What Should I do to.....

......get bigger, get smaller, get stronger, get faster...

Part of my presentation during workshops covers some basic ideas on program design and the document I handout has some information in it but I felt I should discuss it further so you can get a better idea of how to create workout programs using kettlebells and integrating kettlebells into any other activities, such as martial arts, you may be involved in.

In order to create a program you need to examine your goals (there's that pesky term again). Are you exercising to lose weight, get stronger, increase General Physical Preparedness (GPP) or training for Martial arts. Are you a police office or SWAT team member? A firefighter? Special Forces? Each of these area will have a some overlap in program design but there are also areas that need to be addressed to meet the unique requirements of those specialties. You also need to look at how much time you can devote to your training.

Workout Programs fall into thress ranges: fat loss & general fitness, strength building and mass building. With the last two there is some overlap especially for a person new to weight training.

Fat Loss & General Fitness (GPP) 

Typically using kettlebells for weight management or GPP we would look towards increasing the heart rate and using moderate to heavy weight to stimulate the metabolism which will cause the body to burn fat (assuming our caloric intake remains the same or ideally decreases a little) up to 36 hours after the workout.

High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT is the best approach and uses a work to rest ratio of anywhere from 1:1 up to 3:1  For example, doing swings hard and fast for 30 seconds and resting 10 and repeating for 4 to 5 minutes As your body adapts you can decrease the rest period to keep your body from adapting. This method also works well for general fitness as well. 

Another way to use HIIT would be in a circuit such as in AOS: Providence where you work hard for 2 minutes rest for 1 and then move to a different exercise.

Both ways work well and both require a lot of tenacity to stick with the work out (I never said it was going to be easy)

Strength 

For strength training you want to lift heavy weight and keep the reps low and the sets in the 3 to 5 range, using a set x rep scheme of 3x5, 5x5 or 5x3 or even multiple sets of 1 (for lifts that are 95-100% of your 1 RM) of various exercises. For example doing front squats or one-legged deadlifts with two 32k kbs for 3 sets of 5 reps (3X5), 5x5 or 5x3. Doing 3 sets of 5 means you aren't lifting as heavy (intensely) as if you did 5 sets of 3 assuming that the number of reps is the max (5RM or 3RM). You will get a bit more cardio response with 5x5 since you are working longer.

Another example is the use of moderate to heavy weights using a ladder scheme. A ladder is defined by the rungs and sets of these rungs make up the full ladder. Ladders can be ascending or descending. A 5 rung ascending ladder would be 1 rep, rest, then 2 reps, rest, 3 resp rest, 4reps rest, 5 reps. If we use a 1 arm military press we would do:

• 1 rep with the left arm, 1 rep with the right, 2 left, 2 right, 3 left, 3 right etc... typically you don't go higher than 5 rungs. A descending ladder is the reverse. Start with 5 left, 5 right, then 4 left, 4 right......1 left, 1 right. Usually I write this out as 1/2/3/4/5 for an ascending ladder or 5/4/3/2/1 for a descending ladder.

For a full program using ladders to increase upper body strength see Pavel's Enter the Kettlebell. It is a great program for anyone regardless of their strength levels or familiarity with kettlebells.

Building Mass 

To get bigger, we look towards the bodybuilding world and adopt/adapt some of their methods to stimulate hypertrophy or muscle growth. However, instead of focusing on body parts we will focus on whole body movements just as we do with other types of kettlebell training. Since it is generally accepted that lifting moderate (50 - 70% of your max weight for a particular lift) weight and in the range of 8 - 12 reps will stimulate muscle growth we will follow that same protocol. There's no point in re-inventing the wheel.

If you can front squat 2 24k kettlebells for 10 reps at a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 7 - 8 then you would typically do sets of 8 reps. Perhaps 5 sets of 8 (5x8). This gives us quite a bit of volume (40 reps) with enough weight to force the muscles to grow in order to adapt to the load. Keep in mind that to truly build mass you must increase your caloric intake to provide fuel for that growth. That doesn't mean you can eat crap. You need to stick to high quality proteins & fats and the increase should only be 100 - 200 calories

Mike Mahler has several programs designed to build mass as does Charles Staley with with his Escalating Density Training.

Integrating kettlebells with other sports 

For Martial Artists especially those that are primarily fighters looking to improve their overall conditioning we need to focus on circuit training as we did for weight management, however we need to increase the intensity a bit by increasing the work to rest ratio and cutting back on the number of exercises in the circuit.

Since the fighter's goal is getting better in his/her style their primary effort should be on training in that art with kettlebells work (or other tools) taking on a secondary but still important role. Therefore the fighter should spend most of his time fighting and perhaps 20 to 30 mins 3 to 4 times per week doing strength & conditioning work. That S&C work should be intense and should mimic the time frame of the bouts the fighter will be participating in, typically 5 or 6 minutes.

HIIT is a great way to approach conditioning for martial artists and most other sports as well since it mimics the burst/rest conditions found in most sports.

Another type of HIIT, called the Tabata method revolves around using a work to rest ratio of 2:1. The fighter would do 20 seconds of work followed by 10 secs of rest for 8 rounds (4mins) of one exercises. This particular work to rest ratio is named after the person who discovered it, Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., a former researcher at Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya, where he found this protocol maximizes the training of both the aerobic and anaerobic systems.

An example using kettlebells would be to set a timer for 4 minutes and do as many snatches as possible in 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, switch hands and repeat for 4 minutes. Its tougher than it sounds if you are really trying to do as many as possible. You could also do 2 handed swings with this method although it is tough to get very fast with swings. Squats, either with or without weight can be done too, or pushups, or sprints. Many exercises can be done using the Tabata protocol.

Don't go crazy with Tabatas. One or two 4 minute bouts with different exercises in each, say snatch and squat will be sufficient. Rest  for a few minute then follow up with longer work with swings or Long Cycle Clean & Jerks (See "The Best KB Exercise for Martial Artists " for more information). Doing this 3 to 4 times per week as part of your overall training program should help you maximize your aerobic and anaerobic systems.

FireFIghters, LEO, SWAT 

The HIIT principle can be used for LEO and firefighters as well, especially FireFighters who are under extreme stress for long periods of time. They have to be able to drag heavy hoses, move heavy ladders, climb stairs, chop down doors and carry people out of burning buildings and may have to keep at it for hours witout a rest. For them we would look at the same ratio but in terms of minutes rather than seconds, 2 minutes of work 1 minute of rest with varied exercises with kbs, sandbags and bodyweight to emulate the type of activiies they are expected to do. In some cases we may do 3, 4 or 5 different exercises back to back for 3,4 or 5 minutes with no rest, to push them even harder. Check out Anthony DiLuglio's Art of Strength:FirePower DVD or Tom Corrigan's KB Fire DVD for some excellent workouts geared towards fire fighters.

As you can see Program Design can get pretty involved as there are a lot of variables to consider. Following the K.I.S.S principle should be a priority when designing programs. Also more is not necessarily better.

If you would like help with creating a training program contact us: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments

Add New Search RSS

Write comment

Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Website: Title: UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge     Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.20

3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."