I was interested mainly in trying some different ways to help my lower back pain and scoliosis and I decided that maybe if I just clean and pressed a kettlebell and held it overhead for a while, one side at a time, that might do me some good.
Well I started out the first day with the 36lb kettlebell, and that was no problem, holding it overhead for about a full minute on each side. The second day I did it again, but then I decided that I should try it with the 54lb KB as well. It wasn't too much trouble, until I decided I should lower it to shoulder position doing a slow negative.
Bad idea.
I didn't feel like I injured myself (just a twinge, really), but a couple of days later... woah. I could barely move my left (weaker) arm. Today it feels better, although it's still tender. Problem is that now I have to lay off for a while to make sure my arm/shoulder heals and I don't aggravate it further.
So, just remember that even if you could lift at a certain level once, doesn't mean you can take a break for a month and then go right back to where you were before. The funny thing is that if I had just waited a week before tackling the bigger kettlebell, I probably would have been fine.
A swipe is a Clubbell® combination exercise composed of a Forward/Backward Swing combined with an Armpit Cast. This is one of the first combination routines that we recommend, and it's fun, easy to learn, challenging to refine, and an exercise that you'll never, ever outgrow.
What are Swipes good for? Swipes challenge the cardiovascular system no matter what size Clubbell® you use. With heavier clubs they also build muscle throughout the entire body, especially the arms, legs, and core. I vividly remember how Coach Doug Szolek, when I asked him what he did to achieve his incredible hypertrophy, told me he spent a year mostly on Swipes with increasingly heavier weights.
]]>Also, what are some Clubbell® exercises that hit the lats and mid back?
]]>What are the best exercises to build up with the Clubbells® in order to be able to increase my pull-ups? Also, what exercises would be best to build up the abdominal muscles?
Recommendations on books or videos would be appreciated as well.
]]>It dawned on me when I attended a seminar by Joshua Resnick on Judo "Pick-ups", at the Metro Fight Club, how great Circular Strength Training™ (CST) with the legendary Clubbell® is for Judo. I’m not going to go into detail on the history of it, but I will say its grandfather, the Indian club (pictured left on the right of a 15lbs Clubbell), was used by old-time wrestlers, strongmen and even the great judoka, Yamashita, used a Japanese version of a Clubbell® called a Chashi.
Some of the pickups we did required strength and flexibility in ranges of motion that are difficult to explore with normal linear strength training. In Judo, you are often exerting effort from very odd positions. Positions you don’t begin your traditional weightlifting activities from, and your bodies often travel in ranges of motion, most never explore in their the sport preparation.
]]>Training with weighted clubs has been around for centuries. The famous Indian wrestler Gama used to train with clubs weighing over 80lbs and his strength was legendary. Recently, training with weighted clubs has become very popular due to the efforts of Coach Sonnon and RMAX.tv Productions. I was pretty skeptical about the benefits of Clubbell® training when I first heard about them. However, I was also really skeptical about kettlebell training as well a few years ago. Fortunately, I kept an open mind regarding kettlebells and now make a good chunk of my living doing kettlebell workshops around the US and overseas. Hundreds of people have benefited from my workshops and my articles and I receive a lot of positive feedback daily. Regardless, there is nothing wrong with being skeptical. Especially, in an industry full of gimmicks and false promises. However, being provincial is not a good thing in this business and will result in one missed opportunity after another. As a regular guy that may not be a big deal. However, as a strength coach that line of thinking is unacceptable. Athletes pay me to teach them how to get stronger, faster, and increase sports performance. It is my job to know about new developments and at the least be aware of anything that could give my clients an edge. After hearing about the benefits of Clubbells® from a lot of people that I trust and after getting a great deal of questions from my clients regarding Clubbells®, I decided to get Coach Sonnon's Clubbell® video to see what they were all about.
]]>I cannot endorse anyone's homebrew concoctions for many obvious legal reasons, though I did want to apprise you of one of the forum member's webpage on how to construct a homemade Clubbell® substitute.
http://www.geocities.com/fightraining/klub.html
I do support making Circular Strength Training™ more accessible to people and the 'filled bat' is about the least dangerous (all homemade inventions were/are to some degree) I used before making the Clubbell®.
]]>Few days will go down in the history of my training, to compare to the morning after of CST Beta. Exhaustion is a good descriptive word, but it leaves out the dimension of mental "brain fry" we so often hear about. Sensory overload would be a bit more technical but we need not go beyond that to get my meaning. It’s a major info dump coupled with challenges you don’t often face daily.
CST brain fry comes from your personal attempt to place the elements of mind, body and soul into a crucible (a.k.a Training Floor) and extract the new product (a.k.a. You). You can’t do that in two days, no matter how long the day. But you can load the crucible, you can stoke the fire, and you can get the ore good and hot. Your brain fry comes because, the whole seminar has an air of camaraderie, and physical exuberance, and it infects you quickly. You simply push yourself to the limit in that atmosphere, seeking to go beyond even your own expectations in hopes of seeing that "new product" in you. Your days spent in Flow after your CST will reward you, as long as you do your diligence.
Our Kinetic Chain presentation as a group went very well. I must say, some of the folks amazed me. It was beyond my expectations and a lesson to me in not underestimating human potential. Everyone represented themselves very well, as the performance aspects of this portion of CST Beta were not taken lightly. Passing the course was reliant on doing well on this demonstration of understanding. Everyone rose to the occasion and did great.
Then, it was time for the Clubbell®. My nearly two straight years of Kettlebell training with Pavel were definitely an asset in this portion of the CST Beta. But Clubbell® training had some hidden dimensions I hadn’t anticipated. And I could tell I was not alone in my surprise. Let me explain.
If you are not CST Certified, when you speak of the Clubbell®, you will often say. "These things are great for the upper arms" or "Wow, one of the best grip workouts ever." These statements are true, I made them myself and I’ve heard them said many times. But they are also the utmost basic level of Clubbell® understanding. Many folks are rightly amazed at the shoulder and upper body and even core training aspects of the Clubbell®, but they go beyond that too. And now I will explain what I mean.
The missing physical dimension in most uncertified Clubbell® training is the legs. For most this is the longest part of your body, (on me, three feet) and also the one that interrupts flow, and forms a major weak point in the endurance and balance of any endeavor. Both mental and physical respond quickly to leg weakness, this lack of leg flow within your Body-Flow can be a real issue to face, and straining the legs can bring on fear to some. If the legs give out, you crash fast. Even strong legs are challenged by this area of club use.
Put simply, we did many basic Clubbell® movements with deep, body scorching, dips. Call to order, with a squat, pendulum with a squat, two ended swings with a deep, deep knee bend. Can you imagine the pain, you could see it on every face! But you could see the revelation too. Many of us had neglected this dimension of Clubbell® training.
But this was the first learned lesson of the morning. The novice thinks the Clubbell® provides a great upper body workout, the experienced user knows by about 11:00 AM, that the Clubbell® involves a total and whole body workout. Muscle, lungs, tendons and joints, they all feel it.
Nuance is a spice you can add to the synergy going on inside your crucible. The fluid flow of gripping tightly with the top fingers as you loosen the lower ones, or the timing for when you reverse that. When you swing a Clubbell®, you are the Warrior embodiment, you swing with the weight, you must brace against the shock and onslaught of gravities pull. Fire is your element as twenty pounds of steel and rubber swings out, loops back, and around your head and a mill is completed or a Rumali is done.
Much of the training with the Clubbell® during this day of training is very direct, just as the body flow was. You are there to learn the proper way, so you can in turn show others the proper way. So after lunch was done, and we picked up our Clubbell® and returned to the learning, we knew the time was coming when each of us would be called on to demonstrate our ability to pass on our Clubbell® teaching ability. We learned and tweaked the rest of the CST GPP (General Physical Preparedness), and I’m sure no one would argue, our muscles were very worked when the days end drew near. When you learn like this, within such a situation, you don’t dwell on how much it hurts at the time. My only thinking on this effect is simply...it’s a gas training with Scott and a room full of devout Clubbell® swingers. I gravitated toward the experience and didn’t want anything removing me from it.
If you are a warrior while you train yourself, you are the King when you teach others. Having assimilated a days worth of concepts, ideas, methods and living lifting techniques, it was time to bring the bounty of circular strengths boon to another (or ultimately to everyone). Enter the contemplative Monk aspect. When you ask someone questions to help better them with the Clubbell®, you must bring nurture and understanding to the table. Everyone has something physically limiting them, and in a situation like this they will share greatly and willingly. Your task is to listen properly, free of ego and the self "I" and genuinely try to help them heal or strengthen that "something" with the Clubbell®. As a trainer, it is of utmost importance that you appreciate physical weakness in another as much as strength. You are not training you, you are there for them. This is what the Monk lives for.
Ultimately at this time, you are the King / Monk, bringing the boon, but listening with both ears, mind and spirit. At the CST you just want to get it right, but eventually you will meet clients or friends who are not so open, not so emotionally available and at that time, the patient Monk aspect will serve you well as you start a path to unbound flow and awaken strength with Body-Flow and the Clubbell® combined.
My partner and I had a very good time working out our Clubbell® routines, and I thought we both did really well. Our task was to find out what the other needed, and then as a group each pair of students was tested. Again, I was very impressed, both at the creativity and the focus. I was proud to be a part of such a capable and astute group of modern athletes.
When the CST ended, we received our certificates at that time. That was a nice touch. Not everyone passed, and that can’t be an easy thing to do, or to experience. But each person who did not pass is welcome to submit a video and try again. And they have all of the current CST Instructors at their disposal if they need help (or at least me, if anyone else says they are busy, my email is below.)
Finding the point where Body-Flow and the Clubbell® meet is the warrior quest of each new CST Instructor. You must daily do battle and face the defeat your body and mind can hand you, but never allow your spirit to experience the temporary loss. For it is in the small moments of wielding a Clubbell® or moving into Body-Flow that the triumphs arise. One such triumph can overshadow a thousand defeats on the training floor, our Body-Flow is that powerful. And when you become the moving crucible between Clubbell® and Body, Mind, and Flow, then what follows will flow from the gates within into a new mold.
Then emerges the unbound new you.
John H. Myers Jr.
John H. Myers Jr, CST, is an instructor at the Summit Martial Arts Center in Manheim, PA where the CST Beta was held. Mr. Myers works as a personal trainer combining Kettlebell, Clubbell®, and Body Flow. His other interests include western long sword and Japanese swordsmanship. Science Fiction and the writing of Sci Fi. Layman science and astronomy and ancient military history. And lets not forget, good & old B movies.
]]>If possible, will you offer advice as to increasing controlled mobility, absorption, transfer of energy and explosive power using the arms and torso at the back and overhead? I have one 15 pound Clubbell® that I integrate into my evolving program and your advice would be greatly appreciated.
I train in Systema as well as Aikido and I do not compare it to anything else not do I say that body flow or Softwork are anything else. I am just glad to have them all as steps in the ladder pointing to the heavens.
]]>Can anybody help?
]]>Say I buy a pair of Clubbells®. What would be a good weight to start with?
Thank you for your time.
]]>Any advice will be appricated greatly!
]]>1. I was talking with my son the other day about how with my weight I feel I have hit a sort of plateau. He said that I need to change my workout routine ever 2 months or so otherwise it will lead to plateau's. That changing it shocks the body into change. What is your opinion on this thought?
2. I have also been trying to figure out what I want to do on my active recovery days and weeks. I am wondering if any of you do regular weight lifting, because I was thinking that it would definitely keep me at an RPE of less than 4 and I could do this on my active recovery days.
Right now I do Warrior Wellness™, Clubbells®, and a little Body-Flow™ (not much). Just so you know what I'm already doing.
]]>Together, separate days, one before the other for any certain reason?
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