Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Turkish Get-Ups
Turkish Get-Ups are a great full body exercise. They teach alignment, rooting, shoulder stability and seamless coordination while developing overall strength. I believe TGUs were created for Turkish wrestlers to learn to get up from their backs. You may not be doing any Turkish wrestling but you should find this exercise very helpful. A great exercise for strength development and rehab.
The basic premise of a TGU is to get up from laying on your back while holding resistance (a kettlebell) with your arm locked overhead (towards the sky). We break the exercise down into it's various components for the sake of learning and trouble shooting but again, not an exercise to be over thought. In fact in general I prefer to do most of my technical thought pre or post exercise enabling me to focus in a more aware meditative state while actually exercising (although training often requires quick thinking).
Begin the exercise laying on your back. Raise one arm overhead, perpendicular to the ground with the elbow locked. Bend the leg on the same side as the raised arm placing the sole of the foot on the ground. Drive the weight up towards the sky straightening the non-weighted arm against the ground. Transition your feet and legs into a lunge position keeping the weight perpendicular to the ground. At this point your stance should be rooted in a strong lunge position, your posture should be tall and natural with your chest coming slightly forward rooting your arm into the latissimus dorsi muscles letting the weight sit slightly back over the hips. With proper alignment you should feel rooted directly into the ground. From here maintain strong abs while driving up from the legs into a standing position. Reverse the motion by stepping back with a reverse lunge, carefully finding the ground with your knee, then hand, then hip, rolling down until laying on your back again.
1. You may find it difficult to keep your shoulder connected to your body while locking your elbow. Tighten your tricep to lock your elbow. Visualize energy coming up from the elbow into the bell and down from the elbow into your shoulder. Tighten your lat to pull your shoulder in. Feel your lat connect to your obliques and core forming one big muscle. Extend the non-weighted hand to your side at about a 45degree angle. Too close to your body and it doesn't provide any additional leverage. Too far from your body and the arm is disconnected and unstable. Your movements should be smooth and seamless but to break it down think about rolling up your non-weighted tricep to your elbow. Then roll up your forearm to your extended hand.
2. Now you have a leg bent and a leg straight and you are sitting up with the weight overhead and your other arm extended against the floor. The weighted side leg is going to step forward becoming the front leg of a strong lunge position. The opposite leg is repositioned with the knee on the floor becoming the back leg of a strong lunge. This transition should be smooth and strong minimizing excess movement. The weight should remain rooted. The common tendency is to push the weight forward because of lack of mobility in the shoulder making the optimal alignment a difficult position to maintain. Understand the difference of difficulty from improper technique and difficulty from proper training. Technically, if you can do something with bad technique, you can do something even more powerfully with good technique. That is good news. Continue active release and mobility exercises and millimeter by millimeter strive for better alignment in your practice.
3. Keep your balance, stay rooted and drive up from your legs. Bring your feet together and stand up tall with your feet and shoulder rooted, elbow locked, weight over the hips, chest slightly forward, legs locked. Reverse the motion by stepping back confidently and finding the ground with your knee. Keep your shoulder rooted and reach down to find the ground with your non-weighted hand. Shift the rear lunge leg in front of you as you take a seat so you can lay down to finish the motion. Roll down the non-weighted arm using your core muscles for control.
Finer points:
1. Protect your shoulder as you bring the bell from your side to the prone rack position. Roll towards the bell and use two hands to pull it into the rack.
2. This exercise is very much about alignment. Even the lightest weight I can only hold in front front of me for so long. When the weight falls off it's root line small muscles start overworking and joints start fatiguing and disconnecting. Keep your peripheral vision on the weight and make sure it stays rooted. Instead of feeling the weight in my hand, I send the energy to my lats, hips, legs and feet.
3. This exercise is all about transitions. Take the time to practice them making them nice and smooth.
4. The exercise is much less exhausting when you have the stability of rooting through your feet. By beginning with this strong foundation much of the other alignment issues will self correct.
5. You are only as strong as your weakest link. Make sure the bell is positioned low in the palm. People tend to hold the bell at the base of the fingers which bends the wrist back throwing off the bodies alignment.
6. Although holding your breath may give you more strength on certain powerlifts, TGU repetitions take too long for breath holding. Also be careful to avoid the pendulum tension and relaxation curve of deep breathing. Breath from your diaphragm but make sure your breathing is smooth. This will make 5 sets of 5 repetitions seem easier than one repetition with improper breathing.
7. You don't have to be too linear. There are a lot of angles and levers in this motion. If you come straight up you will be developing good absolute strength. Good thing to practice when your KB is feeling light and you want to work up to a heavier weight. But if you want to make a heavy weight feel lighter, use the available levers to cut the angles to your advantage. Use your obliques and roll to your side as you smoothly get up. This is a more natural way to attempt getting up, especially in combat sports (See also: life) where the resistance is active and significant.
Extra safety points:
1. Watch your footing. Work bare foot or with shoes that have a solid sole. A slightly cushy mat may force you to use your stabilizer muscles a bit more but the exercise will be more difficult with added dangers of acute mishap or prolonged overuse injuries. Make sure floors aren't too slippery and make sure not to trip on your mat. Mat, soft surface or knee pad is used to protect the knee during the lunge.
2. Keep at least your peripheral vision on the bell and stay focused. Don't look into the sun =)
3. Have confidence in your lift. Some exercises, like the deadlift for instance, if I maintain proper form, I can attempt a lift beyond my Personal Record and worse comes to worst the weight simply doesn't move. With TGUs if the weight is too heavy for me, I potentially drop it on my face. Therefore I don't attempt this exercise with maximum weights. Use your practice and judgment to be 100% confident in the TGU you're performing (See also: Bailout gracefully or if you're going to be stupid, you better be tough).
The basic premise of a TGU is to get up from laying on your back while holding resistance (a kettlebell) with your arm locked overhead (towards the sky). We break the exercise down into it's various components for the sake of learning and trouble shooting but again, not an exercise to be over thought. In fact in general I prefer to do most of my technical thought pre or post exercise enabling me to focus in a more aware meditative state while actually exercising (although training often requires quick thinking).
Begin the exercise laying on your back. Raise one arm overhead, perpendicular to the ground with the elbow locked. Bend the leg on the same side as the raised arm placing the sole of the foot on the ground. Drive the weight up towards the sky straightening the non-weighted arm against the ground. Transition your feet and legs into a lunge position keeping the weight perpendicular to the ground. At this point your stance should be rooted in a strong lunge position, your posture should be tall and natural with your chest coming slightly forward rooting your arm into the latissimus dorsi muscles letting the weight sit slightly back over the hips. With proper alignment you should feel rooted directly into the ground. From here maintain strong abs while driving up from the legs into a standing position. Reverse the motion by stepping back with a reverse lunge, carefully finding the ground with your knee, then hand, then hip, rolling down until laying on your back again.
1. You may find it difficult to keep your shoulder connected to your body while locking your elbow. Tighten your tricep to lock your elbow. Visualize energy coming up from the elbow into the bell and down from the elbow into your shoulder. Tighten your lat to pull your shoulder in. Feel your lat connect to your obliques and core forming one big muscle. Extend the non-weighted hand to your side at about a 45degree angle. Too close to your body and it doesn't provide any additional leverage. Too far from your body and the arm is disconnected and unstable. Your movements should be smooth and seamless but to break it down think about rolling up your non-weighted tricep to your elbow. Then roll up your forearm to your extended hand.
2. Now you have a leg bent and a leg straight and you are sitting up with the weight overhead and your other arm extended against the floor. The weighted side leg is going to step forward becoming the front leg of a strong lunge position. The opposite leg is repositioned with the knee on the floor becoming the back leg of a strong lunge. This transition should be smooth and strong minimizing excess movement. The weight should remain rooted. The common tendency is to push the weight forward because of lack of mobility in the shoulder making the optimal alignment a difficult position to maintain. Understand the difference of difficulty from improper technique and difficulty from proper training. Technically, if you can do something with bad technique, you can do something even more powerfully with good technique. That is good news. Continue active release and mobility exercises and millimeter by millimeter strive for better alignment in your practice.
3. Keep your balance, stay rooted and drive up from your legs. Bring your feet together and stand up tall with your feet and shoulder rooted, elbow locked, weight over the hips, chest slightly forward, legs locked. Reverse the motion by stepping back confidently and finding the ground with your knee. Keep your shoulder rooted and reach down to find the ground with your non-weighted hand. Shift the rear lunge leg in front of you as you take a seat so you can lay down to finish the motion. Roll down the non-weighted arm using your core muscles for control.
Finer points:
1. Protect your shoulder as you bring the bell from your side to the prone rack position. Roll towards the bell and use two hands to pull it into the rack.
2. This exercise is very much about alignment. Even the lightest weight I can only hold in front front of me for so long. When the weight falls off it's root line small muscles start overworking and joints start fatiguing and disconnecting. Keep your peripheral vision on the weight and make sure it stays rooted. Instead of feeling the weight in my hand, I send the energy to my lats, hips, legs and feet.
3. This exercise is all about transitions. Take the time to practice them making them nice and smooth.
4. The exercise is much less exhausting when you have the stability of rooting through your feet. By beginning with this strong foundation much of the other alignment issues will self correct.
5. You are only as strong as your weakest link. Make sure the bell is positioned low in the palm. People tend to hold the bell at the base of the fingers which bends the wrist back throwing off the bodies alignment.
6. Although holding your breath may give you more strength on certain powerlifts, TGU repetitions take too long for breath holding. Also be careful to avoid the pendulum tension and relaxation curve of deep breathing. Breath from your diaphragm but make sure your breathing is smooth. This will make 5 sets of 5 repetitions seem easier than one repetition with improper breathing.
7. You don't have to be too linear. There are a lot of angles and levers in this motion. If you come straight up you will be developing good absolute strength. Good thing to practice when your KB is feeling light and you want to work up to a heavier weight. But if you want to make a heavy weight feel lighter, use the available levers to cut the angles to your advantage. Use your obliques and roll to your side as you smoothly get up. This is a more natural way to attempt getting up, especially in combat sports (See also: life) where the resistance is active and significant.
Extra safety points:
1. Watch your footing. Work bare foot or with shoes that have a solid sole. A slightly cushy mat may force you to use your stabilizer muscles a bit more but the exercise will be more difficult with added dangers of acute mishap or prolonged overuse injuries. Make sure floors aren't too slippery and make sure not to trip on your mat. Mat, soft surface or knee pad is used to protect the knee during the lunge.
2. Keep at least your peripheral vision on the bell and stay focused. Don't look into the sun =)
3. Have confidence in your lift. Some exercises, like the deadlift for instance, if I maintain proper form, I can attempt a lift beyond my Personal Record and worse comes to worst the weight simply doesn't move. With TGUs if the weight is too heavy for me, I potentially drop it on my face. Therefore I don't attempt this exercise with maximum weights. Use your practice and judgment to be 100% confident in the TGU you're performing (See also: Bailout gracefully or if you're going to be stupid, you better be tough).
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Swings
Swings are a phenomenal exercise teaching coordination while building strength and developing cardiovascular ability.
Although not a kettlebell sport competition lift, many programs have been based around swings alone and swings generally provide great warm up and cool down benefits.
I would like to think I've done at least a million swings over the last 5 years and there is still always room for progress and improvement. We use tips and rules of thumb to keep our practice directed and focused but don't get lost in the details of the swing. I find the best benefits are obtained when I use a technical point as a direction as supposed to a source of anxiety. My primary focus with swings and training in general is simply flow (http://kogagreg.blogspot.com/2009/03/centering-for-training-101.html ). Sometimes I visualize electricity or energy flowing as I listen to my body so I can make the appropriate minute adjustments. It's important for the swing to be natural as supposed to mechanical. This is a dynamic movement controlling momentum.
1. Grip - Grab the bell in your palm connecting your thumb and index finger around the handle like you're giving the okay sign. These are called the hooks. By having a strong connection between those two fingers, the rest of the hand is able to relax more throughout the exercise avoiding premature fatigue (grip is often the first thing to go with many KB exercises).
2. Stance - Make sure you lift the bell properly from the ground as you stand up to begin. Many gym injuries happen from improper alignment as trainees simply move weights into position before they apply the technique and focus of the actual exercise. Start strong, finish strong, and you'll encounter less mystery problems. Stand up nice and tall with the bell between your legs. Shoulders are back, chest is out, knee and hip joints are locked straight without flexed bend or hyper-extension. This will be the basic torso alignment at the top of the swing.
3. Swing - Sit back (rather than down) like you're reaching to sit on a distant chair. Swing the bell behind you through your legs as though you're hiking a football. Catch the energy of the weight in your glutes and hamstrings as supposed to your back. Then, keeping the arm relaxed like a chain, let the weight swing forward naturally as you push your legs through the ground (root your feet, drive through your heels), returning your hips to the upright position. That is one repetition.
Your swing should form a nice arc. Energy should be going down through your feet and directly into the bell. Energy should not be leaking from anywhere in the chain causing a jagged energy pattern. It also should not look too much like a wave. The weight should move like a smooth pendulum pivoting around your body.
Finer points and common problems:
1. Using primarily arm strength - This problem can be identified by simply seeing excess tension in the arms, the trainee will appear like they're flexing. It can also be seen if the student is moving the weight without their hips or body moving. Perhaps more subtle but common is when the student is unable to coordinate the flow of the swing but mimics the action by moving the arms and the hips at the same time. It will look very mechanical and excessively stiff. Relax your arms and try to push the bell from your feet instead of pulling it with your arms.
2. Letting the knees dip excessively forward - Knees will be seen coming forward, sometimes past the toes. This often comes with hips sitting down instead of back and weight on the toes instead of the heels. This can put strain on the knees and the hamstrings will not be at their proper length to load properly. I visualize that I am in ski boots or cement boots and that I cannot move from my knee down. I see even top competitors allow their knees to come forward slightly and you don't want to force any motion to the point where it becomes mechanical and no longer natural but my goal is to keep my shins vertical so my hamstrings can do their job.
3. Using the back to swing instead of the legs - An acute bend will be seen in the spine at some point along the swing instead of a longer natural posture. Another symptom is back pain. Use your legs instead of your back. Think about pushing through the feet. Perhaps sit back more to let the hamstrings load. When you jump do you lift from your back or do you push through your legs off your feet? Think about that coordination. Now apply in your swing. Do not get air but use your legs.
4. Lack of mobility - The problems listed above and many athletic problems are the result of poor alignment or lack of mobility. Your body may simply not be capable of getting into the desired position without some restructuring. Practice everything from poor-mans joint mobility to more advanced yogic or qigong practices to regain your range of motion. Develop your strength with body weight exercises and seek healing methods like massage and acupuncture to free up energy congestion to resume your natural flow.
Although not a kettlebell sport competition lift, many programs have been based around swings alone and swings generally provide great warm up and cool down benefits.
I would like to think I've done at least a million swings over the last 5 years and there is still always room for progress and improvement. We use tips and rules of thumb to keep our practice directed and focused but don't get lost in the details of the swing. I find the best benefits are obtained when I use a technical point as a direction as supposed to a source of anxiety. My primary focus with swings and training in general is simply flow (http://kogagreg.blogspot.com/2009/03/centering-for-training-101.html ). Sometimes I visualize electricity or energy flowing as I listen to my body so I can make the appropriate minute adjustments. It's important for the swing to be natural as supposed to mechanical. This is a dynamic movement controlling momentum.
1. Grip - Grab the bell in your palm connecting your thumb and index finger around the handle like you're giving the okay sign. These are called the hooks. By having a strong connection between those two fingers, the rest of the hand is able to relax more throughout the exercise avoiding premature fatigue (grip is often the first thing to go with many KB exercises).
2. Stance - Make sure you lift the bell properly from the ground as you stand up to begin. Many gym injuries happen from improper alignment as trainees simply move weights into position before they apply the technique and focus of the actual exercise. Start strong, finish strong, and you'll encounter less mystery problems. Stand up nice and tall with the bell between your legs. Shoulders are back, chest is out, knee and hip joints are locked straight without flexed bend or hyper-extension. This will be the basic torso alignment at the top of the swing.
3. Swing - Sit back (rather than down) like you're reaching to sit on a distant chair. Swing the bell behind you through your legs as though you're hiking a football. Catch the energy of the weight in your glutes and hamstrings as supposed to your back. Then, keeping the arm relaxed like a chain, let the weight swing forward naturally as you push your legs through the ground (root your feet, drive through your heels), returning your hips to the upright position. That is one repetition.
Your swing should form a nice arc. Energy should be going down through your feet and directly into the bell. Energy should not be leaking from anywhere in the chain causing a jagged energy pattern. It also should not look too much like a wave. The weight should move like a smooth pendulum pivoting around your body.
Finer points and common problems:
1. Using primarily arm strength - This problem can be identified by simply seeing excess tension in the arms, the trainee will appear like they're flexing. It can also be seen if the student is moving the weight without their hips or body moving. Perhaps more subtle but common is when the student is unable to coordinate the flow of the swing but mimics the action by moving the arms and the hips at the same time. It will look very mechanical and excessively stiff. Relax your arms and try to push the bell from your feet instead of pulling it with your arms.
2. Letting the knees dip excessively forward - Knees will be seen coming forward, sometimes past the toes. This often comes with hips sitting down instead of back and weight on the toes instead of the heels. This can put strain on the knees and the hamstrings will not be at their proper length to load properly. I visualize that I am in ski boots or cement boots and that I cannot move from my knee down. I see even top competitors allow their knees to come forward slightly and you don't want to force any motion to the point where it becomes mechanical and no longer natural but my goal is to keep my shins vertical so my hamstrings can do their job.
3. Using the back to swing instead of the legs - An acute bend will be seen in the spine at some point along the swing instead of a longer natural posture. Another symptom is back pain. Use your legs instead of your back. Think about pushing through the feet. Perhaps sit back more to let the hamstrings load. When you jump do you lift from your back or do you push through your legs off your feet? Think about that coordination. Now apply in your swing. Do not get air but use your legs.
4. Lack of mobility - The problems listed above and many athletic problems are the result of poor alignment or lack of mobility. Your body may simply not be capable of getting into the desired position without some restructuring. Practice everything from poor-mans joint mobility to more advanced yogic or qigong practices to regain your range of motion. Develop your strength with body weight exercises and seek healing methods like massage and acupuncture to free up energy congestion to resume your natural flow.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)