Today I’m going to give you a tough kettlebell and bodyweight exercise workout.
I first came up with this workout after hearing reading about Bud Jeffries’ concept of Yardstick Conditioning in Twisted Conditioning 2 several years ago.
I wanted a way to combine kettlebell exercises with bodyweight exercises in a single intense workout that would test overall conditioning as well as build muscular endurance. I picked four exercises that I felt where foundational and ones I wanted to work on. Those exercises are:
Double Kettlebell Jerks
Pushups
Bodyweight Squats
Kettlebell Snatch
(When I originally did this it involved hindu pushups and hindu squats, although when I started doing this workout again recently I’ve done the regular versions of pushups and squats.)
Each exercise is done for 5 minutes straight. Then without a break you move onto the next exercise in the order listed.
The goal is obviously to do the highest number of reps in each exercise.
But another big goal is to get to the point where you can do the exercise without dropping the bells or getting out of position for the whole five minutes. This means you can only rest with the kettlebells in the rack or overhead position for the jerks, and just overhead with the snatches. You can do as many hand switches as you need with the snatches.
On the pushups you stay in the plank position (much easier to maintain five minutes of hindu pushups). With squats its easy to go all five minutes so recently I added cables, a portable power jumper from lifeline, to make them harder.
Of course, in the start do as many sets as you need to do the whole five minutes.
For the kettlebell exercises I use 24 kg bells. You’ll want to start lighter especially if you have no experience with long sets. Eventually I’d like to work up to 32 kg bells. That may take awhile. I shouldn’t have to say it but technique is real important here.
I would recommend only doing this workout once per week mixed in with your other training. And each time you do it you seek to add just a few more reps to each exercise.
It’s a challenging workout. But rewarding and if you enjoy bodyweight exercises and kettlebells it’s a great way to work on those fundamental exercises.
Give it a try and let me know how you do.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Nov 16th, 2009. 2 Comments. 
I have practiced some GS (girevoy sport) techniques previously. Some of the basic stuff like corkscrewing your arm downward. Although my swings and snatches were rarely done with maximum tension, I now know that what I was doing was pretty far from the real techniques used in kettlebell lifting competitions. Previously, I talked about how I was approaching this whole event. You know, with an open mind and all. So that was not hard. A little more difficult was making my body do things differently then I had been doing all this time.
One of the main things is breathing naturally. Also called anatomical breathing. Basically when you are in a downswing your torso is collapsing so you will breath out. As you come back up you naturally breathe in.
This is fine when you are not under a heavy load. Breathing out as you descend in a squat with 500 pounds on your back would be a bad idea. Kettlebells are relatively light (assuming you use weights you are capable of) so this is not a problem.
The whole idea of bracing for a kettlebell swing (snatch or clean too) is not wrong but a different application. Breathing in one method is optimal for strength and the other for endurance.
So I had to consciously think to breathe out on the way down and round my back. There were many other points like this that I need to work on.
Why would you choose one way of doing things over the other?
Let’s talk about the whole philosophy of the AKC. Valery Federenko is frighteningly strong and enduring. He is a world champion at this stuff. Right there is proof that he knows what he is doing. Many of the techniques he taught us where things he taught himself or learned on the road to doing over 130 Jerks and over 90 Snatches with each hand using 32kg (70 lb.) kettlebells.
Kettlebells are made for these lifts. And high repetitions. These techniques are the optimal way to do that. If you want to reach the highest numbers in these lifts then you should use these techniques. Using kettlebells in other ways can be done. They can be used, and effectively, for bodybuilding or weightlifting, but that is not what they are made for.
Now if you are not competing with kettlebells, would you still want to use these techniques? There is no doubt that properly training in this manner or any other can be very beneficial for health and fitness.
So is training this way better than the Hard-Style method of training? Assuming that the only goal was health and fitness, so that we avoid the argument of different training for different reasons. Or perhaps just martial artists or athletes who want to be in the best shape for their sport. I don’t know for sure. The only thing I can say here is that it would be a fun thing to do a study on.
More coming soon.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Conditioning, Kettlebells, Lifting Technique by on Sep 30th, 2007. Comment.
