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If you’re a grappler I think all of these should be a staple in your S&C program. Heavy compound movements along with these tools for conditioning would be great for any wrestler, BJJ or Judo practitioner
I fell in love with Indian clubs post shoulder surgery. I lost a lot of mobility and using a very light weight with a very large range of motion helped me recover strength and in what I would call tough to reach places. Now they stay in my programing as a form of prehab. I don’t think they help my pressing much but 15 minutes a session is a small price to pay to have a healthier shoulder.
Using a macebell fixed the inward rotation and instability of my shoulders and helped my elbow tendonitis a lot. Swinging a macebell is kind of meditative, too. I can't speak to its utility for athletes, but it's been great for me.
I could see some accessory work with macebell s having athletic carryover. Having to control the eccentric portion of a twisting motion/exercise, like a drop step lunge with a twist with the maces weight far from the body, could be good for grappling or hockey players
I would like to preface this(pun intended) by saying that I'm not an athlete, just a guy who likes to lift weights several times a week. Reasons I prefer KBs, heavy clubs and mace over barbell. - Economical reasons. With an adjustable kettlebell you get 16kg-32kg weights with one kettlebell. I can train with them on a mat 2x2 meters in my 5th floor apartment. Get two of those for around 600 euros total so you can include double KB exercises like front squat and you get a nearly infinite program. - Cross body stabilization. Doing clean and press with one KB forces your core to fire on the other side. - Absolute strength is a great goal, I just don't care that much for it. Most of the activities in my life for which I train for are strength endurance activities, not absolute strength. Most of the time I need to lift something which is 20% of my one rep max for one hundred reps, instead of lifting something which is 90% of my one rep max for 3 reps. - Maces and heavy clubs are just cool. My shoulders feel great. With them you're also adding rotation into your movements. Is this the most optimized program? Probably not. Would like to also switch to barbells a little bit to see the difference.
I think the biggest advantage of all these different things is the ability to move dynamically in positions you wouldn't normally be able to load or reach with typical means. I recall reading about the Bulgarian bags being really good for shoulder health.
Great video lads, and completely agree. I got kettlebells at the start of 2020, as I wasn't able to go to the gym until mid 2021, and I live in a top floor apartment. I progressed my kb lifts massively over that time. First time back in the gym I was at 90% of my maxes of when corona popped up. So I hadn't progressed, but it was better than losing everything. Now that I can, it's barbells as the main driver, but kettlebells to add a bit of flavor now and then. So I'm glad I did it, but you can't beat an actual barbell.
Late to the party on this, but for anything kettlebell-orientated I always point people to Dan John and how he incorporates them. Or Geoff Neupert. Both of these guys have an Olympic lifting background and have a blend of barbells and kettlebells in their programming. For getting crazy strong with odd objects I'd point people toward Ross Enamait (Katie Taylors coach) the guy hasn't put anything new out in ages but he's an absolute beast and developed a sort of cult following in the early 2000's.
If anyone is interested in macebells, you can make one yourself pretty easily ! I got a steel pipe cut from Home Depot, got a small basketball, cut the basketball open, filled it with cement, and stuck the pipe in it. I also drilled a hole in the end of the pipe and stuck a nail horizontally through the hole so the pipe is locked into place and won’t slide out. Been working 100% for the past 10 years !
I'll be 44 years old in March and I've seen this movie about 4 times thus far. The same training, diet and supplements get recycled every 8 to 10 years. In fact, I have seen the Turkesterone, ecdysterone/phytosterol movie at least 3 times. Kettlebells, indian clubs/maces, and "functional fitness" keep coming and going.
Love the content. I am an ultra endurance runner who also focus on maintaining strength by doing 3 week wave squats for 10x2 at 75-85% and a max pull for 2 reps. I also focus a lot on pulling sleds for long durations. The rest of the week is aerobic cardio for 6-10hours. Would love to hear your take on strength training for endurance runners thanks!
When I was in uni I didn’t win any boxing championships after my obesity hernia surgery by using kettlebells but I did win a game of soggy biscuit at the students union, so kettlebells = better than barbells.
When I trained for strength endurance with barbell compare to kettlebell, kettlebell had better transfer to judo for me. I am talking strictly for strength conditioning.
Single handed objects are good for rehab and prevention, but you can do a lot of rehab just doing body weight single limb movements, generally if you need rehab body weight is a safer starting point!
"The center of mass of this fork is in my center of control [throws fork away]. I just threw that in the bin. I threw it away." "Why'd you do that?" "I dunno...[continues with previous argument]." Me: ROFL
I'm a mototrials rider (super interesting sport you should check out) but I tend to mostly use barbell zercher squats, bench, deads and overheads for strength and power especially in my shoulders and legs. I do incorporate kettlebells for shoulders, biceps, core and wrist strength. Also lots of wrist and bicep exercises with dumbells and bands for recovery and stability (conditioning) i actually borrowed these exercises from armwrestling.
Great video guys! What’s your take on calisthenics? There are guys on you tube that do crazy stuff (calisthenics figures and so on) and have great looks. Despite that I haven’t seen any evidence that calisthenics is effective for strength and conditioning. What do you think?
You can progressively overload calisthenic movements, though not as linearly as an implement. This fact alone makes the modality suitable for strength and conditioning. The question really is, strong and conditioned for what and in what context? A Navy seal needs way more proficiency with push ups than big benching numbers, so it's relative. Calisthenic movements won't make you an elite powerlifter, but they will certainly make you strong or stronger if you train them, and the variations can progress to very advanced levels of difficulty (gymnasts). We know being stronger is the closest we have a to a generally useful factor that has transfer to all Athletic pursuits -to a point-. Also, I can tell you, The evidence calisthenics is effective is pretty much everywhere since people have been trainig, because people have got and do get stronger using it. Effective doesn't mean the most efficient, but efficiency can be detrimental if it takes you away from what you want to achieve, strength needs a context to exist within too even give meaning to the question of whether x or y modality is effective or efficient, so see the SEAL vs competitive powerlifter example.
3:40 I came from being obese smoker, picked up kettlebell and became national level kettlebell athlete, medalled twice in nationals while also keeping the record in my weightclass still to this day. So there!
Since you touched on the topic of more weight is better I was wondering what your thoughts are on pre-fatigue work for S&C? Thinking something like Wenning warm ups
I switched from barbell to kettlebell training when the pandemic hit. I don't have space for a barbell. My reasoning was that it was better to do kettlebell training (i.e. more fun and effective) than calisthenics. I'm sure it's not optimal, but I think it's better than giving up lifting weights altogether.
Unrelated to this video, but what’s your opinion on Turkesterone (currently being peddled by Derek from MPMD). Only 1 study which shows no beneficial effects in humans with regards to muscle hypertrophy.
Never used clubbells or maces myself but these would probably be really great for fight sports. They also originated as a tool to train warriors and are still used in the akhara wrestling training. Like you said they demand a stable core and seem to be beneficial for shoulder health. But one of the peculiarities of these tools and probably also indian strength training in general seems to be the focus on training fluid movement.
@@stevenhewes1990 The training style I mentioned is used by Kushti/Pehlwani traditional Indian wrestling which isn't the same as Olympic wrestling. I don't know how many Olympic wrestlers use clubbells or maces in their training. I also didn't argue clubbells and maces are superior to barbells. I just meant they could be a particularly useful tool for fight sports. I agree with Sika that barbells should be the most important strength training tools but because of the benefits I mentioned I would also incorporate clubbells and macebells in lighter training sessions.
I use mace and clubs for warm ups 5 to 10min barbell for main lift and kettlebell accessory exercises. Works well for me and for gen pop it's fine. Maybe if your talking top tier athletes it's a different story but for a 55y mom wanting to exercises its great. Would I base my whole strength gains program on a kb to win strongman comps probably not 🤔🤔
As they clearly mentioned, they are talking high level SnC for athletes. Why on earth people keep mentioning groups that fall out of this demographic is beyond me. Such low attention to detail or just being completely disingenuous to what is said in the video. It's just silly.
@@stevenhewes1990 the way I take it is the are fine to use as part of your program but not as the whole, the OP doesn't state his lvl of training so I'm going to say he's gen pop. You can get up to 100kg kb so 2 would give you 200kg which I'd say is more then enough to bp dl or sq for most. I've seen heavy club and mace too which work off leverage so different weight required anyway. There are many top level athletes using kb in train I saw Brian Shaw post a pic using kb the other day.
@@gilbertgurney4898 you are the OP of this stream of posts. Unless you're talking about the authors of the videos. In which case they are SnC coaches for athletes. And what's the point in bothering with 2×100kg kb front squats when the barbell will get you there faster. Which will then allow you to learn to apply that strength in your sports specific work and ergo be a more dominant athlete faster. All you are advocating is using inferior tools because you are too attached to kettlebells. There is a reason why the best SnC coaches do not advocate for using kettlebells over barbells. Because the barbell is better. It shits all over the kettlebell. I'll leave the kettlebell to the weak people. For those who want to be strong, they'll pick up the barbell.
@@stevenhewes1990 I was referring to the post they read out at the start. I never said anything about front sq not sure where you pulled that from ? What's your background here with a name like @barbell I assume your point of view is set in stone. Are you powerlifter/weightlifter can't be crossfit even they use kb? If your not using kb your missing out even westside use them. I can't think of much better tool to train for sport of any sort. If anyone is too attached it's you and your BB ! They do agree kb is good as a well rounded program but not as the sole tool for top Lvl athletes, who I wasn't referring to anyway I was talking about gen pop . For those wanting to be truly strong a well rounded program based on 80/20 accessories/main lift rotating lifts every 3 to 4wks. Using BB KB DB CABLES BANDS CHAINS ETC.
@@gilbertgurney4898 you mentioned using double KB squats weighing 100kg each. I pointed out how stupid it was and how a front squat would be more efficient. If you like the cognitive skills to pick up on that then please don't comment back and definitely stop posting shit.
@@sikastrengthyou can't. But you could. Just follow rite of passage from enter the kettlebell. Some swings, snatches, clean & presses and pull ups. For high level lower body strength barbell is king, but you can get pretty strong with few kettlebells. Specially upperbody.
@@sikastrength i don't doubt your pressing strength. That 55kg is great and I have seen your lifts. You are strong dude. But that conditioning part is pretty tricky too. 200 snatches in 10 min with 24kg is hard... and combination of those two is rare. I just gave those press and snatch numbers because they are main goals in enter the kettlebell. IMO those are good goals for every non-power athlete. Sports like ice hockey, swimming etc..and like me, regular dudes who train home with dozen kbs and pull up bar. :)
@@ilar1947 he's also a weightlifter too. So sports specific conditioning requirements are very LOW for him. Even then there is no REAL sport where you would need to press a 24kg kb 200 times in 10 mins. So although it'll get you better conditioned then sitting on the sofa and eating crisps all day. It isn't the best way to condition someone to play REAL sports.
I don't think you lads have a lot of understanding with kettlebells/clubs/maces. Kettlebells and clubbells are my main bit of training. It helped me get through my training for the British army reserves. The other good things about them are, they are great for a home. Yes, you would need to spend a few hundred pounds on at least 3 kettlebells, but they don't take up much, compared to barbells, and are cheaper. Plus, most people don't have the right flooring for barbells
We actually do have a very good understanding of KBells/Clubbells/Maces etc. in fact we have used almost every variation of decentralised C.O.M. training implement and have reviewed a large number of training texts and scientific studies which pertain to their use. We coach people through all manner of physical fitness tests, both civilian and military, advanced and non-advanced, and these implements are rarely the "one-stop-shop" thing people think they are. In almost all cases people would be better using more traditional resistance training implements as they tend to elicit a better training stimulus. They are certainly handy, and they store easily at home, so there are some positives. Thanks for your support!
Ok. The biggest argument against barbells is Kyriakos Grizzly. Just because you can move big bars does not make you fit. Also, would you claim that competitive kettlebell athletes are not strong. Pavel quotes Dikul the famous Russian weight juggler. Dikul had a huge kettlebell he would press. There is a weightlifter Kolaklyayev who tried to lift it and struggled. What about ancient Persian training innthe Zurkaneh house? I can become very strong cheaper and smaller with kettlebells.
But you will be out performed by people training with barbells. You cannot use the exception to disprove the rule. The fact that they are the exception only reinforces the rule. I train primarily with a barbell. I bet I would outperform you in every mainstream strength, power, speed and endurance test. Because I don't waste my time getting strong training with kettlebells as my primary tool. Giving me years of additional time to work on speed, power, endurance and skill. Because I train more intelligently than you do
that little insert of the guy swinging double bulava is a poor choice, he is not skilled with the implement. take a look at someone like 'the flowing dutchman' doing a similar movement or better yet, one of those guys from india or iran.
This is nonsense you can get everything you need with kettlebells. Can you become an Olympic lifter? No but I’m stronger than I’ve ever been by just training with kettlebells. And many others have found great strength and conditioning gains with just kettlebells.
Wrong. You cannot get everything you need from a kettlebell. If you need to become a weightlifter then the KB is shit. If you need to become a powerlifter then the KB is shit. If you want to get STRONG and not just the disgustingly low bar of stronger than you were than when you were untrained then the kettlebell won't help you there. If you want to be a man. Then you need to use a barbell.
@@stevenhewes1990 “need” is all relative. Nobody needs to lift a barbell. But if being an Olympic weight lifter is your goal then yes you need a barbell. But I know plenty of people who are very strong who only train kettlebells. Remember they make bells up to 200lbs. Doing a press with a 48kg bell, a pistol squat, and a strict pull up requires immense strength. Now the average human who wants to be strong and healthy does not need a barbell. I have no issues with barbells they’re great. But they’re not the only way to achieve great strength. The best thing about kettlebells though is they also train mobility. Something the barbell typically can’t. But yes If you desire to pull 600lbs then you need a barbell.
@@stevenhewes1990 the part o out being man is ridiculous. I would challenge any power lifter to grab two 32kg bells and see how hard their heart will pound doing 10 clean and presses followed by 10 front squats.
@@nickfarrell429 why would I press a 48kg bell and pistol squat it if I could just be a man and bench press 4+ plates and squat 6+ plates? The problem with you kettlebell advocates is that your tools of choice make you weak. You are limited by your total load. This video isn't about the average human. It's about high level athletes performing SnC. AS MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO. You are just being disingenuous by mentioning the average human being when the video is orientated around athletes. Fact of the matter is the average human being should seek to be as strong and as well conditioned as possible to be as healthy ad possible. When you are a novice then kettlebells are great. But when you want to ACTUALLY get strong then you need a barbell. Also...the kettlebell training mobility? Fucking stupid statement. The mobility requirements are low because the kettlebell with yield to your mobility. Unlike the barbell which forces you to work on your own mobility. As mentioned by Pavel on the JRE. Also...why would I clean and press 2×32kg kettlebells 10 times and then do 10 front squats? To you this is being a man? This is a PATHETICALLY low standard for strength and conditioning. Why don't I clean and jerk 100kg barbell 10 times? As the barbell clean has a full front squat element in it. As well as a heavier total load? Why not deadlift some REAL weight? Clean some REAL weight? Press some REAL weight? Total load with good form is the most important factor for strength adaptations. Not the latest pussyfied strong first workout. Because you're too scared to get sore and train with some balls. The whole forum just screams weakness. There are next to no members who can even squat 3 plates. Which is a feat that many novices acheive after their first year of lifting with some balls on a LP novice program. My wife likes her 48kg kettlebell. On a busy day she likes to do swings and goblet squats. But when she wants a REAL workout she loads up a barbell and squats. Get your information from a real source and join a community that ACTUALLY values strength.
@@stevenhewes1990 I’ve never said the barbell wasn’t a great tool. But it’s obvious you have some sort of inferiority complex that makes you think you have to lift massive amount of weight to be a man I can’t help you there. The bench press is the most overrated lift there is. I’m not gonna argue that barbell back squats and deadlifts arent great lifts and great for building strength because they are. But I think you need to open your eyes to the fact that you can get really strong without a barbell. I never said I will never used a barbell either… I’m not saying I will never go back to it. I can tell you have some sort of emotional attachment and you think youre more manly for lifting stuff with a barbell but I’m here to tell you that that makes absolutely no sense. Lifting weights does not determine manliness… What I mean by mobility is being able to do a full split, that should be something every man is working towards. Things like hip mobility are super important as we age…especially as we age the risk of Injury increases no matter what we do, but with correct kettlebell training injury is less likely …no matter how big your muscles get your joints, ligaments, and back can only take so much. Just look at the great Ronnie Coleman. As a manly “man” your presses should have full range of motion and your shoulder mobility should be to where you can press and snatch with your shoulder right next to your ear. Your squats should be deep and your knee mobility should be strong enough that you can perform pistol squats. Just loading up massive amounts of weight does it mean you can stabilize your body with one leg that’s a different type of strength and tension required. But I’m not gonna convince you I can tell that you’ve made your mind up which is also another sign of not being very “manly”. I look at all things and take all things into account that makes you more well rounded. There’s science behind a lot of the strong first training methods, Maybe they’re not for everybody but they do work. The whole idea that you should not work yourself to the point that you can’t walk the next day makes more sense than ever especially for people who have lives outside of just powerlifting. I wish you nothing but the best in your life I’m not trying to come on here to fight with people I just think that if you were more open minded you would see that you can gain lots of strength with just kettlebells