Kettlebell Slow Strength : The Strength Kata : My Plan : How to Progress

 

     

Kettlebell Slow Strength

The Strength Kata : My Plan : How to Progress

By Adam Mundorf

Kettlebell Slow Strength

I am a huge believer in slow strength for safety, joint integrity, tendon and connective tissue health.  Many older lifters I have interviewed and paid money to train with have told me the same advice : embrace slow movements and throw away explosive training.  Having grown up in the kettlebell universe I've done my fair share of swings, cleans and snatches.  I'll be honest, they never made me feel all that great or put together.  My form was pristine and evaluated by Master instructors of both the RKC and StrongFirst.

This led me to question much of the advice of my kettlebell constituents.  I saw and heard many of my fellow lifters bitching about painful elbows, knees and sore hips.  They complained about impinged shoulders, sore lower backs and torn up hands.  They were all doing plenty of explosive kettlebell training through snatch tests, viking warrior conditioning and/or high volume swing programs.  It got even worse when a lot of the 'master' instructors were getting their joints replaced or worked on.  They would claim it's not from the explosive exercises, I call malarkey.  You can't trust a man when his salary depends on it and many of these people built their whole reputation upon ballistic exercises.  They sell books centered around it for Christ's sake.  

The Strength Kata

The get up is akin to a Kata in martial arts.  A slow and smooth connection of isolated movements when done in unison makes a complete form.  You start prone with a heavy weight above you, slowly stand up and reverse the movement back to the start.  Within these simple instructions are many strength lessons that can be explored and unpacked.  You learn lessons in tension, mobility, body awareness and strength.

I honestly don't see how you wouldn't.

Then we have the simple kettlebell deadlift.  The deadlift helps groove that vital hip hinge pattern.  It's not heavy (yet) or max effort but in my opinion, helps keep the ever so important skill of lifting things up off the floor alive.

You have a push (the get up) and a pull (the deadlift), a classic approach to building strength.

My Plan

• Warm-Up
• Joint Circles
• Toe Touch/Reach Overhead
• Stick Dislocates
• Turkish Get Up
• 5(1) Turkish Get Up
• Use one arm press to get the bell into the starting position and two hands to reverse back to the start.
• Single Kettlebell Deadlift
• 2(20) Single Kettlebell Deadlift
• Post Workout Active Flexibility
• Seated Twist Hold (20 Second Holds)(Various Regressions and Progressions)
• 5 Minute Squat Hold
• Passive Bar Hang
• Notes
• Use Chalk

How to Progress

• Progression
• Every 10 sessions move up in weight by 4 kg in one set.  Starting at set 2 work to 5 and then finish up with the set one.
• Once you reach the heavier weight in all your getup sets, move up to that weight with your deadlifts.
• Overtime I hope to reach 32kg Get Ups and hopefully one day 48kg (later on) but as with all things, it looks good on paper.  We'll see how it works out.

Thank you for reading!