Unilateral strength training involves the use of one limb at a time and for this dumbbells, kettlebells and bodyweight movements are the primary implements. I have found out that it is one thing to do a barbell lift but it is an entirely different proposition to do the same lift with dumbells. If you don’t train much with dumbells, expect to have your strength imbalances and weaknesses exposed as I have found out, much to my dismay. Glaring weaknesses. I would benefit greatly by doing an entire cycle of just doing unilateral training. Mixing in DB cleans, snatches, push presses, bench presses, in short, most of the things I do with a barbell. for good measure, adding in some plyometric and bodyweight exercises would increase the “fun factor”.

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As an athlete, should you consider it an insult if someone says you are “quad-dominant”? Why? Because it implies the athletic muscles from your posterior side, the backside, are under-developed. Simplistically speaking, the front muscles; bi’s, tri’s, pecs & quads are known as “beach” muscles and while there is nothing wrong with developing them and looking good, the real athleticism comes from the developed posterior chain muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons of the hips, spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings, calves and down to the ankles.

Since, as Dan John says, “the body is one piece”, you need to work the entire body and not give short shrift to those muscles, ligaments and tendons “hanging out” behind you. Developing these muscles make you more athletic, stronger, faster and a less likely chance of injury. You can’t get any more functional than that, can you? The beauty of human movement is the synchrony of the hips, glutes and hamstrings firing off at just the right time.

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Monday, 6/8/09

Jogged a mile and it sucked.

1 H Kettlebell Swings, 24 kg: 20/20/20/20.

Kettlebell Snatches, 24 kg: 20/20/10/10/20/.

Tuesday, 6/9/09

Sandbag Clean

Trained with Jon Curry

Snatch, x 3: 45/45/65/70/75/80/85/85/. Singles: 90/95/100/.

Sandbag Medley, 3 x 6:

• Bent Over Rows
• Power Cleans
• Zercher Squats
• Push Presses
• Back Squats
• Good Mornings

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What a week! While there were some good training sessions this week, this blog was down for a couple of days due to server issues. As you see, we are back up running (and lifting). We missed you here, but glad you’re back!

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You’re busy and don’t have a lot of time to train, so your plan is to get fit in the least amount of time without shortcuts. Here is your ticket to success.

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At the conclusion of unsuccessful NFL seasons, a lot of people get the axe-general managers, head coaches, assistant coaches, positional coaches and strength & conditioning coaches all can become expendable.

This happened today as my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers which had a deeply disappointing season and that axe fell hard for some, including Packer strength and conditioning coach, Rock Gullickson.

But what is the role of an S & C on an NFL team? Is he like a personal trainer to 53 elite full contact athletes or is there more to the job? Read the rest of this entry

liftkettlebells.com has posted and made available for download the Easy 30 and Easy 20 kettlebell workouts to be played on iTunes or on your iPod. Each workout is 30 and 20 minutes respectively.

This is a great idea and it is free! You can download each workout with or without music.

Now you can get a kettlebell workout on those days you would rather have someone else devise the routine. All you need is one kettlebell and 30 or 20 minutes.

Be sure and check out the other kettlebell-related content Jeff has to offer on his great site; especially the kettlebell videos.

I came across a great audio interview with the sandbag guy, Josh Henkin interviewing Olympic lifting coach, Greg Everett, who also publishes Performance Menu and runs Catalyst Athletics. They cover a lot of great topics including some pros and cons of the Crossfit protocol, training clients, the advantages and limitations of kettlebell training and a lot of great information on Olympic lift training. If you find any of these topics interesting, then you will want to listen to this interview.

By the way, I have both this book and the video and they are absolutely first rate!

Olympic Lifting, kettlebells, sandbags, Josh Henkin, Greg Everett, Performance Menu, Crossfit,

A Barbarian Blogroll Plug for Jeff at liftkettlebells.com who has some great new content, including video at his new and growing kettlebell-dedicated site.

You can find out who Kettlebell Kate is and what the SovietForce kettlebell gym is all about, (hopefully those guys know the Cold War is over)! Both of those sites have some good video up as well.

Jeff will also will fill you in on the best footwear for KB training and where the kettlebell gyms around the world can be found. This looks to be a work in progress so if you know of some gyms not listed, I am sure he would appreciate the tip.

Besides liftkettlebells’ growing collection of helpful kettlebell videos, you can listen to a detailed interview of kettlebell superfreak, Steve Cotter, linked to Super Trainer.

If you are new to kettlebell lifting as many of Val’s Kettlebells customers are, then this is a great place to get started. Of course, if you have logged a little more “swing time”, there is plenty here for you too.

MarkFu gives two thumbs up!