Yoga For KettlebellsEverywhere you turn these days kettlebells are making their presence known throughout the fitness world. But are you doing your yoga for kettlebells? Like all weighted instruments, or any exercise for that matter, making sure that you have properly primed yourself for exercise along with a proper compensatory exercise is the way to continued improvement and healthy returns. Unfortunately, there aren't many programs out there that specifically deal with priming your joints for a specific exercise. Not to mention a system that includes a proper compensatory yoga cool down program for weighted exercise. As a matter of fact, I can only think of one such system. That would be the Kettlebell Foundation program from Circular Strength Training®. The Scott Sonnon Kettlebell Foundation DVD is one such program that covers warmup, kettlebell lifts, and compensatory yoga for kettlebells cool down in a great 3 DVD package. If you are into kettlebell lifting I highly suggest that you get this great DVD.
However, while you are waiting for you DVD to arrive I would like to offer you some yoga for kettlebells poses that you can use as a compensatory exercise after your heavy lifting. The kettlebell movement that we will look at is the two handed kettlebell swing. Here is a video of the movement. Similar to the double hand Clubbell front swing, the primary joint we are targeting is the pelvis using a surging motion. If you are not familiar with the six degrees of freedom like a surge, I am referring to the following: Heaving: moving up and down Swaying: moving right and left Surging: moving forward and backward Rolling: rotating right and left Pitching: rotating forward and backward Yawing: twisting right and left. The double hand kettlebell swing is a great exercise to really get your blood flowing and it alone can give you an incredible cardio workout. Just ask Lance. You can read about his workout and see him doing a kettlebell swing here.
While getting burly by doing heavy swings is great we mustn't forget to use a compensatory movement like a yoga pose in order to help keep our bodies in balance. As Coach Sonnon recently wrote in his latest blog post, "One of the primary concepts unique to the Circular Strength Training® System is training the functional opposite in order to maintain balance by compensating for the adaptations of the prior cycle of exercise (or sport skill) development.) " As I mentioned above, with the swing we are primarily using a pelvic/lumbar surge in one major degree of freedom. By using a compensatory yoga pose after a hard workout we can help keep our body in balance and quicken the recovery process for our next kettlebell session. So after your next big session of kettllebell swings give the following poses a try. Make sure to hold the poses for a minute each and go as deep as you can while still keeping the proper posture. Basic King DancerYou have probably seen the full out Kind Dancer Pose on magazine covers and in advertisements. It looks like this.
No, we will NOT be doing this pose. This is the one we will be doing.
Start with your legs together and raise your left arm straight out in front of you. Next, draw your right heel up to your buttock and grab the top of your ankle with your right hand. Don't grab your toes or the top of your foot. You'll end of pulling on it and we don't want to do that. To get fully into the pose you will keep your knees together and kick your foot against your right hand as you gently pull your ankle back towards your butt. Make sure you aren't rounding your back yet don't overly puff your chest out. Slightly bring your hips forward and hold this final position for a minute on each leg. Make sure that your knees are together! This isn't the King Dancer Pose. You can save that one for the magazines. Modified Back BendOur next pose can't really be classified as a true compensatory pose for the swing but it is one that will help in opening up the front and ultimately helping with the kettlebell swing. It is the modified backward bend. I say modified because we don't want to go all Gumby on this one.
When doing this pose it is important to try and relax your butt as difficult as it might be. Rather than try and bend yourself backwards extend your fingers towards the ceiling behind you and push with your legs. This will really open up the front plane of the body in preparation for your next session of swings. Here's how to do the pose.
Start with your legs together like in the Basic King Dancer. Place your hands together in front of your chest. Feel free to lace your fingers together. As you exhale deeply, take your hands straight up above your head and push them back behind you as your push with your legs. Again, relax your butt and with another exhale look up at your hands and push back slightly while at the same time taking your hands towards the ceiling. Hold this for up to a minute. This pose alone after a killer session of kettlebell swings will leave you drenched in sweat and begging for mercy. But don't give in! This is one pose that will kick your butt but show you the way to a better balanced body. Give these poses a try to keep your body balanced so you can keep yourself healthy and injury free. Go Back To Yoga-For-Men.com Home Page
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