The RKC course is designed as a three-day weekend, but mine had all the content (and work) condensed into two days. The focus is to not only demonstrate kettlebell skill, strength, and stamina, but also to become a top-notch instructor of these skills. To be clear, this weekend is not just about demonstrating aptitude. If you can remain focused and present, it is an enormous opportunity to learn, grow, and mature in your understanding of training.

The Rumors Are True

My course was taught by Master RKC Andrea DuCane and Senior RKC Paul Britt. The caliber of expertise and instruction provided was on a level I’ve never experienced. The system is unbelievably thorough, the correctives comprehensive, and the programming possibilities seemingly infinite. We explored the mastery of tension, breath, and intentional muscle activation that can immediately throw dozens of pounds on your lifts.

And then there was the RKC snatch test. I can tell you, the rumors are well-founded. Everybody who signs up for the RKC knows about it, and the smart ones do their homework, find out about about the standards and failure rates, and start to pay attention to the details, like proper nutrition and hand care.

You are expected to walk in the door with a certain degree of proficiency in skills, and have the endurance to handle the volume. You will need to learn about breathing and mobility requirements, and in general, attack your training with a vigor and urgency that only a small degree of fear can incite. All training is done better under the shadow of the snatch test.

Do Your Homework

In kettlebell training, there is a necessary progression of exercises, and each requires a good deal of practice. If you are new to kettlebells, you’ll want to take at least a month getting really good at swings, front squats, presses, and the Turkish get up. For the last one, I suggest practicing with a shoe or a half-full cup.

As you improve these skills, move to one-arm swings, light weight on the Turkish get up, and more kettlebell strict presses and front squats. The clean and snatch should be added only after thousands of swings (both one- and two-handed) and a fair amount of execution and strength in the other movements.

It behooves you to follow the research of past RKCs. Better still, train with one, to ensure that you learn each movement with the proper technique and progression. This will help you become aware of the common faults that leave some people with torn up hands and bruised egos. Beginning a progression toward the snatch test should happen only after refinement and fluidity in snatch technique.

It’s Not Just the Test Itself

On the surface, the snatch test seems to be about physical endurance and resilience. But it is equally a test of technique and mental discipline. The specter of the test creates an atmosphere of baseline proficiency that eliminates most of the early awkwardness in training skill-dependent movement, and allowed for a greater understanding of the corrections and skills we were being taught.

I don’t think you could create the same urgency and understanding without the known challenge of the snatch test. To be honest, the physical endurance and mental toughness you create to be able to handle the test matter for the rest of the weekend, as well.

You practice lifts and coaching others most the day. Interspersed through this are quite a few challenging workouts. Your body will be tired, and if you don’t have the required stamina, this will become such a distraction that you will miss invaluable teaching. The RKC desires, and so should you, that the weekend is one of thriving and growing optimally, rather than surviving on the verge of breaking.

The RKC’s style and philosophy is intentional. They want you to be confronted with exhaustion and remain focused, disciplined, and enthusiastic despite it. They want anyone who passes to have earned the certification beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Progression Toward the Test

There are many methods to progress toward the snatch test, and many different strategies for completing it. Some say to practice with swings, except a few weekends where you attempt the test itself.

I needed more certainty, so I gravitated towards senior RKC Nick Lynch’s suggested progression. His plan includes one day a week of clean and press tests, striving for five minutes straight without putting down the bell. Your only rest is in the rack position.

Once you feel solid in your snatch technique, start with a two-minute snatch test, and add 30 seconds each week. This will steadily build you toward a good pace, as long as you continue your single-arm work, heavy double kettlebell work, volume, technique, and recovery.

Get Ready to Get the Most From It

Your individual strategy for the test itself will depend on your specific strengths. For instance, being right-handed, I always started with my left hand, so that the more fatigued reps would be in my dominant hand.

Some suggest taking a week off prior to the RKC, but I wanted the mental edge of feeling successful at it every Saturday, culminating with my RKC Snatch Test. With a week to go before my test, it was just something I did every Saturday, and I didn’t want to mess with the mojo.

I’m so grateful for this amazing experience. The preparation for and instruction during the RKC course spurred more enthusiasm and progress in my training than any previous period of my life. I’m certain it would have been less impactful without that wonderful, awful snatch test.

The post The Wonderful, Awful RKC Snatch Test appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Lifting is exactly like that – tiny, almost imperceptible margins of error. Inches of movement not done right leading to catastrophic injuries as big loads come crashing down. Consider the impassive faces of top powerlifters as they set up for their squat. Laser focused on maintaining their arch and their form, fully aware that even a minute change in form will lead to 800lbs crushing them underneath it. Or consider how back injuries occur. One of the most common causes is not that muscles aren’t working correctly, but rather that they are merely delayed in coming on at the right time. A half a second too late and the next thing you know you’ve got a disc injury.

The quest for perfect form should be a life-long pursuit in every aspect of our lives. Consider the Japanese tea ceremony, or the work of a master calligrapher to create the perfect brush stroke and capture the true essence of the word. Each exercise we do is as deserving of our full attention and efforts to perfect it.

But what if some tasks are simply beyond you? I have to be honest and say that I think my days of barbell work are just about over. I’ve read many guys in my age bracket say it before I got here. They said that sooner or later barbell quick lifts just stop making you feel good, and deadlifts and kettlebells are a better way to achieve the same effect. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve started to feel the exact same way.

Maybe you have bad wrists from breaking them numerous times. Maybe, like me, you’ve got a lower body injury that has permanently changed your ability to train off the floor. Maybe you’ve got some shoulder stuff going on and locking your hands in place on a bar upsets them. Whatever the case may be, there are ways to use kettlebells to get the same effect as you’d get from a bar, without many of the potential injury flare-ups you’d normally have.

The double kettlebell clean is a perfect place to start the journey into using kettlebells to replace the bar. One thing I will say is to make sure you can actually perform single cleans well. If you haven’t already, please go back and read this article on how to do the perfect kettlebell clean and get some reps in.

The kettlebell clean is honestly far harder to do well than the snatch, even though we tend to teach the snatch last. The reason for this is that people are often inclined to try to yank the bell into place with the clean, whereas they can’t do this with the snatch. (Incidentally, this is one of my problems with the American swing as people will have a weak hinge and extension pattern and then rely on yanking the bell into place rather than drive it into place through the force of hip extension.)

Let’s start at the beginning – the clean is a swing. I suggest you learn how to clean with a bell much lighter than you use for swings, or in this case double swings. The thing I always try to imagine is that I am still doing swings. The only difference is that I want to direct the bell somewhere else. My arms are quite loose with only enough tension to get the job done, rather than stiff and wooden. (This is actually quite similar to the barbell clean where you want arms loose and whippy, but the body locked tight and braced). Using a lighter bell will allow you to put all your focus on the swing and redirection portion of the lift rather than on just getting the bell into place.

One of the best things about the double clean is that it is an enormous upper arm builder. The elbow flexors are forced to quickly decelerate the bells on the drop – as anyone who has done repetitive snatches or cleans will tell you after they experience DOMS in the biceps the day after. Along with the upper arms, the upper back – the rhomboids and traps, in particular – is forced to work overtime to stabilize and hold everything in place. Add in a double dose of weight for the swing and hip hinge portion of the lift and we’ve got a very effective lift that won’t aggravate wrists, shoulders, or lower body issues.

The start position is set up so that your thumbs turn back. You can even place the bells in a V-shape so that you can begin the lift already in this position. Keep the shoulders sucked in, even when in this internally rotated position. But the action on the upswing will be to go into external rotation. Here’s what Kelly Starrett has to say about creating torque at the shoulder, “… keep your elbows in … elbow pits forward … When you add rotation, it takes up all the capsular slack within the socket, making the joint very tight and stable.”

As you see in the video I make a point about keeping my elbows in. This is a major difference between the kettlebell clean and barbell clean. Imagine trying to hold a towel between your upper arms and your ribcage – really keep them glued in. This will help keep the shoulders packed down and keep the back braced, as well as keep the shoulders stable and protected.

The magic of the clean happens at about the point where the bells pass your waist. You really have a choice with kettlebells – you can decide when the bell ends up on the back of your forearm or you can let the bell decide when it comes crashing around and smashes into you. As the bell clears your waist push your hands through the handles. If you’ve remembered to swing the bells as if you were swinging, just guiding them somewhere different with your arms, this will be easy.

The final part is the rack position. For men, you’ll be able to get your hands reasonably close together, almost touching, while still keeping your braced plank position with shoulders packed down and back. For women you’ll need to go a little wider – the Russians have long believed that resting kettlebells on the breasts is unhealthy. So keep the bells just to the sides but still within the line made by shoulders.

One final point on holding the rack position: the checklist for a solid, braced position – whether the rack or a plank – is the same. The starting point is tensed glutes, as if trying to hold a credit card there. Then tightening the abs to further brace. And finally breathing behind the shield – only using short breaths as needed and keeping the tension in the glutes and abs throughout.

Next time we’ll look at the double kettlebell high pull – one of my favorites yet one that often makes people feel uncoordinated.

The post How to Do the Perfect DOUBLE Kettlebell Clean appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The RKC Book of Strength and Conditioning is comprised of a quick preface, 10 full programs, and 35 standalone workouts. Each of these programs and workouts is written by a different coach. If you love kettlebells, this book is probably already in your collection. If you’re new to kettlebells, this book will surely give you some ideas to play with. If you don’t have any kettlebells at all, you can still do most of the workouts in this book using dumbbells instead (but don’t tell the authors I said that).

When I was first getting into branching out beyond the muscle mags that dominated my youth, a book like this would have presented an awesome playground of information. I can pretty much guarantee I would have loved having access to the writing of so many coaches in just one book. I have a good imagination that would have been lit ablaze by the variety presented. Even if I didn’t own a single kettlebell, I would have loved just to be able to see so many workouts with so many varying goals and levels of fitness in mind.

While it’s blasphemy in some circles to describe the kettlebell as “just another fitness tool,” without mystical properties and not unlike a dumbbell, if you view this book as a set of programs and workouts it is what it is. For any experienced coach, or for people used to programs with a lot of variety such as CrossFit, you’ve probably already seen a lot of what this book offers as soon as you take the kettlebells out of the picture. Many of these workouts (but not all) can be done with a dumbbell in place of a kettlebell, and a little imagination can pretty easily fix the rest. Since this book is strongest in the imagination department, I don’t think anyone would slight me for saying so.

I’d say my only real problem with this book is also its strength. The book features numerous authors, and it’s clear these authors were given plenty of freedom. That’s a good thing. I’m totally on board with letting the authors’ creative juices flow at will, but I think the book could have used greater structure. For example some of the workouts and programs begin by stating who they are designed for and what goal they serve. Most do not, however, and that feature would have certainly made the book better.

As a compendium this book is excellent. It includes authors such as Mark Reifkind, Keith Weber, David Whitley, Lauren Brooks, Jon Engum, and more. As a motivator, it includes many good stories, bios, and tough workouts to last a hungry young athlete who only has fitness as a goal for a very long time. As a book, it’s got decent production value but lacks a definitive structure that would make it more useful. As a text for coaches or advanced athletes preparing for sport, it doesn’t offer much they haven’t seen already, if anything.

Bottom line: If the idea of good size collection of workouts by just as many authors entices you, this book is definitely worth a gander. If you are prepping for a specific sport, or have a lot of experience in the fitness realm, your money is better spent elsewhere.

“The RKC Book of Strength and Conditioning” is available in paperback and PDF ebook for $39.95 at DragonDoor.com.

The post Book Review: “The RKC Book of Strength and Conditioning” appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But, in the HKC the get up comes next and is usually the next lift you’d teach a client. Here’s why:

1. It teaches them to link the upper and lower body together through the midsection – essential for any athletic feat.
2. It will show you whether they have enough thoracic mobility to allow them to press or snatch overhead safely.
3. It will develop the lockout position at a variety of joint angles building stability for faster movements such as the snatch.

I’m a big fan of the get up and it’s probably my favorite exercise. I can remember the first time I did one on my front lawn, wobbling and shaking with a 16kg and wondering how on earth anyone could possibly be strong enough to do it with anything heavy. I’d seen a few people on YouTube doing it with as much as 48kg.

One of the biggest problems with getting people to do a get up well is that there are so many moving parts. The swing is quite simple with its rhythmic nature and two positions – either you’re in the bottom position or a plank. The get up has six positions in each direction. Here they are:

1. Roll to press
2. ¼ to elbow
3. ½ to hand
4. Knee to hand
5. Lunge position
6. Stand

Now let’s do a get up. Put the bell on your right hand side so it is in line with the bottom of your ribcage. The handle should be parallel to the body. You should be lying completely on your right hand side in an almost fetal position.

Drive your right hand deep into the handle so that it rests on the palm of your hand, not in your fingers or along the callus line. The handle should be running straight across the palm of your hand, not diagonally as you see many do. Running the handle diagonally across your hand misses some of the important mechanoreceptor “buttons” in your hand that activate various muscles and will actually decrease your ability to do a heavy get up safely.

Making sure your right wrist stays completely straight grasp over the top of it with your left hand and pull the bell to your stomach. In this position your right arm will be bent at ninety degrees. From here roll to your back and use both arms to press the bell to arm’s length. In this position both legs will be straight, spread out roughly the same distance as they would be if you were using your swing width stance, so about shoulder width. This is called the firing range position, as it resembles a shooting stance.

(Note: Current RKC standard says to press the bell to arm’s length one-handed and I’m just going to say that I flat out disagree with that on safety grounds – please send all hate mail to editor@Icanthinkformyself.com)

The next thing we need to do is bend the right leg. The easy way to remember which leg is bent/up and which is straight/down is that the leg that is up is the same as the arm that is up. The knee should be bent about ninety degrees with the foot flat on the ground (which is how it remains throughout – the heel never comes off the ground on this leg during the entire move). The left hand should be on the ground about forty-five degrees from the body, roughly parallel with the left leg. You’ll notice this places the left hand roughly in line with the hip.

All of that gets us to our first position, the roll to press.

To come to our elbow we need to initiate the move from the right foot. The body should be linked together as one piece so that when you drive your right foot into the ground both the right hip and right shoulder are rolled off the ground. Do not move the left arm at all. Drive the right foot into the ground to initiate the slight roll and then imagine dragging the left elbow through the ground towards you, activating your lat. If you pause for a second you’ll see that you’ve used the same cross body pattern we use with crawling – the foot starts the move but the action is from the hip, linked through the midsection and crossing over into the opposing lat. In this position, and all others, make sure the shoulders are down and back and the chest up.

To get from here to the half-get up position we simply drive the left hand into the floor as if doing a triceps pressdown. As the arm straightens screw the hand into the ground with a little external rotation to tighten up the shoulder and help pack it down. (On a trip to Australia, Master RKC Dave Whitley described this as “squishing the spider.” I had to inform him that no one here touches spiders because they’ll kill you, but the image is still a good one.) At this point you should be sitting tall, chest up, with shoulders down and back. The left leg will be straight still not having moved at all, and the right leg will still be bent at ninety degrees with the shin vertical and the foot flat on the floor. Don’t allow the foot to roll in or the shin to collapse.

The next step is the most difficult for most people. With all your weight on the left hand and right foot you need to lift your hips up high enough to create space to bring the left leg back underneath you. Roughly, the left hand will be in line with your hips still, even though they’re off the ground. The fingers of that hand will be pointing at right angles to you, away to the left. As you bring your leg back you are going to line up the shin of that leg so that it is on the same line as your fingers, making your front and back legs roughly perpendicular to each other. At this point the bell is pretty much directly over the base of support that is your left hand – imagine a building and think about where they put the foundations. Do they put them directly under the building or somewhere off to the side?

To get to the lunge position you are going to perform a hip hinge similar to that of the swing, just on an angle. Push the hips back at a forty-five degree angle to unweight the left hand and get all your weight aligned with your feet. As you do this you are going to take your hand off the ground and come to a kneeling lunge position. At this point the weight will be vertical, the bicep of your right arm in line with your ear, shoulders down and back, chest up. The final adjustment is to windshield wiper the left leg to get us into our lunge position.

To stand dig in the toes of the back foot and drive forward and up. Once standing get the feet about hip width apart, make sure the wrist is straight still on the right hand and that the arm is vertical with the bicep in line with your ear. If you can see the bell in your vision here you are either not upright yourself and are likely leant backwards or your arm is not vertical and is instead held out in front of you. From the lunge position up you should be looking straight ahead.

To get back down reverse the process – step back on your left foot, touching the knee to the deck softly. Windshield wiper the leg again and place your left hand on the ground near your left knee (note: not behind, but in line with). Put all your weight on your left hand and right foot. Extend the left leg in front of the body. Place your hips back down on the ground roughly in line with your left hand (if your hand is behind you it is going to be hard to finish the move as your arm will be in the way). Unsquish the spider and lower your elbow to the ground before finally lowering back to your back. Grab the bell with both hands and lower to your chest before rolling to the side and releasing it.

That’s one!

Learn the six basics RKC exercises:

How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Swing

How to Do the Perfect Goblet Squat

How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Clean

How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Press

How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Snatch

The post How To Do The Perfect Get Up appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

1. If you’re a white belt you’re not ready to be a teacher (yet). 

While it is technically possible that someone who has never touched a kettlebell before could pass the RKC, it is highly doubtful. They would need to be in superb shape and phenomenal at taking cues and adjusting themselves on the spot. Expecting to pass the RKC as a relative novice is like turning up to a black belt exam as a white belt.

Likewise, if you’re a black belt in karate don’t expect that you’re ready for a black belt in BJJ. Just because you are a CrossFit coach, football coach, or whatever doesn’t mean your skill and knowledge is going to be transferrable to a new area immediately. In the long run your extra knowledge will help your clients, but right now it doesn’t count for much.

2. If you’re a white belt then find a teacher.

If you are new to kettlebells and want to go to the RKC then I strongly urge you to find a teacher – an experienced RKC. Again, while it may be possible to pass the RKC having trained on your own, the number of people who successfully manage to do so are getting slimmer all the time. Even if you are one of the rare few who can manage it you’ll still benefit from hanging out with someone more experienced. You’ll see how he or she writes kettlebell programs, the kinds of results other clients get, who this coach’s clients are, and all manner of small detail items – like how to look after your hands at the certification itself.

If you can’t get in to train with an RKC on a regular basis then I’d strongly suggest attending an HKC or another workshop run by one of the more senior instructors. This gives you an opportunity to see the kind of community you’ll be involved in and whether or not you like the people.

3. Do the reps.

Everything has it’s own little rite of passage. For the RKC it’s the snatch test. For CrossFit it would have to be one of the “girls” (Fran, I’m guessing?). No matter the activity there’s always one thing that people will ask in the “How much do you bench, bro?” kind of way.

So make sure if you are going to be part of that community that you’ve done the reps. Looking at CrossFit with the tough met-con workouts they have I can’t imagine turning up to do Level 1 without having ever experienced the kind of pain associated with them. And if I did, and still managed to walk away from the weekend as a certified instructor, what kind of coach am I going to be with only a weekend of experience under my belt?

Spending time getting the reps done prior to the event will teach you valuable lessons. I can tell you what happens when you do a workout that involves heavy kettlebell snatches, deadlifts, pull-ups and farmer’s walks (torn hands for the record). I know this because I did it. I can tell you that overhead walks with double bells send clients to therapy for either sore shoulders or necks because most people can’t do them right. This is the kind of thing you learn by doing.

Great instructors are great instructors because they’ve got experience. You just can’t rush experience.

4. Prepare early.

Usually it takes most people about six months to get ready for the RKC if they’re already in moderate shape. The longest it has taken me to get anyone ready is twenty months, though so for some people it can be much longer.

In terms of getting ready, being ready early is always better than stressing about the snatch test right up until you do it on the day. Most of my clients for the November RKC in Australia are ready right now. A few aren’t and we will go right to the wire, but mostly we’re done and my guys and girls can just cruise through the weekend, enjoy it, and take in as much as possible.

The other approach is to try to cram it all in. It might work but it might also leave you gasping and breathless while someone is explaining a great coaching point, and all you can hear is the beating of your own heart in your ears duelling with your gasping breath to see which one gets the most attention. If that means you wait a little longer to attend a certification, so be it. In the long run the extra experience you gain from the extra training will make you a much better coach for your clients.

5. Become a 100% user.

I am stealing this phrase from a former friend who tried to talk me into Amway. It’s always stuck in my head, though, as one of the things he explained to me was that a great way to make the whole system work for you is to use your own products. The RKC has many resources available from books and DVDs, to workshops, to blogs and forums that have the combined experience of many RKCS. CrossFit is no different with its forums and journals either.

If you’re planning on being an RKC then I suggest learning all you can about the system. Read the books. Attend workshops. Practice the skills. Be a serious student about taking on as much of the system as you can – your clients will benefit greatly. Education is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself and time spent reading up on a subject is never wasted (even my time spent on Walking Dead comics so kindly lent to me by one of my customers – good to know how I’ll need to prepare for World War Z).

To make the most of the RKC you need to immerse yourself in it. The RKC weekend is really only the beginning. Many of the more important realizations about the movements will only become apparent when you either spend hundreds of hours training them or someone more experienced points them out to you. But in either case, you’re going to need to spend time on learning these things.

Being a good coach is not easy. There are many who can physically perform well. There are few who can explain it well. But if you spend time on your education and your own skills practice maybe you’ll be part of that small group too. At the end of it all a good coach isn’t made by what he or she can do, but by what they can help others to do. The key to that is experience. So don’t rush off to become an instructor until you’ve built some experience. It’s great that you’ve been so touched by something that you want to share it with people, but until you actually have a solid grasp of what it is you’re trying to teach you aren’t really going to benefit anyone.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post 5 Coaching Lessons I Learned Preparing for the RKC appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Recently one of the little gems I found was a fairly serious powerlifter (600+lb competition deadlift) saying how he used kettlebell swings at the end of his workout. Nothing heavy and not trying to use them as assistance work, but instead using them to loosen up his back after heavy deadlifting. It was also in an Internet forum that I found the research paper for this article I wrote on swings improving vertical jump. I spoke with the original researcher, in particular asking him about the research from another genius, Brandon Hetzler, which I then used for this article on swings increasing strength and speed.

All this got me to thinking there sure seems to be a lot of information starting to gather out there for this one simple exercise. The RKC has long been a champion of the swing, and Master RKC Mark Reifkind has produced many great articles on the swing as well as a DVD (Mastering the Hardstyle Swing). In my own training, with my time and energy severely limited from the hours I’m spending on Ironman training, I’ve been looking to simplify my training and I’ve also turned to the swing, following the recommendations outlined in this article.

In other words – the swing is a great exercise, so let’s get it right and make sure we can really benefit from it. The following is a four-step primer for how to perform the perfect swing.

1. Wall Touch

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart facing away from a wall. Make sure you are about half the length of your thigh away from the wall.
• Take the blades of your hands – the part you’d karate chop someone with – and place them on the creases in your groin where your underpants sit.
• Push back your hips with the blades of your hands until your butt touches the wall.
• Now, this next bit is important – do not put any weight on the wall. Your butt should touch the wall but all the weight should be on your feet – not leaning against the wall.
• Perform ten reps of this wall touch.
• Once you can do that, edge your feet away from the wall by about the length of your big toe and repeat the drill. You’ll notice you probably need to bend your knees a little to actually touch the wall – that’s okay. But make sure the first body part that bends is your hips and not your knees.
• Perform another ten reps.
• Edge away from the wall a bit more – probably about half the length of your big toe by now and repeat. You’ll have to really work hard to push back from the hips and not squat into it. Hips bend first, knees bend incidentally but they do bend. The hips need to travel down and back, as I explain with Senior RKC Shaun Cairns in this video.

Important reminder: Make sure the first thing that moves as you straighten up are the hips, too. For a visual reference see how Shaun drives forward from his hips and, as in the initial backwards motion, the knees just come along for the ride.

2. Deadlift

The next step is to add a kettlebell, but perform this same action slowly. We used to say on the racetrack, “If you can’t do it slow, you’ll never do it fast.” It applies here, too. You need to be able to keep that same hips-down-and-back position and maintain a flat back while you deadlift.

• Stand with feet shoulder width apart again and place the kettlebell between your feet with the handle running across you and in line with the knuckles of your big toes.
• Do the exact same thing you did with the wall touch, reaching down and back with the hips until you get to the kettlebell. Don’t just bend over and reach for it. Make the movement at the hips get you to the point where your hands can grab the kettlebell handle.
• When you take hold of the kettlebell, you need to take the slack out of your body. To do this hold the kettlebell and pull yourself slightly towards it, deliberately trying to shorten the space between the joints and compress yourself.
• Reverse the motion making sure to stand tall at the top. Shoulders should be down and back, making a big chest (as if you are proud to be working with kettlebells, and you should be). Tense the glutes firmly, imagine drawing up the kneecaps to the groin while simultaneously pushing down into the ground as hard as you can through the feet.

3. Power Swing

Now it’s time to get things swinging. But only a little to begin with. While the deadlift teaches you the mechanics of the swing it also creates in a way a false position, as you will never need to go that low when swinging.

• For the pendulum swing, set up like for the deadlift except the kettlebell will be just in front of you – about the length of one of your feet away.
• Once you have lowered yourself to the bell, positioning the hips down and back, grab hold of the kettlebell and again take the slack out of your body. Watch this video for an explanation by RKC Team Leader Andrea Chang.
• Now simply hike the bell back hard – force plate analysis of the swing shows far more force should be generated on the backswing than on the upswing so don’t be shy. Make sure to keep the alignment of the body and not crumple as the weight of the bell pulls you back.
• Perform a single swing and return the bell to its starting position.
• Perform ten single reps.

4. Continuous Swings

The only thing you need to do now is to continue swinging instead of stopping after each rep. You will find that sets of ten to twenty reps are about right. Anything more will likely lead to poor form and maybe a sore back.

Take your time during the learning phase and spend plenty of time on single rep power swings before even worrying about moving on to continuous swings. The more time you spend grooving the bottom position and developing a stable trunk on the downswing, the better off you are. There really should only be two movements in the swing – your hips move down and back, and then up and forward, finishing at lockout. The lockout should be exactly the same as during the deadlift – glutes tight, abs on, legs tight and kneecaps drawn up, shoulders down and back, and with a big chest and tall spine.

As always in learning movements, get the quality right before you worry about quantity. Ten good swings will do something for you. A hundred poor ones won’t do anything other than potentially injure you. Suggested starting weights for men would be a 16 kg/35 lb. bell and for women a 12 kg/26 lb. bell.

Learn the six basics RKC exercises:

• How to Do the Perfect Get Up
• How to Do the Perfect Goblet Squat
• How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Clean
• How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Press
• How to Do the Perfect Kettlebell Snatch

The post How To Do The Perfect Kettlebell Swing appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to 12 Reps – in each appearance of 12 Reps, our coaches, writers, and occasional guests will be answering the same twelve questions. Go “into the locker-room” with them and get to know our coaches and writers a little bit better!

12 Reps with Kettlebell Goddess Andrea DuCane

1. Who was your first coach and what did they teach you?

Mr. Andahazy, my ballet instructor. He was Hungarian, but danced in the last years of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and his technique was definitely Russian. I have a thing for Russians. He taught me that discipline and hard work are half of the equation; the other half comes from your heart. In order to truly realize your dreams you must have passion for your sport or art.

2. Who is the coach you most admire?

Wow that is a tough one, but I’m going to go with my mentor and good friend, Pavel Tsatsouline; I have witnessed miracles from him. First, his knowledge in all areas of sports, health, and fitness is amazing. His dedication to constantly learning and researching new areas of his field is remarkable. He is not content to rest on his past achievements. And lastly, the incredible generosity with which he shares his knowledge, while encouraging those around him to work to their best ability to achieve their goals. He takes no prisoners, you have to do the work, but he’s there as the ultimate role model.

3. If you could have a superhero power, what would it be?

Interesting question. The ability to regenerate any part of my body. The ultimate injury prevention!

4. What athlete, dead or alive, would you most like to talk with?

Danica Patrick, it’s not a type of sports I have participated in, but I admire her being the only women to win the IndyCar Series and placing 3^rd in the Indy 500. It’s tough being a woman in a male dominated field. And she proves, that yes, women are good drivers!

5. When did you know that coaching was your calling?

It was a gradual process for me. I’ve always been a good mover and pick up movement quickly and precisely, from dance to martial arts. Having a good eye for movement and a good vocabulary to express it to others made it clear this was my calling. Being a good read of people also helps to coach others. In my opinion, being a good athlete is fifty-percent in your head and as a coach you have to find ways with working with your athlete’s that brings out their best and helps them through the inevitable slumps and plateaus.

6. What is the best and hardest part about being a coach?

Telling people they need to take time off for overtraining. You’ve got to give your body adequate rest or you will end up fighting your way off that plateau or in the worse case find yourself injured.

7. What is your favorite physical activity or exercise?

Well my favorite physical activity is Argentine Tango dancing; my favorite exercise is kettlebells without a doubt!

8. What is your favorite “cheat” food?

Are margaritas considered a “food?” Okay, if not ice cream.

9. What is your biggest accomplishment?

It’s an ongoing thing. I feel my greatest accomplishments are when I hear from people across the country and world and they tell me how my DVD and book “The Ageless Body” have changed their lives. How they never considered themselves athletes, or are former athletes, and now after getting into kettlebells and using my products they are running marathons, getting back into golf, tennis, cycling, or whatever their sport is. It is very inspiring to me. It makes my day.

10. What do you bring to your students/clients that is different than other coaches and programs?

My laser-like eye, my sense of humor, my compassion, and my broad background in many types of movement. Technique equals results. I always put the focus on using perfect form and technique. It’s not just about picking the biggest weight you can and cheating your way through a lift, or slumping your way through twelve miles, when you’ve gassed at six. If you approach your training as a practice, and focus on proper technique, your gains will go up and your risk of injury down.

11. What is your favorite quote?

Perfect technique equals real results.

12. What was/is your favorite sport and why?

Modern Pentathlon. The five events require a variety of talent and skills that make up a well-rounded athlete. You have the speed of running and a different type of speed required for swimming. Eye/hand coordination needed for shooting, the dexterity and strategy of fencing, and the ability to work with a horse you have never ridden before. Besides, it’s exciting. How I wish I could’ve had the opportunity to participate in a pentathlon!

Are you an Andrea DuCane and/or kettlebell fan? Well then do some of her free workouts or read our two part interview.

If you missed any editions of 12 Reps, be sure to check out our archives. You never know who we might talk to and what might get said!

The post 12 Reps with Andrea DuCane, Kettlebell Goddess appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

At this point I found the kettlebell and the rest became history. One of the things I quickly learned about kettlebells, that I saw immediate uses for with my own clients, was that they “right size” you. If you need to lose some lard then kettlebell ballistics and the near non-stop way you can train with them will help. Likewise, if you’re scrawny and need some muscle they’ll do that, too, without that exaggerated puffed up bodybuilder look.

It was at this point that I got rid of every other type of training I was using with clients and focused solely on kettlebells. Combining kettlebells with a sensible diet and only a few hours of work a week, we get amazing results at Dragon Door Australia when it comes to this lose-fat-tone-up-right-size training.

But sometimes there’s a client we need to actually add some muscle to. Maybe it’s a guy on the edge of his weight class and he needs to add a couple of kilos so he’s no longer the smaller guy on the mat. Maybe he or she is a rugby player and just getting brushed aside going for tackles because of too small size.

It’s always funny to me when I hear people say that certain tools are only good for certain things. I agree when to comes to BOSUs – the only thing they’re good for is as kids’ toys – but when it comes to resistance training you can get the result you need no matter the tool, whether it’s kettlebells, barbells, or dumbbells.

In the RKC we teach that for pressing you need to keep reps under five to maintain form and limit possible injury. Here’s the thing – sets of five reps are around eighty-five percent of your 1RM. The reason this is important is that once we hit this magic number we are starting to work on the neural adaptations produced from lifting instead of the metabolic changes made possible.

What are neural and metabolic adaptations? In simple terms metabolic changes are changes to the muscle cell themselves, such as change in size. Neural adaptation is a way to increase the strength of the message sent through our nervous system to the muscle fibres, essentially telling them to contract harder. So we can make our muscles bigger (metabolic changes) or we can turn up the volume of the message to the muscles (neural changes).

I’m not going to go into how to train for neural adaptations. Pavel has many books out on this and the entire RKC system revolves around it. There’s nothing I can add to make that any better. But for hypertrophy training there are two important things people miss and then scratch their heads and wonder why they aren’t growing:

1. Time under tension
2. Diet

I’ll do diet first. If you are looking to gain size, you need to eat more than usual. Simple. Figure out your caloric needs based on any of the free BMR calculators on the net and add twenty-five percent.

Time under tension is a bit trickier for many to get their heads around because they simply try to use weights that are too heavy. While it’s true the super-heavyweight lifters do lift the biggest weights, gaining muscle doesn’t actually require you to lift big weights. While a five rep effort is about eighty-five percent of our maximum, for best hypertrophy results we use loads that are more around seventy percent and allow us to get about ten reps.

One of my favourite ways to do this is with kettlebell clean and jerks. Longer sets of these add size quickly to your upper body and I’ve used the approach below to turn some BJJ competitors into absolute mat monsters. I use them like this:

Begin with three rounds of 2-4-6-8-10 reps. After you do each set of clean and jerks do half that number of squats. So, do 2 clean and jerks and immediately do 1 squat. After you rest, proceed and do 4 clean and jerks and then 2 squats. Continue in this fashion until you’ve done 10 clean and jerks and 5 squats.

At this point you’ll probably need a decent rest. Somewhere around three minutes rest should be about right. Then proceed to curse me out until you’ve done all three rounds of 2-4-6-8-10 plus the 1-2-3-4-5 squats.

Here’s how we work it:

• Week 1, Day 1 – start with 3 x 2-4-6-8-10
• Week 1, Day 2 – 3 x 5 clean and jerks with no squats.
• Week 2, Day 1 – 4 x 2-4-6-8-10
• Week 2, Day 2 – 4 x 5 clean and jerks with no squats.
• Week 3, Day 1 – 5 x 2-4-6-8-10
• Week 3, Day 2 – 5 x 5 clean and jerks with no squats.

At this point you start to work on training density – getting more work done following the same programming. You have two variables available to accomplish this: adding weight or decreasing time. Because kettlebells are made with large jumps in sizes your normal option of adding weight won’t necessarily work. Going from, say, double 24kg bells to double 28kg bells is a huge jump in terms of total load. Therefore, the option of reducing the time you train is very useful.

During all this training the muscles of the upper body are working extremely hard to move and stabilize the kettlebells through the cleans, jerks, and squats giving you massive time under tension. In addition because the jerk is such a useful power exercise you’re also increasing speed for takedown attempts and sprawling.

For the grapplers we used this program with, most added around five kilograms of bodyweight in six months. The added benefit of the incidental conditioning and grip work from the kettlebell training meant we didn’t need much special conditioning work prior to big events and spent only an hour a week for five weeks on conditioning in the final build up.

Give it a try for a few months and see. Let me know how much muscle you put on.

The post Adding Muscle with Kettlebells: How I Build Up My Grapplers appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Seriously, Ian King is the Tesla of the strength world. Rep tempo? Co-created it with Poliquin. Single-leg training? That was him, too. In fact, his work was so good and prolific, to those of us paying attention, that you could almost say the pages of T-Nation are filled with people now claiming his work as their own, hoping old timers like me can’t remember back far enough to where their “new” ideas came from.)

At the time Ian King was referring to the oncoming boom of stability training led in the early 90s by Paul Chek. He was dead right. I’ve watched as the fitness industry has gone from all chrome, bells, and whistles to now mad keen for “functional” training, and so many foolish ideas on stability training I don’t even know who to make fun of first.

In the span of just over a decade I’ve seen Swiss balls go from being laughed at to being must have pieces of equipment in every gym. And where we are now, if you’re not flipping tires or wearing a snorkel, you’re not functional. I’ll bet you all that in another decade we’ll be back in the gym with the mirrors and the chrome, and CrossFit will be the exercise class of choice in most gyms as it gets launched into mainstream fitness by Reebok (and subsequently watered down to the point it will be unrecognizable).

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The goal of strength training is one thing – get stronger. Whether you’re training for fat loss, increased fitness or endurance you’re still training for strength. In the case of endurance it will be a specific type of strength, but in all cases you’re trying to get stronger. Somehow, somewhere along this new functional path we’ve forgotten about actual training. I see people with programs that look like rehab sessions from a few years ago.

I’m the first to say that I think the FMS is a great tool for trainers to help teach better movement skills for people. And I think other allied schools such as Primal Move and MovNat are on the right path, too.

But you still gotta train!

I can remember a client of mine scoring a seventeen on the FMS. For those not familiar with the FMS a score of twenty-one is the highest possible score. So, a seventeen is very good. His response? How do I get a twenty-one. The goal of the FMS isn’t to become a twenty-one. The goal is to make sure you have no massive obstacles or restrictions and then load up.

I like to tell people the only difference between a beginner variation and an advanced one is load. As a beginner you need to learn how to squat correctly. Within the RKC we have a variety of drills to help you do so. At the HKC we will teach you how to gain the requisite mobility to safely squat deeply. At the RKC we will add load. Once you’ve mastered the basics, at that point we can get serious. An advanced lifter will have a squat somewhere around double body weight. So the squat can be a mobility tool, a stability tool, or a strength tool all in one. The only difference is load.

That single thread of mobility, stability, then strength is the key to developing real athletic strength. There is a lot of research being done in the United States now on how conventional weight training is destroying athleticism. Yes, they actually use the word destroy. But what they’re really showing is that young athletes lose fundamental athletic abilities when pushed too early into specialized weight training programs.

This epidemic of early specialization leads to the opposite problem of the stability and functional training craze – they’ve gone right to the other end of the spectrum and forgotten entirely about developing the mobility and stability necessary in the first place.

A well-rounded program will include something like Primal Move and even some basic tumbling to get the body and senses warmed up, while addressing our needs to include some crawling and rolling into our lives. (Not to mention if you participate in any outdoor activities, knowing how to fall could save you from months off due to a broken bone).

We would then address strength, and I like Pavel’s recommendations for three to five exercises done for three to five sets of three to five reps, as discussed in Beyond Bodybuilding.

If necessary at the end of the workout you would address conditioning and strength endurance. Something simple like three to five sets of ten kettlebell snatches with each hand with matching push ups in between fits the bill nicely, or an easy twenty minute jog.

On your days off from this practice perform full-body stretching for an hour. The single biggest issue I see in clients these days is lack of mobility. An hour spent with me will be helpful, but an hour won’t counteract the other one hundred and sixty-seven other hours in the week, nor the years of poor movement prior. Ian King (again) said to me over fifteen years ago, “Flexibility is the last key to performance.” Looking at the big shift of the functional training movement towards FMS, Z health, joint mobility, Primal Move, and the like over the last few years shows me that once again Ian was so far ahead of his time and we’re just now catching up.

Remember those three cues – mobility, stability, and strength. Set your program accordingly. Get rid of the circus tricks and other fun and games, and actually spend your training time working on the things that will help you succeed the fastest.

The post No More Circus Tricks: The Proper Progression for Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

At the time in Australia there were only five or six RKCs and none were local. Yet all of a sudden not five or six, but eighty hopefuls and about twenty different instructors surrounded me. As each instructor introduced himself or herself I felt dumber and dumber, more and more like I was going to be hopelessly out of my depth.

Fast forward to now, and somehow at the start of the last RKC event I attended it was me standing at the front of the room introducing myself along with the other instructors, and now somehow even in charge of testing and running my own team. It’s pretty cool to be able to share this thing that has come to mean so much to me, both overseas and at home. Obviously, in all organizations things change as people move in and out of a position or new research comes along that shows a better way of doing something and the RKC is no different.

In its earliest guise the Russian Kettlebell Challenge was about one thing, from what I can gather speaking to those few foolhardy souls who braved the first few events: survive the epic Hardstyle beating of the Evil Russian, Pavel Tsatsouline. Senior RKC Shaun Cairns, one of the biggest strongest guys I have ever encountered, told me of a snatch workout at an RKCII event in 2008. With temperatures high and no chalk available, hands started tearing. Then bleeding. To try to keep a grip on the 24kg bell he was snatching, he started to rub his hands in the dirt at his feet. The more he bled the more dirt he used and the more he started to stick to the handle. As his hands stuck more, they tore more, and bled more, and then he got more dirt. This went on for twenty minutes.

Things have changed since then and that particular workout is no longer used for obvious reasons. As Master RKC Brett Jones said, “Over the 10-plus year history of the RKC there has been an ongoing progression and crystallization of the principles and techniques within the RKC system. Drawing from Pavel’s extensive background and knowledge and incorporating the work of many other fantastic coaches and systems (including contributions from within the RKC) the RKC is the ‘bleeding edge of the razor’ in Strength and Conditioning.”

Maybe it’s age. Maybe it’s because Pavel moved to California and some of his Eastern bloc toughness has been mellowed by surfer dude calm, but the RKC has certainly changed a lot since its early days.

But it’s always been the magic of Pavel and his ability to distil exercise instruction that has set the RKC apart. Like me, Master RKC Dave Whitley had the exact same feeling:

Since my first day at the RKC in June 2003 I have known I was a part of something special. A huge aspect of Pavel’s genius approach is taking the complicated and explaining it in simple terms. The importance of the “grease the groove” concept of developing the skill of strength cannot be over-emphasized. How many PRs have been set around the world over the years just because Pavel taught people to practice to success instead of work themselves to failure?

Another aspect is an emphasis on doing fewer things better. In 2003 there was no level two and there were 10 or 11 drills in the manual. As we went deeper into the skills, the RKC six became the level one material and some of the others (jerk, windmill, bent press) became the core of level two.

These organic changes have been led by all within the RKC, not just by Pavel. I can think of one particular example of this evolution. In one of his first books, Power to the People, Pavel wrote about a moderate intensity, high frequency program that led to big strength gains. Power to the People turned the strength-training world upside down when it first came out. It was so revolutionary compared to the pump and blitz bodybuilding style that was in vogue.

Then, the program received a further update in Beyond Bodybuilding. The core exercises of a push and a pull for two sets of five repetitions became three to five exercises, performed three to five days per week, for three to five sets of three to five reps. Easy Strength anyone?

Dan John told me this about his early exposure to Pavel and how it changed his training philosophy:

My first exposure to Pavel and his methods was Jason Keen’s short summary of a twenty-five dollar workshop he attended. This is when the Internet was first really opening up and I think Keen’s article was one of the first non-bodybuilding or non-High Intensity Training articles I had ever read on the Net. Few may remember that “HIT Jedis” controlled and dominated the early Internet. Everyone was a Hard Gainer cursed by birth to a lifetime of weakness but blessed with an ability to type about it twenty-four hours a day.

Then, Pavel. Few know that I read Keen’s review and tested this Soviet’s training ideas. I did two sets of five of the overhead squat and the snatch grip deadlift five days a week and a hard flexibility stretch. Eight weeks later, I broke the state records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total. To say that “I became a believer” is an understatement. I kissed the rattlesnake early on this movement.

Even in Dan John’s first foray into following Pavel’s ideas you can already see the idea of limiting the number of exercises, of going deeper into the skills, of frequent practice, and of this magic number of realistic reps that seems to do amazing things for us when it comes to strength development.

One of the things I think confuses people most about the RKC system is that they become attached to specific things. What I mean is, we refer to ourselves as a school of strength. So people hear that and begin to think what they need to do is lift more and more, and heavier and heavier. Or they hear the term “Hardstyle” and think it means “Uglystyle” and unnecessary, continuous tension.

But Pavel never said, “Comrades, don’t do anything other than lift.” One of his earliest books The Naked Warrior is perhaps the greatest example of the blend of “styles” of the RKC system. The essence of the book is the one-arm push up and single-leg squat. To perform both you need to be strong, symmetrical, mobile, and stable. You would be hard pressed to find a more balanced training regime.

When Gray Cook first came along to the RKC he said Pavel had his attention when he said, “We are a school of strength AND movement.” This began a partnership with the Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Specialist (CK FMS) course. This combination of strength as well as the movement is an important aspect of the RKC. It allowed us to, as Brett Jones explained, “’field strip’ exercises to get to the goal in the best way for the individual.”

But as humans we like polarity, black and white, in our philosophies. How can one thing be both tension and relaxation? How can we lift heavy, but be flexible? At the end of last year Pavel offered some suggestions for New Year Resolutions, “A double body weight deadlift and do the splits,” he said. As always, he instantly distilled these two seemingly separate goals into a single unified approach.

It’s natural when you have a new toy that you want to play with it all the time. As RKCs we’re no different. When the CK FMS course first came along everyone went bananas for mobility. But we did this at the expense of one of the central themes of our school – strength.

This was most often seen in our assessment of the get up using the high bridge. Brett Jones reminded, “Remember the goal of the high bridge is to ‘clear the hips’ and once the hips are clear you should be practicing several varieties of the get-up – heavy, light, slow, singles, multiple reps, pressing during the stages, roll up (or tactical), ½ get-ups etc.” Yet somehow people started over emphasizing the high bridge and you would see people with backs so hyper extended that they looked like a rainbow. Meanwhile the testing instructors would have lasers and goniometers out measuring joint angles and the get up, and a lot of its benefits, just got lost in the process.

This decision to change one aspect of the get up is in line with our central goal as an instructor certification. Andrea DuCane, who has probably been to more RKC events than anyone other than Pavel said, “The quick, lasting, and life-changing results clients and kettlebell enthusiasts achieve with consistent kettlebell training. There is no other system that is as complete in total body strength, conditioning and mobility training.”

Brett Jones added, “Growing and adapting to the needs of the participants by addressing issues presented such as lack of a deep squat or lack of a hip hinge. This organic development has transitioned into an adaptive, but structured and reproducible system, making the RKC a sought after instructors certification.”

One of these changes has just occurred – quite a big one. The RKC when I first attended was all about double kettlebells. Double the bells, double the fun. Yet recently we’ve switched to single bell. Many felt this would make things too easy. In their minds they see that half the load is half as hard. What they forget is that testing is only a small part of the RKC weekend and before they even get to the testing they need to put in two solid days of work beforehand. Not only that, but squatting, pressing and performing swings with an off centre load is a great sign of strength, mobility, and stability. It’s come full circle and is now more reminiscent of a loaded naked warrior than before.

For me, I’ve never trained clients with double kettlebells unless they decide to train for the RKC. There’s simply no need. They get the greatest core workout they possibly could simply from resisting the rotational forces of a single heavy bell and performing the RKC “deep six” of swing, get up, clean, press, squat, and snatch. In fact, I’ve seen people’s FMS screens improve greatly from doing no corrective work other than working on their RKC exercises with a single bell. And because we, the RKC, are like the strength world’s Jeet Kune Do, discarding the useless, and because we involve all aspects of movement and performance this single change is a great step.

Dan John summed it up better than I ever could:

So, to understand the RKC, I think you have to understand the impact of Pavel. So, be sure you see the underpinnings of pure strength, applied flexibility, and an appreciation of mobility work. Trust me, no one talked about mobility work in the United States and the magic (now more like the voodoo) of mobility before Pavel. When Pavel wrote “Vodka, Pickle Juice, and Kettlebells” for Milo Magazine, the stage was set: if you wanted to keep up, you had to learn kettlebells.

The RKC addresses the disconnect between how the human body works and the tools we have to teach, relearn, and discover how the human body works. One can deadlift amazing amounts of weights without ever understanding the hinge movement. A few correct kettlebell swings can illumine an athlete to perform at a higher level with less stress. The RKC system engages strength training, mobility, flexibility, correctives, cardio, and work production all in one tight package. We also keep ourselves open to the “What the Heck Effect” that illustrates this bizarre nonlinear insight that for whatever reason “doing this made this better.”

I see the RKC evolving, as we strive as a community to constantly lock down our rules, commandments, and directives, while concomitantly we are adding, challenging, and expanding our vision far beyond what we see today.

It’s a process that is not for the faint of heart. But, we can improve this “faint of heart” with swings.

The post The RKC Evolution appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

And that’s how it was when I first got into kettlebells and found my way to the Russian Kettlebell Certification (RKC). I would have these wild explanations that jumped from one spot to the next, e.g., “Kettlebells are good for your shoulders because of the offset weight distribution. Pavel is really flexible.” There was just so much to take in I literally didn’t know where to start when explaining it to people.

For starters the RKC is termed a “Hardstyle” of kettlebell training. That’s not to say that I can think of any version of lifting kettlebells that I would call soft. From the amazing feats of Girevoy competitors who do ten-minute sets of double 32kg long-cycle clean and jerks to the RKC snatch test of one hundred reps in five minutes with a 24kg bell, there’s no soft or easy path visible.

But the term Hardstyle doesn’t refer to its difficulty, nor as many believe, does it refer solely to generating tension throughout the body. Instead the term refers to a type of hand-to-hand combat taught in Russian special operations in the 1970s. Hardstyle kettlebell training was developed in the 1980s to support that.

This blended martial art had its roots in Okinawan Goju Ryu, a martial art known for its hard Japanese influences as well as its flowing Chinese suppleness. Loose like a whip preparing to strike, and as hard as iron when focus is delivered to the blow.

This application of focus, or kime, is necessary to apply an explosive attack “to the target using the appropriate technique and maximum power in the shortest time possible.” In other words, as former RKC Team Leader Randy Hauer stated, we are looking for “power production over power conservation.”

The links between the RKC and martial arts don’t stop with just the name either. To me, the RKC system is more a weighted martial art than a lifting system because of the application of kime. In the same way that a serious karateka will spend hours drilling kata, hand and foot position, and on the smallest detail, so too will a serious RKC work on small details of the kettlebell lifts. We don’t workout, we practice.

By splitting our lifts into two main categories – grinds and ballistics – we are able to focus on two very different, although athletically essential skills, within practice sessions. By employing “maximal acceleration in the quick lifts and maximal tensions in slow lifts” we train both sides of the performance coin – tension and relaxation.

Muscles generate force by creating tension. Tension = force. So we perform our slow lifts with maximal tension as if performing Sanchin kata (for more information please refer to The Way of Sanchin Kata by Wilder). By practicing this skill – with all weights – we effectively use our practice time to shadow box with lighter weights before moving to live combat with the heavier loads. This low stress practice allows the body to learn how to perform the skill of creating tension when needed to safely move the heaviest weights.

Many will say your body will naturally do what is necessary when lifting a heavy load. Perhaps if your name is Coan or Hatfield, but for the majority of people the skill of lifting a heavy weight is unnatural and foreign and in the same way that you wouldn’t make a white belt beginner full contact spar with a seasoned black belt you shouldn’t let novice lifters try for a max lift until they’ve spent some time applying focus to their technique.

As the RKC manual says, “If you don’t practice these techniques with a light bell, you surely will not be able to do it when you meet a heavy one.”

However, developing or trying to keep the body this stiff and tight during a set of swings just isn’t going to work. And this is one of people’s biggest misunderstandings of the RKC system – we develop appropriate tension, not continual tension. While tension is strength, force, and safety, it is also slow and robotic. The nature of athletic movement is fast, whippy, and loose. In fact, Russian researchers found that elite athletes were able to go from tense to loose and back again 800% faster than the rest of us. A punch lashes out, fast, loose and like a whip only for the fighter to become a solid steel girder behind it at the moment of impact – kime.

Okinawan master Chozo Nakama spoke of “relaxed tension”. And it is this same sense of relaxed tension we are able to apply in properly performed swings. As I’ve written previously in my articles on the swing there is a bell that is the right size for each of us to practice this skill. Continually going after a heavier and heavier bell often results in what Master RKC Brett Jones termed “Uglystyle” – a slow, grinding swing devoid of snap or any semblance of speed and power.

The following is from my original 2009 RKC when I first attended the RKC and is not in the current edition. So even for RKCs, this may be eye opening:

Hardstyle strength is exemplified by powerlifting and Okinawan karate. The common denominator is compression.

Compress the muscles. Because muscles produce force by tensing. Maximize the tension.

Compress the joints. Because a loose joint absorbs the force meant to go elsewhere; it “leaks” power and is easily injured.

Compress the breath. Because a slack waist dissipates force like Jell-o. Because high intra-abdominal pressure increases strength.

Compress the ground. To maximize stability and to take advantage of the reactive forces.

Compress the focus. Direct the force precisely to minimize losses. “Coordination of movement is getting rid of excessive degrees of freedom in different joints…” (Bernshtein) “Steering Strength” (McGill).

Hardtsyle strength training is the practice of the total compression skill.

RKC teaches how to focus the scattered energies of the body into a directed all-out effort while minimizing the odds of injuries.

To me, now with more experience and familiarity with the RKC system and how it relates to all training, when I look at it I just see exactly what you would understand about your activity if you were a world class athlete. You’d have spent many, many years doing low stress practice of your skills – from playing scales if a piano player, to swimming countless laps, to putting from every conceivable angle on the practice greens. You’d have practiced, with focus, on removing the superfluous and improving essential skills of your pastime.

The essential lesson of the RKC is to spend time practicing your skills, whatever they may be. But don’t limit yourself to one side of the performance coin. To be outstanding you need tension and relaxation – fast and loose. I’ve never seen Pavel write or say, “Comrades, you should just lift,” or, “Comrades, forget lifting, just stretch.” He has as many books on strength as he does on flexibility, joint mobility, and movement. Ignore one or the other at your own athletic peril.

While the breeding ground for Hardstyle may be Russian unarmed combat designed to kill or be killed, the Hardstyle kettlebell system the RKC has become is about the sum of performance.

The post The Origins and Explanation of “Hardstyle” Kettlebell Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

(Newton’s second law of motion, for those who are a little geeky.)

Force = Mass x Acceleration

(Newton’s second law of motion, for those who are a little geeky.)

For those us involved in any kind of performance training this equation has to be at the forefront of everything we do. The ability to produce force quickly is essential to victory. This is why the vertical jump is so revered as a test for force production. To go from a stand still to leaping as high as possible shows a great ability to produce force quickly. In sprint terms this is a fast start; in grappling it is shooting for a takedown; and in lifting it is the start of the clean and the snatch.

And this is where most people get it wrong

Producing force has as much to do with strength as it does with speed. Many chase after improvements in speed first instead of strength. Research shows, however, there are more potential gains in force production from strength development than there are from speed development. The Russians, and by extension Mel Siff and Tudor Bompa, knew this and all maintained that until you are squatting double bodyweight you have no need for speed work such as plyometrics.

There are three generally accepted ways to make you faster

Use a heavy load and try to move it quickly. (In practice this doesn’t work very well. It is extremely difficult to stay focused on speed of movement during heavy lifts.)

Use almost no load and move quickly (jumping, bounding, etc.).

Use a light load of approximately thirty percent body weight and move it very fast using exercises such as power cleans.

Let’s jump forward a bit and assume you’ve actually done your homework, you do squat double bodyweight, and you are actually ready for some speed work. But let’s also be realistic and say that you’re a thirty-plus year old recreational athlete and you’ve maybe got some knee or ankle issues, and frankly spending time jumping up and down is probably going to do nothing other than hurt you and make you miss your game. How can we get jump improvements from speed work then?

I hate to say it, but kettlebells to the rescue once again. There is now research to show that kettlebells can improve jump height too (which, incidentally, only mirrors studies done in cold war era Russia showing the same thing).

But instead of just talk about how swings help vertical jump, I think it’s more important to talk about the hows and whys of force production. I mentioned before that there are both load and speed factors in force production. I also wrote previously about various ways to test athletes to see whether they needed to do supplemental work on speed or strength.

And this is where it gets interesting

After a point using a heavier bell won’t allow you to continue increasing force production. It will increase strength, but after you reach that tipping point, no further force bonuses will occur, much the same as the squat example I gave above. Where that tipping point is for a person is difficult to tell without a force plate and some time on your hands to analyze data.

My super smart friend Brandon Hetzler, from Science of the Swing, has done exactly this and found that a bell of roughly thirty percent of body weight is ideal for force production. Both heavier and lighter in this case diminish your ability to move it quickly enough. Brandon found that the 32kg bell (he weighs 100kg) saw his force production jump fourteen percent from the 24kg bell. While adding load to either 40kg or 48kg saw it drop by a total of ten percent.

So, we’ve seen that this thirty percent margin is ideal for producing the most force with swings, and we also have studies to show that the swing does lead to increases in jump height (And, I might add, are much safer than extra jumping for athletes who may already be high risk due to their sport. And the first rule of coaching should be to never hurt your athletes or expose them to more risk than necessary outside their games).

But what about other kettlebell exercises?

Here’s what Brandon said to me recently via email:

Using a 32kg bell, I generated forces equal 1.9, 1.4, and 2.6x bodyweight in the swing, snatch, and jerk respectively. And, the 32 is my sweet spot bell. Additionally, why I like it for the carry over to the jump is that the force curves on the forceplate are very similar between the jerk and a vertical jump. Don’t get me wrong, swings are the foundation for everyone I train to jump higher, but jerks complete it. Over the past two years we are averaging a 4″ increase in vertical jump height for high school and middle school kids in an 8 week time period. I just trained a football guy for the combine and added 6 ½″ to his vertical, dropped his pro-agility time from 4.28 to 3.99 (laser timed), and took his 40-yd sprint from 4:74 to 4:58. Over a span of 16 visits over 6 weeks.

I’m not very knowledgeable about the NFL but I’m guessing that dropping two tenths off his 40-yard time and adding 6 ½” to his vertical jump could see him go from not being a consideration to getting signed and needing a good accountant suddenly.

So, if I had to figure this out in a program sense I would add to what I wrote about here regarding building strength endurance and keep my original format but with a few changes:

Speed Day

3-5 sets of 10 repetitions of power swings (as described in this article). These swings force you to be explosive. No cheating and letting your body move all over the place. The body must be locked up tight and the only action to begin is the drawback from the lat before firing the bell hard and fast.

Superset with 3-5 sets of 5-10 repetitions kettlebell jerks, using a bell that is a third of body weight (and for this purpose, single bell only).

Because we’re trying to be as fast as possible, allow yourself to take as much rest as you need – three to five minutes between sets is acceptable. This is not conditioning training. The purpose is to swing the bell as hard and explosively on every rep as possible. Rushing between sets will only teach you to be slower and less forceful. That’s a quick path to defeat.

Strength Day

5-10 sets of 5-10 repetitions. Perform these as any kind of swing you want. My favorite here is one hand swings with the Beast (48kg). The one hand swing has been shown to allow for up to 180% of maximum voluntary muscle contraction through the waist and midsection when done properly – whole body strength in a single exercise.

Superset with 5–10 sets of 2-5 reps of kettlebell jerks, working heavier and with double bells.

Again, because we are now using heavy loads it is okay to rest between two and three minutes per set.

The only other thing I need to add is that you need to know what are your weaknesses. Resist the temptation to assume you need to be faster until you have developed a high degree of maximal strength first. Then, take a good look at what your needs are – if you’re a combat athlete, maybe chasing speed isn’t a good idea because you’ll need to have large levels of strength in reserve to move your opponent around. Alternatively, if you’re involved in a sport, such as sprinting, where you are essentially working unloaded, then you will benefit greatly from speed training.

(And can I just add that even though the kettlebell is my job and I’ve been a strength and conditioning professional for almost two decades, I am still amazed at the things I am learning about these simple iron balls. Even more than that, the spirit of adventure and discovery being shown by the ranks of the RKC is inspiring to be part of. There are some really smart and experienced trainers in the RKC and learning things like this makes me overjoyed to be part of it as we always strive to move ahead.)

Photos provided by Miguel Tapia Images and CrossFit LA.

The post Increasing Forces: Using the Kettlebell Swing to Increase Strength and Speed appeared first on Breaking Muscle.