Kettlebells: The Ultimate Cross-Training Tool and WODs

So after a pretty hectic week--forest fire, evacuation, car crash, neck injury--I'm finally getting back into  my training cycle.  As well, at Rogue Kettlebell Fitness, we are ramping our training up for a number of events.  One of the biggest will be about a dozen clients running their first half-marathon--a great feat to say the least.

So a lot of our training has been focused on circuit training along with muscle-building lifts and sprinting drills to make the core, upper body, and legs all stronger.  I meet too many runners who run many races each year, but find them hobbling around a lot, injured and out of the game.  The first thing I tell them is they need to cut back on the running--yes, cut back--and do more strength and conditioning style training.  You really only need three runs a week:

1. Tempo Run
2. Sprint or Interval Work
3. Long Slow Distance (LSD) for Time or Distance

Also, all too common in America is the sit-in-a-chair lifestyle that weakens the posterior chain.  Well in fact, recent studies proved that strong hamstrings and quads, working together with proper hip, ankle, and knee movement is key to staying injury free while running. (Studies thanks to Katy Luetke, CSCS, of SHIFT Athletic Performance.)

1.  Why hamstring eccentrics are hamstring essentials. Thorborg, in British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2012  
2.  Muscular strategy shift in human running: dependence of running speed on hip and ankle muscle performance. Tim Dorn, Anthony Schache and Marcus Pandy. 

Why?  The answer is because running takes a toll on your body from all the impact.  Further, as you age, you become more prone to injury as other areas of the body lose strength and flexibility.  Case in point, I have one client who recently did a marathon, and she injured her IT-Band bad.  However, she came to KB class, and i told her to do even more KB classes instead of trying to jump right back into running.  Well, she stuck with the bells and took a little time off, and now she is out running again.  That is the point: A good strength program will pay out in dividends in regard to performance when programmed correctly.

Check out some clients doing upper body, lower body, and core strength WODs before we took it outside last Saturday for our running class.

Rogue Clients Hammering Important Lifts at Our Running Class Last Saturday!

Matt's WODs focusing on building strength, stamina, and endurance:

Monday: Strength Strength Circuit:  5x5 w/26Ks WU: 5/5 TGUs Set 1: Double Clean and Press (strict) and Weighted Pullups Set 2: Front Squats  Finisher: 5-1 Snatches (nonstop) and max-set pushups on KBs

Tuesday: Conditioning for Spartan 4-Mile Trail Run with Frek Fighter (Many downed trees) Finisher: I-Go-U-Go Pullups 1-8 and then tire flips until it hurt