Functional
training means that you develop strength through the range of motion
that you’re using in your sport. So
if you’re coming off the line in football, bench pressing
is functional. But where is its value in golf? I’m
surprised that Tiger is so enamored of it.
But then again I’m not. There’s something satisfying
in grabbing hold of the iron and pitting yourself against it.
And it’s proven that, aside from the muscle development,
hormone production is stimulated. So you get hooked on “the
pump.”
But there’s something out there that’s more functionally
appropriate than “lifting” weights, and in my opinion
more satisfying as well. And that’s “swinging” weights,
using ballistic movements to throw them out and bring them
back in.
Clubbells® and Kettlebells are a great way to add a “weight
resistance” component to this Flow Training program.
The center of gravity of these tools is displaced from where
the
weight is gripped, and this adds a whole new dynamic to the
exercise.
If you compare Clubbells® to Kettlebells, then Clubbells® are
a little more functionally oriented. You can swing Clubbells®
through wide, multi-planar arcs, which is why Coach Scott Sonnon,
who redesigned Clubbells® using modern materials, calls working
with them “Circular Strength Training ™.”
Kettlebells on the other hand I see as developing whole body
general purpose horsepower.
Pavel Tsatsouline, who brought kettlebells here from Russia
where he developed training programs for the Spesnatz, the Russian
Navy Seals, has proven the cross-training value of working with
kettlebells.
Steve Maxwell from Philadelphia’s Maxercise gym is a two-time
world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Both he and his wife D.C.,
who’s a three-time world champion, train three minute
continuous kettlebell sets with one minute rests, thus simulating
the intensity
of their matches. They just blow people off the mats.
I don’t know any other weight resistance program that
can train the X-Factor the way Clubbells® and Kettlebells
can. You’ll be using everything you've learned from
the Infinity Drills, from the Coiling Drill, from the Wave
Drill, from the
Horse Stance Drill. You’ll have to work deep into the
hip fold on the downswing and then, keeping your back and
shoulder
alignments, drive the hips forward, propelling the weight
directly from your body core.
Grip and forearm strength are radically challenged. The displaced
center of gravity means that at any given point through
which the weight is passing, and certainly at the stopping point,
you’re
constantly finding and losing and regaining your ability
to balance the weight.
This means that you’re not only training obvious external
locomotor muscle groups, but also and more importantly
the internal so-called postural or stabilizer groups such as the
tendons and
ligaments and whatever other muscles are responsible for
stabilizing the joints and keeping the skeletal structure aligned
with gravity.
It’s these “internal” sets of muscles and
tendons and ligaments that are the true “keepers of the
whip.” It’s by means of these joint stabilizing muscles
and tendons and ligaments that the “wave” can
ripple up through the unified body and explode through the
hands at
impact to create that one inch punch or sizzling drive.
You can’t train these internal muscle groups by contracting
them the way you contract the biceps and triceps when doing curls.
You certainly can’t stretch them the way you stretch
your hamstrings.
You
train these internal stabilizer or postural groups by applying
a torque force to them, by twisting them and rotating them. That’s
why we train the spiral patterns of movement.
And that’s why the Clubbells® and Kettlebells work so well
with this program. The ballistic movements, the circular and
arcing movements, even the grinding movements that have to fight
the displaced center of gravity upward or outward…they’re
all building this twisting and rotating, this “torquing” strength.
The X- Factor is really just a way of measuring one’s
whole body torque. It’s the increase in the separation
between your hips and shoulders as you start your forward
swing. The Coiling Drill works the unified-body rotation
and counter-rotation
of hips vs. shoulders.
The inward and outward Clubbell® pendulums do the same from
another perspective. As the weight moves away from you, you apply
drag
from the feet to pull the upper body in and bring the weight
back. Your shoulders act as the pivot point, your spine
must be stable and when you pull the weight in you must catch it
in
your core and use your core to stabilize the shock of impact.
It’s a real blast. And it gets results. Good luck
Trainer Joe Scuderi
