Video Tips For Kettlebell Long Cycle Clean and Jerk from Adam T Glass at the Extreme Human Performance Center, Part 1?

Adam T Glass at the Extreme Human Performance Center

Adam stopped by the Extreme Human Performance Center here in White Bear Lake MN recently and we had another great training session.

I was even able to capture it on video, so free custom instruction for you on the Kettlebell Clean and Jerk and also known as the Kettlebell Long Cycle (KB LC)

At one point there were 5 people lifting from all different backgrounds.

We had myself, Dave “Athlete Creator“, DDN, my lovely wife Jodie, and Adam. It seems impossible, but 23 personal records (PRs) were broken that night alone.  These were for volume, intensity (weight on the bar aka % 1rep max), density (volume/time) or quality of movement.

Dave and I did primarily a bench press session and Jodie joined us for some neutral bar bench press work too.

Adam and DDN were doing all sorts of Kettlbell work and hit up some density work on deadlifts at 405 lbs at the end too.

Top 3 Reasons to do a Kettlebell Clean and Jerk

1) New/Novel Exercise for More Muscle

Novel exercise is a great way to add some muscle hypertrophy (build muscle) since it is a new exercise for many. Remember when you did some new exercise and you were really sore the next day? Bingo! Not that soreness is the be all and end all of muscle growth, but doing a new exercise can add more muscle

2) Speed

I have talked about this recently too in regards to tissue turnover.
More volume and more speed of execution should allow you to build more muscle and recover much faster. This is an exercise that you can slowly add more speed to over time without the need for a spotter or a complex rack. Just a couple kettlebells and you are set

3) Efficient Whole Body Work

Since you are working the body as a whole, you won’t need tons of time doing this exercise to get a great effect. You are working everything from the hips, core (I hate that word), arms, shoulders, etc in a very short period of time.  Awesome exercise.

Video: How To Perform the Kettlebell Clean and Jerk (Long Cycle)

Below are some videos of Adam giving some great pointers! Pretend you are a fly on the wall during a private session.

Check it out!

Stay tuned as always for more tips and strength training 101!

Note, the cues and coaching tips use here are specific to the athlete Adam was coaching.  This is a great place to start if you are having similar issues, but may or may not work for YOUR body.  You will have to try it and test it yourself.

Comments

What do you think?  Do you want to see more?

Post 10 comments by 2pm CST tomorrow (Wed) and I will have part 2 for you on kettlebell snatches!   Just drop a quick comment now.

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Stay tuned as the Grip n Rip DVD featuring many hours of Adam’s instruction will have tons of free bonuses with it starting this Thursday at high noon but ONLY here and only for a limited time.

Building Strength and Setting Personal Records with Gym Movement Biofeedback: An Interview with Chris Smith

Let’s get right to the point, you just recently did a powerlifting event and broke 2 state records, tell us about that.  You were even on the USAPL Powerlifting Watch.

First off Mike I want to thank you for contacting me for the interview!

I recently competed in the Orange County Powerlifting Championships in Pine Bush, NY. It was a USAPL meet and was my first powerlifting event. Everyone there was great and extremely helpful and I want to take this chance to say thanks one more time to everyone who took time to help me out. I competed in the Men’s Raw 148lb division and set two NY State Records: the squat with 303lbs and one in the bench press with 198lbs. Those were done at a weight of 137.4lbs. It was an amazing experience and I highly suggest that anyone thinking about competing give it a try. There is something truly awesome about going for a max lift and hearing people who you’ve never met before that day yelling for you.

Here is Smith’s 303 pound NY State Record Squat at 148

Here is Smith’s 198 pound NY State Record Bench Press

Here is Smith’s 402 pound deadlift

Awesome!  Are you doing another meet soon?

Yes and I can’t wait. I will almost certainly be doing another USAPL meet at the end of July, but nothing is 100% just yet. I’m training with that as a goal in mind.

What is your background and how did you get into powerlifting?

I’ve been working in health and fitness for about 5 years now, but I started working out and weight training when I was a freshman in high school. I was always the small kid and actually started training heavy right the start. I wanted to be as strong as possible and and that has always been my primary goal. Recently, I also started performing some feats of strength like nail bending and card and book tearing. I’m also a certified personal trainer with the American College of Sports Medicine and started Train Better Fitness in 2009.

With respect to powerlifting, I honestly just sort of landed on it. Like I said I have always trained heavy with strength and power as my primary objective, but never really with any competitive goal. It’s funny because I remember a while back a few people at my gym had suggested that I consider competing in powerlifting. At the time I didn’t even really consider it an option. Eventually it just ended up being something I decided I wanted to try.

I heard you were using some crazy biofeedback training as talked about in the Grip n Rip DVD, tell us about that.

I first heard about biofeedback training from Adam Glass when he posted his series of videos about it. I’ll be honest, I was really skeptical about it at first. But I trust Adam and believe that he would never promote something that didn’t work or that he didn’t firmly believe in. At first I just started playing around with testing ROM of different exercises, just to see if there really was a difference. I noticed other people I know say they were using the protocol and seeing some pretty good results so I figured I’d give it a try. I contacted a couple of people who I knew were following the protocol (such as yourself) for a little bit of help and started using it in different ways in my own training.

I’ve definitely noticed a correlation between exercises testing well with ROM and how well they feel while doing the movement. Recently I have been using my own intuition more and testing with ROM less. I remember hearing someone say that testing is a supplement to your intuition, not a replacement and I’ve found that to be true.

My favorite principles from the biofeedback protocol are the markers for terminating a movement. Stopping when you get excessive tension, posture shift, change in breathing pattern or when a rep becomes significantly more difficult than the one before it. I also watch for quality of movement and any speed changes. Those are great rules to follow, especially when looking to get stronger.

Nice!  Have you used biofeedback trainig on your clients?  What have been their results?

I have applied a lot of the biofeedback principles with my clients. When they first try the ROM testing most of them are really amazed at how different exercises can have such different results with respect to ROM. They’re even more amazed when I can tell them before they test whether the exercise will increase of decrease ROM. More than anything, just like with myself, I apply the markers for termination of a movement. They have been getting great results using it too. One of my female clients has recently gotten strong enough to do a few bodyweight pullups with no assistance at all. That’s something that a lot of guys in my gym even have a hard time with!

Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us today, how can the readers get ahold of you (shameless plug time, so plug away man).

No, thank you for having me here on the blog. If anyone wants to reach me they can check out my site at http://www.trainbetterfitness.com There is a contact form on the site that they can use to get in touch with me. While they’re there they can also sign up for my free newsletter. They can also follow me on Twitter@TrainBetterFit

Much appreciate your time Chris!

Comments!

Do you like these interviews?  What do you want to see here?  Let me know by placing a comment!

Rock on,
Mike T Nelson

PS

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Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy with New Research (aka How to Lift and Eat)

Updation

Sorry for the delays here as I have been swamped and the last two days it feels like I got hit by a truck. Ugh.  So after lots of sleep I am back on track now.

Jodie and I had a blast in S. Padre Island kiteboarding and I will have an update soon.  I am working on TONS of great content coming up here.  As always, drop me a line on what YOU want to see.

Maximize Muscle Growth

Very cool new study today on what may be the best combination of lifting and eating for performance.  I am a huge geek and spend hours per week (literally) combing the literature to see if there are any new research gems that will help guide on how to increase muscle size and strength to make you a freaky athlete!    I am happy to report I found an AMAZING study.  Don’t worry, as I will break it down into terms even the most novice can understand and those who have been around for a bit will probably pick up some new things too.  Here we go!

We know that connective tissue (collagen) is a key component in strength since it is literally holding everything together (along with a specialized form called fascia).

Strong Connective Tissue + Bigger Muscle = Crazy Strength

A Tangent on “Jammed Joints = Muscular Weakness“

This is not a new thought, but it is rarely talked about and there has been really a big hole in the literature regarding any direct data to support this idea.  It makes sense that just like if you have a buggered up joint, it will start to decrease strength (”shut down”) the muscles around it.

I can say that first hand this is true when I messed up my ankle in a snowboarding incident about 5 years ago to this very day.   It swelled up to the size of a large softball, I had a walking cast, crutches, the whole 9 yards (hardcore all the way—haha).  I could not even MOVE my ankle, let alone generate any strength.   My body had shut every thing down there and increased fluid to the ankle (massive swelling) to further immobilize the ankle.

Now this is an extreme example, but it happens to a lesser degree with a joint that does not have optimal mobility (called the arthrokinetic reflex and taught in Z Health).

So we know the nervous system has a MASSIVE influence on strength.  It would only make sense that if we thought our connective tissue was not up to the task, our smart brains would limit our strength.

While we don’t have direct data on that point yet, we are getting closer and this study below holds some HUGE keys to muscle growth for you!

Contraction intensity and feeding affect collagen and myofibrillar protein synthesis rates differently in human skeletal muscle

This study looked at any changes to

1) connective tissue (collagen synthesis rates) and

2) muscle protein synthesis rates (FSR) which tells us how much protein is being added to muscles.

More protein added to muscles = bigger muscles (hypertrophy)

The great part is they looked a feeding them also to see if it helped out.  As you know, I highly recommend some protein around the time of your lifting session.

(from wikipedia)

Intramuscular total collagen protein synthesis rate (more connective tissue)

The heavy black is a direct quote from the study and the blue is my translation

“There was a clear effect of prior exercise on  skeletal muscle collagen FSR whether studied in the fasted or fed state (p<0.05)”

Even if you lift in a fasted state (no food before), there is still an increase in connective tissue formation.  Lifting BY ITSELF ALONE is highly anabolic for connective tissue.

“These changes in collagen FSR were unaffected by contractile intensity (p>0.10). Feeding did not increase  resting nor post exercise collagen protein synthesis rate and nor was the post exercise temporal response different compared with fasting”

It did not matter if you lifted a lighter load or heavier load, as there was still an increase in connective tissue.  This effect was NOT changed by eating.

Myofibrillar protein synthesis rate (bigger muscles)

“Fasting myofibrillar protein FSR was influenced by the contraction intensity of a prior exercise bout (interaction: p<0.05,).   Myofibrillar FSR was 303 0.08±0.01 %?hr-1 at rest and LL contractions was not sufficient to enhance the myofibrillar FSR  level significantly above that level (early: 0.11±0.01 and late: 0.09±0.02%hr-1; NS).

In contrast, HL contractions resulted in a delayed improvement (late: 0.14±0.02 %?hr-1, 2.0±0.4 fold, p<0.05).”

Lifting heavier (70% of max) was better than a very light load (16% of max) for bigger muscles.

Oral feeding elevated myofibrillar protein FSR at rest 2.3±0.3 fold up to 0.18±0.03 %?hr-1 (p<0.05,) and this elevated level was maintained at all post exercise time points irrespective of prior contraction intensity.

WOW!  If you eat protein after training, you can maximize your gains by over 2Xs as much as skipping it.  Very cool and simple to do!

When food was provided, LL contractions kept the myofibrillar protein  FSR elevated above fasting conditions at the late time point (p<0.05). Similarly, HL  contractions tended to increase the myofibrillar FSR at the late time point (p<0.10).

You are still building muscle HOURS after you leave the gym!  Simulate and then recover

What Did We Learn Today

Today we learned

Have a protein shake (I like a whey protein isolate from Protein Factory) after training to more than DOUBLE your gains.

Connective tissue increases are primarily only from lifting, even at a light load

Muscle growth needs a higher load and food help a ton!

Stay Tuned

Come back tomorrow for some tips on how you directly use this information to maximize your muscle gains in the gym with some novel methods

The full abstract is below

Any questions/thoughts let me know in the comments!  I want to know if you think this is helpful or not.  What do you want to see?

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

You can also easily retweet any of my articles now!  Just hit the “retweet” symbol on the top right of any post.  Go crazy and thanks in advance for your help in spreading the good word!   Information needs to be shared.

Contraction intensity and feeding affect collagen and myofibrillar protein synthesis rates differently in human skeletal muscle

Exercise stimulates muscle protein fractional synthesis rate (FSR) but the importance of contractile intensity and whether it interplays with feeding is not understood. This was investigated following two distinct resistance exercise (RE) contraction intensities using an intra-subject design in the fasted (n=10) and fed (n=10) states. RE consisted of ten sets of knee-extensions. One leg worked against light-load (LL) at 16% of 1-repetition maximum (1RM), the other leg against heavy-load (HL) at 70% 1RM, with intensities equalized for total lifted load. Males were infused with (13)C-leucine and vastus lateralis biopsies were obtained bi-laterally at rest as well as 1/2, 3, and 51/2 hr after RE. Western blots were run on muscle-lysates and phospho-specific antibodies used to detect phosphorylation status of targets involved in regulation of FSR. The intramuscular collagen FSR was evenly increased following LL- and HL-RE and was not affected by feeding. Myofibrillar FSR was unaffected by LL-RE, whereas HL-RE resulted in a delayed improvement (0.14+/-0.02%xhr(-1), p<0.05). Myofibrillar FSR was increased at rest by feeding (p<0.05) and remained elevated late in the post-exercise period when compared with the fasting condition. The Rp-s6k-4E-BP1- and the MAPk-pathways were activated by the HL intensity and were suggested to be responsible for regulating myofibrillar FSR in response to adequate contractile activity. Feeding predominantly affected Rp-s6k and eEF2 phosphorylations in correspondence with the observed changes in myofibrillar FSR, whereas 4E-BP1 remained to respond only to the heavy load contraction intensity. Thus, the study design allows us to conclude that the MAPk and mTOR dependent signaling responds to contractile activity, whereas elongation mainly was found to respond to feeding. Further, although functionally linked, the contractile and the supportive matrix structures upregulate their protein synthesis rate quite differently in response to feeding and contractile-activity and -intensity.