London Kettlebells UK Kettlebells And Kettlebell Personal Training

We've written a small article about Kettlebell training and a brief FAQ on what to buy.

There has been a great deal written about kettlebell history so we won't go over it all again. What we'll do here is go over some of the benefits of kettlebell training cutting out the excessive and over the top claims that many websites espouse.

What a kettlebell can do for you

Kettlebell swings, cleans and snatches work the posterior chain hard and your abs won't be getting an easy ride either. This type of compound movement is great for athletics training, forcing the body to work as an integrated unit. The combination of strength and cardio will be a shock to the system as a ten minute workout with a kettlebell will get your cardiovascular system working overtime and a monstrous strength workout simultaenously. You will develop a steel grip as your hands gets fried from the effort of holding onto a heavy weight that is thrown about at high speeds.

Finally, if you think that core training comprises of rolling about on a swiss ball you're in for a rude shock as your abs, obliques and lower back get tortured from exercises like windmills and Turkish get ups. Go scare the mullets in the gym and impress the fitness bunnies.

Hands up all of you that hate standard cardio exercise? I have nothing against people that enjoy running, rowing or cross training machines but personally, I find that type of cardio extremely boring. The other problem is that the time spent doing the normal prescribed 45 minute cardio work could be better employed doing other training or checking out babes.

Unfortunately cardio is vital to health and general well being. It works the heart and circulatory systems, keeps the metabolism stoked (if done properly) and is one of the three components of strength and conditioning (the other two being strength training and flexibility/mobility work)

Now that I've gotten the crude innuendo's out of the way I'll be introducing the method I use to show people how to snatch a kettlebell.

There is something about throwing a weight overhead (probably fear) that makes people freeze up and lose the snatch.

Here is a simple method for getting used to moving a heavy weight overhead and fixing it in place.

1 handed swings. This works on getting the height and speed needed to send the bell overhead.

2 handed snatch pulls. A snatch pull is performed by deadlifting the kettlebell and explosively pulling it straight up. There should be little or no backswing and the hands should be holding the kettlebells by the "corners" of the handle. This works the path an efficient snatch will take and kick starts the dead snatch (one with no backswing)

Overhead holds. The endpoint of a snatch is holding a kettlebell overhead. If you're not confident doing this, you'll lose the exercise. Press or jerk a kettlebell overhead and hold it in place. Work on maximal tension at lock out.

There you have it. The LKB guide to working up to snatching kettlebells.

http://www.londonkettlebells.com

I walked into the local café to have my dinner one afternoon between clients, Jane the proprietor was in a bad mood. Being the nosey bastard that I am I asked what the problem was, she replied that she was having some back pain and it was going down her leg.

I told her that it wasn’t a problem that I would look at it and see what it was, I told her that if I couldn’t fix it I would know someone that could. It was then she explained that she was in the third year of remission from breast cancer that had spread into her lymphatic system.

I had a quick look and told her I thought it was her sacroiliac joint that was playing up and her right ankle was completely locked out. She replied that she was seeing her oncologist in a few days and he was concerned that the cancer may of spread to her bones and said she would speak to him first before undertaking any treatment, I agreed whole heartedly and said we would sort it out when he had given the all clear.

As with the bodyweight circuit, find a decent space for your shuttle runs. This one can be made as tough as you like by using a heavy bell or 2 bells

Stuck for time-this will knock your socks off!

Use a decent space for the shuttle runs - 20/30/50 feet etc.

Phase 1 10 laps Basic warm up: repeat 10 average paced laps
Phase 2 20 laps, 4 of each exercise Perform 5 press ups x 4 Perform 5 sit ups x 4 Perform 5 star jumps x 4 Perform 5 squats x 4 Perform 5 knees to chest jumps x 4
Phase 3 10 laps, squat thrust circuit - killer Perform 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 with each lap
Phase 4 10 lap cool down-slow pace

Enjoy your rest

http://www.londonkettlebells.com

This article is aimed at clearly addressing and explaining several different types of grip strength and ways of improving them.

Whatever your chosen sport or hobby, an increase in grip and general hand/wrist strength can be enough to give you the edge over others or to continually set new personal bests. Whether you are swinging a golf club, climbing a rockface, entering a grappling competition, training with kettlebells or just trying to close a certain strength handgripper, just a few weeks of working your grip specifically and with a balanced and progressive routine can yield good - to great - results for nearly every one of us. The training sessions don't need to be long, just effective, quite challenging and above all- consistent! 10 minutes 2-3 times a week is more than enough to develop serious grip strength with several months of training.

Where were you born and when?
Johnstone, Scotland on the 22nd of May 1962.

What is your height and usual bodyweight?
6' 2" and now over 17 stone (240 lb).

What is the length of your hand from fingertip to wrist?
7 7/8 inches.

How many children do you have?
have 3 sons, Jason Horne b.20/2/86, Oliver Horne b. 29/6/87 and Alexander Horne b. 20/11/91. I also have a baby due to be born in September of this year.

When did you start training?
My mum and dad got me a 140k weights-set, and a sturdy homemade wooden bench made by my dad, for my 17th birthday. I wanted to put size on so I did nearly every exercise in the booklet that came with the set. Needless to say that not much bodyweight increase happened, even with the raw egg drinks my dad whisked up for me. That alone put me off egg and milk drinks for a long time! But I seemed to be initially strong on feats that required hand strength, as when I was handed a nail to bend at work when some bodybuilders couldn't bend it, I easily did it and got back to the job of knocking posts in. I trained like this for a while, including a few visits to a local gym, and later gave it up to go out looking for girls! The weights were used here-and-there with brief periods of running till I really got back into training in 1985, aged 23. I have all of my training books right back to this period and it is fascinating to see my progress and what I did right, and what I did wrong!

1. start by cleaning 2 Kettlebells
2. drop the left kettlebell and lower into a good deep squat
3. pull the kettlebell while standing from the squat to a snatch
4. lower the snatched kettlebell to a double clean position
5. drop the right kettlebell and lower into a deep squat
6. stand and snatch the right kettlebell then return to double clean

http://www.londonkettlebells.com

"The Clamp" is a grip routine based around using 2 hand grippers: 1 you can close comfortably and 1 you are trying to close. As soon as you close your target gripper, that becomes the "easier" gripper and a new, stronger gripper is used for the target gripper section of the routine. In this way the routine can be used continuously based on only 2 grippers at any one time and you can see progress as you climb the ranks of the particular set or sets of hand grippers you are training with.