I would attribute the near 50 lb. gain in my bench press this training cycle to the kettlebells.
When and how to put kettlebells into a training schedule was trial and error. I found that the double snatches, snatch presses and front swings (the kettlebell from hell routine) went best on our light/speed upper body day which was Friday. We would do floor presses with chains for speed work, heavy triceps work, back work and then do the kettlebell from hell routine at the end. We did three rounds of each exercise for 6-8 reps.
Round one, for me, was the 53 lb. kettlebell for double front swings first, take a break and let my training partners go, then the double snatches second and the snatch presses last. Rounds two and three were the same but I went up to 72 lb. kettlebells. This does not seem like much but let me tell you, it was nap time after that.
The double front swings are basically front raises done ballistically where the kettlebells fly behind you as you push your tail back and down. If you feel too much low back, then you are not dipping and pushing back correctly. Invest in a good kettlebell training DVD from
www.dragondoor.com, you won't be sorry.
The snatch has the same pushback with the legs only you pull the kettlebells up your body like an upright row. As the kettlebell is moving up it will start to flip on its own momentum, take the momentum and stick your hand under it as it travels up past your head. The end of the motion is where the arms are fully extended and the kettlebell is resting against the back of your wrist and forearms. Use a light kettlebell until you get the motion or it will tear your wrists and forearms up. The snatch press is the snatch motion I just described only once locked out at the top you bring the kettlebells all the way down to your upper chest leaning back slightly. The leaning back will load the lats and create an anchor point. Once, you have the kettlebells down, you press them back to the top pushing off the lats and start over. If you feel too much shoulder, then you have not engaged the lats.
You will get weird looks while you are doing these exercises, get USE TO IT! The bruising may be a little harder to explain, you are on your own for this.
The lower body drills are the dead snatch and the double sumo swings. The dead snatch is more difficult then the regular snatch because you don't have the momentum from the swing. Place the kettlebell between your legs with either a conventional or sumo stance. I did the sumo style because that's what I wanted to improve. Now the easy part. You simply get into the deadlift position, grab the kettlebell, and snatch it up your body until lockout like the regular snatch.
The double kettlebell sumo swing is much easier to do, but more taxing then the dead snatch. Take two kettlebells in a sumo stance and begin to rock them into motion to get them going. Once you have some momentum, it's the same push back and down with the tail and then you snap the hips and pull them through. Snap as hard as possible like you are trying to break your hips off when you stand up. This is the most important part of the swing. This will solidify your technique and make sure your glutes are doing their job. The glutes are the main anchor point, if they are not working fully then the back or legs take too much of the load. When performing the swing look for even load distribution among all the muscles groups. Now, I like to go really heavy on these so they will not go to high on the snap. If you go lighter, when you snap the hips, the kettlebells will get away from you or, in my opinion, go too high. The objective here is just to develop hip speed and pull through on the motion.
I did the dead snatches on Squat Night with 3 sets of 3-5 reps per set working up to the 106. The double sumo swings were done on my lower body speed days with 3-5 sets of 10 reps after all other work was done. I tried to do 3-week runs and then take a week off. Most of the time, I stuck to this but sometimes I took off 2 weeks in a row and I completely quit them five weeks from the meet.
Other important exercises I used were various leg presses, gripper work and other grip work with kettlebells. I have a slight advantage on the leg presses because my gym has four different leg press machines but any basic type will do fine. I rotated leg presses for three weeks at a time with some wide stance and some close stance but all with a complete stop at the bottom of the movement. I got this from Glenn Herring's article in Powerlifting USA. I hope I spelled his name right, if not I apologize. His ideas made perfect sense to me because the deadlift is much the same as a pause/stop leg press.
Most of the movement is concentric with limited eccentric input or another way to say it would be that the yielding phase, like the decent of the squat or bench, does not produce the same muscle loading effect so it's much harder to complete. I wanted to work my explosiveness off the stop to improve my leverages and output from the poorest angles of the deadlift. I did these for the entire cycle on lower speed days until 3 weeks from the meet. The work was only 3-4 sets of 6 reps with the weight staying in the 800-1200 lb. range. Sometimes, I would do weight only and sometimes I would use lighter weight and 200lb band tension.
The most important part is the PAUSE/STOP. If you don't do this, then it is a waste of time and effort and you are no better than the bodybuilders who hide from the squat and do leg presses and knee extensions all day long. Sorry guys, it is what it is.
The grip work is something I just have to do because of my hand strength. If this is not an issue for you, then don't worry about. I will say this though, if you do some of this work, it will improve all your lifts and other auxiliary moves. This is due to the Law of Irradiation which simply means the harder you can grip and hold something, the more muscle you can recruit and use.
The average human never taps into 20% of his total muscular capacity EVER. The best athletes in the world only get to 50-60%.
Improving your grip and forearm work WILL increase your chances of not being AVERAGE.
So, moving on to some things I did during the cycle. One was the Captains of Crush grippers. I have the first four. I don't think I will ever get to the fourth but I can at least dream. There is a nationally ranked Arm Wrestling Champion at my gym so I sought some advice. His forearms are very much like Popeye's and he looks like Yosemite Sam from the Bug's Bunny cartoons, imagine that. He gave me a little program which is listed on my website:
www.southcarolinabarbell.com. If you would like to see his whole training program it is there also.
What he gave me was mostly over crushes with the #2 gripper and negatives with the #3 gripper. An over crush is just squeezing the gripper as hard and fast as you can, once closed or as close to closed as you can get it, then you hold for 5-10 seconds. The negative is mostly a joke for me because I can't get anywhere near closing it, but you take the gripper and use both hands to close it as far as you can and then hold with one hand for 15 seconds.
I did alternating sets of over crushes first and then negatives. I did three rounds of each for 3 to 5 reps each round. I also did blob pickups with the 26 lb. kettlebell where you grab the base, pick it up and then hold for 15 seconds. To make it harder, I added one to two 20 lb. chains and tried to hold it. This was very difficult and most of the time, I just barely picked it all the way up before I dropped it or let it go.
I also have a wheelbarrow at the gym with weight posts on it that I would load up with 200lbs or so and go around the gym parking lot, about a third of a mile. This is very grueling but also very effective. I used to do this religiously several years ago but now I just do it occasionally. I think we all logged 105 MILES one year back when I was 75lbs lighter and not so old. These are all very easy things you can do to improve your grip and forearm strength. If you are doing wrist curls still, then you know where you belong. I give you a hint, it starts with the letter "b".
What was the outcome of all this hard work? Well, at the 2006 Arnold Classic, I squatted 1107 lbs., benched 744 lbs. and pulled 711 lbs. The squat and bench improved about 50 lbs each, but the deadlift number does not reflect my true progress. This is just what the judges gave me credit for. I actually pulled 738 lbs., but was turned down on a technicality.
The best part was I pulled the 738 lbs. with ease. Usually, I die right after the squat and fight to the end barely getting my first deadlift. This time I went 2 for 3 in the deadlift and I felt like I had at least two more pulls in me!!
So does sumo pulling work? Absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt. If you try any of these things, your deadlift will improve.
Will this continue to work? Yes and no, like anything else in training it is a constant battle and adaptation is part of training so it will have to evolve again and I will have to try other things to improve.
Take what you can use from this article and make it work for you, that is the best information I can give to you. I improved not only physically but also mentally. I now feel that the deadlift is not my worst problem, it is my HARD HEAD.
It took all these obstacles and poor performances to light the fire under my ass. Crossing boundaries involves more than just lifting the weight. You have to analyze everything without EGO!! Your body will do whatever you tell it to. This has been proven time and time again, throughout history, by all types of people. It just takes us humans falling down lots of times to make the effort to change, if at all. I am no exception to this and that is why it took 8 years to get this far.
Where am I now? To tell you the truth, not much farther then I was before. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest level of understanding of weightlifting and sport, I am about a two, maybe three some days. Life, on the other hand, is a completely different story and I will have to save that for another day.
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Marc Bartley, RKC and Donnie Thompson, RKC will be teaching a Kettlebells for Powerlifters clinic in Aug 2006 in South Carolina. The class size is limited. E-mail Marc for more information,
Spudslifting@aol.com.