At Iron Edge we always stay focused. Because the more things change, the more they stay the same. We believe in serious training The Iron Edge manufacture and offers weight lifting and gym training equipment like Bumper plates, Weightlifting shoes, Barbells, Kettlebells, Dumbbells, Battle Ropes, Gymnastic Rings, Foam Rollers, Shock Rollers, Rumble Rollers, Massage Balls, Gym Flooring and all related to gym training
Foam RollerI highly recommend getting regular soft tissue work, but people often don’t get treatment as much as they should. In a lot of case regular soft tissue work is the different between getting an overuse injury or not.
The Foam Roller is an excellent tool for self massage between treatments. Foam rollers come in many different densities, sizes and shapes, depending on your needs.
When you first start incorporating foam rollers into your training regime, it’s best to use them at the end of a session, or during flexibility training. However, once your body is used to it you can start incorporating the foam roller into warm-ups, and even on off days. I like to get people to progress to harder or smaller objects when they are able to relax during the treatment and they feel what they are using is not working as effectively. If you’re not sure how relaxed your muscle should feel, contract the muscle hard and then relax it. Your muscle should sink into the roller.
I have a few different approaches I use on some clients depending on their goals.
If you are using self massage to help improve your mobility, after you’re finished with the massage use the new range of motion in a mobility drill. This will help your body remember how to use this new range of motion.
For improving tissue health find a tight spot, contract the muscle and relax it, do this until the pain decreases, or if it is to painful to contract the muscle lay on it and try to relax. Then with the pressure over the tight area, take the muscle through its range of motion this lengthens the tight fibres under the pressure.
You can also use the foam roller to mobilise stiff joints, it works well to increase the mobility of the thoracic spine into extension. For beginners and a more generalised approach I recommend lying back on the foam roller with it in line with your spine. For a more specific and advanced approach have the foam roller crossways and do baby crunches on top of it.
Self massage can be used to help improve your range of motion, quality of motion, help prevent overuse injuries and help you recover from exercise. For best results regular self massage, say after every session or even every day, will greatly improve all of the above. This is not a treatment for acute injury! Go and see a medical professional if you are injured.
Tips :
Focus on tight spots.
Take the muscle through its range of motion or if it is really painful maintain the pressures until the pain subsides.
Do not fight the pressure, learn to relax into it.
Traditionally, the Sprint Sled could be viewed as a sprint power and explosive acceleration tool, allowing athletes to focus their attention on linear explosiveness, acceleration technique and starting strength. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of application and veritable training options. Essentially, the sprint sled allows for the loading of a variety of movement and locomotive patterns that can challenge the body in multiple planes and ranges. This can focus training into areas of rotational power, core strength and stability, loaded movement conditioning as well as the traditional power, speed and acceleration elements.
Sprint Sled – Lateral Step
Purpose
Hip abduction exercise that builds strength in the glutes and lateral hip for hip strength and stability.
Builds fundamental lower body strength in the frontal plane to enhance performance for changing direction or cutting when running.
Execution
Use the hip harness with this exercise, making sure it has been secured correctly to the sled.
Place the hip harness sideways and in a position just above the hip, so the leg on the same side as the sled can abduct freely without restriction.
Move into a position so that the sled is either directly to your right or to your left, so that all the slack has been taken out of the strap that connects you to the sled.
Adopt a bent knee hip hinge position, much the same as a feet together or feet on hip width deadlift position. Place your arm closest to the sled, back and under the strap at the hip, and the opposite arm bent with the hand under the chin.
With a good neutral alignment, breathe in and lean your body away from the direction of the sled, pushing and driving the leg closest to the sled into the ground.
Drive hard against the weight of the sled as you travel laterally, keeping balance and alignment, swinging the arms through and back.
Land strongly and with control onto the opposite leg and breathe out, aiming to stack your shoulder, hip, knee and ankle over the top of each other, keeping your feet parallel and facing forward. Ensure that you extend and fully straighten the driving leg.
Lean your weight onto the landed leg, keeping your shoulders and hips horizontal, and recover the opposite leg back and to a narrow stance again, swinging the arms back and into the starting position.
Without altering your position, perform another repetition.
Tech Points
Use a load that allows you to move balanced, correctly and smoothly.
Aim to keep your hips and shoulder horizontal throughout the exercise.
Ensure you maintain neutral alignment during the exercise.
Slow the movement down to create balance and stability when moving.
Sprint Sled – Rotational Press
Purpose
Full body, rotational core strength and single arm pressing exercise.
A great, integrated core exercise that connects the body to the ground, generating rotational power through the hips, strengthening the grip and building strength in the shoulders, chest and arms.
Execution
Connect a climbing rope to the sled and line it up in the direction you wish to travel.
Stand parallel and towards the end of the rope, away from the sled, in a wider than shoulder width stance.
Grip the rope horizontally across the chest in a tight grip, much the same as the ideal bench press position, and position the hands just wider than shoulder width.
Adopt an athletic ready position, by lowering your center of gravity and bending your knees and hips whilst keeping a good neutral spine. Pack the shoulders into the body by engaging the lats.
Take a breath in, hold the body tight, and begin rotating away from the direction of the sled.
To initiate rotation, drive through the leg closest to the direction of the sled, aiming to generate power and movement at the hips, hold the body tight whilst turning the torso with the hips.
As you rotate to 30 degrees of your original position, begin to press with the same side arm as the driving leg.
Continue to rotate by driving through the leg and hip, turning the opposite foot to the direction you wish to face and pivoting onto the ball of the driving foot.
Maintain good alignment as you rotate around and press, looking up though the eyebrows to keep the head in a neutral position.
Continue to connect the body down and into the floor, rotating to a full 90 degrees from your initial position and pressing out into full extension.
Once you have reached full extension and rotation, ensure the hips and shoulder are level and strongly connected.
Take a couple of steps, taking the slack out of the rope, and repositioning the body back into the start position for another repetition.
Tech Points
Rotation only occurs at the hips with this exercise, so aim to connect the torso to the hips, and rotate around a central axis.
Aim to drive the driving leg into the ground, pivoting strongly on the ball of the foot.
The opposite arm is used to stabilise the rope and help with the direction of the pull. Resist the temptation to push with that arm.
Stay low and use your hip and leg to generate rotation and power.
Hold the rope in a strong grip and aim to rotate first before beginning the press.
Aim to slowly accelerate as you drag the weight, finishing by punching out in a controlled manner. The sled should generate momentum and slide toward you at the end of the movement.
A chin-up bar obviously allows you to do some of the most functional upper body exercises possible: chin-ups and pull-ups.
There are countless varieties of both chin-ups and pull-ups – different grips, hand positions, leg positions, body angles, levels of explosiveness etc. You can build phenomenal upper back, shoulder and grip strength and power with nothing more than a simple bar and your own bodyweight.
A chin-up bar, however, isn’t limited to use for chin-ups and pull-ups. A chin-up bar is a gateway to endless strength and mobility training that is limited only by your imagination and motivation.
Here is just a short list of some of the potential uses for a chin-up bar:
Challenging core exercises such as windscreen wipers and leg raises.
Hanging to train grip, stretch your back and decompress your discs.
Performing a range of upper back and shoulder prehab and mobility exercises such as hanging shrugs and thoracic extensions.
An anchor point for bands, rings, ropes or TRX.
Storage space for equipment like bands and ropes to keep them out of the way when not in use.
So, in terms of a utility to space ratio, the chin-up bar scores very highly. Add to that the fact that even a good chin-up bar isn’t particularly expensive and you have the criteria for exceptional equipment.
Quality matters with chin-up bars, and if you’re going to get the wall-mounted variety you want to be sure you’re getting something that can cope with all of the above-mentioned activities and can take much more weight that you plan to hang from it just to be on the safe side. Chin-up bar fails are very common and you don’t want to be the victim of one.
To avoid chin-up related accidents, Iron Edge has over-engineered their wall-mounted chin-up bar and back it up with a lifetime warranty – this is a bar you can trust with your bodyweight and much more. In fact, you can load it with up to 400kgs safely and with no “play” on the bar (the bar is mounted flush to the support brackets, so you won’t get a wiggle out of it even with strenuous kipping).
Some other features of the Iron Edge wall-mounted chin-up bar:
32mm diameter bar, so anyone can get a comfortable hold on it.
Bar is 90cm from the wall giving you plenty of room, safe for kipping.
Bar is 106cm wide, meaning you can do true wide grip chins and pull-ups.
49cm wall attachment bracket and nine bolt holes for very secure wall attachment.
Matte black finish that has good grip and will hold chalk.
Can be extended to cater for multiple users.
Australian made.
Once you’ve got yourself a good, sturdy, reliable chin-up bar the world of upper body strength is your oyster.
In this article you will find out detailed information on:
The difference between Standard Medicine Balls, Dynamax & Dead Balls.
How to train for Mobility & Prehab/Rehab
How to train for Maximal Strength & Speed Strength
How to train for Speed & Power
How to train for General Conditioning
Introduction
Training with weighted balls has been around for literally thousands of years. In Ancient Greece, Hippocrates had his patients throwing stuffed animal skins around for injury rehab and Persian wrestlers trained with sand-filled animal bladders way back in the 4th Century BC. Medicine ball training, in its various incarnations, has certainly stood the test of time.
Medicine balls are incredibly versatile and these days, with different types of balls suited to different purposes, a huge range of training goals can be catered for with the humble weighted ball. As Paul Check points out in the below video, everyone from children to pro athletes can use medicine balls and derive great benefits from them.
This article aims to cover a range of medicine ball exercises for different training outcomes, focusing on exercises where the medicine ball adds something unique. There is also a section with a wide range of common movements where the medicine ball can be used as a simple loading option.
Deadlift, Single Leg Deadlift, Jump Squat, Good Morning, Lunge and Lateral Lunge.
Types of Medicine Balls
These days your options of weighted balls aren’t limited to sand-filled animal bladders or stuff animal skins; there are a variety of different medicine balls available on the market that vastly increases the options in terms of training applications.
There are three general categories of medicine ball: standard rubber medicine balls, large soft weighted balls such as Dynamax Balls and balls that have no bounce such as Dead Balls. The different categories may vary somewhat from manufacturer to manufacturer so the below descriptions focus on the medicine balls stocked by Iron Edge.
Standard Medicine Balls
Standard medicine balls are simply weighted rubber balls with a relatively high level of bounce, making them suitable for exercises requiring rebound.
The quality of these balls, and the amount of punishment they can withstand, will depend largely on the type of rubber used in manufacture – if you are after something really tough opt for the Premium Medicine Ball range.
Standard medicine balls usually vary in size according to weight, having small, light weights in the range suitable for single hand work, rehab/prehab and mobility.
Dynamax Balls
Dynamax Balls are weighted but soft with a relatively high level of bounce. Being soft, they are ideal for partner work, exercises that require throwing/catching at maximum velocity and exercises that involve rebound as they are less likely to inflict injury than their harder counterparts.
Dynamax Balls are standardised in diameter at 14 inches as this allows them to be held in a manner conducive to good posture (the athlete’s shoulder girdle isn’t protracted and the scapula is set in a neutral position) and generating maximum power.
Dynamax Balls are tough enough to withstand repeated impact on any relatively smooth surface and may be used for slams but only with a Dynamax Slam Mat.
Dead Balls
Dead Balls, as the name suggests, are a dead weight with little to no bounce. They are filled with iron sand and are somewhat deformable (they will change shape in response to pressure) – a bit like a cross between a medicine ball and a sandbag.
The deformability of Dead Balls mean, when compared with standard medicine balls, they are more resistant to rolling, more stable for balancing on for exercises such as push ups and easier to get purchase on in difficult positions such as holding overhead.
Dead Balls come in a very large variety of weights, with much heavier options than other types of medicine ball (up to 85kg) so they are suibtable for strength and power development.
Training for Mobility and Prehab/Rehab
Medicine balls lend themselves perfectly to mobility and prehab/rehab work:
They are moved easily in all planes and allow easy transitions from one plane to another, enabling joints to be worked through their full range.
They can be thrown to add dynamic effort to warm ups, increase the difficulty of rehab exercises and to perform mobility/rehab exercises that prepare the body for power and acceleration drills.
They can be passed easily from person to person for partner work.
Which medicine balls?
Obviously, mobility and prehab/rehab work generally requires lighter weights, so this may affect your choice (for example, Dead Balls only go down to 3kg, Dynamax down to 2.7kg and standard down to 2kg).
Some exercises will require a ball with bounce, so dead balls won’t be appropriate, while for other exercises it’s not a concern.
The diameter of the medicine ball may also determine which type is most suitable. For example, if you intend to hold the ball with one hand the smaller diameter of a light standard medicine ball may be best. On the other hand, if you are holding the ball with both hands the 14 inch diameter of the Dynamax Ball may be beneficial for maintaining good posture while performing mobility or rehab exercises.
For more details visit : http://ironedge.com.au/blog/?p=6327
The kettlebell jerk is another overhead, ballistic kettlebell lift that uses more leg power and less upper body strength than the push press. This means that it is a more powerful lift and will allow you to perform more reps or get a heavier weight overhead than you can with the push press. The kettlebell jerk will also give you more of a cardio respiratory training effect than the push press.
So, in addition to all of the same benefits the push press will give you, the jerk will also:
Reduce the stress on the shoulder joint by using more leg power.
Require greater shoulder stability for fixation, therefore has the potential to create incredibly stable shoulders.
Use more of the lower leg, developing power in the calves and increasing stability of the ankle joint.
The kettlebell jerk is similar to the Olympic jerk in many ways, however the kettlebell jerk is not suitable for one rep max lifts, it is best used as a high repetition lift. One of the main reasons for this is that you cannot dump the kettlebell like you can dump a barbell, so if you attempt a one rep max and fail you go wherever the kettlebell goes – this has led to shoulder dislocation on at least one occasion. As a rule of thumb you should never try to jerk more than about an 8RM weight and never go to failure – and only experienced lifters should attempt to jerk a kettlebell this heavy.
Where to begin?
Before attempting the jerk, you should master the overhead press and push press. This will give you the opportunity to get the bell path perfect, practise the dip in a simpler lift and to teach your body how to fixate the kettlebell properly – all of which are essential for safe jerk technique.
You always want to be sure that you have sufficient mobility to perform the jerk safely. Ankle mobility is important to allow you to get into the first dip with your heels on the ground – this should be tested before doing the push press.
You catch the kettlebell in a quarter overhead squat position in the jerk, so you need to make sure you can get into this position comfortably with vertical arms – this is more demanding on your upper and lower back mobility and shoulder mobility than overhead lockout position. A good test is to do a broomstick overhead squat with arms vertical. If you can’t get to a quarter squat position with perfectly vertical arms then you have some mobility work to do before attempting the jerk.
The first dip
The first dip of the jerk is exactly the same as that of the push press.
The bump
The bump allows you to really use your legs to get the kettlebell up quickly and powerfully. The bump is similar to the drive in the push press, but goes further – in the bump the heels should leave the ground so that you come right up onto your toes.
The bump is all about transferring power from the lower body into the kettlebell, and this means you want to make sure that the energy from your legs goes directly into your elbow, which is essentially the kettlebell’s contact point with your body. You should feel the kettlebell get bumped off your hip, and if you’re getting it right you should feel a wave of energy travel from your feet up through your legs, into your hips and into the kettlebell.
It is important that you keep your toes on the ground in the bump and don’t completely leave the floor or change stance as you would with Olympic lifting. Remember that the kettlebell isn’t well suited to one rep max work – for higher rep work it’s going to benefit you to keep your toes locked on the floor and keep the same stance, jumping around not only wastes energy but because of the odd shape of the kettlebell it will destabilise you.
Begin by practising the bump on its own. The idea is to get the kettlebell as high as you possibly can with your legs and no input from your upper body, which means you will not get to the point where you’re locking out your arm (if you do, you’re just doing a push press). You want to be very sure you understand the rack to overhead lockout path from your overhead press and push press work so that once the kettlebell gets as high as your legs can get it you simply let gravity take over and it’ll drop back to rack – your forearm should be vertical throughout the movement, any tilting forward or sideways is dangerous.
The drop or second Dip
Once you’re very comfortable with the bump it’s time to add in the next phase of the jerk, which is dropping underneath the kettlebell (also known as the second dip). The idea of this is that you use more lower body and less upper body than you would if you were to press the kettlebell out into overhead lockout position. Your legs are stronger and will take longer to fatigue than your arms and this is why the jerk is a more powerful lift than the push press.
When you drop underneath the kettlebell you finish in the quarter overhead squat position, with your arm locked out vertically. This is the point at which fixation should begin, you should stop the kettlebell as soon as your heels hit the ground and your arm locks out. If the kettlebell is wobbling around in that quarter overhead squat position not only is your shoulder going to cop it, but your back is in a reasonably vulnerable position too so could end up injured.
Check out the below picture of Surya (women’s 20kg jerk record holder) from the Ice Chamber in the second dip of the jerk:
As with the push press, your ability to stop the kettlebell is partly dependent on having the handle in the correct position on your hand so that it is locked in on your forearm and doesn’t have a free end that can jump around. This becomes even more important with the jerk because there’s much more movement and stopping the kettlebell is more difficult.
When you catch the kettlebell in the drop you want to make sure that your hips and heel are underneath kettlebell so they can support its weight and you are stable. This means you will need to focus on getting your hips back far enough in the drop and shift the weight back into your heels.
The drop can be a difficult concept to get your head around, unless you’ve done some Olympic lifting. So, it’s a good idea to practise the sequence of movements from rack to the second dip without a kettlebell until you feel comfortable with it, then add the bell in. The “ceiling drill” can help cue you in to drop at the correct time: get someone to hold their hand about 15cm above your head and go through the dip and bump, as soon as your hand hits theirs in the bump that’s your cue to drop into a quarter squat and lock out your arm.
Standing up and completing fixation
After the second dip, the upward phase of the jerk is simply completed by standing up. You want to hold the kettlebell in overhead lockout position for a moment, and then bring it back to rack. A lot of people try to drop the kettlebell back to rack as they stand up from the second dip, which robs them of many of the benefits of the lift such as building supreme shoulder stability and means fixation isn’t completed.
In order to be able to finish the upward phase by simply standing up you want to make sure you get your arm into exactly the right position for overhead lockout in the second dip. It’s very common for people to have their arm forward, in the second dip and then get it into a vertical position as they stand up, which is less than ideal in terms of stability and shoulder fatigue.
Returning the kettlebell to rack The final phase of the jerk is returning the kettlebell to rack. Ideally, in order to further reduce the demands on the shoulder, you want to eliminate any eccentric contraction by letting the bell fall back to rack position – a controlled drop. Start by lowering the kettlebell slowly to make sure you know exactly where it should be going and can get it directly back to rack without and forwards or sideways detours. Then, get progressively faster. Brushing the front of your shoulder with the kettlebell as you let it fall back to rack will help you keep the kettlebell close to your body and on a safe path back to rack. As you get more advanced, you can come up onto your toes to meet the kettlebell as it’s dropping (thereby reducing the distance it has to travel before reaching your body and further taking the load off your shoulder), absorbing the shock with your legs, then re-setting your rack position. Don’t come up onto your toes too early, wait till the kettlebell has dropped about a third of the distance before going up to meet it.
Letting the kettlebell fall back to rack will allow you to preserve your shoulders and therefore get more reps out. If you are looking to lift heavy, you will need to be able to let the kettlebell fall because you will get to a point where you can no longer lower it eccentrically (the weight is too heavy) and you don’t have the option of dumping it as you would with a barbell (see the video in the next section with Pavlos jerking the 90kg bell).
Stringing it all together You can use the weight shift in your feet, or the movement of your hips, to tie all of the phases of the kettlebell jerk together and shape them into one flowing movement: So the weight shift in your feet will go like this:
Heels in the first dip
Toes in the bump
Back to heels in the drop
You can also think about the movement of your hips:
Forward in the first dip
Up in the bump
Back and down in the drop
Breathing for the kettlebell jerk
As with the push press, breathing for the jerk is dictated by the need to maintain an elbow-body connection in the first dip in order to be able to effectively use the lower body to power the lift and the need to relax at the appropriate time to be able to generate more speed (more speed basically equals more power).
So, the best breathing pattern for a kettlebell jerk is an anatomical one as it enables you to use your legs most effectively (see the video below of Pavlos Georgiadis’ jerk record with the 90kg kettlebell and note that he is using an anatomical breathing pattern).
You can start out with a simple pattern when you first learn to get the hang of it:
Exhale during the first dip
Inhale as you bump the kettlebell up
Exhale as you return the bell back to rack
Inhale in rack to reset
The ideal pattern, which you can start with or try once you’re comfortable with the above pattern, is:
Exhale during the first dip
Inhale as you bump the kettlebell up
Exhale as you catch the kettlebell overhead in the second dip
Inhale as you stand up
Exhale as you return the bell back to rack
Then, when you’re more advanced you can add as many breaths as you need in rack position and overhead lockout to get the pace you want.
Technique tips for the kettlebell jerk
A lot of the mistakes people make with the push press are mistakes they would make with the overhead press and push press, so a really helpful tip for the jerk is simply to get the overhead press and push press right first.
Some other things that will help:
The easiest way to learn the jerk is the break the movement down into its 5 phases (dip, bump, drop, stand up and drop the bell back to rack), go through each one individually and then string them together slowly, getting progressively faster as skill develops. Do this without a weight first, then add in the kettlebell.
Fixation should begin at the second dip, this is the point where you really want to focus on stopping the bell – this is essential for safe lifting. Ensure you lock the arm out fully when you catch the kettlebell overhead in the second dip, the arm lockout and the heels hitting the ground should happen simultaneously.
It is important that the elbow maintains contact with the body during the first bump to ensure efficient power transfer from the legs into the bell. One of the most common mistakes people make with the kettlebell jerk is losing that elbow body connection in the first dip through a break in the hips and incorrect breathing patterns.
The more you relax into the first dip the quicker and more powerful your bump will be.
Once your legs start moving in the first dip they should continue to move without stopping until you finish standing up. Stopping at any time will reduce your efficiency and power generation.
Double Jerks
The only real differences between singles and doubles with kettlebell jerks are:
Double rack position and overhead lockout position give you less wiggle room (you can’t rotate or shift your weight to one side) so have higher flexibility and mobility demands.
You need to be aware of exactly what your double rack position is (handles stacked or not) so that you can let the kettlebells fall back to rack without damaging your fingers.
Notice how Tashlanov and Denisov stack the handles in double rack, for most people this is the most comfortable double rack position.
Getting kettlebell jerks into your training The kettlebell jerk can be used in training like the overhead press and push press to provide an overhead component in your training regime, for balancing out upper body pulling movements and in complexes like the clean and jerk.
The jerk is perfect for high repetition lifting because it’s so efficient and spares the arms as much as possible. It’s great for developing power endurance in the legs, stability in the shoulders and when done at a decent pace has an intense effect on the cardiorespiratory system. This means the jerk is great as a supplement for many athletic pursuits, especially when it is balanced out with a clean in long cycle or with swing or snatch training.
The slow motion video of Denisov doing clean and jerk below is great for analysing jerk technique as well as clean and jerk – this is a video that’s always worth coming back to if you really want to break down these lifts and study perfect form.
These videos are designed for those who have the fundamentals of the kettlebell snatch under control but could do with a bit of polishing. It’s worth going back over swings to ensure everything is set up correctly for a good snatch rep (what happens in the backswing has a huge impact on what happens overhead).
These videos will take you through the basics of using rotational energy in the snatch, to make your kettlebell snatches stronger and more efficient.
There are some drills in the last video that are very helpful for implementing any changes you may need in your snatch technique.
This video of Fedorenko shows how his shoulders rotate during the snatch (lifting shoulder forward on the backswing, back on the upswing, and coming forward again to catch the bell in OH lockout). This makes for a very powerful snatch.
