By Gray Cook

Working with StrongFirst and Brett Jones at our first joint event — Foundational Strength at Phil Scarito’s DV8Fitness in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania — was a great experience. It was exciting to introduce people to the transition from Functional Movement Screening to corrective exercises and the many ways that the kettlebell can be vital to the process.

The Turkish Get Up is one of the few full-body movements that we perform with a kettlebell. It honors mobility and stability at its finest. It also fits the criteria of our movement screening because it looks at the left and right side of functional movement individually — you are going to do a right Get Up and you are going to do a left Get Up. They should complement each other. You should not be much better on one side than another because it is not about right-hand dominance or strength.

It’s all mobility and stability. It is not pressing. It is not squatting. It is basically moving in all three planes with respectable proprioception, mobility and stability.

By imposing a ‘speed bump’ in the TGU, we take an already slow movement and make you slow it down even more. A speed bump makes you pay attention. We impose that speed bump to send you to a corrective strategy and some pretty neat stretching that will basically enhance the TGU.

I appreciate Mark Cheng bringing the move that became the speed bump to Brett Jones and me while we were working on Kettlebells from the Ground Up. In the very center of the TGU you have a choice of hovering or you can do a plank up on the elbow. That plank is basically one leg bent. Imagine the right kettlebell overhead. The right leg is bent. The left leg is out straight. You lift up your body and basically demonstrate full hip extension.

We thought, ‘You know what, this little three-point bridge is a great way to get people who are using the TGU as corrective strategy to first see it as a screen.’

The TGU has to show you a problem before you have the insight to correct that problem. By imposing this extra amount of hip extension, we slowed you down because there are only a few places where you really have to have a lot of hip extension in the TGU, we imposed this little extra hip extension to simply slow you down.

The reason we like bridging and put it into a lot of athletic development routines is because it is one of the few challenges where we get to put the glute against the hip flexor and your hip extends as opposed to your low back. But many athletes, the quad-dominant athlete or the person who is over trained in the hip flexor, will gave us back extension instead of hip extension.

So the purpose and nature of coaching is to hold you up against your weakest links, to expose you to your weakness and to allow you to rise to a challenge so that your opponent or life does not find your weakness.  click to tweet

When we took on this little study with the Turkish Get Up, we agreed on all six positions with everybody else. We modified one of the seven positions. It has created some controversy and we had a lot of comments on that three-point bridge. We maintained its value as a corrective strategy—as a speed bump to increase your awareness that may be you cannot clear your hips as good as you thought’.

Instead of doing a bunch of hip lifts or single leg bridges to reduce the dynamic activity of your psoas and hip extension, do a TGU this way. If it basically catches you at this stage, then own the stage. The TGU is not about seeing how quick you can get up and with how much weight. It is about honoring each stage of the exercise.

Once you are competent with the TGU, once you feel like these corrective strategies have helped you, once you feel like you are moving symmetrically on the left and right and the basic little speed bump Get Up that we showed you does not present difficulty, do whatever TGU you want. . . and start thinking about other speed bumps.

Highlights:

• Calisthenics began as beautiful moves with weighted implements
• Bridges are favored because it is one of the few challenges where the glute acts against the hip flexor
• The TGU begins in a three-point bridge, an intentional speed bump
• The Get-Up must be screen before it is a strategy
• It must show you a problem before you have the insight to correct it
• The first populations that used the TGU generally moved better than people today
• The TGU is one of the few full-body movements we do with a kettlebell
• The previously mentioned “speed bump” is imposed to send you into a corrective strategy
• Focus is not about seeing how quickly someone can get up and with how much weight

Want more Functional Movement? Join us July 21-25 for five days of intense learning at the 2014 Functional Movement Summit featuring Master SFG Brett Jones & Gray Cook:

Photo credit: Mike Perry, skillofstrength.com

By Pavel Tsatsouline, Chairman

In the public mind the word “toughness” is associated with endurance. A marathoner gutting it out for hours. A professional boxer surviving a dozen rounds. Yet the never-give-up mindset is just as present in expressions of maximal strength. It is the ability to grind a crushing weight to the top. And to do it without compromising one’s technique.

A strength professional does not have a plan B. Only an amateur does. The latter suddenly has doubts about having enough strength to complete the lift as planned. He seeks the path of least resistance. To use the kettlebell military press as an example, he shrugs his shoulder and leans way back… This gives him a better leverage—at least for the moment. As with all panicked decisions, this one is very short sighted. It may be easier to move the kettlebell another inch or two with a shrug, but afterwards there is nowhere to go but shoulder impingement.

An experienced lifter, on the other hand, will keep grinding it out straight and narrow, no matter how hard it feels, without taking what seems like an easier detour. He has faith in his strength and stays in the groove, no matter how hard it is. This is the hallmark of a strength professional. And if the weight happens to be beyond his limit on that day, he will, as Marty Gallagher has put it, “fail with integrity”.

A couple weeks ago, StrongFirst posted a video of John Spezzano, SFG II military pressing a 97-pound kettlebell. A record it is not but it is a strong lift for a wiry 175-pound martial artist in his mid-forties. But it was the manner in which John performed that was especially impressive. No leg kicking, no hip checking, no belly bouncing. And an excruciating—yet quite safe—grind. The kettlebell stopped dead in its tracks when the girevik’s upper arm was not even parallel to the ground. At that point a lesser man would have quit, but not Spezzano.

Shrugging one’s shoulders involuntarily is a sign of fear. John showed the kettlebell no fear and no mercy: his shoulder stayed down. His torso tilted to the side, but no more than necessary not to topple when pressing heavy relative to one’s bodyweight. His back did not hyperextend. He fought the piece of metal for eternity and he won.

It goes without saying that one should not attempt such efforts every training session—or even every month. Even if you are able to stay injury free, you will fry your nervous system. There is an abyss between training and testing. In preparation for his PR John was following one of my experimental programs and never came close to failure. Most of his pressing was done with a 32kg kettlebell for sets of 2-4 reps and a 28kg kettlebell for sets of 3-6. That is 1/3-2/3 RM or even less.

(A lyrical detour. Next time you see “AMRAP” anywhere, leave that place and never come back. The proper term is “RM”, or “repetition maximum”. It was coined back in 1945 by respected strength researcher Captain Thomas DeLorme and it does not need to be reinvented or lengthened.)

To make sense of the above numbers, 32kg is 80% of John’s 40kg x 1RM at the start of the eight-week plan and 28kg is 70%. Considering that an athlete who is slightly on the fast twitch side typically can do 70% x 10RM and 80% x 6RM, John was doing only 1/3-2/3 of the maximal reps possible. And if his muscles were more slow twitch, then that percentage was even lower—much lower. For eight weeks John was not testing; he was practicing, “greasing the groove” in an organized manner. This is exactly how you should train.

As for maxing, for most athletes working up to what Russians call the “training max” and Master SFG Dan John calls the “sort of max” is more than enough. If you thought the purpose of this blog was to encourage you to test your 1RM in a no-holds-barred manner, it is not. Not at all. Such efforts are the domain of competitive lifters—and of rare athletes from other sports like John Spezzano with iron will and iron discipline.

No, my goal was to instill respect in a truly all-out strength effort as an act of mental toughness every bit in the league with an exhausting race. And to remind you the meaning of respect, period. When we posted the video of John’s press, people who knew the score were duly impressed. Of course, typical for our age when even the clueless get a voice, others wailed about what they perceived as a dangerous lift failing to appreciate the beautiful effort of which they are not capable.

Respect.
 

By Melody Schoenfeld, SFG II

As a competitive powerlifter, my bench has always been my Achilles’ Heel. It has always been the slowest to build for me, and has been a source of frustration for a long time.

While training heavy squats last year, I worked up to 190lbs (10lb short of a double bodyweight squat for me).  Every time I squatted, however, I felt my right knee do a sort of arcing movement inward towards my body.  And as much as I tried to prevent it, my right patella finally decided to give in and start tracking in ways it shouldn’t be tracking.  I’ve learned a lot about how my quad muscles fire (or don’t fire) since then, but healing is slow, and I have had to lay off squats (and competing) for the most part for months at a time.  While this has been frustrating, I certainly wasn’t going to stop training, so I dedicated all four of my training days per week to my bench press.
 

My training looks a lot like this:

DAY 1:  Pyramid-type bench press

This looks more or less like this (you can always play with the rep schemes—I did):

• A weight you can press for, but not much more than, 10 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 8 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 6 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 5 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 4 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 2 reps

Then, if you’re feeling ambitious, go backwards through your pyramid and try to eke out at least one more rep at each weight.
 
DAY 2:  Speed day

Work perfect, easy reps (anywhere from 60-75% of your max), emphasizing a longer pause at the bottom of the rep and an explosive movement off the bottom, for 3-5 reps per set.  I will usually do anywhere from 5 to 10 sets of these.
 
DAY 3:  Heavy day

Perfect reps around 80-90% of max, 2-3 reps, 3-5 sets.
 
DAY 4:  I usually do a one-way pyramid on Day 4 (not heading back down the pyramid).

Every time I train bench, I do accessory exercises for triceps (skullcrushers, close-grip bench, tricep pushups with isometric holds, overhead tricep extensions, etc—one exercise per training day, 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps) and lats (isometrics with the SmartFlex, pullups, weighted pullups, rows of all kinds—one exercise per training day, 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps), and I train abdominals (wheel rollouts from toes, heavy side bends, heavy weighted situps,  dragon flags, HLR’s, etc) and shoulders (KB overhead presses of all kinds, KB windmills, KB iron crosses, etc) a few times per week.  Recently, I’ve been able to add back in heavy deadlifts, and some light squats when my knee allows it.
 
Other assistance exercises I like to add a few times a week (usually one per workout day) are:

• Heavy partials. I have safety chains on my rack, and I just hike the chains up to a desired point above the bottom of my bench (much like a block press).  I have no training partners, so this works really well for me.
• Heavy negatives.  I’ll load the bar 20+lb above my max and lower the bar as slowly as possible back towards my chest.  I usually won’t do more than three total reps of these, and I rest for a minute or two in between each rep.
• Chain reps. I use loading chains to add progressive weight towards the top of my press.

 
Every 2-3 weeks, I test out my max.

In about 2 months of this program, my max bench press went from a very ugly 115lb (if I was lucky) to a very strong-looking 124lb.  Today (at the writing of this article) I pressed 115lb for a double and managed a 125lb max.  Not bad for a 104lb chick.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from a lot of trial and error it’s that there isn’t one program that works for everyone.  I’ve played with a lot of different people’s methods before I put this plan together for me.  I discovered that my body does well with this.  If yours doesn’t, don’t despair.  There is likely another plan that will work much better for you.

And if there’s one other thing I’ve learned from accidentally chopping off two fingertips last year (during which time I hit big PR’s in all three of my lifts) and having my squat setback this year, it’s this:  Life is always going to throw you curveballs.  Don’t let that stop you from reaching your goals.
 
 

Melody Schoenfeld is an SFG2 and certified strength and conditioning coach in Pasadena, CA.  She is currently working towards her master’s degree in Health Psychology.  She is the owner of Flawless Fitness (www.flawlessfitness.com) and Evil Munky Enterprises (www.evilmunkyent.com), and has achieved several California State powerlifting records for her age and weight class.  In her spare time, she sings in three heavy metal bands and cooks a lot of really good vegan food.

by Kenton Boutwell, SFG II

Part 2

 
All I did was try not to think. Instead, I was focused on my breathing. Inhale… Exhale… Repeat.
I knew my body had the movement memorized, as I had done it countless times before the challenge.

I wanted to blast that kettlebell through the dome and I knew I had to explode once I reached the bottom position of the pistol. I approached the bell, cleaned it, descended to the bottom, and BOOM… I blasted off. Pistol complete.

Here are the Strongfirst rules for the pistol (Make sure you know the requirements): The candidate must be barefoot.

• The candidate may pick up the kettlebell in any manner and hold it in front with two hands by the horns or with one or two hands in the rack on either side.

• The candidate shall raise one leg in front of him. From that moment on, the foot of the working leg must stay planted.

• The airborne leg has to stay in front for the duration of the attempt. It does not have to be straight. It may not touch the ground or the working leg.

• The candidate shall pause motionless long enough to demonstrate balance, then lower himself at least to parallel: “the top surface of the leg at the hip joint lower than the top of the knee.”

• Neither the kettlebell nor the arms may touch the working leg at any time.

• A pause in the bottom position is not required. The candidate shall stand up until the knee of the working leg is locked and the hip is extended.

• The pelvis may not rise faster than the kettlebell.

• The candidate shall stand on one foot exhibiting control until the head referee’s “Down!” command.

I want to point out one very important training principle that you must adhere to if you have a goal that you intend to reach. The training principle is referred to as the Principle of Specificity. Put simply, it means that if you want to become better at a skill or exercise then you must perform that skill or exercise. So if you want to be a beast tamer then your training should primarily consist of the pistol, military press and pull-up. All you need is one repetition for each exercise, so your training should consist primarily of single repetitions. Your program should also involve periodization of load, intensity, and volume in order to force an adaptation (i.e. getting stronger).

The moral of the story is not to get too crazy with your training, keep it basic and simple. These are two of the most important training tips I can give you for any training that you will ever do.

As you can tell the pistol requires mobility of the ankles, knees, and hips. Other than mobility and strength, balance is probably the most important physical skill required to complete a pistol. I referenced mental imagery in part one. You will want to use your mental imagery before beginning any major lift. Just do a replay of you performing the exercise in your mind.

I recommend holding the kettlebell with both hands in the goblet position as I think it allows for the most balance since it’s centered and you also have both hands instead of one to hold the bell with. Once you’ve got the the kettlebell in the goblet position, you will want to do a static stomp with the working leg in order to generate tension and balance you out.

Breathing is critical as I mentioned in part one. You really need to focus on your inhalation and exhalation timing, as well as the tempo. I would always static stomp, lift the non-working leg, and do a short inhalation and exhalation to ensure my balance.

Next I would do a tempo-based deep inhalation in my descent to the bottom, while simultaneously generating as much hamstring and glute tension as possible all the way down. This generation of tension will keep the movement balanced and controlled. Your inhalation should end once you reach bottom position and everything should be extremely tight because you have generated as much tension as possible similar to a “coiled spring,” as MSFG David WhitIey likes to put it.

During your descent it is also important to keep the kettlebell tight to you in the goblet position. If the kettlebell gets away from you then it could compromise your pistol by off balancing you, which could also get you disqualified if it touches your leg. What should you be doing with the non-working leg? I recommend keeping the leg straight and toes flexed. You don’t want this leg moving as it could also jeopardize your balance.

The last part is the ascent, which should be initiated with a tempo-based exhalation, simultaneous heel drive, and firing of the quadriceps. You will want to explode or uncoil the spring by releasing all the tension you have generated in one forceful motion.

One of the hardest parts of this movement is the transition from the eccentric to the concentric motion. Just make sure that you are tight at the bottom, and that you concentrate, putting all your focus and attention into the change of direction. Oh and be sure to lock out the hips at the top.

To be continued.

 Kenton Boutwell is a StrongFirst Girya Level 2 Kettlebell Instructor, American College of Sports Medicine certified Personal Trainer, USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach, CrossFit Level 1 Trainer,  Precision Nutrition Level 1 and Functional Movement Screen certified professional. Boutwell has worked with men, women, and youth of all ages, experience, and fitness levels, from novices to skilled athletes. He earned his bachelors from the University of Southern Mississippi and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Exercise Science at Middle Tennessee State University. A native of Mississippi, he currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.  For more information please visit www.kbfitness.com
 
 
 
 

By Steve Freides, Senior SFG

Adding one-handed kettlebell swings to your Simple & Sinister training can be daunting for some people.   Some of the symptoms include:

Grip – you feel like the bell is going to fly out of your hand.

Posture – you feel unable to maintain a forward-facing torso when the weight is in one hand.

First things first – there is no magic solution to your problem.  You aren’t strong enough yet at one-handed swings.  But since you feel more than able to complete the number of two-handed swings the program gives, you need a way over this particular hump.

Performing your single-handed swings with a lighter weight is one option – and a good option, too, but not necessary for most people if you have first reached the program’s requirement by using only two-handed swings.  Try this approach instead.
 
 
“What to do?”

Within a single set of 10 repetitions, mix two- and one-handed swings.  I credit Master SFG Brett Jones with introducing this concept to me.

NB: I drove 5 hours and paid for a hotel in order to attend a 4-hour, 8 AM getup workshop by Mr. Jones, and then arranged for him to work with me one-on-one afterwards before I got back into my car for the 5 hour drive home.  If you need in-person instruction, make no excuses – look up an SFG in your area and arrange a training session or get yourself to the nearest SFG if none are nearby.

Here is your first set of 10 reps – shorthand explained in a moment:

2T +  2L +  2T +  2R + 2T.

That’s 2 two-handed, 2 left hand only, 2 two-handed, 2 right hand only, and 2 two-handed to finish.
 
 
“Why, and How?”

The reason you will mix single-arm and double-arm swings in a single set is to allow your two-handed swing to “teach” your one-handed swing.  Feel the amount of explosiveness in your two-handed swing; note the “float” you achieve at the top of each rep; acquire a feeling for how long you wait before moving your hips out of the way of the descending bell, and for quickly you change the bell’s direction at the backmost place in the swing – and now try to duplicate these things in your one-arm swing.

It goes without saying that most people will find one side works better than the other, so also allow your strong side to learn from your stronger side.  (Note that we don’t have a weak side at StrongFirst, only a strong side and a stronger side.  Thank you, Master SFG David Whitley, for that perspective.)

Why two reps?  A single rep each side isn’t going to be enough to really let you get a feel for how you’re doing with your one-arm swing on that side – but two will suffice.
 
 
Back to “What to do?”

Perform as many of your sets of 10 in the above format as you feel appropriate for your current level of prowess at the one-arm swing.  If you are doing 5 sets of 10, try it for your second set before returning to two hands for the remainder.

You do not need to wait until you are doing 10 sets of 10 two-handed swings before introducing the one-armed swing to your training.   Try a little, see what you think, continue to perform one-arm swings if your good judgment says this is an option for you.

A Sample Progression

One way to increase the intensity of your swing workout – and therefore to make progress – is to keep the rep count and set count the same but increase the number of one-handed swings.  You might progress like this – each line represents a single day’s swing workout.

50: 10T x 5 (10 two-handed swings x 5 sets)

50: 10T x 1, 2T+2L+2T+2R+2T x 1, 10T x 3 – one set, 4 one-arm swings

50: 10T x 1, 2T+2L+2T+2R+2T x 2, 10T x 2 – two sets, 8 one-arm swings

50: 10T x 1, 2T+2L+2T+2R+2T x 3, 10T x 1 – three sets, 12 one-arm swings

then at your next workout:

70: 10T x 7

In the last workout above, you have temporarily abandoned the one-arm swing as you perform a greater total volume.  When you feel ready, you may then start adding one-handed swings back into your 70-total swing workout, and so on.

Workout Math

At some point along the way, you may feel confident enough in your one-arm swing to want to do more than two a time – Bravo!  Make it so!  You need to be able to count to ten, and add a string of numbers that equals 10, in order to do this.  If that’s a problem for you, spend some time working on arithmetic, please.

2T + 3L + 2T + 3R = 10 reps

The above yields 6 single-arm swings out of 10 instead of the previous total of 4 single-arm swings.  A 50% increase per set – nice!

A further increase would be:

1T + 4L + 1T  + 4R = 10 reps

We’re now at 8 single arms swings out of 10 – you’re almost there, and moving to all one-arm swings is sure to be in your near future.

Mix and Match

Note that all these intermediate formats can be mixed.  Below is a single workout, with each set on a separate line for clarity.  50 reps, pyramiding the number of one-arm swings

10T x 1

2T + 2L +2T +2R + 2T

2T + 3L + 2T + 3R

2T + 2L +2T +2R + 2T

10T

You’ll have finished 50 swings with 14 single-handed.
 
 
Conclusion

Feel free to switch left and right hands in everything above – find which order works best for you, or switch between them if both sides are fairly equal and you can keep track.

The instant feedback you receive when switching between two- and one-handed swings can be an extremely valuable tool in your quest for the ultimate explosive expression of the final Simple, and eventually the final Sinister workout in Pavel’s Kettlebell Simple & Sinister.  Pay attention to your form on every rep, and use what you can already do well to help you improve the movement patterns at which you aren’t as strong.

I hope this helps you achieve your goal – please drop a note on the StrongFirst discussion forum to tell me of your progress.

Dr. Steve Freides
 
 

By Jason Marshall, Senior SFG and Pavel Tsatsouline, Chairman

 

 
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jason Marshall.  We had two lifters for the East Coast meet in Philly, Ellen Stein and Lisa Burke.  Both won their divisions.   Ellen pulled 400 at 132 and won the best overall lifter award.   Lisa deadlifted 345 at 148, a meet PR.
 

 
We had five lifters for the West Coast meet in Tucson.

Jeremy Travis competed in Full Power.  He pulled 535 at 194 bodyweight.
 

 
Jeremy Layport competed in his first Full Power comp.  He pulled 573 at 212 bodyweight.  He also won best overall heavyweight male with a 690kg total (551-397-573).   9 for 9 in his first meet!

Rhonda Jones competed in the Push Pull.  She pulled 298 in the 132lb. weight class.

Jackie Luciano, SFG II, SFL had a great meet in Full Power.  She pulled a PR 330 at 140 bodyweight.

I completed in Full Power.  Had a great meet.  Came in second by one hundredth of point by Schwartz formula for best overall lightweight male.  I totaled 627.5kg (463-314-606) at 178 bodyweight, 8 for 9 and all meet PR’s.  My second deadlift attempt was 606 and my right foot slipped causing me to wobble right before lockout and I had to set the bar down.  I wanted to attempt 622 for my third, but stayed conservative and hit 606 solid on the third… a very fast pull.  I also won best lightweight male deadlift.
 

 
Our deadlift team won the 1st place as each of the five had the best deadlift of each weight class.  The meet hosted by SFG Team Leader Danny Sawaya’s Tucson Barbell Club had between 140 and 150 lifters.  A number of other SFGs successfully competed: Erlinda Gomez, Jerry Trubman, Marie Musucara.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to lead the StrongFirst Deadlift team the last couple of years.
 

 
Thank you, Jason!  Ladies and gentlemen, this is Pavel.

A week later Senior SFG Steve Freides set another New Jersey record 100% raw 357-pound pull at 148 pounds of bodyweight and 59 years old.
 

 
I got to celebrate the Father’s Day with my dad pulling another American record—413 in the 198-pound weight class, 75-79 age group, USPA.  Video linked here.
 

 
I want to thank Jason Marshall, Senior SFG for two years of exceptional leadership as the Captain of the StrongFirst Deadlift Team!

Jason just passed the captain baton to two new captains: Ellen Stein on the East Coast and Ricardo Garcia, SFG II, SFL on the West Coast.  Welcome!

The captains have already selected our next two meets.  Mark your calendars: an AAU meet in San Diego, CA, November 7-8 and an RPS meet on Long Island, NY, November 15.

To qualify for the team ladies must pull 2 times their bodyweight and gentlemen 2.5 times in a powerlifting meet sanctioned by any federation or the October 4 Tactical Strength Challenge.  There is no deadline but applications are taken on the first come, first served basis.  Results posted earlier this year or in 2013 are also accepted.  Send your results and application for review to:

Ellen Stein, SFL, East Coast Captain, W8lifter222@aol.com

Ricardo Garcia, SFG II, SFL, West Coast Captain, fullforcepersonaltraining@gmail.com

We will wrap up with a few words from one of our competitors, Jeremy Layport, Senior SFG:

“This being my fist powerlifting meet, the one thing that really surprised me was the lack of technical set up by the majority of participants.  There was a definite difference between a SFL cert attendees or SF DL Team members and every other lifter at the meet.  I personally watched a beautiful bench set up from Jackie Luciano and then saw another lifter’s alarmingly poor set up and bench.  Watching SF Deadlift Team Captain Jason Marshall set up for and pull his 603lb. deadlift was like watching a skilled surgeon make an incision.  It was slow, precise, and exacting which he made look easy.  The bend over, grip, and rip strategy didn’t win me over to say the least—and it sure didn’t seem to win the meet either.  If I could give any one person a training tip it would be learn how to “Root,” “Wedge,” and apply skilled tension.  Then just practice more…”

By Mark Snow, MA, ATC, SFG-II, FMS

 
Not too long ago I went to a conference and one of the items we worked on was to assess pelvic stability. Upon finishing the pelvic stability portion of the conference, I was amazed by how dysfunctional my pelvic stability was.  Even though I struggled with proper exercise techniques in core lifts and experienced occasional back pain with training, I felt that I had a very strong core (that was probably just my pride talking).  What I soon came to realize is not only were my abdominal muscles were weak, but also I had NO idea how to stabilize my pelvis when performing dynamic exercises.  This was causing me to leak energy to other areas and making me inefficient in my strength.

The good news is I immediately had an idea about how to properly train my abdominal muscles to provide me proper pelvic stability.  I just returned from a course where Pavel taught the hanging leg raise.  This exercise was the first thing that came to mind after I found out I was having so much pelvic inefficiency.  After training through the HLR progression, I then began to practice challenging proper pelvic stability in my lifts which carried over into a big improvement in technique, strength, and as well as a cessation of that pesky occasional back pain.

PELVIC POSITION

One way which really helps me to think about the spine and all the muscles which help its posture is to picture the core/spine as Senior SFG Andrea Chang puts it as “a cylinder”.  This cylinder has a front and back, right and left side, and even more importantly has a top and bottom. The pelvis and all the muscles attached to it is the bottom of this cylinder.  An inability to stabilize the pelvis in a neutral position can result in poor transfer of forces to the extremities and compensation of these forces to other areas of the body.  Think of the bottom of the cylinder falls out then the rest of the walls will follow in some type of fashion.

The most likely way you can lose pelvic position is through an anterior pelvic tilt.  This anterior pelvic tilt can be a static posture in response to weak abdominals and/or glutes or tight hip flexors and back extensors (also known as lower crossed syndrome).  DYNAMICALLY this can be the result of the hypersensitivity of hip flexor and/or back extensor contraction or inefficiency of contraction of the abdominal muscles and/or glutes.  Many people may be able to demonstrate a static neutral pelvic position (like myself) but cannot maintain a neutral pelvis to during particular movements or they tend to sacrifice this neutral pelvis to help accomplish certain movements.  In this situation the pelvis and the hips just cannot disassociate from one another.  The loss of neutral pelvis occurs dynamically in the body’s effort to produce hip flexion or hip extension.

If you begin to think about it, you may have seen this dynamic loss of pelvic stability with many different exercises and assessments.  In case of the functional movement screen, this can be seen in several different tests but may or may not affect the scoring of the particular movement.  Inefficiency of the pelvis can also show itself with many different strength exercises.
 
Functional Movement Screen

• Active Straight Leg Raise
  • A score of 1 on the test
  • Or 2’s or better on the ASLR but an inability to perform a toe touch standing
• Trunk Stability Push Up
  • Hip hike (increase in hip flexion) during test.  Usually happens first
  • Lumbar extension or back drop/sag during test
• Squat, Hurdle Step, and In Line Lunge
  • First action when watching from the side (frontal view) is the dumping forward of the pelvis at the onset of hip flexion
• Shoulder Mobility
  • Anterior pelvic tilt instead of thoracic extension during the test

 
Strength exercises

• Hinge/Deadlift/Kettlebell Swing (Figure 3 & 4)
  • 1^st movement is anterior pelvic tilt on the onset of hip flexion
  • Tell-tale sign is an increase in lumbar extension on the onset of hip flexion
  • During the swing there is a chain reaction that demonstrates neck extension and lumbar extension at the downswing

 
 
 
 

• Squat
  • Anterior pelvic tilt and lumbarextension at the  beginning of the squat at onset of hip flexion
    • This loss in pelvic control, I believe, can result in the sacrum tucking under at the bottom of the squat (lumbar flexion)
• Push Press
  • Anterior tilt occurs on the onset of the first dip just like the squat

 
 
 
 
• Jerk
  • Anterior tilt occurs upon the first dip like the push press
  • Anterior tilt occurs upon the second dip in an attempt to help catch the kettlebell(s).  This usually causes a poor lockout or a poor catch position in the jerk.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Turkish Get Up
  • During the low sweep a loss of pelvic control
  • During the high bridge there can be a relaxation of the abdominals and extension of the lumbar in an attempt for more hip extension (higher bridge)

 
 
 
 
 
 

Many of these strength exercises if performed with a loss of pelvic tilt can result in back pain and/or compensation/injury in other areas.  As for me and the kettlebell jerk at my level 2, I was having a lot of trouble with a proper catch and lock out of both elbows.  This turned into a really sore shoulder by the end of the weekend.
 

TRAINING PROGRESSON TOWARDS DYNAMIC STABILIZATION OF A NEUTRAL PELVIS

I take the FMS approach to improving on this pelvic stability issue.  I assess mobility first and foremost and get this off the table.  Next I assess and/or address STATIC stability of the pelvis.  Lastly I work into DYNAMIC stability and STRENGTH.  Remember the FMS motto of RESET-REINFORCE-RELOAD.
 

Mobility

Remember to trust what the FMS screen has provided you.  Go after the weakest link and make sure there are no mobility issues on the table before working onto stability training and the hanging leg raise.

1. Foam roller to affected areas and retest lowest scores
   1. I like to emphasize hip flexors, glutes, quads
   2. Static or dynamic stretching and retest lowest scores
      1. Single leg raise is a great progression
      2. Half kneeling hip flexor stretch

i.     Emphasize here NO loss of neutral pelvis in this stretch.  If you or your client is unable to do this then try another method of stretching out the hip flexors.
 

Stability

Here is where you begin establishing neutral pelvis and begin to challenge this position.  We accomplish this through the following progression of supine, quadruped, kneeling, and then standing.  Remember to retest lowest scores to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck with the appropriate exercise or drill.  I cannot over emphasize the importance of the proper set up of these drills.  Neutral pelvis is a must or you will not make any positive changes.
 

Prone Drills

1. Brace Drill
2. Brace and extend the leg
3. Brace and flex the shoulder
4. Brace and extend leg while flexing opposite shoulder
5. Double leg brace and bridge
6. Brace, bridge and march
7. Single leg brace and bridge

Quadruped Drills

1. Pelvic Rock with core activation drill
2. Bodyweight or Resisted hip extension
3. Bodyweight or Resisted shoulder flexion
4. Resisted hip extension and opposite shoulder flexion
5. Crawling Progression

Kneeling

The kneeling positions can give you a lot of feedback to if someone is able to establish a static neutral pelvis.  If someone is unable to even get into proper position, then you may need to spend more time working on mobility.

1. Tall Kneeling
   1. Anti-Rotation
   2. Press, push, pull (1 arm and 2 arm variations)
   3. Chop & Lift
   4. Half Kneeling
      1. Same progression as above

Standing and exercise postures

There are several drills you can do now to challenge the neutral pelvis and to reinforce it.  These can be specific drills or the strength exercises themselves done very slow with special attention to not losing neutral pelvis.

1. Squat – Pavel Squat Drill, working into goblet squats in slow motion
2. Turkish Get Up – Slow motion get ups, practice bridge and/or sweep in super slow motion (I suggest body weight first)
3. Deadlift swing – Hip hinge slow motion, Deadlift with slow motion on the set up or hinge, touch and go deadlifts, Power swings (can’t do this in slow motion but can emphasize neutral pelvis).

 
 
HANGING LEG RAISE

You MUST ALWAYS clear mobility before working the hanging leg raise.  If you don’t, you or your client could experience back pain with the progression.  So shame on you if you went off and worked on the HLR before clearing mobility first.  Here comes the tricky part.  I have found at times I need to work a majority of the stability progressions with my clients before getting into the HLR progressions.  BUT, at other times a client has no idea what a neutral pelvis feels like or their abdominals are so weak by the time they get to quadruped and/or kneeling postures they just cannot get into the correct position.  In these cases, you may need to work the HLR progression first and then go right back into one of the stability progressions.  So the 1^st case scenario the RESET is the stability exercise and the HLR is the REINFORCE.  In the 2^nd scenario the tables have turned and the HLR is the RESET and the stability exercises now are the REINFORCE.

HLR Progression

1. Supine at doorway with stick (stick above eyebrows)
   1. Abdominal flexion (concentric and eccentric) only
   2. Abdominal flexion working into hip extension
   3. Once both accomplished for 3-5 reps work deeper into doorway so stick is higher above your head
   4. Seated HLR with doorway
   5. HLR on pull up bar

 
I have seen many individuals get a huge benefit from doing only the supine HLR progression when it comes to strengthening up the abdominals enough so they can support a neutral pelvis.  It depends on how far you want to take the progression.  I personally have taken it to the point of being able to do one strict hanging leg raise on the pull up bar.  I now continually recheck to make sure I can perform a solid 1 rep HLR to ensure I have enough strength to hold a neutral pelvis.  The remainder of my time I use during dynamic lifts with moderate weights where I challenge myself to keep neutral pelvis.

If you would like to know more about the HLR progressions make sure you purchase HARDSTYLE ABS.  If you are looking more into the stability progressions you should definitely attend an FMS level 2 course.  I do suggest to make sure someone has no history of herniated discs before beginning the HLR progression as this could exacerbate symptoms.  In this case the brace progression will suffice.
 

Mark Snow is a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC), SFG Level 2, and FMS Instructor who currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska.  If you have any questions you can reach him at snowatc@gmail.com.
 
 

By Reneta Music, SFG II, SFB, SFL

“You need to keep your abs tight.”
“Grab the floor with your toes and tighten your legs.”
“The only part of your body that should be loose are your arms.”
“Mrs. Music, how did you know his abs weren’t tight??”
“I don’t get it, how did you see that??”

This was a conversation that went on last night in karate class. I watched a karate student preform Naihanchi Shodan, practicing for his test as I do with all my students who are eligible to test.

How could I see the lack of tightness in the abs and know that he wasn’t rooting or having tension in his legs? I practice Shurite Kempo which is a hard style method of self-protection. The principles we practice are the same as strength training. Allow me to explain…

Before I begin my explanation, I want to define a word that I will use throughout the article. The word is maximal. The definition, according to Merriman-Webster dictionary is “most complete or effective”. In other words, applying just the right amount.

Practicing Naihanchi Shodan requires full body maximal tension achieved instantly for brief moments of time. Utilizing the concept of Go-ju, the hard complements the soft and the soft amplifies the hard with power and speed. The lower body needs to remain tight and feet rooting, (Naihanchi means to grip the ground), but… The upper body must remain loose to execute proper hard style punches. The abdominal area remains in the maximal tension until the punch is executed then the hips must push forward, slightly relaxing the abs, but only for a brief moment, then to return to maximal tension. The maximal tension that is present in Naihanchi Shodan is comparable to the lockout position of the swing.

“Tighten your abs, grab the floor with your toes, zip up your knees, squeeze your glutes.”
“Tense your body at the top just like a plank position.”
This is the top position of a hard style kettlebell swing… or is it the top position of a deadlift, back squat, clean, snatch, jerk, push-press? It is interesting that the beginning of both descriptions are similar. Both, are hard style. Hard style is a method that is practiced to strength train as well as train in karate-do.

The most important aspect of hard style that I have not mentioned is breathing. Why is that important? The breath in a hard style swing, is executed at the hip snap. The breath in Shurite Kempo, is associated with the punch. It can occur before, during or after the punch, but it is occurs with the maximal tension of the body. Kime, is a moment of focus. Focus in that there is nothing else on the mind, except what is happening at that moment. The apex of a swing or the impact of a punch is a perfect description of kime.

The principles and methods that are studied in strength training and in karate-do are parallel to each other. Many times in my karate training, I heard my Sensei repeat to me the words that I read in our manual such as lower your shoulders, grip the ground and move fast with tension and relaxation.

This is one of my favorite quotes that blends strength training with karate-do:

“When you train, you should train as if on the battlefield. Make your eyes glare, lower your shoulders and harden your body. If you train with the same intensity and spirit as though you are striking and blocking against an actual opponent, you will naturally develop the same attitude as on a battlefield…” — Ankō Itosu, Okinawan karate master

 
 
Reneta Music began martial arts training in 1991 and achieved her black belt in Japanese Karate in 1994.  She is currently the Chief Instructor for martial arts and kettlebell training at the Mansfield YMCA in Mansfield, OH and the chief karate instructor at the Shelby YMCA, in Shelby Ohio.  Reneta received her level I kettlebell certification in 2011 and level II in 2012.  She also received SFB and SFL in 2013. Reneta is ranked as a 3rd degree black belt in Shurite Kempo and 4th in Japanese karate.
 
 
 
 
 
 

By Tim Almond, SFG II

I had always really struggled with my pressing.
 

I’m not just talking about building pressing strength; I’m talking about the actual execution of the press. My press had never felt smooth, never had a comfortable path to follow.
 

I remember hearing Master SFG Shaun Cairns saying that pressing was for intelligent people, but I never understood that comment until recently. There are so many considerations for the press, many of which cannot be truly experienced until the weight becomes considerably heavy.
 

After my RKC, I was told that I wouldn’t make it to a level two instructor because I displayed “poor shoulder mechanics” and because I had a history of impingement,  would never press heavy weights.  At this stage I could barely press a 32kg.
 

Despite this, I was determined to find a way. I worked hard on my thoracic mobility and length tension relationships of my entire trunk, and managed to eliminate my pressing pain. I registered for the level two instructor course, giving myself 6 months to work on my press.
 

I decided to go with 4 main exercises for the six months of training. I chose the double kettlebell clean and press, pull-ups, sumo deadlift and TGUs.  I used ladders for the press, supersetted with pull-ups, and easy strength for the deadlifts.
 

This program really tested my patience. In the past I had a tendency to chop and change programs every 4 to 6 weeks because I was never really committed to my goals. I had to keep reminding myself of how crucial it was to stick to the plan, as I was determined to pass level two.
 

I pressed ladders 3 days a week for nearly 4 months. In my opinion the program didn’t really start until I was using the 32kg bells. The first two months was all about building volume and getting my pressing groove. Then the next two months were all about breathing and tension.
 

I hadn’t dropped a single rep the whole program until week one of the third month. They just felt so heavy. I soon realized that the problem was my clean. I needed to really power it up in order to press the bells effectively. I started doing some dead stop swings with a 56kg. From then on everything seemed to fall into place. My cleans were crisp and therefore my press felt lighter.
 

The extra power I gained through my glutes from the sumo deadlifts was incredible, and I could really feel them contract whilst pressing. This made a massive difference when trying to stabilize and push through sticking points. Finally my presses started to feel strong and I had found my groove.
 

5 months in I was now pulling a 190kg deadlift for 5 reps (that was my previous 1RM weight) and had gained 15kg of bodyweight (100kg at 12%BF).
 

I was eating more food than ever before and sleeping whenever I found time. My body told me what I needed to do and I listened.
 

Once I had finished the pressing ladders and built sufficient volume, I moved onto Mark Reifkind’s program for 6 weeks. I didn’t use a great deal of variety presses, just some bottoms-up presses for tension and then heavy singles. I believe it was the assistance exercises combined with pressing speed that really pulled it all together for me.
 

After all the ladders, I was really looking forward to pressing heavy and seeing where I was. I found my new 1RM clean and press to be 44kg and 1RM deadlift 230kg. I pressed singles on the 44kg and as long as I was gaining reps each week I felt comfortable that I would press the Beast at the cert. On week six of the MR program I locked out the Beast and managed to get a pull-up with it as well.

My program looked like this:

• I trained Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but any combination will work as long as there is a full day’s rest in between each training day.
• I started each training day with TGU’s, 5 left/5 right, and went up in weight when the current weight felt light.
• I started the ladders with double 24’s at a body weight of 85kg.
• I included weighted pull-ups between each set, doing the same number of reps as the presses. I started with a pull-up weight I could comfortably do 8 reps with. For me that was 20kg.

• As for rest periods, I felt that completing every rep took priority and therefore used the ‘rest as much as you need but as little as possible’ method. Towards the end of both the ladders and MR program, my rest periods between sets were over five minutes.

Each round of ladders took four weeks and one day.  I took the rest of the fifth week off to recover, and started the next cycle fresh on the Monday. After each month of ladders I went up in weight to the next size kettlebells.
 

My press ladders looked like this:

MONTH 1

Week 1
D1: 1-2-3 x 5
D2: 1-2-3 x 6
D3: 1-2-3 x 7

Week 2
D1: 1-2-3 x 8
D2: 1-2-3 x 9
D3: 1-2-3 x 10

Week 3
D1: 1-2-3-4 x 3
D2: 1-2-3-4 x 4
D3: 1-2-3-4 x 5

Week 4
D1: 1-2-3-4 x 6
D2: 1-2-3-4-5 x 2
D3: 1-2-3-4-5 x 3

Week 5
D1: 1-2-3-4-5 x 4
D2: REST
D3: REST

MONTH 2 - Go up in weight and start again from month 1, week 1.

For anyone who doesn’t think level 2 is achievable, think again. Come up with a plan and stick to it. Consistency and listening to your body will get you there in good time.

Tim Almond is the Director and Head Trainer at Box 33 and is a highly qualified Strength and Movement Trainer based in Perth, Western Australia.

He is a StrongFirst Level 2  instructor and is also a level 2 Functional Movement Specialist. Tim has spent several years developing his instructional skills as a Club Weightlifting / Sports Power Coach Level 2 and more recently NCAS Level 1 Powerlifting Coach.

Tim spent 12 years serving in the military, both Army and Navy, with operational experience as a member of the Royal Australian Navy’s elite Clearance Diving Unit. During this time Tim learned how to push his mind and body to its limits and set into motion his passion for physical training and holistic health.

As a Combat Fitness Leader, Tim was trained to get soldiers physically and mentally prepared for operational deployments and has had great success transferring some of these methods over to his students to get the most out of their practice. Tim can be contacted by email at tim@box33.com.au
 
 
 

By Eric Frohardt, SFG

I’ve been training with kettlebells since 2005.  I’ve been training with firearms even longer. My experience with both led me to the conclusion that there are a LOT of similarities between the two.  During one of the breaks at a recent SFG cert where I was assisting, I mentioned this to Pavel.  He asked me if I would write a guest blog on that topic.

In both firearms training and kettlebell training “The Best Do the Basics Better”.  Training needs to be kept simple!  Is what I’m doing repeatable in a stressful situation?  Am I spending too much time figuring out what I’m supposed to do for today’s practice/training?

 
Firearms skills have their own “fundamentals”: stance, grip, presentation, sight alignment, trigger control, recoil management, follow thru, economy of motion and self critique.

In stressful situations, our fine motor skills deteriorate.  So, we hope to have engrained them through hours and hours of “perfect machine-like practice”.  We do what we can to maximize gross motor skills and engrain the fine motor skills.  Trigger control being the fundamental most of us struggle with.

It always happens at our facility in Denver.  A new shooter is starting to get pretty good and is getting bored with basic drills.  He moves on to more advanced drills without laying a deep foundation.  He regresses.  The shooters who spend more time on the basics are able to build a taller pyramid.

Enter the technique called “dry fire”squeezing the trigger of your firearm without a round in the chamber.  To illustrate the importance of dry fire, consider the story of Dave Westerhout.  Mr. Westerhout is known as one of the founders of the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) and a trainer for the Rhodesia Defense Force.  In the late 70’s, ammunition was particularly scarce in the African nation of Rhodesia.  This ammunition shortage was due in large part to how unpopular Rhodesia was politically. The native African population was disenfranchised and Rhodesia was breaking away from the British Empire.  Other nations weren’t recognizing them as a nation and multiple trade sanctions were imposed.  One side effect of these sanctions was an extreme ammunition shortage.

Westerhout adapted to the severe ammunition shortage the only way he knew how: dry fire practice.  He conducted experiments with two groups of soldiers.  One would use live fire, the other dry fire.  The results were impressive.  The dry fire group was outscoring the live fire group!  This convinced the leadership to adopt the dry fire practice for the entire force.

Then, in 1977 at the first World Practical Pistol Championship, the Rhodesian team produced some astounding results.  Dave Westerhout took the first place and another Rhodesian took the second, the Rhodesian team won the overall team event!

An American took the third place.  All of this happened when the US was considered the dominant force in competitive shooting.  All of this happened while Rhodesia faced an ammo shortage.  How is this possible?—Lots of dry fire!

The advantages of dry fire are obvious.  You can do it in your home very quickly and easily.  You are not driving somewhere and spending money on range time or ammo.  You are getting a LOT of repetition and working on the most difficult of all fundamentals—the trigger control.  Anyone can squeeze a trigger.  Anyone can align the sights.  Can you maintain sight alignment through a smooth yet quick trigger squeeze?  If not, DRY FIRE!  Start with what takes the least time and costs the least money.  Add complexity later!

Now, it should be noted: Dry fire practice does NOT fully replace live fire training.  It is just a great supplemental training tool.  There are certain fundamentals you just can’t practice without sending rounds down range.  For starters, you can’t practice Recoil Management. This stands to reason, as it’s hard to practice managing a gun’s recoil w/out feeling it recoil in your hands.  Secondly, you can’t practice the Follow Through. In this instance, that simply means you can’t get a feel for how quickly you can get the gun back on target and send additional rounds down range (should it be necessary).  All of that aside, you can practice the most difficult fundamental with dry fire training: the Trigger Control.

Another similarity I noticed is that Frequency Trumps Duration.  click to tweet

Are you training only once in awhile for a long dragged out session that leaves you wiped out?  Or are you training more frequently for shorter periods leaving you “stronger or better” than when you started?

Your kettlebell instructor will teach you to look at your kettlebell training as practice.  Practice the moves and learn how to generate tension.  Engrain the fundamentals so that they become muscle memory.

The best ability is “availability”.  Are you “available” to train again in a day or two or did you go too hard today?  If you are constantly pushing the envelope, you will miss practice sessions.  In the long term, you’ll be stronger and more fit if you don’t train to failure and when you leave stronger than when you started.  You will trick yourself into doing lots of volume by doing these short sessions with strength moves that are not to failure.  Obviously, it’s necessary to push yourself once in awhile.  After doing so, take it easy.  Manage your recovery.  Follow with lower volume and build back up.

The same holds true in firearms training.  It is very easy to burn out!  Remember, practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect, machine-like practice makes perfect!  It’s better to shoot weekly for 30 minutes than twice a year for multiple hours.  Shooting skills can be extremely perishable.  Of course, if we have the time and money, we can get REALLY good by attending weekend or even week-long clinics.  But not all of us do.  Even if we do, it’s best to keep sharp by frequent and perfect practice.  Even just shooting a little bit twice a month is better than once or twice a year for extended periods of time.  Find a range with membership options and take full advantage of it!

In almost all branches of the military and law enforcement communities there is a simple expression: “You Train How You Fight.”  This simply means that what you do in training you will do in combat or in a real life situation.  Don’t expect to do anything other than what you have already engrained.  If you are not yet able to do it under stress without thinking, than it hasn’t yet been engrained.

How does this apply to kettlebell training?  Simple: the technique has to be so engrained that you can flawlessly execute it even when tired.  Otherwise, you are increasing your chance of injury.  Specifically, you need to be concentrating during your training even on the small details.  An example would be always parking the bell safely after a set, regardless of how tired you are.  Make the mental effort to do so EVERY time.  That is just one example.  There are others.  Make sure every point of performance is perfect.  Master the movement, weight and repetition will come.  It’s a lot like the previously mentioned “the best do the basics better”.  If you are always making sure that you are PRACTICING proper technique, it will become engrained.  Then, when you are doing your hard workouts (again, once in awhile) or as some would say “doing battle with your kettlebell”, the technique will be engrained.  You’ll be tired, but you’ll park the bell safely. You will be much less likely to hurt yourself.  Did I mention how important it is to be “available” for the next workout?

There is an obvious correlation for this saying in firearms training.  If you practice it enough, it will become engrained.  If you reload your magazine while manipulating your firearm in your “work-space” every time… you’ll do it under stress.  If you are always preparing the trigger and using verbal cues to remind yourself to do so, it will become engrained.  You’ll do it when it counts.  If you are always obtaining a second sight picture and preparing to fire again, you’ll be more prepared for real life situations that may require more than one shot.  These are just a few of the myriad of examples of this.  “We don’t rise to the occasion… we fall to our level of training.” 

The final point I will make has been alluded to throughout the article.  I have seen it a lot in both kettlebell and firearms training.  Someone reads a few articles, watches some YouTube videos or maybe even buys a book and thinks he knows it all.  They don’t think they need an instructor.  What they fail to realize is just how valuable an instructor can be.  You can’t very easily watch your own technique.  Even if you could (mirrors/videos), it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to correct it through mental cues and other techniques.

I fell into this category for awhile with my own kettlebell training.  Then one day, I attended one of Pavel’s kettlebell certifications.  My technique was fixed.  I got stronger and more athletic and all while spending less time “working out”.  (Hint: I stopped “working out” and started “practicing!”)

Take the time up front.  Invest the money early.  Get solid instruction from a reputable kettlebell instructor who teaches the skills you are looking for, be it general preparation, competition, or something else.

The same holds true in firearms training.  You must begin with the end in mind!  If you want to simply be a good target shooter, find someone who is or has trained target marksmen.  If you want to compete in USPSA, IDPA, or similar shooting competitions, find people who have done so or who have a track record of teaching such competitors.  If you are only interested in being more prepared for realistic, concealed carry, self-defense situations—seek out instructors who have been there and done that.  In most cases, the best instructors for this type of shooting are those with military and/or law enforcement experience who have been in these situations and used certain tactics, techniques and procedures and have come out ALIVE!  There is a big difference between competition and tactical or self-defense training.  You want instructors whose methods are proven in combat… not in theory!

In kettlebell training and firearms training, your goals should drive your choice of instructor and method of training.  Your instructor should use proven techniques that help you obtain your goal or reach your objective.  As Dan John has said, “The path already exists.  Copy the path!” 

In summary:

1. Train with an objective in mind.  What is your goal?
2. The best do the basics better.  Have you mastered the basics yet?
3. Frequency trumps duration.  How often do you train?
4. You train how you fight.  Are you engraining good technique?
5. Get an instructor!  Are you qualified to teach yourself?

Eric Frohardt is an SFG Level I instructor.  He was medically retired from the Navy after over 11 years of service and now lives in Denver, CO.  Together with former teammate Sean Haberberger he owns and operates the BluCore Shooting Center and online gun, gear and ammo store BluCore Online Store.

The BluCore Shooting Center has a full service shooting center offering a gun store, gun range and firearms training program.  Their instructors are a mix of former Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, Army Rangers, Delta operators, law enforcement SWAT officers and competitive shooters.  They recently opened a gun store in the Austin Texas area as well.

By Gray Cook

Working with StrongFirst and Brett Jones at our first joint event — Foundational Strength at Phil Scarito’s DV8Fitness in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania — was a great experience. It was exciting to introduce people to the transition from Functional Movement Screening to corrective exercises and the many ways that the kettlebell can be vital to the process.

The Turkish Get Up is one of the few full-body movements that we perform with a kettlebell. It honors mobility and stability at its finest. It also fits the criteria of our movement screening because it looks at the left and right side of functional movement individually — you are going to do a right Get Up and you are going to do a left Get Up. They should complement each other. You should not be much better on one side than another because it is not about right-hand dominance or strength.

It’s all mobility and stability. It is not pressing. It is not squatting. It is basically moving in all three planes with respectable proprioception, mobility and stability.

By imposing a ‘speed bump’ in the TGU, we take an already slow movement and make you slow it down even more. A speed bump makes you pay attention. We impose that speed bump to send you to a corrective strategy and some pretty neat stretching that will basically enhance the TGU.

I appreciate Mark Cheng bringing the move that became the speed bump to Brett Jones and me while we were working on Kettlebells from the Ground Up. In the very center of the TGU you have a choice of hovering or you can do a plank up on the elbow. That plank is basically one leg bent. Imagine the right kettlebell overhead. The right leg is bent. The left leg is out straight. You lift up your body and basically demonstrate full hip extension.

We thought, ‘You know what, this little three-point bridge is a great way to get people who are using the TGU as corrective strategy to first see it as a screen.’

The TGU has to show you a problem before you have the insight to correct that problem. By imposing this extra amount of hip extension, we slowed you down because there are only a few places where you really have to have a lot of hip extension in the TGU, we imposed this little extra hip extension to simply slow you down.

The reason we like bridging and put it into a lot of athletic development routines is because it is one of the few challenges where we get to put the glute against the hip flexor and your hip extends as opposed to your low back. But many athletes, the quad-dominant athlete or the person who is over trained in the hip flexor, will gave us back extension instead of hip extension.

So the purpose and nature of coaching is to hold you up against your weakest links, to expose you to your weakness and to allow you to rise to a challenge so that your opponent or life does not find your weakness.  click to tweet

When we took on this little study with the Turkish Get Up, we agreed on all six positions with everybody else. We modified one of the seven positions. It has created some controversy and we had a lot of comments on that three-point bridge. We maintained its value as a corrective strategy—as a speed bump to increase your awareness that may be you cannot clear your hips as good as you thought’.

Instead of doing a bunch of hip lifts or single leg bridges to reduce the dynamic activity of your psoas and hip extension, do a TGU this way. If it basically catches you at this stage, then own the stage. The TGU is not about seeing how quick you can get up and with how much weight. It is about honoring each stage of the exercise.

Once you are competent with the TGU, once you feel like these corrective strategies have helped you, once you feel like you are moving symmetrically on the left and right and the basic little speed bump Get Up that we showed you does not present difficulty, do whatever TGU you want. . . and start thinking about other speed bumps.

Highlights:

• Calisthenics began as beautiful moves with weighted implements
• Bridges are favored because it is one of the few challenges where the glute acts against the hip flexor
• The TGU begins in a three-point bridge, an intentional speed bump
• The Get-Up must be screen before it is a strategy
• It must show you a problem before you have the insight to correct it
• The first populations that used the TGU generally moved better than people today
• The TGU is one of the few full-body movements we do with a kettlebell
• The previously mentioned “speed bump” is imposed to send you into a corrective strategy
• Focus is not about seeing how quickly someone can get up and with how much weight

Want more Functional Movement? Join us July 21-25 for five days of intense learning at the 2014 Functional Movement Summit featuring Master SFG Brett Jones & Gray Cook:

Photo credit: Mike Perry, skillofstrength.com

By Pavel Tsatsouline, Chairman

In the public mind the word “toughness” is associated with endurance. A marathoner gutting it out for hours. A professional boxer surviving a dozen rounds. Yet the never-give-up mindset is just as present in expressions of maximal strength. It is the ability to grind a crushing weight to the top. And to do it without compromising one’s technique.

A strength professional does not have a plan B. Only an amateur does. The latter suddenly has doubts about having enough strength to complete the lift as planned. He seeks the path of least resistance. To use the kettlebell military press as an example, he shrugs his shoulder and leans way back… This gives him a better leverage—at least for the moment. As with all panicked decisions, this one is very short sighted. It may be easier to move the kettlebell another inch or two with a shrug, but afterwards there is nowhere to go but shoulder impingement.

An experienced lifter, on the other hand, will keep grinding it out straight and narrow, no matter how hard it feels, without taking what seems like an easier detour. He has faith in his strength and stays in the groove, no matter how hard it is. This is the hallmark of a strength professional. And if the weight happens to be beyond his limit on that day, he will, as Marty Gallagher has put it, “fail with integrity”.

A couple weeks ago, StrongFirst posted a video of John Spezzano, SFG II military pressing a 97-pound kettlebell. A record it is not but it is a strong lift for a wiry 175-pound martial artist in his mid-forties. But it was the manner in which John performed that was especially impressive. No leg kicking, no hip checking, no belly bouncing. And an excruciating—yet quite safe—grind. The kettlebell stopped dead in its tracks when the girevik’s upper arm was not even parallel to the ground. At that point a lesser man would have quit, but not Spezzano.

Shrugging one’s shoulders involuntarily is a sign of fear. John showed the kettlebell no fear and no mercy: his shoulder stayed down. His torso tilted to the side, but no more than necessary not to topple when pressing heavy relative to one’s bodyweight. His back did not hyperextend. He fought the piece of metal for eternity and he won.

It goes without saying that one should not attempt such efforts every training session—or even every month. Even if you are able to stay injury free, you will fry your nervous system. There is an abyss between training and testing. In preparation for his PR John was following one of my experimental programs and never came close to failure. Most of his pressing was done with a 32kg kettlebell for sets of 2-4 reps and a 28kg kettlebell for sets of 3-6. That is 1/3-2/3 RM or even less.

(A lyrical detour. Next time you see “AMRAP” anywhere, leave that place and never come back. The proper term is “RM”, or “repetition maximum”. It was coined back in 1945 by respected strength researcher Captain Thomas DeLorme and it does not need to be reinvented or lengthened.)

To make sense of the above numbers, 32kg is 80% of John’s 40kg x 1RM at the start of the eight-week plan and 28kg is 70%. Considering that an athlete who is slightly on the fast twitch side typically can do 70% x 10RM and 80% x 6RM, John was doing only 1/3-2/3 of the maximal reps possible. And if his muscles were more slow twitch, then that percentage was even lower—much lower. For eight weeks John was not testing; he was practicing, “greasing the groove” in an organized manner. This is exactly how you should train.

As for maxing, for most athletes working up to what Russians call the “training max” and Master SFG Dan John calls the “sort of max” is more than enough. If you thought the purpose of this blog was to encourage you to test your 1RM in a no-holds-barred manner, it is not. Not at all. Such efforts are the domain of competitive lifters—and of rare athletes from other sports like John Spezzano with iron will and iron discipline.

No, my goal was to instill respect in a truly all-out strength effort as an act of mental toughness every bit in the league with an exhausting race. And to remind you the meaning of respect, period. When we posted the video of John’s press, people who knew the score were duly impressed. Of course, typical for our age when even the clueless get a voice, others wailed about what they perceived as a dangerous lift failing to appreciate the beautiful effort of which they are not capable.

Respect.
 

By Melody Schoenfeld, SFG II

As a competitive powerlifter, my bench has always been my Achilles’ Heel. It has always been the slowest to build for me, and has been a source of frustration for a long time.

While training heavy squats last year, I worked up to 190lbs (10lb short of a double bodyweight squat for me).  Every time I squatted, however, I felt my right knee do a sort of arcing movement inward towards my body.  And as much as I tried to prevent it, my right patella finally decided to give in and start tracking in ways it shouldn’t be tracking.  I’ve learned a lot about how my quad muscles fire (or don’t fire) since then, but healing is slow, and I have had to lay off squats (and competing) for the most part for months at a time.  While this has been frustrating, I certainly wasn’t going to stop training, so I dedicated all four of my training days per week to my bench press.
 

My training looks a lot like this:

DAY 1:  Pyramid-type bench press

This looks more or less like this (you can always play with the rep schemes—I did):

• A weight you can press for, but not much more than, 10 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 8 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 6 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 5 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 4 reps
• A weight you can press fairly easily for, but not much more than, 2 reps

Then, if you’re feeling ambitious, go backwards through your pyramid and try to eke out at least one more rep at each weight.
 
DAY 2:  Speed day

Work perfect, easy reps (anywhere from 60-75% of your max), emphasizing a longer pause at the bottom of the rep and an explosive movement off the bottom, for 3-5 reps per set.  I will usually do anywhere from 5 to 10 sets of these.
 
DAY 3:  Heavy day

Perfect reps around 80-90% of max, 2-3 reps, 3-5 sets.
 
DAY 4:  I usually do a one-way pyramid on Day 4 (not heading back down the pyramid).

Every time I train bench, I do accessory exercises for triceps (skullcrushers, close-grip bench, tricep pushups with isometric holds, overhead tricep extensions, etc—one exercise per training day, 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps) and lats (isometrics with the SmartFlex, pullups, weighted pullups, rows of all kinds—one exercise per training day, 3 sets of 5 to 10 reps), and I train abdominals (wheel rollouts from toes, heavy side bends, heavy weighted situps,  dragon flags, HLR’s, etc) and shoulders (KB overhead presses of all kinds, KB windmills, KB iron crosses, etc) a few times per week.  Recently, I’ve been able to add back in heavy deadlifts, and some light squats when my knee allows it.
 
Other assistance exercises I like to add a few times a week (usually one per workout day) are:

• Heavy partials. I have safety chains on my rack, and I just hike the chains up to a desired point above the bottom of my bench (much like a block press).  I have no training partners, so this works really well for me.
• Heavy negatives.  I’ll load the bar 20+lb above my max and lower the bar as slowly as possible back towards my chest.  I usually won’t do more than three total reps of these, and I rest for a minute or two in between each rep.
• Chain reps. I use loading chains to add progressive weight towards the top of my press.

 
Every 2-3 weeks, I test out my max.

In about 2 months of this program, my max bench press went from a very ugly 115lb (if I was lucky) to a very strong-looking 124lb.  Today (at the writing of this article) I pressed 115lb for a double and managed a 125lb max.  Not bad for a 104lb chick.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from a lot of trial and error it’s that there isn’t one program that works for everyone.  I’ve played with a lot of different people’s methods before I put this plan together for me.  I discovered that my body does well with this.  If yours doesn’t, don’t despair.  There is likely another plan that will work much better for you.

And if there’s one other thing I’ve learned from accidentally chopping off two fingertips last year (during which time I hit big PR’s in all three of my lifts) and having my squat setback this year, it’s this:  Life is always going to throw you curveballs.  Don’t let that stop you from reaching your goals.
 
 

Melody Schoenfeld is an SFG2 and certified strength and conditioning coach in Pasadena, CA.  She is currently working towards her master’s degree in Health Psychology.  She is the owner of Flawless Fitness (www.flawlessfitness.com) and Evil Munky Enterprises (www.evilmunkyent.com), and has achieved several California State powerlifting records for her age and weight class.  In her spare time, she sings in three heavy metal bands and cooks a lot of really good vegan food.

by Kenton Boutwell, SFG II

Part 2

 
All I did was try not to think. Instead, I was focused on my breathing. Inhale… Exhale… Repeat.
I knew my body had the movement memorized, as I had done it countless times before the challenge.

I wanted to blast that kettlebell through the dome and I knew I had to explode once I reached the bottom position of the pistol. I approached the bell, cleaned it, descended to the bottom, and BOOM… I blasted off. Pistol complete.

Here are the Strongfirst rules for the pistol (Make sure you know the requirements): The candidate must be barefoot.

• The candidate may pick up the kettlebell in any manner and hold it in front with two hands by the horns or with one or two hands in the rack on either side.

• The candidate shall raise one leg in front of him. From that moment on, the foot of the working leg must stay planted.

• The airborne leg has to stay in front for the duration of the attempt. It does not have to be straight. It may not touch the ground or the working leg.

• The candidate shall pause motionless long enough to demonstrate balance, then lower himself at least to parallel: “the top surface of the leg at the hip joint lower than the top of the knee.”

• Neither the kettlebell nor the arms may touch the working leg at any time.

• A pause in the bottom position is not required. The candidate shall stand up until the knee of the working leg is locked and the hip is extended.

• The pelvis may not rise faster than the kettlebell.

• The candidate shall stand on one foot exhibiting control until the head referee’s “Down!” command.

I want to point out one very important training principle that you must adhere to if you have a goal that you intend to reach. The training principle is referred to as the Principle of Specificity. Put simply, it means that if you want to become better at a skill or exercise then you must perform that skill or exercise. So if you want to be a beast tamer then your training should primarily consist of the pistol, military press and pull-up. All you need is one repetition for each exercise, so your training should consist primarily of single repetitions. Your program should also involve periodization of load, intensity, and volume in order to force an adaptation (i.e. getting stronger).

The moral of the story is not to get too crazy with your training, keep it basic and simple. These are two of the most important training tips I can give you for any training that you will ever do.

As you can tell the pistol requires mobility of the ankles, knees, and hips. Other than mobility and strength, balance is probably the most important physical skill required to complete a pistol. I referenced mental imagery in part one. You will want to use your mental imagery before beginning any major lift. Just do a replay of you performing the exercise in your mind.

I recommend holding the kettlebell with both hands in the goblet position as I think it allows for the most balance since it’s centered and you also have both hands instead of one to hold the bell with. Once you’ve got the the kettlebell in the goblet position, you will want to do a static stomp with the working leg in order to generate tension and balance you out.

Breathing is critical as I mentioned in part one. You really need to focus on your inhalation and exhalation timing, as well as the tempo. I would always static stomp, lift the non-working leg, and do a short inhalation and exhalation to ensure my balance.

Next I would do a tempo-based deep inhalation in my descent to the bottom, while simultaneously generating as much hamstring and glute tension as possible all the way down. This generation of tension will keep the movement balanced and controlled. Your inhalation should end once you reach bottom position and everything should be extremely tight because you have generated as much tension as possible similar to a “coiled spring,” as MSFG David WhitIey likes to put it.

During your descent it is also important to keep the kettlebell tight to you in the goblet position. If the kettlebell gets away from you then it could compromise your pistol by off balancing you, which could also get you disqualified if it touches your leg. What should you be doing with the non-working leg? I recommend keeping the leg straight and toes flexed. You don’t want this leg moving as it could also jeopardize your balance.

The last part is the ascent, which should be initiated with a tempo-based exhalation, simultaneous heel drive, and firing of the quadriceps. You will want to explode or uncoil the spring by releasing all the tension you have generated in one forceful motion.

One of the hardest parts of this movement is the transition from the eccentric to the concentric motion. Just make sure that you are tight at the bottom, and that you concentrate, putting all your focus and attention into the change of direction. Oh and be sure to lock out the hips at the top.

To be continued.

 Kenton Boutwell is a StrongFirst Girya Level 2 Kettlebell Instructor, American College of Sports Medicine certified Personal Trainer, USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach, CrossFit Level 1 Trainer,  Precision Nutrition Level 1 and Functional Movement Screen certified professional. Boutwell has worked with men, women, and youth of all ages, experience, and fitness levels, from novices to skilled athletes. He earned his bachelors from the University of Southern Mississippi and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Exercise Science at Middle Tennessee State University. A native of Mississippi, he currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.  For more information please visit www.kbfitness.com
 
 
 
 

By Pavel Tsatsouline, Chairman

There are many ways to get strong. 

Most are mediocre, some are effective, a handful are extraordinary. 

One—if not the only—system in the third category is the Soviet Olympic weightlifting methodology of the 1960s-1980s.  Names of Vlasov, Rigert, Alexeev and many other Soviet champions of that era were written in stone in the history of strength.  Some of their records, e.g. Vardanyan’s and Zakharevich’s, are still untouched 30 years later.

(Yes, drugs are a part of that story—but let us not kid ourselves that the opponents were clean and that steroids were an exclusive domain of the Soviets.  Everything else being equal—with everyone juicing—the best method still prevails.)

The Soviet system built strength to last.  Recalls David Rigert: “I am not crazy about Bulgarian seventeen-year-old world champions.  They are gone too quickly.  I am convinced that weightlifting is an occupation for men…  Our weightlifting school is most reliable.  For instance, Vasily Alexeev lost to no one for almost ten years.  And more than that—he kept setting world records until he was 36 years old!”

“I should not complain either,” continues Rigert who broke 63 world records over a decade.  Several years after he hung up his lifting belt to became a coach, David decided to challenge one of his students, the superheavyweight world record holder of the day, to a clean pull contest.  The much lighter Rigert who had done no lifting apart from coaching demos for four years matched the young gun’s best deadlift…

David Rigert’s coach Rudolph Plyukfelder won the Olympics at a tender age of 36—a feat never repeated in the sport of weightlifting.  Today eighty-some-year-old Plyukfelder casually does rock bottom jump squats with 200 pounds for reps!

Strength to last indeed.

The System did not have a single author; it grew out of corroboration between Medvedev, Vorobyev, Chernyak and other scientists, many former champions themselves.  While all these giants had their own take on details, in principle they agreed on the following:
 

1.    A high volume of lifts with 70-80% 1RM is the foundation of strength.

Yuri Vlasov explained: “An increase in the volume of training loads leads to long term [structural and functional] changes in the organism… builds a foundation for increasing strength… Of course, strength grows at the same time, but not too much.  [Then] an increase in intensity assures a quick conquest of new results.  But by itself intensity does not produce deep adaptive responses.”

The lion’s share of this foundation volume must come from moderately heavy weights.  Half of the Soviets’ lifts were with 70-80% 1RM.
 

2.    Training loads must be highly variable.

In the West the key word in strength planning is “progression”.  In the East it is “variability”.

You might find it crazy, but the Soviet system did not chase rep PRs.  Where an American powerlifting cycle is carefully laid out to set personal bests—the best set of five, the best triple—a Soviet coach just put the reps under the lifter’s belt in a sophisticated loading pattern that was anything but linear.  Did you know that the popular-in-the-West scheme of three weeks up and one down was used only by low-level Russian athletes?  It was not unusual for the elite to have their tonnage double from one week to the next—only to fall like a rock again in week three and do something equally unexpected in week four.  Although not as sharply, intensity also changed suddenly.

Prof. Arkady Vorobyev discovered that sharp changes in training loads pack a punch like nothing else.  A classic experiment by a researcher from his team, A. Ermakov, demonstrated that a training plan with load “jumps” was 61% more effective that a plan with traditional smooth waves!
 

3.    Do 1/3 to 2/3 of the maximal reps you could do fresh with that weight.

In most cases Soviet weightlifters would do only 1/3-2/3 of his RM, be it in quick lifts or squats and presses.  For example, if 70% is your 10RM, you should keep your reps with this weight in the 3-6 range.  If 80% is your 6RM, 2-4 reps per set are what the doctor ordered.

Note that the above formula applies only to weights in the 70-90% 1RM range.  Heavier than 90% weights are all lifted for singles.  For weights below 70% the rep count is typically around 1/3 of the maximum possible.
 

Although the Olympic lifts are not my specialty, I pay attention because the programming principles discovered by Soviet specialists in this field are universal for all strength training.  A case in point, the training system of today’s victorious Russian National Powerlifting Team was designed by Boris Sheyko, formerly a weightlifting coach.  If you are familiar with my work, it will be obvious to you that my most effective programs like “Grease the Groove” and the “Rite of Passage” are also firmly rooted in the above principles discovered by the great minds of Olympic weightlifting.

Although GTG and ROP have been remarkably successful, for a long time I have been unsatisfied, unable to apply many gems of the Soviet weightlifting science to strength training outside of competitive weightlifting, especially when it came to waviness of the load.  Some of the weightlifting periodization schemes were too sophisticated to disassemble and reassemble to benefit anyone but rare strength nerds.  Many tactics refused to be translated into use with kettlebells due to large jumps in sizes.  But I kept at it, trying to develop algorithms that would enable any reasonably intelligent person without a specialized background to design exceptionally powerful strength training plans—kettlebell, barbell, or bodyweight—fully in compliance with the methodology that won Mother Russia so much gold. 

I believe I have succeeded.

Thirteen SFGs with a starting max of a 40kg strict single arm kettlebell military press followed one particular plan.  After eight weeks, 11 out of the 13—85% of the subjects!—were able to press 44kg.  (Two of them put up the Beast but one admitted that his starting max was closer to 44kg than 40kg.)  On a similar plan for the ladies with a 20kg max, a third of the subjects advanced to 24kg and the rest repped out with the 20.  Anyone who tried to push up his or her military press once they have reached the point of diminishing returns will tell you that this is some serious progress.  You are dealing with small muscle groups with high neurological efficiency and, unlike the squatting muscles, they are very reluctant to get stronger.

Many of the subjects commented how unexpected and seemingly random were the load jumps from day to day and week to week.  Yet they were anything but random.  American program design may be compared to a photograph, and Russian to an impressionist painting.  An experienced eye can easily see the logic behind an American powerlifting plan.  A Russian plan, when you look at it up close, is just noise.  Remember the scene at the museum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?  Cameron zones out in front of George Seurat’s spectacular painting.  His eyes unfocus and the image of a little girl washes out into a blur of colorful dots…  You have to step a lot farther back to see the pattern in what appears to be chaos.
 

This November I am teaching a special one and a half-day seminar: PLAN STRONG: How to Design Powerful Kettlebell, Barbell, and Bodyweight Strength Programs. 
 

I will deconstruct the most powerful and sophisticated strength training system the world has ever seen.
 

Then I will show you how to apply it to your kettlebells, barbell, and bodyweight lifts for exceptional strength gains.
 

Power to you!

By Danny Sawaya, SFG Team Leader, SFB, SFL

Editor’s Note:

 
You’ve thought about it.  Maybe you have even talked about it. Since learning the basic powerlifts and discovering the joy in lifting heavy things, the thought of training for and competing in a real live Powerlifting meet has definitely crossed your mind.

But where to begin?  What do you need to know?   When should you do it, and what about the planning, and the rules, and…

The answers are below, along with several important tips for a successful first-time meet — rendering your reasons for any further hesitation invalid.

Power to you!

Danny Sawaya, SFG Team Leader, SFL, SFB

TRAIN WITH PURPOSE

Over the past couple of years my focus in strength has shifted from kettlebell training to the sport of powerlifting. 

Why?

1. I wanted a competitive outlet in my life, because I felt as if I was turning into a chronic exerciser and I wanted a focus. I was an athlete growing up and really missed having that in my life.

2. All of the principles I applied in learning kettlebells have transferred over perfectly to powerlifting. The mastering of tension, breath, rooting, and focus all come in to play.

Powerlifting really brought a new meaning to the words Train With Purpose. One can set many PRs in the gym, but it changes the game once you step on that platform.  Training for powerlifting has really beat the exerciser out of me and helped me find what I have been missing.  Each session has a goal that must be met, less really does mean more, and there really isn’t much room for the fluff the fitness world promotes. The goal is to become stronger, period. I am forced to train smarter and have more discipline. Train with purpose: Those three words really have become the driving force behind each and every one of my training sessions.
 

Here are a few of the things my training focuses on:

1. Make each rep look like the last one.

2. Make heavy weight move fast.

3. Feel Stronger after each training session, not exhausted and destroyed.

4. Shoot for improvement in each training session. The improvement comes in different forms each session, and it isn’t always about lifting more weight. Commonly, the same weight that felt heavy 2 weeks ago will suddenly feel like it is a warm-up set. Those grindy reps that crushed you not long ago have become an explosive set that looks like a toy.

Since I began to compete in powerlifting, strength has taken on a new meaning.  Over the past few years I have experimented with numerous programs and have seen lifts go up and down. I have experienced the joy of hitting PRs at a meet, and the frustration of putting in tons of work but, the day on the platform, falling short of every expectation I trained so hard for.

Taking all the good with the not-so-good,  I will say there is no other sport I would rather compete in. The pursuit of strength makes me hungrier to accomplish greater things, even though it may take months and months of work to see incremental gains. I encourage all that are reading this to consider training for a meet. Over the past few years I have had over 20 clients compete in meets and we have formed a solid team of powerlifters at Tucson Barbell Club.  Here are a few things I would like to pass along for those thinking about competing in their first powerlifting meet.

Don’t cut weight

Tim Almond, SFG II, SFL

Cutting weight is the biggest rookie mistake I see when people are training for their first meet. There is enough going on with training and peaking for a meet. As you peak for a meet the loads generally increase, and even though volume of training goes down, your body will be ready for the meet to be done and over with the closer to the meet you are. Adding the stress of eating less and or water cutting has no benefit. You start to focus more on your body weight rather than the weight you have to lift.  If you choose to cut weight be prepared. As your body weight goes down your risk of lifting less goes up, especially on the bench press.  My own realization after cutting miserably at a meet was this: I personally didn’t get involved in lifting weights in order to brag about being the smallest strong guy.

Don’t wait until you are “more competitive”

I hear this from people all the time: “I want to wait until I can squat X or Total X before I register for my first meet.”  The funny thing is, if they wait that long, the meet may never come. The part of powerlifting that is the most fun is in setting your own goals and beating your own personal records. If it is your first meet, it is all a personal record. Waiting to be competitive is just an excuse. The truth is no one cares what you lift — they are all focused on hitting their own personal records, not chasing yours. In other words, you aren’t as important as you think you are — just show up and lift. You will find a great and supportive community at most meets that will cheer you on. Click to Tweet

Set Realistic Goals

Programming lessons at the SFL Certification in Italy

Setting Realistic Goals is crucial and it often takes a coach or trusted and experienced training partner to help with this. If you have only benched 250lbs and you set your 8-week peaking cycle to hit 300lbs at your meet, you will have a harsh lesson to learn. I have seen this thought process numerous times. If you are newer you will see bigger gains, but I would recommend keeping jumps to 5%. If you are a 400lb squatter a 10% jump would be a squat of 440lbs. Lifters with smaller numbers may be able to get away with the 10% jump easier.

Peak Smart, Don’t Miss Lifts

A 5- to 8-week gradual peaking program is sufficient for most lifters, just make sure to taper volume as you get closer to the meet. Doing lots of assistance work and extra volume doesn’t have any place in your final 2-3 weeks of training.  Also, it is crucial that you do not miss lifts leading up to the meet.

I’ll go one step further: Stay away from grindy and ugly looking reps on the peaking cycle. Nothing is worse than grinding out a weight that is less than your opener before the meet. It will get in your head, which is never a good thing pre-meet. How does this happen? Doing too much volume and training too much, over estimating your percentages, setting unrealistic goals, or just pushing too hard too soon.

If you know you are having an awful day and your warmups are slow and not getting better, sometimes it is better to lift the next day and be fresh. Less really is more in peaking. For those that normally exercise themselves into an oblivion this may be a challenge, since your workouts will be short and will probably include only one or two lifts.

Practice Commands, Practice Commands… Practice Commands

Thomas Pesce, SFG lifting for the judges at the Italy SFL Certification

Nothing is worse than hitting your all-time PR and turning around to see you were red-lighted because you didn’t wait for the judge to give you the rack command. Each lift has a set of commands you must follow from the judge. Your bench press must be paused, so it is best to practice this for a considerable amount of time. Benching 300 at the gym for 1 rep is different than waiting for a judge to tell you when to press.

At Tucson Barbell Club we practice commands each session on our peaking cycle. Since we tend to do many singles on our peaking programs, we partner up and make sure they are practiced. On a similar note, order your singlet ahead of time and practice in it prior to the meet — it feels different and sometimes throws people off.

Be conservative with your openers and plan them out ahead of time

It makes me cringe, to see someone walk up to their opening lift and grind it out as if their life depended on it. (This should only happen on your final attempt).  Even worse, is when they miss an opener.

Keep in mind, if you miss the opener you can’t go back down in weight. You have 2 more attempts to make it, but you pretty much know at this point it is going to be a long flight of lifts. Most coaches will recommend to open with 88%-92% of your goal, or in other words, open with a weight you can hit for 3-4 reps.

Feeling confident with your opener is important and sets you up for more success.  Many times at weigh-in you will be asked for your openers, and so you should probably know them for about a week leading up to the meet. You don’t want to be scrambling and just putting down any number. Also, make sure you have your 2nd and 3rd attempts written out so that you have a plan. They can change, but it is always good to have a plan.

Most Feds will have a conversion chart, but also be prepared to put your numbers down in kilos. You may find that your attempts may be a few pounds off of what you expect, because the units don’t convert perfectly. Most feds will have their kg charts available online with the expected jumps in weight. This is also where having a coach or handler helps a lot.

Know the federation’s rules

Elisa Vinante, SFG II, SFL Cert, in her first ever IPF PL meet where she set the women’s Italian record in the squat and bench press.

Each federation has its own set of rules and they can vary. It is important to know this ahead of time so you can train appropriately. Some feds allow only the toes to come in contact with the ground on the bench press, and others require the entire foot to be in contact with the ground at all times. Some feds allow velcro belts, others have requirements on belt width etc… As you can see, there are lots of little things that you should familiarize yourself with prior to the meet and the sooner the better.

Get a handler

Pavel Tsatsouline, Chairman of StrongFirst, coaching his father, Vladimir, at a meet this past Father’s Day where Vladimir set a US record.

Having someone to help you is important. There is a lot going on during the meet. There are different flights of lifters and knowing when to warm up is important. If you warm up too soon, you run the risk of being cold by the time your up to lift. Warm up too late and you are rushing right before you want to hit some big lifts.

Depending on the number of people in my flight, I usually start my warm up sets while the flight in front of me is starting their 2nd attempts. Having a handler will help you keep an eye on all of that, let you know when your attempt is coming up, as well as telling the scoring table what your next attempts are. Your job should be to lift and then sit back down until you are told to lift again.

Bring snacks — Snickers are awesome — And don’t get too excited

Be prepared for a long day. Many times meets can run over 8 hours. Poorly run meets can run 12 or more hours. You could be finished with your squat attempts at 11am and not bench press till 1 or 2pm.

It is important to stay hydrated and nourished throughout your day. Sometimes you can get a meal in, but I am not big on eating meals during the competition. Calorically dense foods that don’t take up much room in the stomach are important. My ritual is to eat  breakfast 3+ hours before the meet. In between each of my big lifts I enjoy 1 or 2 snickers bars. It keeps my energy levels high and doesn’t fill my stomach. (Now is not the time to lecture me on healthy eating choices — it just works.)

Having caffeine throughout the day isn’t a bad idea for some lifters, but beware of the designer pre-workouts that amp you up. Remember: This is a long day. The higher up these pre-workouts bring you, the farther they will bring you crashing down. If a powerlifting meet was a 1 hour event that would be one thing, but if you are crashing on pre-workouts after your squat and you need another fix, you are going to have a miserable day. By the time you get to your deadlift you are going to be wiped out.

Another reason I discourage taking these — especially early in the competition — is that they amp you up, when you should already be amped up just by being there. One of the keys to having a good meet — and not just a good lift — is to manage your energy. If you start screaming your head off after hitting a big squat and jump up and down like you won the World Championships you will have wasted key energy that you needed for your remaining 2 lifts and numerous attempts ahead.
 

I wish you the best in your Journey in strength and hope to see you on the platform soon!

Danny Sawaya is a StrongFirst Team Leader and Owner of Evolution Fitness Systems and Tucson Barbell Club. Danny holds the 100% Raw Open State Record in the Squat in the 181 weight class in Arizona and the NASA National Record for the 181 weight class, SubMasters Division.

By Jim Hatcher, SFG

Editor’s Note:

 
If you have heard anything about the SFG Certification, you have heard that it is a grueling, difficult, and demanding 3 days. There is nothing gratuitous about the intensity of this challenge, however. By expecting such a high level of both mental and physical strength from our certified instructors, we ensure that only those committed to such high standards for themselves and for their profession will be able to boast the SFG credential.

The SFG is the gold standard — the toughest kettlebell certification to earn.

…Which makes the following account from Jim Hatcher, SFG all the more impressive. Jim is the oldest person ever to earn the title of SFG, at the age of 72. That’s right — not only did he endure the same three long days, but he also passed the requirements of the certification that tests the mettle of athletes in their 20s and 30s, a great number of whom still fall just short of the requirements, despite months and months of preparation.

Naturally, we asked Jim to write a little something about how he came to commit, prepare, and pass this challenge. We hope your takeaway is this:

You bet, the SFG Certification is challenging.
And it is also absolutely achievable.

So how did a 72-year-old guy decide to attend a Level I SFG Certification and — perhaps more importantly — prepare for the rigor of those three pretty intense days?

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A TRAINER SO THIS SHOULD NOT BE READ AS ADVICE, SIMPLY AS A REPORT OF HOW I PREPARED.

April 2013.

I had been training with kettlebells for a couple of years, and felt pretty competent with the basic six skills. (I was sure wrong about that, though I think I share that lesson with everyone who has attended the SFG Certification.)

I was ready to commit to the next step. Not needing the SFG as a credential to train others but looking for a goal to train for, I sent an email to StrongFirst. Essentially, I asked if is it ok to sign up for the Certification if your goal is not actually “certification”, but simply just to complete the requirements as a personal goal. The answer was “yes,” and that was just the motivation that I needed.

When the combined Level I and Level II Certifications at “The Dome” were announced for April 2014, the goal assumed a real timeframe and I needed a plan.

The plan worked! And here are its main elements:

1. At the very beginning, I made a commitment to myself that I would be successful. This was critical for me, otherwise I would not have been able to push thru the nagging little injuries, the ups and downs of training and the unforeseen that can create self-doubt and frustration.

2. The basic outline for my preparation was one of the protocols followed by many as they prepare for SFG Level I.

3. I trained “instinctively.” Meaning, I modified the days that I trained based upon how I was feeling. I learned very early that I could not handle the volume of three days in a row; even two contributed to what I call cumulative fatigue. Cumulative fatigue meant an unusually long recovery time that I could not afford. I finally found a sort of equilibrium point where I was adhering to the order of the protocol, but on my own schedule.

4. In January, I took the one-day SFG Course with SFG Team Leader Joe Sansalone as a sort of self-test to determine how my skills had improved. This was a very valuable experience that allowed me to clearly identify my strengths and weaknesses. It became necessary to focus a little more directly on some specific skills.

5. As I gained more confidence in the tested skills and the strength tests, I increased my one arm and two arm swings, and I increased the weight used (above my snatch test bell) as much as I could handle. This was my strategy for increasing my endurance and to strengthen my forearms and grip. This turned out to have been one of the most important parts of my training. I also did a lot of walking and climbing stairs.

6. The last four months I had a training partner Keith Ciucci, who was going to do the Level II cert at the same time. This was invaluable. That “second set of eyes” is very important in keeping your training focused on the skills.
 

 
7. In the final analysis, I had a plan, but not so rigid that I was over-trained. I was very goal-driven, but listened to my body and was not afraid to take a few days off when I felt that I needed it.

On Sunday I passed all of the tests except the TGU, and that was due to fatigue and loss of focus on my part. Subsequently I submitted by video and that was approved.

So there you have it. The SFG Certification was one of the highlights of my life. It was physically and mentally demanding and an immensely rewarding experience. The support and encouragement of the StrongFirst family and the camaraderie of my fellow candidates before, during, and after the cert has been an intangible that I would never have anticipated. I have met and become friends with so many truly inspirational people. Quite a gift at this stage of my life.

Proud to be StrongFirst!
 

Jim Hatcher is a 72-year-old retired businessman and educator who set out to prove to himself that he could meet the requirements for certification as an SFG Level 1 Kettlebell Instructor. A self described “gym rat” he prepared mentally and physically for 12 months to achieve this personal goal.
 
 
 
 
 

By S. H. Mathews

 
Pavel Tsatsouline’s Simple and Sinister program is a reworking of his second program minimum — the swing and the get up.  The program minimum from Enter the Kettlebell left readers with room for interpretation of goals, workloads, etc.  It was minimalistic in terms of movement, but had not yet reached the level of irreducible complexity. If perfection is found when there is nothing more to take away, then Simple and Sinister is much closer to it than the program minimum from ETK.  Swings and getups.  Clear numbers, clear goals, a crystal-clear progression.  Nothing to take away, but plenty of room to add other work to meet one’s goals.

Simple and Sinister is designed to augment an athlete’s primary training.  It is designed to add strength and conditioning to the training regime of a martial artist, tactical operator, powerlifter, or other athlete.   What about athletes who compete in Kettlebell sport?  Is Simple and Sinister a good fit for GS athletes?

A distinction is often made between hardstyle Kettlebell lifting and sport style lifting.  This distinction is often amplified by those who have no strong grasp of either style.  Yes, they are different approaches to lifting kettlebells, but they are not contradictory or mutually exclusive.  In hardstyle lifting, the athlete applies maximum or near maximum force to complete each lift.  In sport style lifting, the athlete applies just enough force to complete the rep, saving his energy for the next rep.  And the next.  And the one after that, for up to 10 minutes.   There are differences in technique as well, in accordance with the different goals of the two styles of lifting.  There is not a good style and a bad one, or safe and unsafe, or strong and weak.  Just as a hardstyle karateka can benefit from practicing Judo, or a powerlifter may supplement his slow-grind deadlifts with explosive power cleans, sport style lifters can benefit from hardstyle training.  Depending on their goals, hardstyle lifters may find that sport-style lifting is beneficial for them as well.

The question to ask about any assistance program is whether it will provide physiological qualities that are necessary and useful for one’s primary sport.  What does a competitive girevik need?  If I had to reduce it to a minimum, I’d say cardiovascular endurance, an explosive lower body, and a stable upper body.

Cleans, jerks, and snatches are powered by the legs and caught by the arms in the rack or overhead.  The legs and hips are the prime movers.  A strong core links the lower body to the arms for the pulls of the clean and snatch, and for the launch of the jerk.  When the weight has been launched by the legs, it is caught by the arms in the lockout position.  Explosive legs, stable shoulders, strong core.  Lungs and heart that can handle the workload.  Add grip endurance, and you have most of the physical qualities a competitive girevik needs.

What can Simple and Sinister give you?  The staple movement is the heavy one arm swing.  I won’t give the program away here, but it calls for a high volume of one arm swings in a short period of time, and encourages men to work up to a heavy Kettlebell — 48k is the master plan.

Hardstyle one arm swings build strong legs and hips that can extend explosively time and time again, just like the girevik needs for jerks, snatches, and cleans.  Done in sufficient numbers, they build grip endurance.  Simple and Sinister swings are harder and faster than anything most competitive Kettlebell athletes will do on the platform.  They make the legs stronger and faster.  They carry over well to the more measured pace of competition lifting.  They are to the girevik what sprinting is to the middle distance runner.  When I’m doing S&S swings my heart rate regularly exceeds 186 beats per minute, and I’ll hit triple digit swing reps in under 5 minutes with a 32k bell.  It makes long cycle with a pair of 24k bells seem almost easy.  Almost.

The other movement in Simple and Sinister is the get-up.  Again, the plan tells the athlete to go heavy and get strong, and to compress rest periods.  The get-up restores tired shoulders and builds strength and stability overhead — just where the competitive girevik needs it.  Snatches, jerks, and long cycle all require solid, stable lockouts. Many competitions are now electronically scored, so a solid, motionless lockout from the bells to the ground is more important than ever.  If they wobble around, the lift just does not count.  Weak, inflexible shoulders lead to premature fatigue, inefficient technique, and lost reps.  The get-up builds upper body stability, particularly through the shoulder girdle, which every lifter needs on the platform.

Explosive lower body power, flexible upper body stability, a grip that won’t let go, and a heart and lungs that keep driving.  These are things the competitive Kettlebell athlete needs, and Simple and Sinister delivers.  I’ve found it to be a great addition to my Kettlebell sport training.  Typically, I’ll do a 5-7 minute set of long cycle clean and jerks with 2x24k, rest for less than five minutes, then the Simple and Sinister program with a 32k.  All the benefits of both hardstyle and sport style lifting, in under 25 minutes a day.

While Simple and Sinister can be a great addition to a competitive girevik’s arsenal, it should not be the only accessory work done.  Practicing the competitive lifts builds the qualities needed for domination on the platform, and Simple and Sinister reinforces these qualities, but most top gireviks find that they still need some steady-state cardio —running, rowing, biking, skiing — whatever floats your boat.  Twenty to twenty-five minutes seems to be the sweet spot — enough cardio to power you through a 10 minute set on the platform, but not so much that you compromise strength and power gains.

I recommend alternating steady state cardio and Simple and Sinister days after sport-specific training, or incorporating steady-state cardio at least two days a week.

S. H. Mathews is a competitive Kettlebell lifter and martial artist.  He holds the rank of Candidate for Master of Sport from USA Kettlebell Lifting.  When not lifting kettlebells he teaches for several colleges, universities, and seminaries. 
 
 

By Andrea U-Shi Chang, Senior SFG, TSC Coordinator

The Spring Tactical Strength Challenge had over 350 competitors.

Most had a lot of experience with the kettlebell, barbell, and bodyweight exercises, but some had never pulled a barbell deadlift prior to a few weeks before the TSC.  Some had never performed a pull-up (novice division women test a flex-arm hang).

Some folks decided not to snatch, but to do the other events…  no matter… they showed up, they PARTICIPATED… They had a great time, and moved some weight.

One novice woman pulled 225lbs., snatched a 12kg kettlebell 98 times, and hung for 3.35 seconds.  She had JUST learned the straight bar deadlift a few short weeks before the Challenge and after being encouraged to participate with us, loved every single minute of this team-building event.

The StrongFirst Tactical Strength Challenge is WHAT WE TRAIN FOR…  Every single thing we do as SFGs is all about helping our students, and ourselves, to get STRONGER in all kinds of ways… Some of us have been training in cycles for the TSC ever since the last one.  So the bigger question really is: how do we encourage OTHERS to participate?  How do we BUILD our community?  …Invite them!

This is how we went about it at Kettlebility.  The goal was greater participation from our membership. We have a lot of group classes, from beginner levels to elite training levels, small groups and personal training.  We talked about the TSC at every class, with every student/client, and we showed them how everything we teach translates into one of the TSC events.

We already snatch – so we programmed a ramp up for the TSC for our classes.  We already work on pull-ups – so we helped our folks work on their pulls – Pavel’s Fighter Pull-Up protocol is the framework we use for our programming.

Additionally, we explained how it was really about PARTICIPATION – a great opportunity to support our fellow students, our friends, OUR community. To have a great time, AND to get numbers on the board, no matter what the level of ability.

Six weeks before the TSC we put together a special class – specific to prepare for the TSC. We would teach them dead lift technique and prep their other movements – and ANYONE who was from our studio and who signed up for the TSC could come to this class as our gift to them, OUR community, for FREE…and, as a business owner, I calculated the cost of the event, and the classes and expensed it.  :)

Note to facility owners: after our 6 weeks of free classes leading up to the TSC concluded, we added our Tactical Strength class to our regular schedule as a specialty class at a very low additional monthly fee to our membership.  We had a good amount of folks decide to take us up on the new offering – they now train straight bar movements (dead lift, zercher squat, press, bench, etc.) once a week with a Kettlebility instructor.  It was a nice way to monetize an additional offering for the studio, and to add value to our programs for our members.

_________________________________

THIS is how we programmed it for our students and group classes:

The Kettlebility studio specializes in Russian kettlebell training.  Sure, we have a few battling ropes, TRX, straight bars, bumper plates, rings, pull up bars, Indian clubs, medicine balls…and literally hundreds of kettlebells. So, we program kettlebells and all that other stuff, including bodyweight movements GPP style. 

So how to add in straight bar work without overloading our students?  Once a week, we meet to train the deadlift at our special class – we teach them basic deadlift technique (tension, wedging, grip, addressing the bar, etc.) with a narrow sumo stance (usually the safest for newbies) and then we figured out their one rep max. 

From there we used programming learned at the StrongFirst Lifter Certification (which has an excellent programming section) – we used a simple yet very effective program cycle that Pavel had written where we added 5lbs a week for very nice gains over the 6 week period.  Reps stayed low, Some of our experienced lifters were able to make gains with this cycle, training the lift several times a week, but we typically only expect our students to do straight bar work once a week, with us, in addition to our group kettlebell classes. 

In addition:

• Because most of our lifters were beginners, we had them reset with each rep – so for example, our sets of 5, were 5 singles – we used the reset each time to work on the skill of wedging, and the set up.
• Additionally, we made sure to get a long rest between sets, 5-10 minutes minimum.

Even though we used this only once a week, we made great progress with our groups. We basically added somewhere between 3-5% each week (which came out to be around 5lbs). People felt strong, and because our students already understood appropriate tension and hard style principals, the basic dead lift form was relatively easy for them.

TSC exemplifies the epitome of general physical preparation (GPP); it REALLY is what we are already training.  You have to be fit enough to snatch and strong enough to endure it, coordinated and strong enough to pull your bodyweight, and to have a decent measure of absolute strength to perform a max weight dead lift.

We built our team for the last TSC, and we are building our next team for this October… JOIN US! Build your team for October! This year we want to see YOU and your students with us at the October TSC Event…let’s DOUBLE our numbers and make the October TSC the largest one to date!

_________________________________

Register for the TSC before September 15^th and get your FREE TSC T-shirt when you arrive on October 4^th to compete.

­

Learn more and register for the TSC here >>> www.strongfirst.com/tactical-strength-challenge <<<

Event Date: October 4, 2014 | Event Cost: $25 

Are you are ready to host a Tactical Strength Challenge? If you are ready, willing, and able, to host an event, send an email to us here: TSC@strongfirst.com.  Not only will we help you get set up as a host, but we will send you details on how to market your event locally, how to create great group classes and programming for your facility, and how to make sure your location has the highest rate of participation.

If you are a stand-alone SFG instructor who teaches out of a home studio, or at a larger facility, you can still participate with your clients. Find a host facility near you where you can register yourself and your students. If there are none in a reasonable distance, consider hosting a mini-TSC yourself!  It is all about participating and getting some numbers on the board!

Questions about creating community in your area? Reach out… Invite your area Cross-fit boxes and other personal training and group class facilities in person – make the call.  They will be happy you did. When you explain that this is about participation, community, strength and potentially showing off a high level of GPP, they will step up – and it also helps you get YOUR facility on the map.

Learn more and register for the TSC here >>> www.strongfirst.com/tactical-strength-challenge <<<

FALL 2014

TACTICAL STRENGTH CHALLENGE

BY STRONGFIRST

SPONSORED BY 5.11 TACTICAL

By Brandon Hetzler, SFG Team Leader

“All great truths begin as blasphemies” —George Bernard Shaw

The American swing (or the overhead swing – OH Swing): Is it good or is it bad? This is a tougher question to answer than it appears on the surface. Often times, it leads to a larger, deeper set of feelings about more than a swing – it gets at Crossfit. Which may cause the answer to the original question to be more about which side of the riot line people fall on – either VERY pro OH Swing (Crossfit is AWESOME!) or VERY con OH Swing (Crossfit is ruining the world!).

Neither side actually looks at it for what it is – a MOVEMENT.

Once we accept it as a movement and not an emotional opinion about Crossfit, we need to apply movement principles. Are deep squats good or bad? Anyone that knows anything about movement knows the answer is “Squats aren’t bad, but ‘your’ squat may be bad”.

Gross generalizations about any movement are a sign of ignorance (regardless of whether you are Pro or Con). If we are going to apply movement principles, the top priority is movement quality. I don’t just mean just do the OH Swing correctly every time and all problems surrounding it are solved, I mean: what is your general movement quality?

Translation: if you haven’t assessed movement quality (cough-FMS-cough) then now is the time to shut your mouth in this argument — you have brought a fake knife to a gunfight and are just going to sound like a blabbering idiot whose strategy is to just talk louder and louder.

Now, the Hardstyle swing (HS Swing) has an FMS tie-in courtesy of Brett Jones and Gray Cook. Unless you are a 2 (or symmetrical 2’s) on the following components of the FMS, the HS Swing should temporarily be avoided:

• ASLR (Active Straight Leg Raise

• DS (Deep Squat)

If we can agree that the movement of the OH Swing is the same as the HS Swing up the point where the bell is at shoulder height, we can safely make the same statements about the OH Swing regarding FMS requirements (remove your heels from the ground, I’m discussing the movement — not the teaching principles. If this already has you up in arms it is a sign you are a little too emotionally-tied to your stance – it’s not a significant other — and you really ought to remove yourself to a remote cave for the next month until you calm down).

Now we have to look at the overhead component, and this is where most of the ‘CON’ people base their argument. Putting anything (kettlebell, barbell, sandbag, rock, drunkard, etc) overhead requires a significant amount of shoulder mobility and trunk stability.

(Side note – The shoulder mobility and trunk stability I’m referring to are FMS-based terms and are much broader than a mobile glenohumeral joint and a strong core. If you are unclear on this, I would suggest investing in your knowledge and getting the text “MOVEMENT”.) This is also the point on where the FMS requirements get a little less crystal clear.

So, here are MY recommendations of the FMS requirements needed to safely perform the OH Swing variation:

• 2/2 ASLR

• 2 DS

• 3 TSPU (Trunk Stability Push Up)

• 3/3 SM (Shoulder Mobility)

Why the 3 and 3/3 requirements on the TSPU and the SM and not just a 2 or a 2/2? A 2 –or symmetrical 2’s — is the minimum requirement for movement quality.

M-I-N-I-M-U-M.

If you want to put a kettlebell overhead ballistically with minimum movement quality – go for it! It will be your injury. You will at some point hurt yourself, not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. It may begin as low back “tightness”, but it will progress to pain. Or it may begin as elbow discomfort, but it will progress to elbow pain. It will happen.

We can also take one of Pavel’s cornerstone tenets to training — look at the similarities of what the very successful people do. Those individuals that repeatedly and successfully put things over their head — regardless of the manner in which they do it — all share the commonalities of thoracic mobility and trunk strength. Olympic weightlifters, gymnasts, old-school strict military pressers and heavy bent pressers all approach how they get their loads overhead a bit differently, but share those mobility and stability commonalities.

If you meet these FMS requirements and have the desire to do the OH Swing – by all means  do it. Learn the technique and go. If you don’t meet these requirements, then learning the technique isn’t an option – yet. You need to fix you movement quality issues first before layering on the movement capacity (volume, load, etc).

If you are still with me, you have probably realized that I have managed to avoid answering the question and pointed my finger and the blame at the FMS. What if someone doesn’t know or administer the FMS? Simple – learn it and apply it. Any fitness professional or healthcare provider (that live in the world of movement — ATCs, PTs, Ortho PAs, Chiros, etc) not up to speed with the FMS is woefully ill-equipped to adequately do their job. There are A LOT of MDs out there that finished in the bottom of their class and still make a living as a Doctor, I’m just saying I wouldn’t ever go to them. There is no way to account for every single person’s level of education, but just like the OH Swing and the FMS discussion everyone needs a minimal level of education. The FMS is a minimal requirement if you want to discuss movement (with me) or fix movement problems – which are EVERYTHING orthopedic in nature. Otherwise we don’t speak the same language.

Back to the point – if you have mobility issues in the thoracic spine and/or shoulder then getting overhead easily and effortlessly is going to be limited – that extra motion will have to come from somewhere else.

Option 1: Enter Lumbar spine hyper extension (lordosis). As soon as the L-spine hyperextends (which will allow the arms to appear to get overhead) the pelvic floor shuts down and the trunk cylinder (normally referred to as the ‘core’) loses its ability to stabilize.

Nothing good happens here. Performance drops, injury likelihood increases and competencies begin to pile up to accomplish the movement.

Option 2: Bend the elbows and chicken neck the head. While this doesn’t compromise the L-spine or affect the pelvic floor it does put the shoulder into — in the words of Kelly Starrett DPT — a “douchey” position. This strategy opens the door to shoulder impingement, elbow issues, wrist issues, neck pain, headaches, and a plethora of other bad things.

Doing swings of any style should be like the first line of Johnny Cash’s song “Hurt” (Nine Inch Nails recorded it first and has the more popular version, but Johnny Cash wrote the song):

“I hurt myself today,

To see if I still feel.

I focus on the pain

The only thing that’s real.”

Training will cause physical discomfort – pain is a problem. Joint pain after or during training, or a movement, is a sign of a problem. That is an entirely different article that I’ll leave alone for now because it gets into deep seeded psychosomatic issues that relate to the misconception of pain and progression.

Then there is the “if you want to swing overhead, just snatch instead” argument. This can be a very good point, and very appropriate for those people that don’t meet the FMS OH Swing requirements. Since the KB Snatch is a 1 arm movement, there is a little more wiggle room when it comes to the mobility requirements – both hands aren’t fixed to the bell.

This is also a completely different movement pattern (even though they visibly appear the same) that is now very asymmetrical and introduces rotational forces into the system. This is important because it gives us a completely different stabilization strategy which is less reflective of the TSPU and more reflective to the Rotary Stability component of the FMS. The snatch probably is a more appropriate drill for more people — in general — but this doesn’t mean it is the only ballistic option to get an object overhead.

In general, like anything else, you can’t say that OH swings are good or bad. For some people (2 DS, 2/2 ASLR, 3 TSPU, 3/3 SM) they are appropriate and beneficial. For others they are just bad. It goes back to applying the right drill to the right person at the right time for the right reason. I’m sure there is someone on the globe that can benefit from the clamshell exercise – even though my personal opinion is that about 527 exercises exist that are better and more efficient than the clamshell. Maybe in addition to New Kids on the Block and the Cosby Show, the 1980’s gave us the greatest gluteus medius exercise ever – I’m just too jaded to admit it. My point – No exercise, no matter how much we personally detest it or idolize it, is good or bad for everyone. Period!
 

# # #

Brandon Hetzler is a Certified Athletic Trainer that oversees the Sports Performance Program for Mercy Sports Medicine in Springfield MO, and is an instructor in the Masters of Athletic Training Program at Missouri State University.  He is an SFG Team Leader and also holds the CICS and PM credentials.

Brandon is one of three individuals that created the Movement Restoration Project which promotes restoring lost movement to ALL individuals.  To find more information, go to their Facebook Page (Movement Restoration Project), or to find upcoming workshop dates check www.functionalmovement.com.