RKC News - July 2016

Two training areas that complement each other wonderfully are the kettlebell and your own body weight. By combining these two areas in your training, you will find that you benefit from many synergies. The kettlebell makes you better at bodyweight training and vice versa.

In Hardstyle kettlebell training, we often work with hip extension, such as in the swing, clean, or snatch. We extend our hips to generate maximum power output. Therefore, it makes sense to incorporate exercises in training that are based on flexion to create a functionally antagonistic balance. Bodyweight training offers a good repertoire of exercises for this. One example is the L-sit. The advantage of this exercise is that it activates and strengthens our abdominal muscles. A strong core is essential when we want to perform ballistic exercises—especially with heavy weights.

You are capable of swinging heavy weights, but has there always been something missing for the exercise to feel really good? Start incorporating L-sits into your training!

Another example is the pistol. The pistol is generally a good indicator of your performance and mobility. It also shows you whether there are imbalances between your right and left sides. Do you work with heavy squats but are unable to perform a pistol? Then there’s something for you to work on from now on! The pistol gives you stability, core strength, strengthens your ankles, and promotes the mobility and stability of your spine. If you perform many pistols, you will also see the tremendous strength gain it brings to your heavy squats (e.g., front squats).

The list of effective exercises could now go on endlessly and be detailed further. The fact is that we should be able to change our training focus from time to time.

Especially when we reach a point where our training successes are noticeable or only moderately so. Start combining kettlebell and bodyweight exercises in your training or focus solely on bodyweight for a while. A good approach for this is the Progressive Calisthenics (PCC) principle from Dragon Door.

Segmental rolls over the upper and lower extremities can improve your Turkish Get Up if you perform them before your Get Up training? This way, you avoid the risk of getting into a crunch or sit-up position, instead rolling over to your elbow as standard.