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April 17, 2006
The Naked Warrior style smoker for the road warrior
Are you travelling? Have you left your kettlebell at home? Are you in the mood for a killer conditioning workout?
Senior RKC Steve Maxwell has come up with a bodyweight only smoker in the best traditions of the US Secret Service snatch test. Hold on to the doorway and do a rock bottom one-legged squat or “pistol”. Switch legs every rep for as long as you can (Steve goes for 10min not stop). Don’t be shy to pull with your arms to help yourself up, you will smoke your arms too.
Learn how to do the “pistol” the Russian spec ops style from my Naked Warrior book.
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 6:08 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
A hard style kettlebell snatch subtlety
"Pavel, I really 'got' something the other day you have mentioned before about the swing/snatch technique," wrote Mark Reifkind, RKC. Rif owns Girya Strength, the kettlebell gym in Palo Alto, CA. The Girya team trained Frank Shamrock with kettlebells for his 21sec fight with Cesar Gracie.
“As you know I've had a bunch of bicep issues I've gotten when snatching heavy. As I've had weak hips all my life and despite squatting relatively big weights I tend to "arm" things. I've had good quad strength from gymnastics, sprinting, and bodybuilding but no hips, even after tons of wide stance WSB box squats.
“Tired of tweaking myself and wanting to find my hips I remembered you wrote in the Russian Kettlebell Challenge book that you should push your hips back FIRST as you let the bell drop from overhead in the snatch. I realized I have been dropping the arm first and then pushing the hips back. That technique loaded my arm and shoulder more than the hips.
“WHAT a difference! It’s like night and day. I not only get on my heels and squeeze the glutes but keep them tight AS I descend. The bell then stays directly over my base and my hips are loaded like never before. The stroke is actually shorter, but way more powerful. Worked great as well for my swing, clean, everything! Totally changed the technique.
“Now I really get why you use the shin restricted high box squat as a swing drill. You can get the shins past vertical on the swing and really load the hips. Like Louie Simmons' WSB ideal box squat technique.
“It’s amazing what can happen when the focus is on deepening the skill and not just learning as many different variations that you can. As I like to say, "If you're bored, it's not heavy enough".
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 9:38 AM | Comments (4)
April 3, 2006
A week of kettlebells in a powerlifter's month
If you have read Beyond Bodybuilding you know that many Russian and American powerlifters use a simple cycling template: train hard for three weeks and back off for one. There are many ways to unload; 1,144-pound squatter Paul Childress uses kettlebells.
"For me de-load weeks are done every forth week," says the Westside Barbell Club lifter. "During that week, I will back off on my lower body work. I still train, but I may not squat. Instead I will do just assistance work using lightweights and a good tempo. Now that we have kettlebells a lot of my de-load work will come from them."
Russian kettlebell power to you!
Posted by james at 7:41 AM | Comments (1)