January 30, 2006
The skill of strength trumps the program design
Last few years we ran a challenge at our booth at a top bodybuilding expo. A one-arm military press with an 88-pound kettlebell. The rules are simple: the fist must be lower then the chin at the start of the press and the knees must remain locked. You don’t even have to clean the bell because I do not want any of the ‘this is all technique’ whining. We’ll hand it to you if you insist.
Let us face it, pressing eighty-eight pounds overhead is not a feat of strength. Definitely not for a two hundred-fifty pound man. Yet the overwhelming majority of the big sissies just can’t do it. They just don’t have the key strength skills of rooting, power breathing, engaging the lat, and other subtleties we teach at the RKC kettlebell instructor course. “At the RKC we emphasize the technical performance over routines, exercises, workouts,” stressed Rob Lawrence, Senior RKC instructor. “They are marginal until the technique is perfect.” It makes little difference whether you are doing 5x5 or 3x10 and how hard you are trying if your technique is worthless. A 160, 5’11” Rob easily presses the ‘bulldog’ to back up his point.
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 6:30 AM | Comments (1)
January 23, 2006
Why Soviet scientists gave the kettlebell a thumbs-up! Part II
Guys name their kettlebells like they name their guns. They paint them with their units' coats of arms. They get tattoos of kettlebells. "You can have my kettlebell," wrote one Comrade on our forum, "But you will have to pry it out of my dead cold hand!"
The reason for this affection is simple: Russian kettlebells deliver.
Siberian scientist Shevtsova (1993) confirmed what is obvious to any girevik: kettlebell lifting is great for your heart. Seventy-five gireviks with three to five years of experience were studied. A long-term decrease in the heart rate and the blood pressure was recorded. The kettlebellers had what Russians call ‘a cosmonaut’s blood pressure’: 110/70 in the summer and 114/74 in the winter. They clocked an average resting HR of 56 beats per minute. The heart rate took a dive not just at rest, but also during and after exercise. And the time it took the heart to slow down back to normal also decreased. Besides, the experienced gireviks' systems had also adapted to be better 'primed' and ready for upcoming action.
Kettlebell training improves body composition. According to Voropayev (1997) who studied top Russian kettlebell lifters, 21.2% increased their bodyweight since taking up kettlebelling and 21.2% (the exact same percentage, not a typo), mostly heavyweights, decreased it. Another study of elite gireviks revealed a consistently low body fat. (Gomonov, 1998)
“A girevik is characterized by a balanced development of all organs and musculature with significant hypertrophy of the muscles of the shoulder girdle.” (Rasskazov, 1993)
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 6:33 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2006
Why Soviet scientists gave the kettlebell a thumbs-up! Part I
In the twentieth century Soviet science confirmed what Russian hard men had known for centuries: kettlebell lifting is one of the best tools for all around physical development.
Voropayev (1983) observed two groups of college students over a period of a few years. A standard battery of the armed forces PT tests was used: pullups, a standing broad jump, a 100m sprint, and a 1k run. The control group followed the typical university physical training program which was military oriented and emphasized the above exercises. The experimental group just lifted kettlebells. In spite of the lack of practice on the tested drills, the kettlebell group showed better scores in every one of them!
Vinogradov & Lukyanov (1986) found a very high correlation between the results posted in a kettlebell lifting competition and a great range of dissimilar tests: strength, measured with the three powerlifts and grip strength; strength endurance, measured with pullups and parallel bar dips; general endurance, determined by a 1000 meter run; work capacity and balance, measured with special tests.
Kettlebells improve coordination and agility (Luchkin, 1947, Laputin, 1973). Kettlebells develop professional applied qualities and general physical preparedness (Zikov, 1986, Griban, 1990). Lopatin (2000) has found a positive correlation between a soldier’s kettlebell sport ranking and his obstacle course performance.
Soldier, Be Strong!, the official Soviet armed forces manual on strength training approved by the Ministry of Defense (Burkov & Nikityuk, 1985), flat out declared kettlebell training to be “one of the most effective means of strength development”, representing “a new era in the development of human strength-potential”. Enough said.
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 6:30 AM | Comments (0)
January 9, 2006
If Charles Atlas was Russian he could have told a different story
Sergey Mishin was a heavy, slow, decidedly non-athletic kid. He picked up his first kettlebell, a 53-pounder, at seventeen and was dismayed when he could not lift it with either arm. Undeterred by his weakness, Mishin found a plumbing pipe, hammered its middle flat so it would hold the kettlebell handle in place, and started jerking the kettlebell with two hands, like a barbell. The year was 1975. Two years later Mishin could press a 70-pounder that he had found abandoned in a park after a festival, the Railroad Worker Day, 30 times with each arm.
Mishin kept kettlebelling in the army and when he was back he bragged to a friend that he would make a ‘Master of Sports’, a national ranking, in the first kettlebell lifting competition he entered. And he did!
Sergey lost over 100 pounds, became fast, wiry. And went on become the #1 kettlebell lifter in the world –170 jerks with a pair of 70lb. kettlebells in 10min! –and Russia’s sport legend. The president of Russia awarded Mishin a medal, “For Accomplishments for the Benefit of the Motherland” (II degree). In Russia kettlebells are a matter of national pride and a symbol of strength.
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 6:40 AM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2006
Build Powerful Arms and Shoulders with the Alternating Kettlebell Hang Clean & Press
Senior RKC Mike Mahler is the author of this drill and it is a fair guess that it is at least partly responsible for Mike's impressive pipes.
Deadlift a pair of kettlebells outside your legs from a narrow, conventional, stance. Pause on the top, then clean one of the kettlebells with a very short leg kick and a powerful arm movement. Don’t lean back!
Don’t press yet; master the alternating hang clean first. Drop the kettlebell where it came from, outside your thigh, and watch your knee. Absorb the shock with a shallow knee dip, then clean the other kettlebell without hesitation. Once you are in the groove add a press on the top of each clean.
This C&P variation a powerful muscle builder in the best tradition of the ‘fast tens’ –a killer mix of static, dynamic, and metabolic stress. Because each arm gets a break after each press and because your shoulder and waist get ‘reloaded’ with each clean you can get away with reps higher than the usual five without downgrading to a lighter kettlebell. Try ten per side.
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)