Saturday, February 13, 2010

Simple Ab Workout: Double KB Heavy-ish Swings for Sets

Last night, paying particular attention to form, i think i found what's likely been obvious to many folks who focus on kettlebell swings:
  • swinging two bells is very different from swinging one in two hands or one, hand to hand - the stance is different, the feel is just different.
  • getting bells that add up to a challenging weight can be well, challenging, physically and mentally
But here's the biggie for me from last night:
  • Doing short intense sets (like 10) - really works the abs - especially in putting the bells down in a controlled way at the end of each set. now that's a surprise.
I certainly felt my abs had been worked, each time i took a break between my 10's for recovery. Phew - in a good way.


higher faster stronger - and cheaper - DD kb's (story)

These short heavier 10 sets of 10reps also made doing two sets of fifty swings with just one of those bells, double handed, a far nicer experience - by which i mean going to one bell let me focus far more on form than control + form simply because the sets are longer, and i can get into them more to compare and contrast what i was just doing in the heavier sets - if that makes sense.

If you give this protocol a try, let me know what you find.

For folks less familiar with kettlebells, they are an awesome tool for fitness - especially perhaps for folks not inclined towards heading to the gym. There are a bunch of posts sited below to help get an overview of KB's if you're interested.


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5 comments:

Gary Horn said...

MC, I did something similar as you recently. I swung two 16k bells for 10 seconds, rested for 20, and did this for 30 minutes. It was a tough workout, especially for the undersides of my forearms. They got rubbed raw from brushing against the insides of my thighs.

Did that happen to you? Is my technique wrong? Should I wear long sleeves (I really don't want to).

dr. m.c. said...

Hi gary
thanks for stopping by. i wouldn't leap to saying your form is wrong.
now, i do double 16's in a T, and haven't had your experience, but i bet we're built differently.
if you have a video of you swinging the 2 bells i'd be happy to take a look at it.

best
mc

Joe Pavel said...

Hi MC,
Have you ever tried double swings with two different sized bells? Use the same number of reps per set. Just downsize one bell and the number of sets you do to start out with. "Functional Core training" without laying on the floor.

Gary Horn said...

MC, I don't have a video of me swinging. I'll see how much work that would take. In the meantime, how do you "do double 16s in a T"? What is that?

dr. m.c. said...

apologies - i mean in a t-shirt...

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