Clubs have many similarities and differences to the kettlebell. They share many similar exercise and are both old school tools making a big come back.
Club are very versatile because their centre of mass is displaced from your hand, they can be used for anything from power and strength training right through to rehab training.
Shoulder health
Clubs are great for shoulder health. During slower exercises such as the torch press the club requires lots of stability, which improves the coordination of not only the shoulder but the entire body. In faster exercises such as the club swipe there is also improved coordination, it will wake up any sleeping muscles and it’s great for increasing mobility of the shoulder and thoracic spine (upper back).
Many club exercises strengthen the shoulder throughout a full range of motion and thoughout all planes (directions) of movement helping to injury proof them. Physio Andrew lock states “Power Clubs are the “Holy Grail” for shoulder rehabilitation specialists.” For his full arictal on club for shoulder rehab http://kettlebellblogger.com/how-to-protect-your-shoulders-from-injury/
Grip
The shape of the clubs is unique and you can take advantage of this to improve your grip and increase the difficulty of exercises in many different ways.
The main way clubs will improve grip strength is through having to control the leverage of the club. Again I will use the torch press as an example, the club should be vertical during the movement, if the club moves from its vertical alignment it will try and break free from your grip and this will be magnified by the distance it is from your grip.
Most club have a handle at least two hands hand spans long. The clubs have displaced centre of mass so if you grip higher up the handle there will be less leverage to deal with, lower down the handle more leverage etc… If you’re new to an exercise start with a higher grip and move down the handle as you get better at it.
The handle is the main grip that you should use for most exercises, but I’m told there are 5 grips you can take advantage of. You can grip from the ball on the end, from the top, the handle, the funlin and the fat end. Pressing, rowing, farmers walks and timed isometric holds work well with all these grips.
If you are looking to develop a very strong and dynamic grip you can juggle the clubs or perform catch and releases drill.
Scott Sonnon
You can also use the clubs for bodybuilding exercises like curls. Although they were not designed for this type of training. The leverage makes this exercise very different. The bicep flexes, supernates (turns the palm up) the elbow and weakly flexes the shoulder. To perform the curl with the club, grip the fat portion of the club with the rest hanging vertically below. As you curl turn the palm up. You can perform a standard standing tricep extension with the club, but try and maintain the club at 90 degree to your wrist as you extend.
Power
Just like kettlebells clubs have displaced centres of mass which increase the torque of any ballistic motions this makes them awesome for power development. There are many different power exercises, but we will just look at the swing. You can swing them in a similar way to kettlebells, but there are a few different options.
You can swing them inside or out side your legs. Inside your legs uses the same leg action as a kettlebell. Compared to a kettlebell you may be using a relatively light weight, but because of the increased length of the club it will be relatively harder.
Swings outside the leg swing involve the ankles and knees more because you need to counter balance the club as they move farther behind you then between the legs.
When you swing the club outside your legs you have a narrower stance because if your feet were wider than shoulder width you would hit yourself.
Other swings that work well with the club are the rock-it swing, hammer swing and even one legged swings work well with the clubs.
The hammer swing is an upper body version of the swing and it can be done one armed or two armed. It will really strengthen your shoulders and core.
The rock-it drill is a swing with a counter balanced ¼ squat. This rhythmical exercise smash your quads.
Hammer Swings
Strength
They are deceptively challenging when you start adding in leverage to the drills. It is so hard because it adds another dimension for restraint. Leverage training is fantastic for finding weak links.
The Romanian deadlift with leverage is very challenging for the whole body. Even with a club weight that is 10% of your barbell Romanian deadlift weight is hard, because the weight is so far from your body.
Two handed pressing with the clubs at 90 degrees and maintaining that angle during the whole exercise will greatly challenge your grip and pressing strength. To increase the challenge tilt the club away from you.
Performing isometic holds like the iron cross for at an intensity that you can hold for around 8 seconds can be very useful in building strength.
