KETTLEBELL SAFETY 101

It’s Your Fault.
— Title of a future self-help book by Rob Lawrence

1. Check with doctors before starting training.

Especially an orthopedist and a cardiologist.

2. Always be aware of your surroundings.

Train in a place where there are no concerns about property damage or injury to anyone—including yourself.

Make sure to train on a flat surface; facing downhill invites back and knee problems.

As with basic range safety, make sure there are no people in the line of fire of your swings or snatches. The line is hot!

Is there anything to trip over? Including other kettlebells? – Clear out!

How is the surface? If it is slippery or not flat – move!

If you are training with ladies’ light, rubberized kettlebells also make sure to choose a surface where they will not bounce.

Are you about to face the sun at the most challenging point of the get-up if you are starting out facing a certain way?

3. Train barefoot or wear shoes with a flat, thin sole.

Wrestling shoes and Converse Chuck Taylors are the best.

4. Never contest for space with a kettlebell.

“Never contest for space with a kettlebell!” stresses SSgt Nate Morrison, USAF Pararescue. “You will lose. Evade it and don’t be where it wants to go.”

If the bell wants to twist your elbow, shoulder, or any other joint in a way it is not supposed to go in our species, don’t fight it. Abort! Guide the kettlebell to fall harmlessly, and move out of the way if necessary. Move those feet.

Better yet, anticipate the kettlebell’s dynamics to prevent problems instead of dealing with them.

5. Practice all safety measures at all times.

Because “practice makes permanent,” and “under stress we revert to training.” How can you expect to do the right thing during the stressful last rep with a heavy kettlebell if you grooved wrong habits with the easy reps?

“As we continue to prove in the skydiving community,” points out SSgt Morrison, “it’s the guys with the most jumps that seem to die for some very stupid reasons that are usually the result of being so familiar with a skill set that they go into automatic pilot mode. . . . Every time I jump . . . I religiously check my [gear]. By the same token, every time I do a kettlebell windmill, I always follow a mental checklist, area is clear, snatch the bell, shift feet, look at the bell, inhale and pressurize for stability, the rear leg straight, the hip cocked back, descend under control, pause, return, lock out. Sounds like a lot, but it isn’t, and I have never lost my balance under a KB of any size. My body appreciates this!”

The dumbest—and most common—injuries can be compared to safely navigating rush-hour traffic and then backing up into your mailbox.

A typical mistake is setting the kettlebell down sloppily, with a rounded back and the weight on the toes, following a hard (and often perfect) set of swings or snatches. Don’t! Mentally stay with the set until the kettlebell is safely parked. Lower the kettlebell in a way you would if you were planning to do another rep. Then let go, and only then relax.

6. Keep moving once your heart rate is high.

If you stand, sit, or lie down gasping for air following a hard set, your heart has to work unreasonably hard. You are still in severe oxygen debt, and moving your muscles—especially in the legs, by jogging, shadow boxing, even walking—pushes the blood back to the heart. Stop moving and your ticker has to work extra hard—too hard for some. Don’t come to a complete stop until your heart rate and breathing are halfway down to normal.

Marty Gallagher makes a heart rate monitor his only concession to hi-tech in his “purposefully primitive” approach to strength and fitness. I have no experience with this tool, but when Marty speaks I listen.

7. Build up the training load gradually using common sense, and listen to your body.

If you have sore elbows, it is your own fault, dude. Doing 50 cleans the first day you learned them was stupid.

“The training load” refers not only to the weight, sets, and reps, but also to the flexibility requirements. Don’t force yourself into positions you are not ready for; develop your flexibility gradually.

If you bang your forearm during cleans, don’t go clean crazy until you have fixed your technique. Bruised and swollen forearms are signs of impatience, not toughness.

8. Instruction cannot cover all contingencies,
and there is no substitute for good judgment.

And if you don’t have good judgment, forget kettlebells and go take a Pilates class.

SAFETY AS A PART OF,
NOT THE OPPOSITE OF,
PERFORMANCE

Rob Lawrence pointed out that in the RKC system safety is viewed as a part of, not the opposite of, performance. The following instructions simultaneously reduce the odds of injuries and increase performance.

1. Hips first!

A natural athlete moves from his hips, never from his back or knees. Hips-first movement is safest for your back and knees—and most powerful.

Stand up and place the edges of your hands into the creases on top of your thighs. Press your hands hard into your “hinges” and stick your butt out while keeping your weight on your heels.

Same thing on the way up: hips first. Drive with your glutes and hamstrings, less with your quads, and not at all with your back.

2. Don’t slouch. Bend back, not forward, when stretching your back.

A seemingly harmless thing to do is to slump forward after a kick-butt set or workout. Renowned physical therapist Robin McKenzie explains that most back pain is triggered by overstretching of the ligaments and the surrounding tissues. Which is in turn often caused by bad posture, especially the loss of the arch in the lower back. “After activity, the joints of the spine undergo a loosening process. If, after exercise, we place the back in an unsupported position for long periods, distortion within the joint readily occurs. This is true whether we sit in a slouched position or whether we stand, bending forward with our hands on our knees.”

Avoid slouching, and perform five back bends immediately before and after lifting. “By standing upright and bending back before lifting,” explains McKenzie, “you ensure that, as you begin the lift, there is no distortion already present in the joints of the lower back.” Place your hands in the small of your back pointing your fingers downward and keep your legs straight. Bend back slowly using your hands as the fulcrum, pause for a second, and return to the upright position. Try to bend further with each successive rep.

Just because your back started hurting immediately following a given activity, you should not automatically blame the activity. Things are not always as they appear to be; most likely it was your slouch. So avoid slouching after vigorous exercise, and wrap up with the same five back bends.

Some Russian coaches have their athletes lie on their stomachs and read a book after a practice.

3. Stay tight through your waist.

“Stay tight”—maintain a tight muscle corset around your waist to protect your back. The abdomen should neither suck in nor protrude. Useful imagery is bracing for a punch (that can be arranged).

4. Stay loose through your arms.

Kettlebell cleans and snatches are not curls; the arms barely pass e force generated by the hips. Should your arms tense up, especially on the downswing, you are asking to tweak your elbows.

5. Tame the arc.

We owe the “tame the arc” term to Rob Lawrence. It applies to swings, cleans, and snatches. On the way down toss the kettlebell back almost hitting yourself in the groin with your forearm. “Hike pass.” On the way up do not pull with the biceps but yank the shoulder back, like starting a lawn mower.

Taming the arc also applies to racking the kettlebell on your chest after a clean or catching it overhead after a snatch. Letting the kettlebell travel in a big arc means banging yourself on the forearm. Tightening the arc by outrunning the kettlebell with your fist makes the catch soft.

6. Keep your shoulders in their sockets.

Put up a very light kettlebell or dumbbell overhead and walk fast or even jump. You will quickly learn that your shoulder and elbow do not care for this—unless you lock your elbow and suck your shoulder into its socket every time you get jarred.

The lesson: pull your shoulder into your body the way a turtle pulls in its head when you are supporting the kettlebell overhead.

Senior RKC Steve Cotter teaches the following shoulder retraction drill: Lie on your back and raise your straight arm. Have your training partner carefully pull up on the arm until it starts “separating” from your body. The second time, suck the arm into the shoulder socket and have him pull again. If you have retracted correctly, the arm will stay “connected” to the body, and your friend will lift your body off the deck.

7. Don’t hyperextend your wrists.

The heavy kettlebell is determined to bend your wrist backward. Don’t let it happen! Stick your hand far inside the handle so the weight rests on the heel of your palm. Then counter with the wrist flexors, the muscles that gooseneck your wrist.

8. Keep your elbows straight.

This rule applies to two points in the kettlebell’s flight plan, on the bottom of the downswing and at the overhead lockout.

9. Take care of your hands.

Ripped calluses mean lost training time which is why we try to avoid them.

You must gradually build up the volume of swings, cleans, and snatches to let your skin adapt.

You may want to sandpaper your kettlebell’s handles, as kettlebell sport competitors do. Remove the paint and smooth out the iron.

Unlike presses and other grind lifts, swings, cleans, and snatches call for a loose grip. “Hook” the handle with your fingers rather than gripping it.

Try to lift in a way that minimally stretches the skin on your palm. Figure it out.

Load the calluses at the bases of your fingers as little as possible; let the kettlebell handle glide from the “hook” of the fingers to the heel of the palm and back in a manner that does not pinch the skin at the bases of the fingers.

Do not let the calluses get thick and rough. Russian gireviks soak their hands in hot water at night, then thin out and smooth out their calluses with a pumice stone, and finally apply an oily cream or a three-to-one mix of glycerin and ammonia. I hang my head in shame as I am giving you metrosexual skin-care advice.

Speaks Brett Jones, Senior RKC, who gives his hands the double abuse of kettlebell lifting and extreme gripping feats:

“Go out and get Cornhuskers Lotion and use it several times a day. This lotion is unique in that it is not greasy and actually toughens and conditions your skin. At night you may want to use a product that penetrates and moisturizes in a different way. Bag Balm and other heavy (oily) lotions can be used at night and can best be absorbed if you put them on before bed and wear mittens, socks or specially designed gloves available at some health and beauty stores.

File or shave off your calluses. By using an Emoryboard, buffing pad, or even high grade sand paper you can simply file off the excess callouso that it never gets thick enough to tear or rip. There are even callous shavers available that use a razor blade with a guide to shave off thick calluses. But, if you file often and correctly you may never need them. You do not want to file away the entire callous. The thickened part that becomes ‘caught’ or pinched during the snatches or KB work is what you should file off. Your calluses are there for a reason. Just keep them in check to reduce the possibility for tears.

Listen to your hands. If you skin begins to pull, tingle or give indications of a blister or tear, listen to it and stop. Halting a set early to save your hands is far preferable to ignoring the warning and allowing a tear to occur which can derail your training.”

Mark Reifkind, RKC, a man who has been hard on his hands with gymnastics, powerlifting, and now kettlebells, recommends “a technique I used back in gymnastics for deal ith overly thick and hard calluses.

1) Soak the hands in hot water for at least five minutes. Hot baths work well but showers take forever.

2) Dry the hands and wait 30 seconds or so for the blood to come back.

3) Sand the hand with pumice stone or sandpaper callous remover.

The skin just sloughs off with very little effort and all the pads get nice and flat. Just enough to protect but not tear.”

Rif will also tell you what to do if you have gone too far and got blisters:

“What I do is cut the dead skin away and as close to the remaining callous ad as possible. Clean and dry and then place a square of athletic tape (MUST be porous or it won’t work) over the tear and work it into the skin until it is seamless. Leave it on until it gets wet or dirty then replace. If the tape won’t stick it is wet or dirty.

This technique allows the tear to get air so it will dry out but the porous covering allows it to be just moist enough so you don’t get cracks in the center. Works every time. You can work out with the square of tape covering the tear.”

If your workout calls for snatches but your paws feel like they are ready to pop, do two-handed swings instead to minimize the stress on the skin of the hands.

A special note on training in high humidity. Rob Lawrence advises, “When you are working out under humid conditions, the deadweight snatch is your friend. You can do multiple sets without ripping your hands. Snatch the weight, lower to shoulder, lower to ground, repeat.”

The backswing, and thus most of the skin stress, is eliminated. You could do the dead snatch even if the weather is dry but your hands are raw.

Power and health to you, RKCs!