Diesel Crew - Muscle Building, Athletic Development, Strength Training, Grip Strength » kettlebell lifting

Update – Training for the Snatch Test

Jedd Johnson — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:37:11 +0000

Over the weekend, I put up a post (directly below) asking for assistance with my kettlebell snatch technique for the RKC Snatch Test.

Many of you posted comments, and I really appreciate it because there is more bad technique stuff going on with my snatch than I realized.

However, I have great news!

UPDATE: On Sunday, I was able to hit 105 reps in 5 minutes!

Now, my form (especially with my right hand) is still pretty rough, so I need to work on that, but I guess my conditioning wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was.

This was my repetition sequence: Left – 32, Right – 29, Left – 15, Right – 15, Left – 12, Right – 2

8/29/10 – 100 Rep Snatch Test Training

I have Grip Strength Nationals coming up this weekend. I can’t afford to rip a callus off this close to the contest, so I am going to wait to train the Snatch again until Sunday or Monday. I am glad that I got right into it and pushed myself ahead of time, because it has been a huge mental boost for me going into my Grip Comp, plus I won’t worry about taking about a week off of snatching.

From what I have been told, there is a lot more stuff that goes on at these clinics than just snatch tests, so once Nationals has gone by I am also going to start hitting a ton of Swings and Get-ups to get ready.

One thing that has surprised me is how FANTASTIC my back feels during these 100-rep tests. So loose and limber, it’s amazing.

I’m looking forward to the next snatch test session, as I want to implement some of the technical improvement suggestions made in the last post I made. For whatever reason I am hitting way more reps with my left hand and the technique with that arm is a lot rougher than the right. If I can get that buttoned up, I’ll be able to get to 100 a lot more efficiently.

It was great to hit this PR. I wish you the best with your own PR’s this week.

Make it a great day!

Jedd

P.S. If you have already passed the RKC Snatch Test and are looking for other challenges, you should check out our Diesel Kettlebell eBooks. You can see them here = > Advanced Kettlebell Training

Training for the Snatch Test & RKC

Jedd Johnson — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:18:47 +0000

I have called upon the readers in the Diesel Universe for my Muscle-up training in the past, and now I have another favor to ask.

In September, Smitty and I are going to an RKC certification, and we will be doing the 100-rep Snatch Test.

Before last week, I never did more than like 20 snatches total in the same day, so this is all completely foreign to me, so i was wondering if some of you would take the time to watch a couple of the videos I have taken of myself trying the Snatch Test.

If you have time to watch, and leave any suggestions you have in the comments section, I would really appreciate it.

Video 1

This is my very first set trying the snatch test. I got 68 reps. I did not count one of them because I partially snatched it with both hands. I must have miss-counted when I first reviewed the video because I say 13 reps on the last set but I actually got 18.

I really thought I’d get much more than 68 on my first set, but I was taking too much rest time during repetitions, I think.

Rep Pattern: L25, R25, L18

Video 2

I took about 15 minutes rest and tried one more set. This time I made quicker transitions between reps and got 80 reps. Lost a rep on a flubbed transition and had to do a short swing. Definitely need to avoid that on test day.

Rep Patter: L20, R20, L15, R15, L10

Like I said in the video, my form is rough and I am SO not in shape for this. I was really huffing and puffing on this day. I am more used to Juggling Kettlebells and doing other Feats with them

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have.

Make it a great day!

Jedd

P.S. To all you Steel Benders – I just started working on a project today that is going to help you out tremendously. Stay Tuned for further announcements.

Evolving the Kettlebell Snatch

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:16:23 +0000

Hello everyone. If you love kettlebell training, then I’ve got a post for you!

I’m going to show you a few ways to modify the kettlebell snatch to make it more challenging and grip strength intensive. And then I am going to ask you what ways you modify kettlebell lifts in your training.

There are almost endless ways that you can vary your kettlebell training to provide yourself with a new stimulus.

Using a heavier bell…

Doing more reps per set…

Using a kb in each hand…

Holding two kettlebells in one hand…

The list goes on and on.

A few weeks back I put together a short clip on how you can vary up the starting position and orientation of the kettlebell when performing kettlebell snatches to make them more challenging.

You’d be surprised how much changing the location of the kettlebell can effect the force production involved in the snatch.

Before we get into the variations, I think we can agree that the standard manner of starting a kettlebell snatch is by placing the kettlebell between the feet, performing a partial swing, initiating a controlled eccentric phase, and then snapping the hips to propel the bell overhead.

Here is a series of stills to illustrate this:

Starting Position and Mini-Swing Phase

Eccentric Loading and Concentric Explosion to Lock-out

Now, here are just a handful of ways you can easily modify the starting position of the kettlebell snatch to make it more challenging.

To begin, the first thing we are going to do is eliminate that first mini-swing, altogether.

Instead, we will begin with the kettlebell out in front of the feet, this time. This position still allows for somewhat of an eccentric phase, albeit an abbreviated one, in order to load the hips for the snatch.

Kettlebell in Front

Next, we will position the kettlebell slightly behind us. This will completely eliminate the mini-swing and by doing so, we are taking out the eccentric phase of the lift, and beginning the lift with an elongated concentric portion.

Kettlebell Behind

Don’t let the simplicity of these minor adjustments fool you into thinking that they do not make much of a difference. By decreasing or eliminating the eccentric portion of the movement prior to the snatch causes noticeable increase in difficulty.

But that’s really only the beginning. I have one more thing that you have probably never seen before and never thought about trying in your kettlebell training. This is a technique that we introduced in our Advanced Kettlebell Training eBooks. It is going to hit your grip like few kettlebell movements can and force you to truly focus on generating speed and power from the get-go if you mean to get the bell all the way up in the snatch.

This challenging, yet simple modification involves turning the kettlebell over on it’s side without straightening it prior to the lift.

Kettlebell Tilted

In the following video, you will notice right away how dynamic the initial pull of the kettlebell snatch becomes when you start of the lift in this manner. The kettlebell immediately pulls straight once it leaves the ground and if you are not able to positively respond against this force, you may just have trouble completing the snatch.

Well, there you go, another chapter in your kettlebell training playbook. So what ways do you modify kettlebell lifts?

How many other variations can we come up with? Which ways are you kinetically altering the kettlebell snatch these days?

Post them below in the comments section. I always like hearing about how all of you in the Diesel Universe are using your imaginations and thinking up crazy ways to train.

Thanks and all the best in your training.

-Jedd-

We have lots of other Kettlebell posts – Check them out below:

Kettlebell and Stone Lifting Workout

Correcting Kettlebell Form and Technique

Kettlebell / Sandbag Workout 2

Kettlebells Giving Me a Headache

Kettlebell Squat and Press Combo

Kettlebell Chain Training II

Cool Kettlebell Training

Kettlebell Hand Switch Technique

Kettlebell and Bodyweight Workout

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Fun in the November Sun

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:41:17 +0000

It’s funny how much the weather in Northeast PA can change from day to day. It can get COLLLLD here.

Yesterday, I trained for 3 hours in my garage, freezing my ass off the whole time. I was wearing sweat pants, a long-sleeve thermal shirt, two tee-shirts under that, and had a stocking cap on. To top it all off I had an Amish heater humming in the background all the while.

It seemed unseasonably cold for the first weekend in November. Flash forward 24 hours…

Today, I looked out the window around 10 AM and realized that it was probably the most gorgeous Sunday I have seen in months. It rained most of the summer and I never once got a weekend to do any atlas stone lifting.

I have been wanting to lift stones so bad that I took a look at my to-do list and decided I was going to take advantage of the extraordinary weather and do some killer kettlebell training and some serious stone lifting.

I started out with some dynamic warm-up, including foam roller, hindu push-ups, windmills, and some lunge reaches. I have doing a lot of dynamic warm-up lately and it has really been helping me out with my back pain. If you are having back pain, I suggest you look for opportunities to improve your warm-up practices and your post-workout flexibility routines.

After the warm-up, I took our 95-lb kettlebell outside and started to ramp-up. I knew I wanted to do some juggling stuff, so I started out with some cleans and some snatches to knock the rust off. From there I started out with some basic juggles – forward flips, backward flips, side flips, forward flips into a snatch, side flips into a snatch and finally worked up to a double forward flip into a snatch.

All of this with the 95-lb’er. My endurance is down for flipping and juggling, but as far as the technique, it didn’t seem to hard to get back into the swing of things.

From there, I started working on the atlas stones. I love training on atlas stones. I want to do more of it but I have shied away from it because of issues I have been having with my back. I had absolutely no pain today, so I am going to look to do more stone training, as long as the weather allows it.

I have like 6 atlas stones. They range from like 200-lbs to 405-lbs. I got them all second hand and never really weighed any of them. One of my buddies weighed them when he was training for a contest a couple years back, but the elements have since worn them off so I have to guess at them now.

I wasn’t interested in pulling the stones without tacky. I had my eyes set on the 405-lb stone from the beginning, so I went ahead and wrapped my forearms with athletic tape and threw on some tacky.

I started out with the lightest stone, somewhere in the 200-lb range. Then I jumped up to a stone in the 285-lb range. Both of these were easy. The 360-lb stone came up pretty quickly as well. Pulling it to the lap was actually pretty easy, I thought. I then rocked and fired the stone up to the high chest.

Next, I rolled the 405 to the lifting area. The 405 is extra challenging because when it was made a lead insert block insert was put into it to make it heavier. That’s cool, of course, but the block isn’t centered so it makes the stone swivel as you try to lift it off the ground. It also causes some weird leverage forces as you try to load it, so it brings to meaning to the term odd object lifting.

I went after the 405 three times, giving it multiple attempts per try. Twice I got it up to my lap but just couldn’t quite keep it from slipping as I tried to load it to the high chest.

THE 405 WILL FALL NEXT TIME BROTHERS!!!

I am definitely out of practice. The first few pulls on the stones felt slow and cumbersome, but it wasn’t surprising because I think I trained stones one other time this year, if that. It felt awesome to get some work in on the stones today and look forward to more down the road!

To finish off the workout, I then tore one of the phone books I got while I was at OSU last week. They are like 1500 pages.

I couldn’t believe how tired my hands, wrists and forearms felt after lifting the stones. It was quite challenging keeping my grip on the book. It makes sense, since you have to clench the stones with an open hand and the forearms are under tension the whole entire time, but I either never thought about it before, or I just never tried tearing a phone book after atlas stone training before.

I shot plenty of footage today and zipped it all up into a video, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did shooting it.

Subscribe to my channel by clicking here ==> Jedd’s YouTube Channel

Here’s to more stone lifting in the near future,

-Jedd-

P.S. If you are serious about trying out atlas stone lifting, but aren’t sure how to get started, then check out our Stone Lifting Fundamentals DVD. Click here ==> Atlas Stone Lifting Technique DVD.Similar Posts: