Hmm Looks very similar to the picture I posted in my last article eh? I wonder why....

Since my last post was about biomechanics my friend challenged me to apply it to kettlebells and I am accepting that challenge. Please let me know if I write anything wrong/hard to understand so I can improve myself

Let me put a disclaimer here. I am NOT saying that kettlebells are the ‘be all end all’ of strength training, fat-loss, weightlifting or whatever you want to call it. It is one of the MANY tools that can be used and for best results; use different tools from your arsenal so that your body does not get the chance to adapt and it will never know what hit it.

Another disclaimer, I am currently pursuing a diploma and have very little real world experience so what I say may or may not be true, furthermore what I am about to write on are just general observations.

Okay let’s get the ball rolling. The basic movement of kettlebell is the kettlebell swing. There are two parts to this. The concentric and eccentric portion. Concentric is when the bell is behind you and you are about to explode with your hips till the bell reaches about chest/abdominal region.(NOTE: It should not go up too high because that means you are using your shoulders to bring it up more than it should be). The eccentric is all momentum. There is no tempo like typical free weight exercises. This movement might look very simple but a lot of people get deceived by its simplicity that they let their ego take over. This movement is the basis for the rest of the other movements and should be properly drilled before moving on to more complex movements.

Let me give my personal experience from observation. I feel that people who don’t understand why others are so into kettlebells are the same people who ‘ego-lift’. What I mean by this is that they want to use the heaviest kettlebells they are able to barely lift and yet want to swing and up being the biggest jerks (pun intended) ever known to man.

The kettlebell swing can be used as a great tool to show the average joe how to lift with proper posture (neck, upper and lower back alignment) and activate the posterior chain (lower back,hamstrings,glutes,calves) instead of ‘muscling’ the swing. You have to grasp the concept of making love vs having rough meaningless sex. Kettlebell lifting is like making love while Ego-lifting is something like rough sex. You get the picture?

The two most effective coaching cues for this move is to ‘stick your ass out’ (to spare the lower back from excessive torque) and to ‘lift your toes up/put your bodyweight on your heels’ because this will AUTOMATICALLY activate your posterior chain. I have personally tried to do the opposite of this and suffice to say, it was a mess. Losing balance constantly and using the wrong muscles to do the same movement is not efficient exercising.

Another cue that I learnt from my good friend Andyn is to ‘keep the bell close to your groin’ because of several reasons which makes perfect sense if you think about it. You want to make the distance travelled by the bell as short and efficient as possible and for a person like me with long limbs, it might be ‘natural’ to have a longer range of motion but I have to consciously bring the bell close to my crotch area every time I do a repetition so that I don’t waste my energy and I will be also be able to generate much more explosiveness into the next repetition because it is much more closer to my body.

One possible debate is how much to bend the knees or whether it should be bent at all? As always, the answer is a gray area because there MUST be a slightest degree of bent knees (think stiff legged Deadlift) to spare the knees. For me personally, I don’t take note of how much I bend my knees because as long as my form (posture) is good, then it’s all good as there are no compensations (mobility and flexibility wise).

In conclusion, I feel that in life and weightlifting, EGO is mankind’s greatest enemy and if we learn how to defeat it, we can learn so much more and be a better human and lifter. I am just sharing what I know so please feel free to correct me.

A picture to illustrate what I've been blabbering about

This is something I submitted for my schoolwork. If I wrote something that is wrong/hard to understand please let me know. Enjoy the revival of my blog

How do you apply Biomechanics to your daily life?

First, let me define what biomechanics is. It is the study of movement of the human body. Biomechanics might seem like a technical jargon but it actually is not because if you observe closely, we humans have very similar yet different bio mechanism. What I mean by this is even though we walk the same (to the naked eye), There are several aspects that needs to be analyzed such as gait and degree of range of motion (ROM) for joints.

It is this analysis that is the epitome of sports and exercise sciences. It is said that no two people have the same thumbprint but I feel that it extends even further than that. I would go further to say that no two people have the same bio mechanism due to factors such as limb length, Upper and Lower Torso length difference and Motor Control.

The most important reason why people even bother studying about biomechanics is twofold. Firstly it is to improve performance efficiency. Many Olympic World Records have been smashed due to advancement in technology (external equipment, technique refinement) and bio mechanists are trying their best to push the envelope. Secondly it is to predict and prevent overuse injury due to a whole host of factors from daily postural habits to mobility and flexibility (or lack thereof).

This is why people should have a basic idea of bio mechanism for their own health and longevity so that their quality of life is not compromised even as they age. Bio mechanics can totally be applied to daily life. There are countless examples of how we get injured that can be traced to our bio mechanics. There are two types of injuries. Contact and Non contact injury. All non contact injuries can be prevented. The reason why non contact injuries happen is due to bad postural habits (Excessive kyposis, lordosis, Chronic shortening of the hip flexors and hamstrings) and lack of mobility in joints and lastly flexibility in muscles.

In conclusion, I feel that learning and applying bio mechanics should not be limited to athletes but to the average Joe too. It is true that athletes need everything they can get to improve their performance but what we are looking for in the long term is healthy joints and muscles.

Physical activity is one of the main factors with regards to the prevention of obesity-related illnesses such as Diabetes type 2,High Blood Pressure and some forms of cancer and more. I personally feel that ANY physical activity is better than none. I always hate the excuse people give when they say they got no time yet they are able to watch their favourite TV shows and surf the net, refreshing every minute to see their Facebook Status Updates.

Physical activity can be very as simple as taking the stairs down instead of using the lift. That is a good start although it might not have the desired effect of PREVENTING obesity-related illnesses, especially if you keep eating the way you eat that made you obese in the first place. If you want to see a drastic improvement in your health and wellbeing, you should get your butt down to the gym and try to learn as much as possible to make sure you don’t waste time and be efficient in the gym.

The reason why exercising is blatantly effective at preventing obesity and its related illnesses is that it promotes insulin sensitivity and reduces insulin resistance which basically means that you are fat(To varying degrees I might add. The more insulin resistant you are, the more fatter you are and the more closer you are to metabolic syndrome.)Exercise makes your muscles more insulin sensitive and slowly over time, you become more and more insulin sensitive(lean mean fighting machine) and less insulin resistant(walking tub of lard).

Why would someone want to prevent obesity-related illnesses when one can prevent obesity itself? If one takes the necessary steps as outlined in the previous problems, I am sure one can slowly but surely fight off obesity for good and live life to the fullest.

*This is just one of my many essay questions that I have written for school work. More coming soon! If there is anything wrong or if there is a need for constructive criticism/feedback just let me know!

A1 Pullup BW x 3, 5 sec iso hold at the top,5 sec lowering x 5 reps

B1 One Arm Row 17.5kg x 10  17.5kg x 10  17.5kg x 10

B2 Pushup  BW x 15  BW x 10  BW x 8

C1 Seated External Rotation  2.5kg x 10  2.5kg x 10

C2 Lying Trap 3 Raise  1.25kg x 10  1.25kg x 10

Notes

Did not do pullups for a loong time which explains for the drop in numbers.I did not want to go too heavy too soon because of my hiatus. The 17.5kg was enough to humble me for 10 reps.Concentrated on explosiveness and the quick turnaround. I decided to pair the rows with pushups instead of presses to save my rotator cuffs and shoulder due to previous niggly injuries. I forced myself to do prehab/rehab work with the external rotation(rotator cuff) and lying trap 3 raise(Lower traps). My infraspinatus and supraspinatus were pumped as hell after that!

Whats your excuse for not going to the gym?

I did just two sets of Farmers walk and rested too long. I then went on to kettlebell stuff. Here are the exact exercises.

One-arm Jerk- (each arm) 12kgx10, 16kgx10,20kgx10,24kgx5,16kgx10,12kgx10. Work set- 16kgx10 for 10 sets.

It was the first time I felt pumped and cramped from kettlebell lifting.My lower back and quads were the main affectors.I re-injured my right shoulder with the 24kg jerks but after the shoulder mobility drills and scaling back the weight,it felt okay. I can feel a distinct difference in speed and explosiveness between my right and left side. My left side is much more quicker than my right.

Overall a very good session and inspiring one watching 32kg kettlebells being hoisted up effortlessly(or so it seems).

I planned to do some bodyweight exercises in a circuit fashion. Pull Push Abs.

Pullup,Dips,Reverse Crunch.

Inverted Row,Pushups,Plank.

It looks good in paper eh? However it didnt go as planned due to some kindergarten kids running around the fitness corner and also I got my right rotator cuff injured at the same exact place.I could feel the inflammation and heat very quickly.I stopped and took my hockey ball to massage that part.It was less painful than last time though.My workout was cut short and I was quite disappointed it didnt work out as how I’d like.

I was out and about since my holidays that I think my home is like a hotel for me. I did a camp from 1-3 june at Pulau Ubin. It was Pasir Ris Primary School kids(Primary 5).They were a chaotic bunch to say the least. I would like to think I was not that bad during primary school but I bet others would beg to differ.

After I came back, I slept like there was no tommorow. The next day I went out to cut my hair and meetup with my brothers from another mother. It has been sucha long time since we all came together. It was very very fun and we missed each other’s company. Played Monopoly and went out for supper. Came back at 3am.

I cant believe how idiotic we looked last time.

Yesterday,We went out again, this time to sentosa! Asyrani is all grown up,serving the nation and all so we gathered everybody for one last time before he goes into camp. I was very happy that everybody came. We went in a convoy of 4 bikes at first, but my bike being as slow as a turtle couldn’t catch up with them so I went at my own pace. After Sentosa we headed to Jalan Kayu to eat.After that we headed to Yishun Dam to relax and oogle at bikes and cars showing off. Went back after awhile and reached home at 3am again.

Started off with 1 hand Kettlebell Swings(16kg).10 reps on each hand. Supersetted it with Overhead Squats.That is a bitch of an exercise.It reveals everything you need to know about a person’s mobility issues,if there is any. I was a total wreck though,my knees were caving in like nobody’s business and I could not even hit parallel.

Next was 1 hand KB cleans(16kg). Supersetted with alternating rows. My shirt was already drenched and like what Andyn had predicted,I was sweating bucketloads.The next exercise was a press and hold(12kg).Did 3 reps per side for 2 sets. That was it for the workout.My shoulder did not give me any problem but I could still feel it for one particular rep though.Well I really need to work with the hockey ball to release trigger points.

The Windmill. I've never tried this before but I can't help learning the technique from this picture(ONLY)

I did jerks and I felt pain in my shoulder joint when I locked out. I did not do anymore reps with my right side and took a rest. After that I stupidly tried a snatch and immediately dropped the kettlebell. It was a pain I never felt before. I immediately R.I.C.E.’d it. Taufiq brought a hockey ball and I used it to find my trigger point and it is so much harder and focal than a foam roller/tennis ball. I am so going to buy it today! It was really painful though.Andyn taught me shoulder mobility drills to rush blood to my shoulder to facilitate recovery. Bodybuilders would sure like it because of the incredible pump.

When I got home I managed to see my trigger point because it was reddish. I could feel the inflammation on the specific site. It was all good though. It will probably take half to one week to recover fully if I do what is required of me to optimise recovery(foam rolling/hockey ball,Mobility drills,Anti-Inflammatories,Protein,Lots of sleep!)

Very eye catching uh?