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Kettlebells for MMA Athletes
28 Feb 2010 4:12PM
Last week I had a company called Creating Chaos come in to the gym to do a workshop on kettlebells. It was a good session lasting about 90 minutes and we went through all the major kettlebell movements including the swing, clean, snatch, get-up and various others.
We had about 15 coaches down to the workshop from both sport specific and strength and conditioning backgrounds and it was well received all round I think.
Firstly, i have to say that I experienced severe DOMS in my hamstrings after the workshop...which is all good! And I was surprised that all the movements were taught and coached from a straight leg (very slight kneebend) position. I have performed swings and snatches with slightly more knee bend previously.
So....on to the workshop!
One of the major positives that people claim from using kettlebells is the metabolic effects and I would agree that this is an benefit of the training sessions you can do with the kettlebells. When performing swings and cleans within complexes you certainly experience a strong metabolic effect. Is this any more so than training with barbells and dumbells? Not really but the kettlebells are easier to use individually than having several pieces of equipment around you and I can see why people rave about using them for fat loss and general conditioning. When performing rep after rep you have the issue of performing rep after rep and the breakdown of technique. I think this is not such an issue with kettlebells as the movements are very easy to perform well which is certainly a positive however for novice trainers maintaining a good back position will be challenging and I would certainly not be doing dozens of reps straight out.
The individual lifts have their pro’s and cons just like any exercise. The swing is an excellent exercise for glute activation and general posterior chain work. The weight of the kettlebell obviously determines just how much you recruit these key muscles however my feeling is that you are not going to perform kettlebell swings with anywhere near the load required to build strength or power for sports that require strength-speed qualities such as rugby, MMA, and contact sports. I do think that the swing is an excellent warm-up exercise or would make a very good superset between power cleans, squats etc as a way of recruiting glutes just like I use hip lifts and bridges now. The swing would can also be effectively used for teaching hip extension to people who cannot extend their hips at all and at the earlier stages of training programmes therefore I think this exercise certainly has a place in a training programme.
The kettlebell clean i think is a strange movement which is actually less natural than barbell power cleans or hang cleans. The kettlebell inevitably bangs against your forearms and pulls on the wrist at the catch phase. You could argue that this is wrist conditioning etc but i don’t particularly like this aspect and I know that the athletes I work with would not like it at all! I have a hard enough time trying to get rugby players to do front squats due to their wrists being the limiting factor! With the snatch I think the same factors apply as the clean. Better with a dumbell and barbell in my opinion.
The Kettlebell get-up is a great movement which I would certainly use in my sessions as I currently use dumbells now. I don’t think there are any real advantages with using a kettlebell than a dumbell for this exercise though.
One of the key positives that Phil Wright from creating chaos stated was the elastic qualities that you can elicit from the kettlebells. In the downward phase of the swing for example you place the hamstrings on stretch and force a rapid contraction of the fibres, producing a more powerfull movement as a result. There is certainly a strong eccentric component to this movement, however whether it is more so that say a stiff legged deadlift to hang clean or alternatives Im not sure. With most athletes you need to take care of the 95% before you even think about the 5%. Get the foundations in place before you start to think about the icing on the cake! How many athletes do you work with who need to build basic athleticism? Forget the rest. Its amazing how much increased relative body strength will improve on all the physical factors, this is well known.
With that being said, can you build strength with Kettlebells?? In short, unlikely, with the exception being novice/untrained athletes. Unless you buy some seriously heavy kettlebells you aren’t going to experience the kind of forces required to develop even basic strength let alone maximum strength. You need to be pushing loads equivalent to 1-3RM for max strength and 4-6RM for basic strength (Rough Guide). To ignore this concept of force and velocity would be going against one of the fundamental principles of strength and conditioning and I guess this is my answer to those trainers who think you can do everything with a kettlebell! I would recommend heavy squats, deadlifts, presses and pulls to build strength.
Power gains are more achievable with kettlebells and specifically speed-strength as opposed to strength-speed due to the loadings imposed, so perhaps there are better choices for sports that require strength-speed such as MMA. Power cleans, bench throws, jump squats, high pulls, specific med ball throws etc spring to mind.
So the key question remains would I go out and order a bunch of kettlebells for my athletes? Well I think there are enough positives to justify the purchase and will be ordering some in the near future. And forgetting all the pro’s and con’s of the specific movements and the science behind the training, the most important positive of all is the introduction of VARIATION into the programme. You really cannot overlook this. I can see my athletes really enjoying training with kettlebells right from young athletes I work with up to my professional athletes and myself too!
Bottom line..kettlebells are not the answer to all your training needs and never will be but they are a nice alternative to some of the stuff most of us do now and should not be overlooked in this capacity.
If your interested in the creating chaos qualification courses or would like them to do a workshop at your facility check out their website here.
The owners Phil and Jenny are really nice people and I would encourage you speaking with them about anything kettlebell related.
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