After training with the renowned kettlebell sport coaches at the Ice Chamber last month, I discovered I’d been making some pretty basic mistakes with my jerk technique – and these are mistakes that a lot of people are making. The information I got from the Ice Chamber coaches has come from their own vast experience and their work with great coaches and athletes such as Ivan Denisov and Valery Fedorenko.  This sort of information is gold and not all that easy to come by! So I put together this short video on what I learnt for the athletes I coach online and anyone else who is looking to improve their kettlebell jerk technique: You can look for the points I talk about in the video in this slow motion video of Denisov:

We are now in an age of new foods – products with added nutrients for an extra health benefit. The major food manufacturers have realized that there are big bucks to be made by taking nutrients that provide health benefits and adding them to other foods. However, most research on this topic shows that the health benefit of the nutrient is lost once it is taken from its natural state and transferred to other foods. A great example of this is a nutrient beta-glucan found in whole oats. Whole oats are a source of carbohydrates, fiber and a host of important trace elements. Oats are shown to be so effective at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol, they have been granted a US government-approved health claim. The active compound thought to provide this health benefit is the natural oat fiber, beta-glucan. However, studies have shown that adding oat beta-glucan to breads and biscuits had no effect on lowering LDL cholesterols. Other studies have showed that the health-promoting effects of many compounds such as omega-3 and are lost when they are taken out of their natural state. Food manufacturers are increasingly under pressure to improve the [...]

In the last 6 months I have seen a change in the way people are training and how gymnasiums are being equipped. This change is the biggest revolution since the introduction of electronic cardiovascular equipment into the Fitness Centre and it’s the new game changer. In my 19 years of strength and conditioning experience, the last half a year has been the most exciting. Dumbells are being pushed to the side and kettlebells are replacing them. Non-slip rubber matting is replacing carpet. Chin-up apparatus is taking the place of latpulldown machines. Fitness Centres are becoming real places to train again and less of a place to put on false mirror muscles. Fitness is fun and everyone is challenging themselves with innovative training programs, exercises and equipment. In the 1990’s the buzz was “functional fitness”, but we have moved beyond that. Prehab has replaced rehab and weaknesses are being attacked rather than avoided. What are the future improvements from here? I can quickly identify two: 1. Understanding and utilizing rest. You wouldn’t buy a racehorse, flog it week-in, week-out and then expect it to win races would you? But this is what many trainers are doing – expecting their clients to [...]

If you do a lot of kettlebell training, pull ups, deadlifting, rope climbing, rock climbing or anything else where you’re gripping a lot, you will most likely have tight forearms. Grip can be a limiting factor in performance, for example for most people grip endurance is the limiting factor in kettlebell snatches and for some people grip strength is the limiting factor in deadlifting.  Tight forearms will compound any grip limitations and can play a big part in preventing grip strength or endurance from improving. The forearms have a lot of small muscles that get tight very easily and this can in turn impair blood flow to the hands and even nerve function.  Forearms are also very easily overtrained and it’s not a big leap from chronic tightness in the forearms to medial or lateral epicondylitis (golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow). So, for any sort of grip training you’ll find great benefit in regularly working on the trigger points of the forearms and general massaging the area to promote good blood flow.  Not only will regular work on the forearms increase your performance in training, it’ll also help prevent long term setbacks like tendonitis. Self massage is obviously the easiest [...]

Periodisation, by definition is the attempt to categorise, or divide time into named blocks. In my opinion, it is the most important – and most difficult – to implement component of any athletic conditioning program, especially Mixed Martial Arts. You simply cannot spend all your time within one type of conditioning goal phase without neglecting other elements, getting burnt out or even worse; injured. For example, spending all your time developing power will force your cardio capabilities to suffer – but not spending enough time focussed on a specific goal will not allow it to be developed to its maximum potential. A “shotgun’ approach, such as a 1 power session, 1 strength session, 1 day cardio or 3 conditioning sessions a week cramming it all in, i.e. a power set, a strength set, an interval set etc. will also lead to failure to reach ultimate conditioning potential. A commonly used and understood example of periodisation is that of any football code. Many of us have read or heard of “pre-season” training and understand that it would be a different program to an athlete at his/her peak mid-season.  A player on the way back from injury is another example. In MMA [...]

I’ve heard fish oil is good for your brain and can even improve your intelligence, is this really true? A recent study carried out on over 300 people reported those who eat oily fish or take fish oil supplements regularly score 13% higher in IQ tests and are less likely to show early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. We already know that fish oil protects against heart disease and also improves insulin sensitivity in people with a high risk of diabetes, now researchers from Scotland report that consumption of fish oil could actually improve the health of your brain and protect against Alzheimer’s. Dementia already affects millions around the world and the threat is increasing with the growing numbers of elderly. Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia in the elderly, afflicts an estimated 4.5 million people in the US alone. A team from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh gathered data from people who had taken part in a national IQ survey in 1947, when they were aged 11, and tested them again when they were aged 64. The researchers used a questionnaire to find out about omega-3 levels from the subjects’ diet and supplement use, and [...]

What are they good for? Kettlebell cleans are great for: Building grip endurance Getting many of the benefits of the one arm swing, such as developing power endurance in the posterior chain, with the added bonus of being able to regulate pace and resting the grip when need be (usually the limiting factor in swings) Combinations and complexes (eg clean and press, clean and jerk) Getting the kettlebell into rack position to perform a variety of other exercises Developing skill and coordination – the clean is particularly good for developing skills that transfer to the snatch such as releasing the grip at the correct time and landing the handle in the correct position on the hand. Where to begin? Before you start cleaning you need to have two kettlebell lifting essentials down pat: the one arm swing and the rack position. I like to think about having two targets for the clean (the end of the backswing and the rack position), and then moving as directly as possible between the two.  Once you have your two targets established it becomes much simpler and you can reduce the movement to the bare essentials, which in turn results in greater efficiency and less [...]

We all want the best for our health and our families, so when it comes to produce, and in particular vegetables, what’s the best – frozen or fresh? Most commercially grown fresh vegetables usually spend 3 – 7 days in storage before display and purchase. The longer vegetables are stored, the more vitamins they lose. Frozen vegetables are generally picked in their prime, snap-frozen immediately after harvesting to ‘lock-in’ nutrition. However, it is important to note that prior to freezing, these vegetables are blanched (a process where vegetables are plunged into boiling water briefly, removed and plunged into iced water). While some nutrients are lost – mainly vitamin C and folate, which are sensitive to heat, the losses are no greater than those that occur during cooking. So which is better for you? Research has consistently found that the nutritional value of frozen and fresh vegetables are very similar, with frozen vegetables sometimes having a slightly higher edge in nutrition values because of efficient processing. Another big plus is frozen vegetables make meal preparation quick and easy – they are available all year round. So rather than chose one or the other, I’ll show you a great way to incorporate [...]

I have recently had the good fortune to train at the famous Ice Chamber in San Francisco.  The Ice Chamber is probably most well know for its women’s kettlebell sport team, The Ice Chamber Kettlebell Girls who are all Masters of Sport. It’s not as well known that the Ice Chamber has been responsible for the strength and conditioning training for several elite athletes, including martial artists such as Newton Casemiro, currently one of America’s top BJJ fighters, and Sayaka Matsumoto who was a 2008 Judo Olympian. Their clientele isn’t just limited to athletes, though.  Amongst the Ice Chamber trainees you will find big-shot lawyers, famous Chefs, award winning investigative journalists and everything in between.  You’ll also find plenty of regular people who just want to get fit. So what’s the secret to their success?  How do they attract everyday clients as well as champion athletes and the rich and famous?  How do they manage to get 30-40 people into their 6am classes? I put it down to two things: 1. Great knowledge Founders and head Coaches Steven Khuong and Maya Garcia have never stopped learning, they are constantly seeking knowledge from the best in the world.  The day after [...]

Insulin is a hormone that is essential to nutrient transport, it binds to cells, “opens the gate” and lets nutrients such as carbohydrates and amino acids into the cell. When insulin is working efficiently, blood glucose responses to meals are lower and this promotes better fat metabolism over the long term. Therefore, any nutrient that can enhance insulin’s effects will improve insulin efficiency, cellular recovery and results from intense exercise training. There are a number of “everyday” foods that have been shown in research to improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control. Coffee contains chlorogenic acids that slow the release of sugar into the blood stream. Green tea extract is shown to increase GLUT-4 receptors in muscle cells that enhance glucose transport into cells. Cinnamon and red wine contain polyphenols that act as insulin mimickers to improve insulin efficiency. In fact, taking just half a tea spoon of cinnamon a day may reduce blood sugar levels by 18 to 29%. That’s bound to enhance fat loss if you’re following a calorie aware plan. Sources: Nutrition J, J of Diabetes & In J of Obesity. Dr Paul Cribb is the creator of mp-body.com – the first every science-based, research-proven, nationally accredited [...]