Archive November 2011

Teaching…or learning…the Kettlebell Snatch

Little Note from Danny: I know I have been doing a lot of writing about kettlebells lately, but I tend to write when I have new insights about things. This doesn’t make me think that “barbells are bad!” or whatever. So, enjoy the insights. If you hate KBs, fine…but there is always keys in these articles that will clarify any goal set.

Teaching the Kettlebell Snatch “from the top down” has advantages that are only apparent when the reps get high. Honestly, when you keep the reps under ten, then rest for a set period and repeat, it appears from my vision that one can have some pretty lousy technique and not lose skin off the hand. I have learned that the proper way of helping someone improve their KB snatch is to wait until around rep 70 to comment. The challenge of doing 100 reps in a set period of five minutes demands that the candidate learn to bite the bullet and learn to keep properly snatching throughout the challenge.

In my little book that I asked the attendees at the first RKC Belfast certification, one wrote this: “With one sentence, you changed the way I snatched and I nailed the test.” I asked what the sentence was and the newly minted RKC answered:

“It was when you said: ‘You have to have the courage to drop the bell into the swing with authority each and every time.”

Remember, first and foremost:
The Swing is a Swing.
The Clean is a Swing.
The Snatch is a Swing.

The bulk of the issues with most people in the Clean and Snatch can be cured by ignoring the “Clean” and the “Snatch” and coaching the Swing portion of the moves. As if by magic, a proper Swing for the Clean or Snatch stops most wrist banging issues and most lockout issues.

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“We’re Number Two!”

I have been coaching “officially” since 1979, but my friends would tell you that I started long before my terry cloth Polo Shirt with “Utah State University Assistant Track Coach” was handed to me. My neighbor, Janet Styles, who just died a few weeks ago, used to call me “The Pied Piper” as the neighborhood kids would show up to play catch or shag the discus or whatever we needed to do.

In these years, I have some memories of great successes and many, many failures. Certainly, watching Paul Northway just get better by the day in his Sophomore year was a joy to witness. He literally doubled his competition in several meets…and sometimes they were upperclassmen. My “Dirty Thirteen” Junior Varsity team in football with no linebackers or running backs (literally, we didn’t bring any with us!) used to dominate anyone in our path. And, perhaps the greatest moment of my life, both of my daughters were throwing in the state track meet in the discus together. This was the time when Kelly “marched out” with her discus and made the whole crowd chuckle and both came away All-State. I was a chocolate mess, of course.

There is a million memories, of course. But, they all stand clumped in a pile next to the “best” coaching of my career: SFX II’s Volleyball Team. I was sitting in my office at Juan Diego Catholic High School and the phone rang. I did my standard “Office of Strength, Coach Dan John Speaking!” It was my daughter, Lindsay, in tears. They had too many kids at Saint Francis Xavier’s volleyball team and “no one is going to get to play,” because…because…

“Dad, we need a coach.”

My mind sifted quickly to “Hmmm, who is dumb enough to take this job?” Lindsay asked again, “Dad, we need a coach.”

Ah. That means “me.” It means “Dad, get over here and coach us.”

Now, don’t take any of the following negative or mean, but when the teams were split, I got Lindsay. That was nice. I also got the two shortest boys in the school, Sal and Carlos (fine young men!, but really, really short), a few girls who cried often, and Jasmine Yu, who tragically passed away recently and was about to have a heart transplant at the time. This was a great group of kids, fine people, wonderful to have around…not a Volleyball team!!!

So, I hopped in the car immediately after school and discovered that I was “Late.” Well, I had to drive twenty-five minutes to get to SFX and practice started after their school ended. For the record, I am not sure I ever made it “on time.” I’m good, but I can’t bi-locate. Yet.

My TA at the time was an injured volleyball player. My knowledge of the game was zero. So, I asked her “my question:” “What are the three keys to winning in a volleyball game?” We worked it out to this:
1. Get the serve OVER and IN!
2. Protect the Middle.
3. Play as a team.

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The One Arm Press

Even on vacation, I love to get into a gym or two. Certainly, we need to take time off and recover, but I really enjoy learning and seeing new things. On my recent trip to Ireland, I even had the chance to help a Hurling team (Carnmore) with some footwork drills and my four sessions with them, thanks to Adrian Cradock, really opened my eyes about the real joy of amateur sport.

During my time in the Galway City Gym, a perfect combination of every facility I trained in while growing up, I met a 79 year old man who had “taken up” some lifting. He benches 100 kilos, or 220 pounds, so some of you young guys need to step up your game. As I walked around the gym, it reminded me of training in my old high school facility. The best places to workout all seem to have that same aura, certainly the same smells, and I started thinking about a lift I have now been doing almost four decades: the one arm press.

In high school, we had a Universal Gym. I don’t care if you love or hate machines, but, even now when I look back at it, a lot of people trained really hard on it and made pretty fair progress. One thing we did a lot of was one arm presses on the Military Press station.

We did them in a way that honestly stands the test of time: I would stand in front of the machine and my partner would have the “key.” That’s a term I haven’t used in decades either: this was the little bent selector key that allowed you to use more than forty pounds. The coaches kept them in their office, so no one could use them to work out unless they were there. Of course, every kid from Francisco Terrace knew that a bent nail worked just as well, so I had my own personal gym any time I could sneak in.

So, I would do five reps with the right arm. My buddy would move the weight to 50 pounds. Five more reps. We would continue this process all the way down the stack until I couldn’t do five reps. Then, the fun started: we would go back up, ten pounds at a time, to the starting weight of forty pounds. We called these “Burnout Sets” and the pump in the shoulders was unbelievable.

Of course, now you put your left hand on the machine and did the same all the way down and up the stack. It worked well then and I would imagine the human body hasn’t changed that much since then, so it might well be worth a try today. You certainly can go up and down the dumbbell rack at your gym or do like we do at my training group and lay a row of kettlebells on the ground and do the same basic workout.

The Varsity throwers at my school came up with a nice twist to this to help the shot put and they would only do singles, but changed the reps in a wild, chaotic way each and every rep. There was gold in this idea for throwers and I ignored it most of my career, but the variation of speed would an excellent supplement for a thrower or fighter. Alas, I forgot it, but perhaps the next generation of elite throwers will use it.

One of the things we all noticed from doing these one armed workouts is how sore we were around the waist the next day. Growing up, the area between your ribs and hips was called your “waist.” Now, we call it “core” and charge a lot of money to make you train it.

And, this is part of the point of doing single arm overhead work: it challenges you from your toes to the top of your head. Now, I am not calling for us to start dressing like “Ye Olde Tyme Strongman” with leopard prints and a saucy mustache, but there is a great tradition in strength sports to put weights overhead with one hand. Like every great lifting idea, it has ebbed and flowed through its popularity. When I first started squatting seriously, practically no one squatted in gyms. Then, squats became the answer to all questions. I like to think today as I write this that the squat has become a key lift again and its importance to general training is generally seen as crucial, but not “squat or die.”

I have always seen five advantages to one arm pressing. First, the whole body is supporting the work done by one limb. This allows me to use more weight with one hand than I can handle with two. Let’s make this clear:

If I can one hand press 110 pounds, I have two legs and one torso supporting it.

Now, if I put 110 pounds in EACH hand, I still have two legs and one torso supporting it. Now, I KNOW I can press 110 with one hand, but double 110s (220 total) would be a great challenge. So, my deltoids, triceps and the whole gang of muscles supporting this one arm lift are really challenged. Yes, you actually overload the arm, if you go heavy enough, by doing one limb movements. True, the total amount is higher with two arms, but the local load is heavier with one. For hypertrophy, it almost feels like cheating.

Second, and this should be no surprise, one arm lifting is asymmetrical. The bottom line on this is simply “Asymmetry is harder.” I strongly recommend on one arm lifting that you either use a partner or a mirror when lifting. I like the Chin, the Sternum and the Zipper (my “CSZ Line”) to remain basically in a vertical line while pressing. There will be some twisting and turning under great loads, but limit it as best you can. Recently, I was asked:

“What do I do when I start twisting?”

Stop.

I thought it was brilliant.

Third, equipment needs for one arm lifts are less. At my old gym, I had 113 kettlebells, but a group of them were far too light for pressing practice. To have 40 athletes all pressing double bells, we would have had to share and that, of course, was fine. But, by utilizing singles, the whole group could lift at once. There is something magical about watching that many people intensely focused on pressing weights up and down.

Fourth, with a light load and only one limb, there is a sense of what we call “Active Rest.” My friend, Pavel, has this funny story about the military: a bunch of privates are shoveling dirt. After a few hours, one of them asks “Sir, when do we rest.” The officer answers: “Ah. If you throw the dirt farther, the dirt will be in the air longer. You can then rest when the dirt is in the air.”

My vision of rest during one arm lifts seems about the same as in this joke: you rest while the other limb is working. The funny thing is that the body seems more than able to support rep after rep switching hands. Of course, the reps are challenging as you move along, but that brings us to the next point.

Finally, one arm pressing leads us naturally to “longer” sets. Now, if time under tension/load is the key to bodybuilding or hypertrophy, it would make sense that alternating hands and continuing to move would certainly increase time. Call Einstein for the specifics on increasing time, but those who have ever had a limb in a cast know that working on the healthy arm or leg seems to keep the atrophy of the injured side to a minimum. The body is one magnificent piece with only one blood system, so hypertrophy should come with these longer sets. In my experience, and with those willing to try it, it works.

I believe in doing one arm presses standing. I have done them seated, for example, after a surgery, but I really think there is a value to doing them with the whole body wedged underneath the bell. If you have never done them before, keep the reps low, maybe two to five reps, and get used to the movement. I strongly suggest, like in the Bench Press, to keep the elbow vertical under the wrist. Again, a mirror can help here. There are some variations that I will use in teaching this with interesting names like the “Bottoms Up Press” and the “Waiter Press,” but strive to keep the elbow in line with the wrist.

My favorite workout scheme for one arm presses is also the method I use in my book, “Mass Made Simple.” I strongly believe that one arm presses allow you to handle a lot of volume, so I use two “ladder” schemes for almost any purpose (sports help, hypertrophy, fat loss, this is “one size fits all”):

The 2-3-5(-10) method.
I have discussed this scheme in other articles, but very simply the first variation is to do this:
Two reps left arm
Two reps right arm
Three reps left arm
Three reps right arm
Five reps left arm
Five reps right arm
If light enough, to a set of ten left and right, too. This is not always possible. This workout (with the tens) is forty total reps. It won’t “feel” like forty as you moved back and forth between limbs and the reps changed. If you do this a number of times, well, this will be a lot of time under load. And, that is a good thing!

I suggest for most people to do the entire workout with one weight. Let the volume be the issue and not your technique under heavy loads. If you decide to go up, an interesting way to do this is simply:
2-3-5 (Both Sides)
Add Weight
2-3-5 (Both Sides)
Add Weight
2-3-5 (Both Sides)
I don’t suggest doing this much more than this, but occasionally it would be fun to push up another round. Oh, and skip the tens on this variation as we are trying to get the biggest bells we can in the last round of five.

Any traditional rep and set scheme will work, of course. As I noted from my high school experience, I was able to recover quickly from all those sets of pressing. In hindsight, I can also understand why I had such a remarkable bench press at the light weight of 162 pounds: good pressers press a lot!

For the older trainee, the one arm press works all the muscles that Janda explained weakened with age. In other words, if a 50 plus man asked me “that question,” “If you could only do one lift, what would it be?,” I would answer one arm presses. Yes, it even works the glute as you can’t have a saggy butt when pressing half bodyweight overhead with one arm.

Experiment with increasing the amount to one arm pressing that you do. There is no contest or Gold Medal for one arm pressing, but the rewards are great.

Some thoughts about the HKC…which should also help in other ways

I have spent my life trying to understand weightlifting. It seems to me that there are three important keys:

Basic Human Movements
Reps and Sets
Load

Sadly, I think this is the correct order that we should approach weightlifting: first, we need to establish the correct postures and patterns, then work around reasonable “numbers” of movements in a training session, and, finally, we should discuss the load. Sadly, the industry, and I am guilty of this as well, has switched the order and made a 500 pound deadlift the “answer” to improving one’s game or cutting some fat. I apologize in advance, although I still think it is important for a grown man to be stronger than my Homecoming Queen.

And, note well, that I said “training session.” Oh, I can work you out. As Pavel notes, any idiot can get you tired: do 10,000 Jumping Jacks. But, please don’t think that is going to improve your skill set or your long term ability to do anything from sport to simply aging gracefully.

At the HKC, we learn what I consider to be the key patterns to human movement: the Swing, the Goblet Squat and the Get Up. The Hip Displacement Continuum is a term I came up to unlock the secrets of the hip movement has two ends: the Swing and the Goblet Squat. The Swing demands maximal hip hinge and minimal knee bend while the Goble Squat demands maximal hip hinge along with maximal knee bend. They are the same, but different, in their ability to remind the body about what the most powerful movements it can perform. The Get Up (not the “Turkish Sit Up” as I often note) is a one stop course in the basics of every human movement from rolling and hinging to lunging and locking out.

So, the HKC covers Basic Human Movements in a way that is unlike any other system or school. As I often argue, add the Push Up and, honestly, you might be “done.” I have a few principles that I have stuck with for a long time:

1. Training sessions need to be repeatable.

2. Training sessions should put you on the path of progress towards your goals.

3. Training sessions should focus on quality.

So what it the key to quality? I have a simple answer for most people: control your repetitions. No, what you are about to read is not always exact and perfect for your needs at this time or that time, but consider carefully the principles I have found with repetition selection.

In teaching the Get Up, or using this wonderful lift as a tool to discover your body, keep the reps “around” ten. Now, you can think about this as a total of ten with five on the right and five on the left, or you can try ten right and ten left. But, really?

I have noted that if I do Get Ups as part of my warm up along with some Get Up drills for “this or that,” the highly technical name I use for correctives, I am sweating and pushing into a “workout” around ten total reps. Certainly, at times, you can do more. Recently, we had a wonderful challenge of doing one rep on the first of the month and adding a rep a day up until the 31st. Someone told me they were doing this right AND left! That’s 62 Get Ups! That’s a good challenge, but perhaps not a training program.

Week in and week out, think “around” ten reps for the Get Up.

The Goblet Squat seems to lock in around 15-25 reps per workout. I offer you the Humane Burpee as a way to try this concept:

10 Swings
5 Goblet Squats (Put the bell down between your feet under control)
Inchworm out to the Push Up Position (walk on your hands)
5 Push Ups
Inchworm Back to the Start
10 Swings
4 Goblet Squats (Put the bell down between your feet under control)
Inchworm out to the Push Up Position (walk on your hands)
4 Push Ups
Inchworm Back to the Start
10 Swings
3 Goblet Squats (Put the bell down between your feet under control)
Inchworm out to the Push Up Position (walk on your hands)
3 Push Ups
Inchworm Back to the Start
10 Swings
2 Goblet Squats (Put the bell down between your feet under control)
Inchworm out to the Push Up Position (walk on your hands)
2 Push Ups
Inchworm Back to the Start
10 Swings
1 Goblet Squat (Put the bell down between your feet under control)
Inchworm out to the Push Up Position (walk on your hands)
1 Push Up
Inchworm Back to the Start
Finished!
That’s 50 Swings, 15 Goblet Squats and 15 Push Ups. 8-5-2 will give you the same results with less Swings, if you need (Only 30!).

One of the great insights, among many, that I picked up at the RKC is the idea of doing Twenty Swings with one kettlebell and Ten Swings with two kettlebells. After doing literally hundreds of swings a day, I noted that my technique held up fine in that ten and twenty range. It is the basic teaching of sports: don’t let quantity influence quality. In other words, ten good reps is far better than dozens of crappy reps. If you want more volume, just do more sets.

Absolutely, there are times when you should do more than twenty. There are times when you want to do all kinds of things. There are times, though, known as “most of the time” where you just keep moving ahead. I usually call these the “Punch the Clock” workouts and I think it is the key to staying in the game.

So, you may ask, is this enough?

Over time, yes!

Tim Ferris, RKC II, tells us in his excellent book, “The Four Hour Body,” that there is a Minimum Effective Dose (MED) of everything fitness related. Although the number I am about to share has a bit of wiggle room, it seems that 75-250 Swings a day is the “wheelhouse” for the swing MED. Yes, you can do more, but you want to be able to do it literally day in, day out, year in and year out.

Finally, I think this will come off as a joke, but I mean this: if it is too light, go heavier. And, if you went to heavy, try a lighter bell. Doing that little Humane Burpee with a big bell is a killer workout. But, it is simple to scale it up and down by simply changing the bell. Yes, it’s that simple. If you look at movement first, then reps, for whatever reason, loading makes more sense, too.

Interested in an HKC? Here are some of mine coming up:
Tucson!

Burr Ridge, ILL

I also have one in January…in SoCAL, but it is not all set up yet.