Kettlebell Training

[Jeff Bussey]

Jello,
Anyone out there have any kettlebell training experience they'd like to share?
There's an instructor here in Ottawa and I'm going to go through a training session with him this Sat. so I can post the outcome of it and what I think but just curious if anyone has anything they'd like to share.

J

[old jong]

Jello,

Jello?....
:confused: I know about girls fighting in Jello!...;)

[Jeff Bussey]

Man,
Montreal has everything

J

[old jong]

I don't know much about these things but they seem to be effective for strengh training. You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
Strengh is always a nice thing to have,even if good Wing Chun doesn't really it. (IMO) There are circumstances where just being strong is a good asset. ;)

[Jeff Bussey]

Ya that's what I've heard. They're expensive, but from what I gather, you use them for full body workouts so when you think of it, having only a few KB's will probably be all you really need.
I'm interested in checking it out.

J

[Vajramusti]

Andre S. on this list knows a lot about kettlebell usage.

[Jeff Bussey]

Thanks,
Hopefully he'll see this thread and want to post something.

J

[Vajramusti]

Kenwingjutsu trains with him and might say something.
Ernie possibly too- since he has worked out with both.

[Matrix]

Originally posted by Jeff Bussey
There's an instructor here in Ottawa and I'm going to go through a training session with him this Sat.

Jeff,
Would you mind giving details? Who and where, etc.

Thanks,

[Toby]

Some of the training forum guys use them and are happy with them. Bear in mind that for the same price you can probably get a heavy Olympic setup. A bit more and you'll get a nice power rack too.

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey Bill,
Ya, the instructor in Ottawa is Ed Hum and bellow has his contact info:

http://www.superherostrength.com/pages/1/page1.htm?refresh=1091910450277

Actually Rene Ritchie gave me contact info for a guy in Montreal named Shawn Mozen, here's his site:

http://www.agatsu.com/Pictures/default.asp?iChannel=3&nChannel=Pictures

Basically for 20lbs - $130, 35lbs - $140 and so on. At least there's no shipping and handling charges.
I think Ed teaches Birkham yoga at the Rama Lotus Centre here as well.
As for meeting him, he seems flexible for locations.

I can't wait to check it out

J

[Jeff Bussey]

Some of the training forum guys use them and are happy with them
Thanks for the info, I'll check it out.


Bear in mind that for the same price you can probably get a heavy Olympic setup. A bit more and you'll get a nice power rack too.
Ya, one of the things that I really like about these guys is that they take up no space at all.

J

[Toby]

Two guys in particular spring to mind - fa_jing and Ford Prefect. fa_jing visits occasionally these days. Ford is inactive but you could send him a PM (tell him I sent you). He was the most informed member of the training forum on pretty much everything. What he doesn't know isn't worth knowing.

You could also search the training forum. Kettlebells get mentioned every month or so.

[Matrix]

Jeff,

Very cool. Thanks for the info.
I'd appreciate it if you would send me your impressions on your Saturday session.
You can send me a Private Message through the link in my profile, if you'd rather not post publicly.

Thanks

[Jeff Bussey]

I'll search the forum for sure.
Thanks for the info

J

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey Bill,
For sure I'll let you know what I thought, I was thinking of posting my impressions in this thread.

I can only afford one KB right now so that may limit the exercises but I think there's still a ton you can do with one.

I'll definitely let you know

J

[Toby]

You may also like to check out http://www.dragondoor.com and maybe buy Pavel's book on KB training. Ignore all his marketing bull**** though. I don't have that book, but I've got a few of his others. They're expensive and most of the information is available online, but they're IMHO worth it. Also, the dragondoor forums will be full of guys who lift KBs.

Save up for 2 KBs. That way you can do snatches and clean and jerks. Those are the two exercises I'd be most interested in with KBs.

[AndrewS]

Kettlebells-

I've posted a couple of writeups here. Search under my name and you should be able to find them.

They're useful and make an excellent workout. Between kettlebells and bodyweight exercises you can come up with an excellent training approach, possibly the only one you'll ever need.

I did exclusively kettlebell work for about nine months, and have used them for fight cardio training.

You'll get a good grip from the thick handles.

Slow lifts (grinds) listed in a number of places- the best being Pavel's book and videos, IME- are excellent for stabilizer strength.

The fixed weights force you to change your lift type and number to milk the weight. Single arm military press too easy at 36lbs- go try a Sots press (squat ATH and press the bell out overhead). Windmills easy? Try a bent press.

The ballistic lifts are excellent for developing striking and throwing power, as well as general speed-strength-endurance, and fat loss.

A lot of the k-bell stuff can be done with dumbells, but the k-bells don't trash out your wrists (by spinning) or gash up your body too badly.

Later,

Andrew

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey AndrewS,
I'll have a better idea of what these excercises are like on Sat but your input is much appreciated. For some reason the look of them makes me wanna train. Weird?
I'll definitely do a search on your name.

Between kettlebells and bodyweight exercises you can come up with an excellent training approach,
That's so funny that you say that, cause that was exactly my plan. I use to do a lot of body weight training and I can't wait to get back into it.
My wife and I are buying our first home so I'm going to claim a section of the basement right off the bat for my training.
WHOO AHH!

Thanks again,

J

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey Toby,

Save up for 2 KBs. That way you can do snatches and clean and jerks. Those are the two exercises I'd be most interested in with KBs.
Ya, I will eventually get 2 cause I saw some really cool exercises money is just tight. Maybe if I sell my teeth to the tooth fairy....
@ $0.25 a tooth, I'll need 5600 teeth any donors?

:D :D :D :D

J

[Matrix]

Originally posted by Jeff Bussey
I'll definitely let you know Jeff,
Thanks, I'd appreciate that.
*Bill

[AndrewS]

Hi Jeff,

>I'll have a better idea of what these excercises are like on Sat >but your input is much appreciated. For some reason the look of >them makes me wanna train. Weird?

For some reason k-bells are easy to fall in love with- they're very primal, more so than dumbells, IME.

I found them while looking for something that would achieve similar conditioning results to oversized weapons, which, from what I can tell, are among the conditiong secrets of CMA (i.e. spear in Baji, Xing Yi, and Chen taiji, long dao in Ba Gau). As I learn more about long pole, I realize they aren't entirely the same thing, but can be used to excellent effect, and have their own merits.

I would strongly recommend working your bent press and windmills to death. The hip abductors get a very nice stretch with these lifts, and are recruited pretty heavily from what I can tell. These are almost invariably tight in Wing Chun practioners who've spent time developing the stance and use the YGKM, and tend to cause some nasty referred back pain.

Later,

Andrew

[Jeff Bussey]

Hey everyone,
Yesterday I went to a KB session and I loved it. My a$$ and hamstrings are really sore this morning. Like I said before, the instructor is Ed Hum here in Ottawa and he brought several different KB sizes. I bought a 35lb (known as 1 pood), he also had a 53lb but that was too heavy for most of the exercises for me. We went to a park close by and just started.
First he showed us some warm ups:

-First he mentioned that you should be doing this in either bare feet or flat soled shoes with no arch support so that the majority of your foot touches the ground

-We started with pretty much everything I’ve done in ving tsun to stretch/loosen my neck, shoulders, back and legs

-Jumping forward and out from standing position. Basically if you’re standing straight up, jump up and forward pushing your hips out and spreading your hands and feet. This is supposed to loosen up your hips and pelvis for the thrusting that you do when you swing the KB

-Jumping up and out from lying down on the ground. Same as above except your on the ground first and this one is harder

-Then we went through some of the basic exercises without the KB

-Finally some proper breathing

Now we were ready to start some of the exercises.
To get and idea of what they look like, here’s a website that shows the majority of what we did http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kettlename.php

This is how it went:

-Two leg bends
-One leg bends
-Two arm swing
-One arm swing
-Clean
-Clean and Jerk
-Snatch
-Turkish get ups
-Windmill
-Rolling abs
-Chest Flyes on a swiss ball
-Overhead extensions with a swiss ball
-Bottoms-up clean and press
-Dragon walk which really hurt.
Essentially, if you think of doing walking lunges, it’s kinda like that. Left foot goes forward, right knee comes down (about 2 inches off the ground) and right behind the left foot so it’s not deep stepping plus when your knee comes down you are aiming to go towards the outside of the left foot so your knee is crossing the front foot. Stand up straight and repeat. Not sure if that sounds confusing or not. Obviously we were doing this while holding a KB and we didn’t go too far. We walked about 30 feet, turned around and walked back, but man I just made it back.

Then, without rest we did this drill which was awesome, we did 10 two arm swings, and then ran to one end of the field and back. We did this 3 times and right about then is when I died.
Going from the dragon walk to that, literally almost killed me but it was so fun. We only trained for an hour but that was more than enough.



So after all of that, how will this help my ving tsun, I don’t know.
One thing is for sure, it’ll build up my legs and core (hips and abs), plus like any other resistance training give me some overall strength. Only time will tell, but either way, I loved it. :D

The only thing that I would say is that if you were to get one, I would definitely get and instructor to show you the basic movements. You could really hurt yourself if you don't do it properly. I paid $50 for an hour but I think it was worth it to know that I have the proper technique.

J