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GET UP!Volume II, Issue 6Snow winterWell, if you believe in the Paleolithicparadigm for eating, this is the time of year weall start to live off our “acquired” fat supply wehad the opportunity to build up over the springand summer and fall. That’s my story and I’msticking to it.This is my favorite time of year forrecovery work. Hottubbing in a snowstorm isone of life’s great moments. It is also a greattime to review the past year and strive not tomake the same mistakes this next year.Our mission? To teach everyone:1. The Body is One Piece2. There are three kinds of strength training: Putting weight overhead Picking it off the ground Carrying it for time or distance3. All training is complementary.Using Clubbells for RotationalStrengthShawn HanrahanShawn Hanrahan is the AssistantDirector/Co -Owner of AdvancedAthletic Performance. A sportsconditioning company dedicatedto developing the completeathlete. Kettlebells can bepurchased form our website atwww.aaptraining.net. Pleasefeel free to contact Shawn at480-206-4434 or ataaptraining@lycos.com with any questions. Stay tuned foradditional article with advanced kettlebell training and theintroduction of clubbells.One of the hardest areas of the body tostrength train and is neglected is the shoulder.Typically the shoulder is trained by overheadpresses and incline presses which are greatexercises. Upright rows and side(front) lateralsare also used which are more geared towardsbodybuilding and to an extent rehabilitation. Itis hard to train the shoulder in multidirectionprimarily due to the limited equipment we haveaccess to and the two-dimensional mindset wehave been raised in by the bodybuildingcommunity. The shoulder is always trained in anup and down motion with concentric andeccentric movements. The shoulder is a ball andsocket joint and has the most range of motion outof all the joints. It is also one the highest areasNovember 2003of injury because of the high range of motion. Iwould like to introduce you to an implement thatcan change your shoulder training regiment andintroduce your body to rotational strength. Thisimplement is called a clubbell which has beenpreviously talked about in Issue 13.Scott Sonnon being a great innovator of strengthtraining for martial arts re-invented the modernday clubbell we use today. He has a resume aslong as your arm and has been in the SovietUnion to observe their special forces andOlympic lifting training. And in both arenas heobserved some sort of clubbell variation used forperformance enhancement. Clubbells have beenmostly used in the martial arts arena and reallyhave not broken into the strength training orOlympic lifting community in the US. I have yetto see them in any gyms and at any sportsperformance training facilities unlike at the turnof the century. Gyms in the US at the turn of thecentury were filled with clubbells along with alot of gymnastic equipment that conditioned thegeneral public. This is unlike today’s gyms thatare filled with useless and unproductiveequipment for people to bodybuild and sit on totalk on their cell phone.A clubbell is a short rubber bat with the majorityof weight at the end, pretty simple. The originsof the clubbell go back to India where it wasused as a weapon with the eventual use forstrength conditioning. Just like the kettlebell,clubbells are a great implement to assist withOlympic lifting and sports performance. Thereare several results from clubbell use: Rotational StrengthGrip StrengthShoulder RehabilitationStrength CoordinationEvery time people say they can’t performOlympic lifts, especially overhead, is due tosome sort of shoulder injury they previously hadyears ago, JUST AN EXCUSE. Well why nothelp rehabilitate and strengthen the shoulder andwith what better way than with circular strengthtraining. This will result in establishing aGet Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page

GET UP!Volume II, Issue 6strength base and a joint mobility foundation forperforming Olympic lifts. By no means does ittake the place of presses and jerks, but it helpswith strengthening the ligaments surrounding theshoulder that help keep it in place. Sometimesyou may over pull the weight over your head ona snatch and you may tear a ligament by overcompensating the pull of the weight behind thehead. Rotational strength will help recover theweight and reduce possible tearing of ligaments.By rotating the arm with weight in an eccentricto concentric motion, the ligaments areintroduced to motions that they have not beenintroduced to in a long time or at all which willhelp increase proprioception (body’s awarenessin space).As you will see in the example exercises below,clubbells greatly help with grip strength as well.Strongman exercises like the farmers walk aregreat ways to help improve grip strength and notby standing in the mirror shrugging 315 lbs withwraps and a belt. Clubbells are just anotheroption to help grip strength that will ultimatelyhelp with Olympic lifting, powerlifting,strongman competition, wrestling, grappling,football and the list goes on. When stopping theweight in a forward circular motion, thecentripetal force at the ends of the clubs must bestopped from the bottom of the club, where thegrip is. Hence increasing grip strength to stopthe end of the clubbell from moving. I have beenable to hang clean 280 lbs with the help ofclubbells from a barely 245 lbs. You are alwaysable to hang clean and hang snatch more thanyou can actually grip and pull. By increasingyour grip strength, you can actually improveyour hang clean and snatch speed that willultimately improve your overall game inwhatever arena of battle.November 2003One great event that the club’s help with is theScottish hammer. There is no exercise thatdirectly correlates with the hammer motionexcept actually performing the hammer motion.The majority of power for throwing the Scottishhammer obviously comes from the torso or the“core”. The inner abdominals create therotational acceleration on the hammer and theshoulders and grip allow for a clean and smoothrelease. When the hammer feels heavy and thereis a lack of flexibility in the torso and shoulder,form is most likely going to suffer and thehammer won’t be thrown for great distances.Using clubbells can help improve the shoulderflexibility and strength through rotationalweighted motions that resemble the hammerthrow.The Scottish hammer involves a lot ofcoordination between the shoulder rotation andthe hip rotation with great acceleration. Strengthcoordination is involved with the body movingin different directions in space and at the sametime required to produce power and speed. Forexample a baseball player hitting the ball isrequired to coordinate their hips to generatepower, their arms to guide the bat and theircoordination to make contact with the ball.Strength and coordination are involvedsimultaneously to strike a baseball with success.Basketball is another example where a player isattempting a jump shot. Strength coordination isrequired to come off of a screen and square up tothe basket and shoot the ball. The athlete needsthe power to jump off the ground to avoid beingblocked and coordinate the release of thebasketball into the basket with the arm and wrist.This same strength coordination is needed forthrowing the hammer, weight for distance, cabertoss, open stone and the idiot stone. I’m justGet Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page

GET UP!Volume II, Issue 6kidding about the idiot stone. There is a reasonit’s called an idiot stone and it’s not because youhave to be an idiot to throw it ok, maybe.Clubbells introduce the body to uneven weightedmovements where the body needs to compensatefor the weight and coordinate the motion. Sowhen you begin to complicate the movements,you can start recruiting other parts of the body todevelop that will overall develop your strengthcoordination. The motions are to eventually besmooth and fluid. Initially the movements willbe choppy and jerky and eventually you willlearn to use your body to move the club’s ratherthan your arms. You will learn that the shoulderis not really used to rotate the clubells but areneeded to start and stop the weight. Below aresome exercises for circular strength usingclubbells:Clean and castNovember 2003squeeze your lats and grip the clubs tight. Oncein the clean position, bring the clubs to behindyour shoulders as shown. Keeping the shoulderstight to the head, bring the clubs back down tothe clean position followed back down to theneutral position. When lifting heavy weight youalways take a deep breathe and put pressure onthe diaphragm to centralize the abdominals. It isquite the opposite when performing circularstrength exercises. With each movement it isimportant to breathe out to allow the shoulder torotate more efficiently.Shield and CastIt’s tough tosee thismovementfrom thepictures.From the clean position bring the club above thehead and rotate the club over and then behind thehead into a cast position. Limit the movement ofthe body and allow for the rotation of theshoulder.Swing the club’s back and forth to gainmomentum before swinging to the cleanposition. Keep the clubs close to the body andGet Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page

GET UP!Volume II, Issue 6November 2003ParryComplete this program for 5 rounds as fast asyou can. This will complement the strengthconditioning you will get from kettlebells. Thereare many variations and different exercises thatwill be covered in future articles. Remember tolift correctly, fast and hard.Witt and WisdomStart with the clubbell to the side of your body.Keeping the weight close to your side, bringyour elbow in and rotate the weight around thehead and body, breathing out as you go aroundthe head.By no means is this a substitute toshoulder strength exercises with overhead lifting.Just like the kettlebells, they are another tool tohelp performance and assist with core lifts. Theycan be used as part of a density training programand/or be used between sets of your core lifts.They are a good compliment with clubbells,below is an example:KB Swings 6 repsCB Clean and Cast 8 reps1 min jump ropeKB Clean and Press 5 reps (each arm)CB Shield 8 reps1 minute jump ropeAs a high school thrower,David ended up third inKentucky’s State Meetunder the coaching ofMarty Mayer and PepStidham (God rest his soul,he died young in his 40's ofheart problems). Going tocollege that didn’t have atrack program, David hascompeted as an open andunattached thrower for years in and around theKentucky area. Marred to Pam with twochildren, David teaches high school math.Take your down time or wasted timeand do a simple drill. I have two s mall dogs thatI let out in our backyard to do their business.While I was waiting for them to come in, Inoticed I was standing on the little 2'x4' concretepad outside our basement door. I started doing360 drills on that pad while the dogs were out.Now if I let the dogs out 3 times a day and do10 repetitions of that drill, that's 30 reps a day.365 days a year means 10,950 reps a year. 10reps is a low number, in 5 or 10 minutes I cando a lot more. In just a few days I got reallygood doing these empty handed, soI started taking an old discus with me forsomething to hold in my hand. My backyard issloped, so last night I started doing some turnsup the hill while I waited. This can really saveyou some time in your workouts if you dosmaller drills like these during those minutes ofthe day when you aren't doing something else.(David has offered to do a column for each issueof Get Up! David has been a regular contributorto Get Up! for the past year.KB Snatches 5 reps (each arm)CB Parry 8 reps1 min jump ropeGet Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page