“..Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile…” Abu Bakr
I recommend this link.
http://www.strongerman.com/
I am not an affiliate, nor have I commercial interests in this site. The guy behind it has some useful instructional quick videos on various Kettle bell based conditioning workouts – basically just working the ever so humble swing.
Myself, I’m more of a fan of the AKC tradition – authentic Girevoy sport – style of lifting. However the RKC “Hardstyle” – which Girevoy sport purists always take pains to emphasize is not “real” kettlebell lifting – does have its real uses, in particular it’s a great conditioning tool, though not very gentle for extremely high repetition lifting.
What’s illustrated, by the gentleman at the above linked site, are typical “hard style” swings – which again, though are not quite authentic Eastern European Girevoy Sport lifting, are a form of kettlebell lifting with many advantages.
If you have an AKC certified coach in your area do make the effort to pay for at least a couple of sessions of coaching, the style of Kettle bell lifting taught by the AKC is traditional Girevoy sport lifting, which involves among other things high volumes of timed sets lifted for time, not exactly reps, e.g. you are lifting at a rate of x reps per minute per Y minutes, not just “50 reps”.
Russian style Girevoy sport is a competitive sport style of lifting and should not be underestimated by any means, it confers superb conditioning, it is also what the entire world pretty much seems to mean by “Kettlebell lifting.
The RKC “hard style” seems favored by American combat artists, and should not be underestimated. The RKC approach taught by Pavel Tsatsoline is a hybrid, no doubt, of tradtional Russian Girevoy lifting with insights gained from other branches of sports and medicine.
The polemics between both camps seem rather silly, and it’s interesting to note that Pavel Tsatsoline himself is always extremely deferential and humble in reference to lifters like Valery Fedorenko. This is professionalism.
Though by no means an expert, nor an athlete by any stretch, my personal experiences have brought me beneficial results either way. I will say that getting some coaching in Girevoy sport style lifting enabled me to work much higher rep sets with much less lower back pain. I support the AKC’s attempts to spread the art and science of girevoy lifting in America and think that anyone out there seeking their coaches will get a good solid foundation of safe and effective lifting principles.
General advice, it’s good to use lower poundage bells in high rep sets. If you intend on churning out 500 reps a day and are not built like the guy in this video don’t be ashamed to use a 16 or even 12 kg bell, you would be shocked at how effective of a conditioning workout you can get with lighter bells in good form with massive sets.
You want to work your way up to higher volumes of lifting, if you can’t lift in correct form a certain weight for a real length of time don’t just up the pounds because “I’m a real man dude, I can lift a 45 pound ball”
Also to be noted the AKC coach I ran into, at least, emphasized to me that Swings really aren’t the essence, snatches and jerks done to time are, swings in eyes seem to be more of a warm-up type of exercise. In the RKC approach high volumes of swings are deliberately cultivated as conditioning tools with a harder style of breath control and muscular tension.
Both actually have their advantages, the advantages of the AKC approach are more subtle and someone used the the RKC approach may not fully see them.
The right tool for the right task, anything else becomes fanaticism. Gain the knowledge and put it into action in a way relevant to your life and circumstance.
But cultivate the knowledge, and gain it from those who have it. Books and videos can only take you so far.
Then practice what you have learned. It’s the same thing with everything in life.
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