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Kettlebell Yea WTH effect!

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Questionfear

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I am in my first week of Rite of Passage, and I am incorporating a pull-up progression alongside the presses. I can't do a pullup, and so I am working on dead hangs and bodyweight rows.

As a bit of background, I have struggled a lot with getting a strict bodyweight horizontal row (as in, legs straight out, laying flat and pulling my chest to the dining room table). Before I started with kettlebells I was following You Are Your Own Gym, so I did a ton of rows, but couldn't get past horizontal rows with my legs bent, or angled rows with suspension straps.

Monday during my light day, I surprised myself by doing 3 strict bodyweight rows alongside my presses. Today I did 6, which proved to me that Monday wasn't a fluke-I really can execute strict, legs straight, body rigid horizontal rows! All without training rows at all for months.

My guess is that this is from heavy kettlebell swings especially, but damn...it's such a small hurdle but it feels amazing to know I can do it...and it gives me so much confidence in general going forwards!
 
Hello,

My guess is that this is from heavy kettlebell swings especially
Swings permits to maintain your pull up level (to a certain extent). They work very well shoulder and scapula.

For the pull up, did you try to use a elastic band to help you ? Or even a counterweight and pulley system ?

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
First of all, @Questionfear, congratulations on your PRs! Always nice to hear dedicated people achieve new things! ;)

Second: I also had great pull up benefits from heavy swings. I went from zero to two pull ups (the second was a struggle).

You're packing those shoulders good, keep it up and cheers from Italy!
 
Hello,


Swings permits to maintain your pull up level (to a certain extent). They work very well shoulder and scapula.

For the pull up, did you try to use a elastic band to help you ? Or even a counterweight and pulley system ?

Kind regards,

Pet'

Not yet-I need to pick up some bands for that purpose. It's on my list of "next time I have pocket change and hit up Amazon" items. :)
 
That's absolutely awesome, congrats!

Before I started with kettlebells I was following You Are Your Own Gym, so I did a ton of rows, but couldn't get past horizontal rows with my legs bent, or angled rows with suspension straps.
That's interesting. I actually thought YAYOG was one of the more sensible and better calisthenics programs out there. Shame.
 
That's absolutely awesome, congrats!


That's interesting. I actually thought YAYOG was one of the more sensible and better calisthenics programs out there. Shame.

YAYOG did me a ton of good overall. Rows were one of the areas where I didn't have much improvement, but I do credit YAYOG with getting me to a much higher baseline level of overall fitness than I had before. If I had to knock YAYOG for anything, it would be that the program assumes/expects faster upper body development than might be possible (ie, the beginner program jumped from inclined pushups to floor pushups very abruptly, and seemed to expect you to jump from assisted pullups to full pullups after just a few weeks). However, I did follow it as best I could and just modified the exercises to where I was, even if it wasn't exactly where the app/program listed.

But for sure I became a lot stronger via YAYOG, just not as strong as I have from kettlebells. :)
 
Grab a TRX system, or the Walmart knock off. You can attach it to the top of a door with no damage to the door and row all day. Just adjust your foot placement to adjust the resistance. I used mine as rehab from elbow surgery, it worked great!
 
Hello,

@Questionfear
If you find a method that works for you and makes you reach your goal, then keep using it ;)

For the row, Australian row are quite challenging and interesting:
All About Australian Pull-ups | Al Kavadlo

It is possible to do them OA or OL or OAOL. In all cases, it strongly engages the core to avoid twisting and to maintain a straight position. We can progress on them using négatives and partials.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
@Questionfear, learning to use your lats can have great carryover to other exercises. I learned how to use them by deadlifting a barbell and working the active negative of an overheard press, and my pull-ups went from 2 to 12 as a result without training pull-ups just because I've found my lats.

-S-
 
@Smile-n-Nod, it's more "along with" than "instead of" - it's about a basic StrongFirst concept, feed-forward tension, and learning to tense muscles that you wouldn't necessarily think are necessary for the lift at hand, or tense them harder than you otherwise might. It's part of the skill of strength. People think an overhead press is a shoulder exercise, but when you use your lats, it's safer _and_ you're stronger _and_ it has carryover to your pullups. What's not to like about all that? :)

-S-
 
Also my understanding is that the more you're recruiting all available muscles, the more you're strengthening and protecting your overall joint health. I know that I got a lot of lectures from my physical therapist about that when I tore my ACL, and how women are more susceptible to ACL tears because they tend to not work their hips/quads/hamstrings together enough, and when one area is weak it makes the whole knee more susceptible to ligament tears. I would presume the general concept carries over to many other muscle groups as well.
 
How does one "recruit" additional muscles? I can tense additional muscles during a movement, but I'm never sure whether they're contributing to the movement or just tensing isometrically. Lots for me to learn, I guess...
 
Hello,

How does one "recruit" additional muscles?
A "first step" can be to use bodyweight move only. For instance, you get a hollow position, lying on the floor. Then, you successively try to put tension, first in your quads (or even better, a quad, then the other), then you go up to the core. You try to "play" this way. Then, you go for the entire body.

Full tension helps you a lot in almost every move.

For instance, the press:
> putting tension in calves and quads permit to firmly lock the knees
> putting tension in glutes, core and lats permit to stay perfectly straight
> putting tension in arm and shoulder permit to lift
> putting tension in forearm and arm permit to lock the elbow when you reach the up position
> putting tension in the hand / arm which does not press permit to get an additional neural tension to lift a little more.

You have the exact same idea for each move.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
You can think of the body as one big muscle. So when you tense one part, everything fires.
 
@Smile-n-Nod , @Steve Freides is spot on, the courses and the certs are the best way to tie things together. You can read all you want in books, forums and articles but the "in person" effect is by far the best way to make sense out of the (seemly) nonsense.

How does one "recruit" additional muscles?
is a great question without a direct answer (frustrating I know). it works much better by saying, "what do I have to do it recruit additional muscles?" the brain and body works in "Movements not muscles" or "patterns not parts" to quote Grey Cook. So if you are wanting to "recruit more lats", rather than thinking "contract my lats", instead, while you're holding the KB or barbell before a deadlift or swing, physically try to break the handle or bend the bar before initiating the movement. This movement or action will "turn on" your lats without having to think about it. It sounds weird but works like a hot damn.

There are so many great techniques like that, that you'll learn at the Strongfirst courses/certs that make so much more sense than reading them.
I hope that makes at lease little sense.
 
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