“Bodybuilding is about time under tension, Kettlebell Lifting is about time out of tension” – Valery Federenko
This is a quote that has intrigued me for a while.
Over the years I’ve been coaching, especially the more recent years as I’ve visited other gyms as a guest instructor, I’ve noticed a trend amongst people. It seems that while everyone I deal with does some kind of physical fitness training, and many are capable of greater feats of strength than myself, it seems that they are locked into a tight box of movement, unable to break out.
All their time under tension had created a body that was good at one thing, being tense. So while standing still and lifting something heavy came easy, anything else was a chore.
Strength training is great, don’t get me wrong, but to get strong for strengths sake isn’t the best approach in my mind. Getting strong to improve performance is the key.
This means that even if you don’t play some sport, you must still do something that expresses the body’s ability to move, to celebrate the glory of movement, not simply be living statues.
On the Anatomy in Motion course I attended recently I was chatting with Chris Sritharan, the AiM no 2 man. In conversation he mentioned that strength training does not improve human movement. We’d already been taught how the AiM opinion is that a muscle must lengthen before it can contract, which falls in line with a lot of the martial arts tuition I’ve had.
So if strength training doesn’t improve human movement, what does it do?
Simple, it increases the potential for human movement. It expands the limits in which the human body can perform.
But only if performance is practised.
If you run, play sport, fight, climb or whatever, I dare say you are using your strength training to improve what you do. But what about those who just lift? Those that train strength for strengths sake or for the aesthetic benefits are often the ones who become muscle bound, tight and uncoordinated.
It’s to these people that the lesser known kettlebell and bodyweight drills are most useful.
Not only will they round out your training, but they’ll ensure you stay agile, athletic and able to move freely, generating force in any direction at any time.
If you are a practising athlete, these drills may just give you that edges as well as elongate your career.
Bodyweight and kettlebell movements follow the AiM rules of stretching a muscle to make it fire, so keep the nervous system firing like its supposed to. Not only that, they break out of the standard linear movements that the majority of strength training lifts follow.
This is some of what I’ll be teaching on March 9th during the Kettlebell & Bodyweight workshop. Over the day we will look at:
Odd Kettlebell Lifts including:
Windmills, Side Press & Bent Press
“Zoro”
Lateral Swings & Circular Cleans
More if we have the time
We’ll also take on variations of the classical kettlebell lifts, taking the kettlebell lifts away from the saggital plane.
We’ll also look at intermediate and advanced bodyweight drills, animal and agility movements, turning the Plank into a worthwhile exercise and……
Burpees.
Yes, burpees, we have 18+ variations on this already tough drill, dare you try them all?
This is a loose format, we will be taking questions and answering them as they come up.
The workshop is open to everyone, although a basic knowledge of the common kettlebell lifts is necessary to get the most out of the day.
We’re taking bookings now, our early bird price expires this afternoon, so move quickly! THIS LINK will take you to the booking form.
And if thats not enough…….
I’ve just launched a new service for booking appointments/classes, tracking your membership and even allowing you to pay online. It’s a service called FrontDeskHQ and so far seems very user friendly, I hope to make it my primary system after I’ve finished trialling. So please get yourselves registered, or at the very least have a look and tell me what you think of the service, keeper or not? Here’s the link: https://wgfit.frontdeskhq.com
Regards
Dave Hedges www.WG-Fit.com
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