Tuesday, December 20, 2011

RKC and beyond

In the month prior to the RKC, I followed the Rite of Passage program from Enter the Kettlebell. During the RKC, I discovered that I wasn't utilizing my lats, which was why my left shoulder had been giving me so many problems. After the RKC, I dropped back down to 8kg for presses and focused on maintaining the contraction in my lats during the entire pressing groove. I slowed the movement down drastically, and my left trapezius was no longer visibly inflamed or bothering me at all. Amazing how that works!

Something else that also changed at the RKC was my lat utilization at the beginning of the swing (power swing stance), increased hip snap, and abdominal contraction at the top of the swing. Even though I've been swinging a kettlebell for 10 years, it was a fantastic technique change, and one I'll never look back from.

The biggest surprise was the TGU technique. It was changed quite a bit from the original videos, and way more effective. It's true that the best preparation for the RKC is to train with an RKC. The school of strength is evolving so rapidly, the DVDs just aren't keeping up with it. I'm not sure how well the technique instruction would translate to DVD anyway because of the excruciating detail that everything gets broken down to. It would take many DVDs and books to cover what we learned!

To be continued...