System
• Loaded Carries: The Ultimate Functional Exercise
• Build Bulletproof Strength: Rotational Exercises for Athletes
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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For me, that means thrusters. An exercise that deserves to be among exercise royalty for its amazing ability to cover so many different aspects of fitness – flexibility, stability, strength, endurance. I am always surprised that thrusters aren’t more of a cornerstone of functional training.

Thrusters are an excellent exercise that are too often avoided in people’s routines.

Building Strong Foundations

While burpees seem to get more attention than thrusters, we can easily make a parallel between the two movements. In fact, I would argue that you should possess a good thruster in order to perform burpees.

So many people slop through burpees thinking careful form isn’t important because it’s a bodyweight movement. But the reality is the burpee is an explosive drill requiring both mobility and strength in the hips, while also needing stability and strength through the shoulder girdle. Sound familiar?

It can be difficult to gain all these qualities from just doing burpees. Thrusters, though, offer an opportunity to use a wide scope of variations to help us gain these sought-after abilities. Thrusters allow us to open up the playbook in regards to effective and purposeful variations to challenge our fitness in many different ways.

“Yes, a lot of people do have mobility issues in their upper body, but using tools that allow us to have the arms move independently can help us work around such issues.” 

If thrusters are such a great exercise, why do so many may avoid them? Some will say lack of mobility in the shoulders and/or thoracic spine. Others may believe thrusters are only a conditioning exercise and lack great versatility. Both are legitimate issues, but can be solved if we take a big-picture look at how we can use the thruster to solve a multitude of fitness needs.

While most rely on thrusters performed with the barbell, I have found kettlebells and sandbags to be a far superior means of both optimizing and building purposeful progressions of thrusters. Why?

Independent Movement

Yes, a lot of people do have mobility issues in their upper body, but using tools that allow us to have the arms move independently can help us work around such issues. This also raises some of the metabolic and stability demands. An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed that we get more muscle activation when the arms work independently versus being locked into bilateral movements.

Upper body mobility can be a challenge for many people, but sandbag training can help work around this.

Increased Problem Solving

The sandbag also provides solutions to mobility issues by allowing us to alter the direction of the load. While most assume the movement of the weight can only be vertical, some sandbag variations expand the possibilities of where we can take the external load during the thruster. This can help in building strength, endurance, and stability simultaneously.

Movement Accuracy

Ask most people why they would use a sandbag in the first place and they’ll tell you because it is unstable. However, ask them why that is important and they can’t clearly say.

“Most wouldn’t be able to argue with the old saying, ‘You shouldn’t try to fit a round peg in a square hole.'”

Instability requires us to create higher levels of movement accuracy. Instead of just muscling through a drill, movement accuracy requires precise movement and integration of the entire body. If there is fault in any level of the movement or a weak link in our kinetic chain, our movement accuracy becomes compromised. Increasing our movement accuracy leads to our nervous system becoming “smarter” and carries over to the idea of real-world strength.

More Muscle Activation

Most wouldn’t be able to argue with the old saying, “You shouldn’t try to fit a round peg in a square hole.” However, we do this all the time when choosing which tools and movements we try to put together.

In the variations shown below, you will see that in some cases it is possible to use the barbell, but doing so would actually take away from the benefit of using some of these thruster variations. That is due to the placement of the load being different between the barbell, kettlebells, and sandbag. Where the barbell sits on the frame of the body, the sandbag and kettlebells usually find themselves more anterior to the body. This slight anterior position means we are actually compressing the body more so and activating more muscles.

In a soon to be published study, researchers found using sandbags and dumbbells of the same weight and volume, with the same movement, held in the same position actually created a different metabolic response. The research showed that on average, the sandbag group had an eight beats per minute higher heart rate than the dumbbell group. That can be almost a 5% difference in exercise intensity, which is huge considering all the training variables are the same other than the implement.

For the Lifting Skeptic

Now, before you become skeptical as you feel these two implements aren’t going to provide you enough load, I challenge you to perform the following thruster variation with double 48kg kettlebells or a 160-pound sandbag.

Chances are you will never run out of loading options, but that really isn’t the whole story. When you combine movement accuracy, core activation, and increased mobility with stability, you are increasing your strength in a more holistic and meaningful manner. You will find your strength is truly functional because it will carry over to many other movements. And, yes, including your favorite burpees.

If you aren’t sold yet, I recommend you try a thruster workout created by Coach Anderson called Purgatory. If you don’t think thrusters can be all that, you will probably change your mind after this workout!

Check out these related articles:

• 5 Exercises You Are Not Doing That Could Improve Your CrossFit
• A System for Maximizing the Movement Potential of Every Person
• 7 Articles for Sandbag Training Fans
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Saeterbakken AH, Fimland MS. “Effects of body position and loading modality on muscle activity and strength in shoulder presses,” J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Jul;27(7):1824-31.

Photos courtesy of CrossFit Empirical.

The post How to Vary Your Routine and Get Better at Thrusters appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I know that is how I felt after squatting, pressing, swinging, and snatching kettlebells my first time. And given that I wasn’t a novice in strength training, it made for a memorable experience.

You probably remember such an experience yourself. Heck, like me, that experience is probably one of the things that made you fall in love with kettlebells. As you delve into kettlebells deeper and deeper, you start to see the immense value they offer. One of the benefits that gets the most attention, but is neglected at the same time is the idea of core strength.

Understanding how we can optimize kettlebells to address real core function will allow you to bridge science and real-world application.

What Is Really “Core”?

Without me giving a dissertation on the “core” that will bore you, we can agree it is really important. Not only does a weak core set us up for possible injury, but it also impedes performance and can negatively impact our hip and shoulder mobility. Many still think of the “core” as a fancy name for their “abs,” but it is much more.

“There are many sports science researchers who believe the core is quite complex because it is made to both create and resist force. As easy as that sounds, it is hard to think about how to appropriately structure your core work.”

The real “core” is not the abs you can see when you lean out, but abdominal muscles that are too deep to ever gaze at in the mirror. The core is your back, your lats, your hips, and you can even argue the core is your feet. As we learn more about how our body works, we are finding how intricately our parts are connected. If we read Thomas Myers and others who write about fascial lines, we see our “core” is connecting our entire body from the ground up.

Kettlebells: the Optimal Tool

Why does this matter to your kettlebell training? Kettlebells offer an incredible opportunity to train the core from head to toe. However, most people become limited to kettlebell foundations in their training of the core.

How in the world can you go wrong with goblet squats, swings, and Turkish get ups? Well, going “wrong” might be the wrong thought process, but challenging your core fully is another story. There are many sports science researchers who believe the core is quite complex because it is made to both create and resist force. As easy as that sounds, it is hard to think about how to appropriately structure your core work.

“Not only does a weak core set us up for possible injury, but it also impedes performance and can negatively impact our hip and shoulder mobility.”

Yes, planks are nice, but they aren’t enough. What is the major problem with planks? You can’t move! They serve as a great foundation and teaching tool, but you can’t stop there. Planks do teach us to resist motion, which is important in the initial phases of core work. In fact, there are some researchers who believe the rectus abdominis (those muscles you work on when you do sit ups and crunches) is actually made to resist extension rather than produce flexion. So what? It could mean that a lot of times we are training our core incorrectly.

As evidence of this, a research paper by Justin et al actually stated:

Currently, plank exercises are considered an adequate method of training the core for athletes to improve core strength and stability. This is a problem because it puts the athletes in a nonfunctional static position that is very rarely replicated in the demands of sport-related activities. The core is the center of most kinetic chains in the body and should be trained accordingly.

Progression of Core Training

So, how can we use kettlebells to train the core more intelligently? In Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT), we break down core training into different phases. The cool part about understanding these concepts is that it will not only unlock a lot of potential in your core training, but also give you more purposeful variety.

Phase 1: Sagittal Resistance

The sagittal plane is one of our three planes of motion in which we move. When we swing, squat, press or pull up, we are moving in the sagittal plane. Think of it as up and down and forward and back. The sagittal plane is an important starting point because it is our most stable position from which we can teach good foundational movements. So, what are good core movements to use in this phase?

• Deadlifts
• Overhead Press
• Goblet Squat
• Double Kettlebell Front Squats
• Bent Rows
• Double Handed Swings

In all phases, we start slow and introduce speed later because of the more “reactive core” that is required. Being able to demonstrate a “moving plank” in deadlifts or overhead presses at slower speeds is essential before introducing speed. Increasing strength in these movements will set you up for success in more complex core drills. Don’t rush through these, but also don’t get stuck only doing them.

Phase 2: Resisting Rotation

This is where kettlebells shine. We often use planks to build the ability to resist forward and back forces, but side-to-side resistance might be more important. In fact, renowned spine specialist Dr. Stuart McGill uses the side plank, not the front plank, as one of his three core testing movements.

Why do kettlebells do so well in teaching this important concept? For one, they are beautifully suited for one-arm lifts. When we transition to one-arm standing exercises we actually excite way more of the core and the overall nervous system. A study by Saeterbakken and Fimland recommended, “to enhance neuromuscular activation of the superficial core muscles, standing exercises should be used instead of seated exercises, and unilateral exercises should be used instead of bilateral exercises.”

What kettlebell drills are we looking at? Here is a list from least complex to most:

Category A: Slower, More Stable

• Suitcase Deadlift
• One-Arm Squat
• One-Arm Press
• One-Arm Rows

Category B: Changing Body Position and Cross Patterning of Loads

• Sprinter Stance Deadlifts
• Offset Squats
• Alternating Presses
• Iso Alternating Rows
• One-Arm Lunges
• One-Arm Snatches

Category C: Most Unstable Body Positions and Loading Patterns

• Rear Step Deadlifts
• Sprinter Stance Offset Squats
• Half Kneeling Alternating Presses
• Renegade Rows
• Sprinter Stance Rows
• Tactical Lunges

Phase 3: Rolling and Rotational Patterns

It wouldn’t be difficult to separate these two, but for the sake of introducing these concepts, I group them together as a means to show more movement in our core training. Both rolling patterns and rotational training require a high amount of nervous system involvement and can be some of the most impactful exercises in functional core training.

“While incorporating rolling, we can also begin to work on the fundamentals of rotation. Good rotational movement happens at the feet and hips, not at the lumbar spine.”

Rolling patterns can serve as a means to measure someone’s rotational capacity. As FMS foudner Gray Cook stated, “Rolling patterns can easily illuminate rotational movement pattern dysfunction, especially when comparing between sides. It should be noted that the movement dysfunction is usually a problem with sequence and stabilization rather than a deficiency in strength of a prime mover.”

The Turkish get up is probably the most popular of loaded rolling patterns and needs to be though of just that – rolling, not sitting up.

While incorporating rolling, we can also begin to work on the fundamentals of rotation. Good rotational movement happens at the feet and hips, not at the lumbar spine. With the low back only possessing about ten to fifteen degrees of rotation, it makes sense the big ball and socket joints of the hips are what allows for a lot of the rotation to occur.

Here is a progressive list of rotational kettlebell work:

1. Rotational Press
2. Rotational Deadlift with Row
3. Inside-Out Clean (demonstrated below)

Rethinking “Functional”

Having a more well thought-out means of progressing your core work and optimizing the tools that allow for versatility and purposeful progression means we can supply ourselves with more customized solutions to our fitness needs. Try some of these progressions and see your functional strength jump to new heights.

Further Reading:

• At the Core of It: Creating Strength and Tension in the Body
• Why and How to Combine Kettlebells and Sandbags
• The 2-Kettlebell Front Squat: The Best Exercise You’re Not Doing
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Shinkle, Justin; Nesser, Thomas ; Demchak, Timothy ; McMannus, David M, “Effect of Core Strength on the Measure of Power in the Extremities” Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: February 2012 – Volume 26 – Issue 2 – pp 373-380

2. Atle Hole Saeterbakken, Marius Steiro Fimland, “Muscle activity of the core during bilateral, unilateral, seated and standing resistance exercise” European Journal of Applied Physiology May 2012, Volume 112, Issue 5, pp 1671-1678

3. Barbara J. Hoogenboom, PT, EdD, SCS, ATC,a Michael L. Voight, PT, DHSc, OCS, SCS, ATC,b Gray Cook, MSPT, OCS,c and Lance Gill, MS, ATCd, “Using Rolling to Develop Neuromuscular Control and Coordination of the Core and Extremities of Athletes” N Am J Sports Phys Ther. 2009 May; 4(2): 70–82.

Photos 1 and 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 4 by By Ilya Plekhanov via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Kettlebells for an Iron Core: A 3-Phase Training Plan appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The reality is there are aspects of functional training that are more specific than a general philosophy of “making people better at life or sport.”

No one would ever admit his or her training programs aren’t functional. That would be heresy! Maybe you think the term “functional” is overused and as long as you deadlift, pull up, press, clean, and squat you are good.

The reality is there are aspects of functional training that are more specific than a general philosophy of “making people better at life or sport.”

What Is True Functional Training?

With functional training came the now famous statement, “train movement, not muscles.” This becomes an easy rallying cry for those trying to move from bodybuilding methods to a functional training model. Yet, even with the popularity of this statement, most coaches and athletes never get to the depth of what training movement is really all about.

“One of the great concepts for people to understand is how to resist the frontal plane. This teaches how to brace and works the small stabilizers of the lateral chains.”

Let’s admit it, developing a saying that could reflect the major difference in the goals of functional versus bodybuilding programs was important, especially as a means of communicating with the general public. The problem was we started to oversimplify this statement in our coaching. Professionals began to see movement only in terms of the following patterns:

• Squat
• Hip Hinge
• Push
• Pull

I’ll be the first to say you can develop a nice foundational program from this format, but this level of depth doesn’t really make functional training anything special. Not only do we end up missing important patterns of motion like stepping and rotation, but we also don’t take into account the various planes of motion and the combinations of movements that make up real life and sporting movement.

It is rare to find an everyday action that is purely a hinge, squat, push, or pull. Most everyday and sporting actions are combinations of several patterns as our body is moving in various directions.

The Way You Need to Move

In order to make this point more clearly I want to focus on how to apply this in one of the most misunderstood concepts – lateral or frontal plane strength and power. I can hear the moans and groans as you read those words. “Is he going to say I have to do a bunch of these boring lateral lunges? I already do those! Well, once in awhile.”

Even the strongest athletes can be humbled by simple movements in the lateral plane.

Before you jump ship and try to rationalize that deadlifting and squatting takes care of everything, let me tell you – it doesn’t. I was partly motivated to write this article after listening to a Tim Ferris podcast where he interviewed Dr. Peter Attia.

Mr. Ferris told the story of how he and Dr. Attia went to the gym and worked on lateral plane movements. Laughing at himself, Ferris admitted how humbled, weak, and exhausted even a little bit of training in the lateral plane made him.

I admire Ferris for being brave enough to admit something most of us won’t. We don’t really spend enough time on the things we should. Rather, we do the things we like.

Now, just because it makes you tired, doesn’t mean you have to go run out and do a bunch of lateral lunges, rather you do need commit serious time to lateral plane movements.

As Dr. Attia went on to explain, these movements help with our ankle, knee, and hip alignment. That means all that IT band pain you have could be because of this lateral instability. How about that power you don’t have? Yeah, could be the same problem, as well.

If you don’t like Dr. Attia’s view on this, how about world renowned expert Dr. Stuart McGill? In his legendary book Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, Dr. McGill stated:

[R]etraining the gluteals cannot be performed with traditional squat exercises that utilize the barbell on the back….In contrast to the traditional squat, a one-legged squat activates the gluteus medius immediately to assist in the frontal plane drive necessary for leaping, running, etc.

Dr. McGill went on to lay out a specific strategy of retraining the frontal plane muscles, starting from ground-based and moving to a one-legged squat series for more advanced progressions. If you think about it, the value of the frontal plane explains why the side plank gets more attention from Dr. McGill than the front plank.

“If you follow these guidelines you will notice that you not only perform better and become more resilient, but you probably begin to live better. “

Lateral-Based Program Applications

What happens to a lot of people when they consider adding something like frontal-plane based training to their program is that they casually put in a movement here or there without much thought about progression or purpose. So, let’s cover some guidelines that will allow you to benefit from lateral-based training.

1. Start Slow: If you have never performed this type of training, then start slowly. Do not make an entire program of lateral-based movements.
2. Resist Motion First: One of the great concepts for people to understand is how to resist the frontal plane. This teaches how to brace and works the small stabilizers of the lateral chains.
3. Build Mobility: “If you don’t use it, you lose it”really pertains to movements in the frontal plane. If you haven’t been doing much of this type of training, then first work on building mobility, work on resisting frontal plane forces, and use hip-hinge based movements that are not as demanding upon mobility as the lateral squats and lunges.
4. Alternate: You can alternate days of lower- or upper body-dominant frontal plane drills (there are plenty of examples in the video), as well as alternating days of resisting or moving through the frontal plane.
5. Prioritize It: Let’s face it, the lower down the program, the less likely we are to perform the movements or do so with any intensity and focus. Place some of these movements first. I guarantee they won’t fatigue you so much you can’t do your favorite lifts. More than likely, they will make your performance better.

If you follow these guidelines you will notice that you not only perform better and become more resilient, but you probably begin to live better. Dr. Attia referred to this, as well. You’ll see improvements in your actions of every day living – from gardening, to walking, to just things we want to do better as we age.

Check out these related articles:

• Lower Extremity Pain? Check Your Lateral Sub-system
• Build Your Original Strength Through Crawling
• Is Stability Training Dumb?
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. Tim Ferris, “The Tim Ferris Show, ” episode 50, originally aired December 17, 2014.

2. Stuart McGill, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, (2004).

Photo 1 courtesy of CrossFit Empirical.

The post Train the Lateral Plane for Maximum Athleticism appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

That is how I see new training ideas. It doesn’t have to be a crazy exercise or program, but just a connecting of things in a much better way in order to get an even better result.

RELATED: 8 Subtle Attributes of a Great Coach

The Original Intent of Complexes

I’m speaking passionately about outside-the-box thinking because I want to reintroduce a training concept to you – complexes.

Complexes may not be new to many of you, but most people only see complexes in one way: brutal conditioning sessions. But the original intent of complexes was a bit deeper than just beating yourself to a bloody pulp.

“Complexes may not be new to many of you, but most people only see complexes in one way: brutal conditioning sessions.”

One of the most legendary proponents of complexes, Istvan Javorek, saw them as a vital part of building all athletes. Whether it was to facilitate recovery, build a better base for more intense training, create muscle symmetry, improve mobility, or…well, just read his own words:

The main purpose of combination lifts is to improve and stimulate neuromuscular coordination, increase the workout load and intensity, stimulate the musculoskeletal system, increase the free weight program’s cardiovascular quality, and make a program more dynamic and efficient. The number of combination exercises is unlimited, depending on the coach’s knowledge and creativity, the gym’s equipment and apparatus, and the goals of the coaches and athletes.¹

Why You Are Missing the Point

Okay, so you think you already accomplish this with your complexes? The truth is that many people miss what can be achieved by thinking about complexes at their essence.

RELATED: DVRT: The Ultimate Sandbag Training System (Book Review)

Most complexes end up looking like a blended version of people’s typical workouts. They clean, they squat, and they press. Okay, now let’s do it all together! We end up missing out on building other movement qualities. We don’t get the muscle balance that is intended, and we become so efficient at these movement patterns that we lose some of the work capacity benefits we believe we are building.

What can you do? What should you do? In our Dynamic Variable Resistance Training system we lay out a plan for addressing such issues.

Use a Different Pattern

The body is capable of so much, but we often think in limited ways. We think of a hip hinge and we forget that this movement comes in many more forms than just cleans, deadlifts, and snatches. They can be done at different angles and under different conditions.

For example, a deadlift is hip flexion and hip extension. Guess what a step up is? Starts in hip flexion, then moves to hip extension. Sound familiar? Yet, with the step up we have a true single-leg stance and introduce the elements of stability and multiple planes. Pretty good, huh? Changing the pattern doesn’t have to mean moving to a completely new pattern, but simply adding new elements.

RELATED: Let’s Twist Again: Why You Need Twists in Your Training

Having said that, performing patterns you typically don’t use is also important. Does your program have aspects of anti-rotation and lateral stability? Do you horizontally pull or is there any rotation to your movements? These are some of the common movement patterns many programs miss out on implementing. Skipping these can hinder real athletic or functional fitness.

Load the Body Differently

You have to love the saying, “A tool is just a tool. ” Such a popular, and at the same time ridiculous, statement. The reason that fitness professionals and strength coaches use different implements should be to achieve something unique that the tool can provide.

In the case of this sandbag complex, using a shoulder position seems quite simple, but axially loading one side of the body is rather tough in practice. This position essentially acts as a dynamic side plank. And it creates all types of compensation due to a lack of strength in areas of the body that usually get a pass during the symmetrical loading of weight.

“The reason that fitness professionals and strength coaches use different implements should be to achieve something unique that the tool can provide.”

It is just a matter of having one weight or two, but now we can strategically change the intensity and demands of the movement depending upon where and how the load sits on our body. This is a concept and variable that doesn’t typically fit into the normal rep and set schemes that so many are used to seeing and training.

How to Do Complexes

Complexes are traditionally not done for high repetitions because there are multiple movements involved. In our case, not only do we have multiple movements, but we have drills that require, strength, stability, and coordination. In other words, this complex places as large of a demand on the nervous system as it does on the body’s metabolic systems. Therefore, we are going to keep the reps down.

RELATED: A Lesson in Stability for Strength and Fitness (Video)

With most of these movements it is easy to get in the mindset of “just get through it!” But the real benefit lies in how each repetition is performed. I don’t want you to “get through it.”I want you to strive for perfect reps and think about the movement. That means you may have to take a humble pill and drop your load, lower your plyo box, and keep to the repetitions prescribed in the video.

Don’t worry, though. I promise if you do adhere to such things, your fitness will be greatly rewarded. Possibly even in ways you never anticipated. Use this DVRT complex as a finisher or a workout, but always be aware of the concepts behind your training so you can accelerate your fitness results.

References:

1. Javorek, I. “Istvan Javorek: Conditioning Sample Exercises.” Accessed November 9th, 2014.

Photos courtesy of Ultimate Sandbag Training.

The post You Are Missing the Point With Your Complexes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Whenever I start speaking about sandbag training, I hear the famous basketball player Allen Iverson’s voice in my head. Why in the world would I hear such a thing? Iverson is famous for answering a reporter’s question about practice with, “Practice? We talking about practice?”

When I talk about sandbags, I think many people think, “Sandbags? Really? We talking about sandbags?” As though there isn’t much to say. However, after you look through these three points I hope to dramatically change your mind.

Sandbag Training is Misunderstood

Sandbag training isn’t new, but how we look at it, use it, and think about it should be. I often ask people, “If sandbags aren’t new, then how come they have never been the focus or the cornerstone of most fitness programs?” We can come down to only three answers to this question:

1. They just don’t work.
2. The implement as we know it is faulty.
3. The way we choose to program and implement is faulty.

I believe sandbag training works – and not just works, but is a game changer. So, the first idea is out the window. So, when I have this discussion with people, I default to the last two answers. But for now, let’s focus on the third idea about programming and implementation.

Most people try to implement sandbags in the same scope as barbells. They squat, clean, press, row, and maybe lunge. They do it for shock value and end up seeing little value because they treat the sandbag like a barbell. It isn’t a barbell. It functions by a completely different set of principles and overall thought concept.

Yes, you can use the sandbag for some barbell-like work, but most people misunderstand how the sandbag works differently. Here are two classic examples:

Why does the sandbag clean feel different? Ask most and they will say because it is “unstable.” This is not the case. The sandbag in a clean still moves through a vertical plane so there isn’t that much movement of weight.

The difference has to do with the distance the hand is from the center of mass of the weight. During a barbell clean, the weight moves with you because you grip right through the center of mass. In the case of the sandbag, the weight drops away from your body as you pull because the hand is much further away.

Why are sandbag front loaded (Zercher) squats different than a barbell? Most will again say because the load is unstable. Again, this is not the case. Once you are holding the sandbag, the weight can’t really shift. The difference has to do with the dimension of the sandbag. Holding a sandbag puts the arms further away from the body than a barbell. This increases the stress on the trunk and makes the weight feel much heavier.

Understanding such concepts helps us recognize the unique attributes of the sandbag beyond an “unstable load.” These two examples take us to our principle.

Four Important (and Often Missed) Training Variables

The barbell appeals to people because they can easily quantify the load. They can move up five pounds and chart this over time. However, if simply changing loads was the best and only variable, we would have people deadlifting and squatting 4,000 to 5,000 pounds at some point over the years. As far as I know, that has yet to happen.

Trying to apply the incremental loading concepts to a sandbag is both impractical and unnecessary. Putting in little five-pound packets can actually disrupt the proper movement of the sandbag. But best of all – we just don’t need to do it.

The best part of the sandbag isn’t necessarily being unstable. It is the greater number of training variables we can use to enhance strength. In our Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT) system, we speak a great deal about four typically missed and important training variables:

1. Body position
2. Holding position
3. Plane of motion
4. Stability of the implement

Holding position means we progressively change how we hold the sandbag to change the stress applied to the body. In sandbag training, we have over eleven holding positions to accomplish this goal. A barbell has four or five. This is an important and effective training variable most miss.

Body position refers to how we stand when we lift the sandbag. Making slight changes to our body position can completely change how an exercise feels. Having people clean from a typical bilateral stance is one thing, but simply move them to a staggered stance and the clean completely changes. We do this in bodyweight training all the time. Makes you wonder why we don’t use this in external load training.

Planes of motion are something that need to be progressive as well. The simple act of walking requires all three planes, but most lifting is based purely in the sagittal plane. Introducing different planes of motion works best by first resisting them (i.e. in shoulder squats, rotational lunges, lateral drags). After that, we can move through them. In DVRT, we start sagittal, introduce frontal, and finally teach transverse. We move from stable to unstable, just as with all drills.

Stability of the implement. As I mentioned, most believe sandbags are always unstable, but the truth is they can be either stable or unstable depending upon the need and goal of the exercise. The one thing no other tool can do is change their dimension, but in doing so with sandbags, we can choose to make a load stable or unstable. This is a great variable when it comes to teaching progressions and building success.

A New World of Sandbag Variations and Progressions

Sadly, with so many ways to progress, have variety, and use sandbags, a great majority of people just end up running with sandbags. Is this possible? Sure. Is it awesome? Eh.

Once you start using the sandbags in the manner for which they are intended, then you open up a whole new world of possibilities and solutions to training needs. Below is an example:

• Bear Hug Clean
• Clean to Fists
• Clean to Front Load
• Shouldering
• Staggered
• Lateral Step
• Crossover
• Rear Step
• Forward Step
• Off-Set Grip
• Rotational
• Rotational Lunge Clean

Those are twelve different types of cleans for all different purposes, without even using all our variables. If we add holding position into our calculations, it takes our total number of potential cleans to over forty. And these aren’t just variations – but purposeful progressions.

The Impact of the Sandbag on Fitness

The sandbag is slowly, but surely making more and more impact on fitness. Using it the right way and looking at it in a new light will not only give you a new and exciting training tool, but a whole better way to deliver results.

Photo courtesy of Ultimate Sandbag Training.

The post Sandbag Misconceptions: The Truth About Effective Sandbag Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.