Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Kettlebell Front Squat Breathing Micro Master Class by Will Williams

I've commented before on RKC Team Lead Will Williams artful kettle bell front squat. At the aug08 CK-FMS, i was able to get a few precious minutes with Will between sessions for him to demo his technique, in particular, the breathing sequence of the KB FS.

[update 1, below]

You'll note the "huh" hiccup at the end of the down stroke, as well as the tsss inhalation at the top of the sequence. Will explains this cycle at the end of the demonstration.


will williams performing kettlebell front squat
(voice over: mc)

You may want to turn the audio up during the exercise sequence so you can hear the breathing intake, hiccup and exhalation.

Will has previously described this breathing as:
From the top, get tight and begin to Breathe Behind the Shield [inhaling into yoru nose as you brace the abdomen] and descend into the squat. AS YOU HIT BOTTOM, not before or after, you pressurive and 'SAVE" your inhale with the small, short, barely audible grunt/hiccup, from there, stay tight everywhere, and as you extend the hips and complete the concentric portion of the squat, blow out the candle 10 feet in front of you, reload and repeat.


Follow up, Sept 11, 08: bone rhythm
Will's technique is awesome on breathing.
This past week i've learned a new one called "bone rhythm" that would suggest for added efficiency, there's one more component to add here: the knees finish moving at the same time as the butt. Here, the knees finish moving sooner than the butt. Mike describes bone rhythmn here. And if you look at Mike perform a deadlift here, you can see BR in motion:




the hips and knees are together on the descent (finish the move down at the same time) and the hips finish with the knees on the pull up - check the speed differences of both parts but note the synching is the same. It's the physics of efficiency. It takes practice in a mirror, or with a partner.

A tip Kathy Mauck gave me while working on this with my deadlift was to close my eyes. Once i did that i could feel the timing a lot more clearly. It's kinda weird and wonderful to get. It sure helped my dead.

Now to try blending this with will's super breathing...

Update Nov. 08 Recently came back to thinking about the front squat when thinking about the perfect rep, looking at it from z health's four aspects of efficient movement, of which breathing is one. Also get into the arthrokinetic reflex and the effect of head position on strength.

3 comments:

Franz Snideman said...

Great squat. Will certainly has perfected his technique. Thanks for sharing!

Hope you are well!

It's nice seeing you be so active on the new RKC Forum. Keep it up!

Cheers!

Authentic Strength Training said...

We are a good team eh? Thank you MC for giving me that chance. Hi Franz! I am back online regularly now gal, so we will be chatting soon!

dr. m.c. said...

Franz, so nice of you to stop by. It was great great to meet you at the cert. my goodness you're a nice person, and thank you for the sprint work; that was awesome to get that forced acceleration!!

Will, a first seeing you hear, no? thank YOU for doing that demo. and for dropping by great good stuff. wanna do more video micro will's.

best to you both
mc

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