Kettlebells, Why?

This was a Facebook comment (I think) which I just copied in a hurry without taking note of the persons name, so I apologise. I often grab these questions in a hurry while using my phone.

If you recognise the question as your, please shout out.

"Hey Dave!

Quick question....

Kettlebell training, why?

Excuse my ignorance in asking this question.

Why do people do kettlebells instead of free weights etc."

And if you aren't the person, be the person who asks the next question…..

So, why kettlebells?

Great bells of fire!

Back in the early 2000's after I had got back from wandering the earth and had returned to Dublin with the intention of settling there as a base of operations.

A place to have an actual address, job, training but could bounce out and back with ease.

I was training in the Martial Arts Academy in its old location on Leeson St, and was there while they (poorly) planned the move to the Magennis Place location which became Wild Geese a few years later.

In the Magennis place martial arts academy I trained with the exercise weights set.

1 inch plates, some metal, some concrete. A bar and dumbells with spin lock collars and one bar that had spring collars.

It was basic, but functional.

Got me fighting fit, both for working the doors and training up for my Kenpo 2nd degree black belt and anything else I fancied doing.

In this time I, in reading various articles and forums about fitness and martial arts, started to read about this thing called a kettlebell.

It seemed to be this mysterious tool from Russia that was making waves in the US.

I read a good deal, always cynical as most of the info was from one source, Dragon Door and this guy called Pavel.

Then I got injured. Seriously damaging my back.

So I spent the time I would usually have spent training reading.

And reading.

I bought one of Pavels books and sourced a kettlebell. Which was not easy back then, it was a 16kg and I believe it is still being used in Wild Geese.

With the book “Enter the Kettlebell” and a 16kg bell I started learning and practicing at home before going to the martial arts academy.

I learned the Turkish Get Up and the Swing from that book

Slowly.

Carefully

I genuinely believe that my recovery from injury started to speed up with the practice.

The swing seemed to be a tonic for the pain and gradually improved my ability to hip hinge and tolerate spine flexion.

I genuinely fell in love with the kettlebell.

So I bought a 24, bought more of Pavels work and kept training at home, slowly getting myself back to strength.

By the time the Martial Arts Academy folded and Paulie and I took it over at Wild Geese Martial Arts, I had taken a personal trainer course and built a significant library of books and downloads.

I was transitioning into Coach.

And the kettlebell became my weapon of choice.

I found that growing up in martial arts studios and rural areas, I got great results with bodyweight exercises and improvisation.

Kettlebells slotted right into that mindset.

Looking at Steve Maxwells work, combining Kettlebells with Bodyweight drills as a way to train for BJJ made sense to me and mirrored my own thinking.

I began realising a training philosophy that I'd always followed but never consciously thought about.

In 2005 or 6, Vasily Ginko came to Ireland to teach Kettlebells in a workshop hosted by a fledgling All Ireland Kettlebell Lifting Federation which at that time was basically one guy, the late Jason Kelly.

Vasily and Jason taught the actual Russian way of training and the sport of Kettlebell Lifting.

Vasily told me to start teaching in a way that was difficult to say no to.

The following year when Vasiky was back certifying instructors we had a more or less the same conversation, except this time about competing in Kettlebell Sport.

And that is where Wild Geese Fitness Training (WG-FIT) really started. You can thank Vasily for telling to teach people to use kettlebells!

Later in 2007 I brought Steve Cotter over and we became friends, I had Steve back several times over the years. Hosting his CKT level 1 & 2 instructor courses and other courses he taught.

So, to get back to the question, “Why Kettlebells?”

And my own question based on observation, why were so many early adopters of the kettlebell martial arts or boxing enthusiasts?

Simply put, efficiency.

One tool, that doesn't take up much room, can do many things.

A tool that has many uses.

And in a group setting, I can train twice as many people in a given space using kettlebells then I could using bars.

The swinging movements work great for work capacity while targeting the common weak areas of the body (hamstrings, hips, upper back, grip, heart, lungs, mental discipline)

And strength came from pressing, squatting (mostly single leg variations due to the limitations in loading) and a few other drills.

Combining these with bodywork exercises, push ups, pull ups, jumps, crawls, sprints and all of a sudden you have a tool that helps you unlock athletic potential.

Add more kettlebells to the collection and that potential increases more.

Back in the day, I started training folks with a single 16kg, one 24 and one 32kg bells, a Trx and plenty of floor space.

I had people who had trained in fully equipped gyms now feeling they moved better and had more endurance.

I had people with aches and pains feeling fresher and moving easier.

I had kickboxers turn their competitive careers around, going from losing streaks to consistently winning (see the WMD ebook for the program that I ran for them, go tothe shop page on either wg-fit.com or davehedges.net)

Older "retired" athletes started returning to sport

As we expanded our equipment and attracted more clients, the results really started speaking for themselves.

There is something about a swinging implement, which includes Mace, Indian Clubs and Bulgarian Bags as well as kettlebells that just works.

Yes for maximal strength, barbells all the way.

Squats, Deadlifts, Olympic lift variants can be overloaded the most and with more careful increments with a barbell.

If we think in terms of energy systems, much of the Anaerobic work, the strength and power based training is maybe best done with a bar.

The other energy systems are where our kettlebell and the whole category of swinging / ballistic lifting tools live.

Getting that athletic, bouncy, “joined up” feeling, getting a back that is resilient and strong, an upper back you can see from space with the work capacity to match, swing stuff.

Right now, as the weather is so good, I am training with a Bulgarian Bag as it's soft and won't damage the sports field I use.

It does much of what the kettlebell does.

And my body is feeling amazing, much better than it has the past couple of years where I've mostly lifted bars.

It takes your strength and glues it all together, it adds a turbo and puts in a bigger fuel tank.

And, and this is important, it's fun!

When I did bodybuilding type training, it was dull. Granted I got bigger and stronger, but it wasn't that great for my movement and martial skills.

So kettlebells are about efficiency, about moving well and about covering as many bases as possible with the least amount of space or equipment,

And after training for a while with kettlebells and swinging implements, they leave you wondering if you actually could take that gorilla……

(You can't……but you can always wonder….)

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net

Is Hyrox Good For MMA Training?

“Can I use Hyrox training as conditioning work for my MMA?”

I forgot to note the name of the person who sent this.

But this is a repeat of 15 years ago wh3n people were asking the same about crossfit for MMA

In terms of the two formats, Hyrox and Crossfit, they are separate enough entities that the many comparisons between then are unfounded.

But the general premise of “can I use “X” as training for “Y” is a poor question.

Here's why.

We have this thing called the Internet and on it we can find out almost anything about anything.

We can look up what kind of training the top level people in our chosen pursuit undertake, hell, ChatGPT will even write you a program if you ask it to!

My point being, no one who successfully competes at a given sport does so by training as:

A Hyrox competitor

A Crossfit athlete

A powerlifter

An Olympic Lifter

A Kettlebell Sport Athlete

And so on and so forth.

Now, taking a Hrox or other conditioning based exercise class may be helpful to you.

It could be well structured and run and be quite motivating for you to attend.

It may even offer some conditioning benefits that are useful to you.

Does that make it optimal?

No

But if I'm honest, we don't always need optimal, sometimes we just need to show up, an exercise class may be the answer to that question.

Now, look at what Hyrox is. It's an endurance event.

So by its nature it is aerobic.

You need to operate for an hour or so at a high heart rate.

But then, your average MMA session is the same.

60+ minutes, mostly at a relatively high heart rate.

And it's doing the actual thing you want to be good at.

Which would carry more benefit there do you think?

So, for MMA training, we would want to focus get in 1-3 strength sessions.

Include plyos, jumps, throes, Olympic variants and maybe the power lifts.

You will want 1-2 pure aerobic sessions, maybe on the bike or mobility circuits done at conversation pace.

And 1-2 higher intensity type sessions that are pointed, directed to elicit particular outcomes.

Maybe cardiac power, maybe lactate tolerance, maybe aerobic threshold.

But most importantly, you need to train the sport.

And if I'm honest, a well trained combat sport athlete should be able to walk into a Hyrox event and do quite well with zero extra work.

I don't think the Hyrox athlete would do too well in a combat sport training event though..

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net

Running Alternatives for Boxers

“Hello Coach, I'm a boxer and still active, boxing in the heavyweight division.

I've had three operations on my right knee, on the outside of the mini-knee, and cartilage damage. I can no longer run intervals.

My question is, how can I still box if I can't run?

What exercises, circuits, or equipment can or should I use?

And how often should I use interval training as a substitute for my legs?

What's your advice for me as a big coach?

Best wishes,

Tan🥊”

Good question Tan, thanks for sending it in.

First, are you a boxer or are you a runner?

The reason I ask is to figure out what training you actually need to be doing.

A needs analysis if you like.

We know the answer, you said it in your question, you’re a boxer.

NOT a runner.

So why is this concern that you have to run even a question?

I've genuinely long wondered this. And the only answer I can reliably come up with is tradition.

Any other answer is easily debunked.

So why do boxers run?

They say it's for cardio

It's to train the legs

Truth is, yes leg endurance goes up and the aerobic system improves. But not in a manner that directly improves your boxing.

Aerobic development is a far wider topic that many realise when we start getting into the weeds of it.

But like most things fitness related, application is relatively simple.

Let me illustrate by talking about a gentleman who just started working with me recently post heart surgery.

He, obviously, cannot train intensely right now, too much blood pressure could damage the surgery site as it heals.

Plus, he has many other tightnesses, old injuries and what have you, normal stuff for a person of a certain age who has lived an active life.

So what we're doing is putting together circuits of exercises that will deal with his old issues while working at a pace guided by a heart rate monitor.

We call these aerobic circuits and they are wonderful for people with chronic injuries to use.

Aerobic, or cardiovascular fitness training is about efficiency of the heart, lungs and blood flow.

It's how efficiently we get the air in and out of our lungs

It's how efficiently the heart pumps the blood, both in terms of volume per pump and the power of each pump.

It's about how efficient the gas exchange is at each cell along the way.

It's not about running or any other specific exercise.

The bike, the rowing machine, swimming, circuits and rucking all make for great aerobic development activities.

We just have to monitor our intensity.

For stroke volume, we want to be in zone 2. Relatively low heart rate, so called conversation pace. You can talk easily at this intensity.

This low intensity load allows the heart time to fill up and experience a stretch before pumping the blood out, you increase the volume of blood moved per stroke

Any activity you can do for 30 minutes plus at this low intensity is good.

So shadow box, cycle, light kettlebell snatch, bodyweight moves, easy farmers walks. Whatever.

For lower body strength running isn't the best option.

OK, if we call hill sprints running, then yeah that's a great option.

For strength we need short intense bouts of work with extended rests.

So squats, box squats, split squats and lunges.

Deadlifts, cleans, high pulls.

Use barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, landmine attachments, sandbags, rocks, whatever.

Use the good old fashioned 3-5 method

3-5 reps for 3-5 sets. Idiot proof.

Between the low intensity work, especially if you use bodyweight movements to move in many ways, and the heavy lifting that takes care of most of the needs of the body.

Start each session with skipping and plyometrics and you ought to be fine.

If you want ideas for putting circuits together, get my WMD eBook available on both www.wg-fit.com and www.davehedges.net

W.M.D - Strength & Conditioning for Kickboxing

Buy Now

For a more detailed breakdown of training the entire spectrum of the aerobic system, Joel Jameson’s book MMA Conditioning is excellent if not exactly user friendly.

I believe he has subsequent work that is a bit more transparent for the layman.

Final thought to summarise

Traditions are great, but can be limiting. Especially when it comes to supplemental training for sports.

We have a good deal of sports science research to lean into. We can look at the training methods from a plethora of sports and take influence from them.

For example, the best footwork of any fighter I ever sparred was a lad who grew up playing basketball. One of the strongest kettlebell sport athletes I met had spent his life working as a scaffolder lifting steel poles over his head.

Success leaves clues

And looking outside your box helps you decide what tools to put in your box.

It's simple

Not easy

Great question.

If you have a question, please do not hesitate to send it in.

Chat soon

Dave

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.davehedges.net