Does anyone use kettlebells to improve their martial arts?
Steve Cotter has a ton of material on this.
I use the kettlebells to get deeper stances/stretches. The bells give you more downward resistance (um...weight) so they force you deeper into stances/stretches. They're great for working out those last few inches in splits, etc.
I also use the bells to give resistance in stances for strength work. Holding the KBs in rack position allows you to do horse stance, etc. as an even harder resistance exercise.
I'm not really training enough MA to notice if KB work provides the famous WTH effect, but they can be a great tool for strength/mobility/power.
Fundamentally, working on mobility and greater range of motion, as well as power/power endurance (kb jerks, snatch, swing, long cycle) is bound to have some carry over.
Holding kbs in stances for time is an interesting idea, and I can see how that would apply to the arts you practice Dave. What sort of benefits have you noticed?
Are you an IKFF/AKC couch yet?
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Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
Kuri,
I just passed my IKFF cert in Malaysia. Wow, that was intense. Steve Cotter is the man for sure.
Some of the things we did in the cert are relevant to the thread. For example, the KB front squats would improve people's MA stances. Steve had us hold a low stance without the KBs to check the depth. He then showed us a hip flexor exercise that looked simple. Well one guy actually improved his squat depth by like 2 inches after about 30 seconds of the exercise. It was very cool.
Steve talked a little about how you actually have to pull downwards to get into the low stances but it was hard to grasp that. Many of us just try to relax and allow our bodies to sink down but that only gets us so far. The kettlebells help by pushing us deeper into the stances when we don't have the ability to pull with the psoas yet.
Also holding the KBs makes us straighter in things like horse stance. Most of us want to lean forward in horse stance but having the KB in the rack position allows us to straighten the back more because of the counter balance.
Haha. I could go on and on. There's tons of crossover benefits. It's good training.
Yeah Steve and Ken do a great job. I think IKFF is at the top O the heap for sure. Glad you got to work with Steve.
I use alot of kb goblet and 2kb front squats with clients to work on hip mobility and forcing them to keep the torso upright too.
Have you noticed significant results concerning getting people to move from their hips with kbs and then MA?
__________________
Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
I use alot of kb goblet and 2kb front squats with clients to work on hip mobility and forcing them to keep the torso upright too.
Have you noticed significant results concerning getting people to move from their hips with kbs and then MA?
Yeah, that's a good question. First you have to really introduce the KB and sell what it can do for people in a MA class. That's not always easy, especially with arts like taichi. People who come to me to learn taichi have looked at me funny sometimes when i put the KB in their hands. It's not what people expect and you have to prepare them a bit to get them to put some effort in it and not blow it off until we supposedly get to "the good stuff."
Once that's out of the way, then yes they usually make progress in moving from the hips because having the KB in hand FORCES them to focus instead of spacing out, a constant problem with taichi beginners.
But I've also had people hit themselves in groin with the KB because they still don't move the hips enough in the swing. It's hard, KB or no, to get people with tight hips into the hip motions.
Has it worked for you? What problems did your clients have?
People come to me for fitness first, not MA so don't have any words of wisdom there.
But yes, getting people to use their hips can be very challenging. Teaching a hip pivot to someone that literally has been immobilized for years is no small feat. In those cases often I'll start with DLs or RDLs, even bodyweight only movement so they get the motion down. Glute activation stuff too of course.
Sometimes with guys I tell them to move their hips as if Jessica Biel is in front of them. It usually clicks then .
__________________
Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
Sometimes with guys I tell them to move their hips as if Jessica Biel is in front of them. It usually clicks then .
LOL! What do you do for the ladies then? Or do i want to know?
Yeah, i start them all with deadlifting the KB even though it shouldn't be hard for anyone with a little athleticism. But when dealing with an untrained population, lifting any size KB is a challenge. I've had guys that had to start with 8kg because they couldn't lift a 12kg correctly. Not moving their hips for their entire lives is a big hurdle to overcome and KB force them to confront that weakness on day one. Takes courage.
Yes, it's a completely foreign movement for a majority of the population. I'd figure Taiwanese would have better mobility similar to Japan but guess not.
As for getting women to get the hip hinge I keep a poster size pic of JP's lamp shot handy (look it up if you haven't seen it).
__________________
Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
Yes, it's a completely foreign movement for a majority of the population. I'd figure Taiwanese would have better mobility similar to Japan but guess not.
As for getting women to get the hip hinge I keep a poster size pic of JP's lamp shot handy (look it up if you haven't seen it).
Most people I'm training right now are foreigners. They tend to have really tight hips.
Yeah, the Taiwanese tend to be much looser, another problem especially when they need to be tight for military presses, etc. But getting Taiwanese to bend at the hips isn't as hard as getting foreigners to do it.
Here is an article Dave Randolph, martial arts instructor & Kb coach, and I wrote together; it may give you some ideas to use in your kb training. This article was written when kbs were considered an outrageous training modality by the general fitness industry.
Kettlebells for MA
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Linear Mode
