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Strength Training via Juggling?

Posted June 06, 2012 10:45 AM by HUSH

When you go to your local gym, and see all the meatheads lifting things up and putting them down, you probably see weights resembling the following.

...via Life Fitness

Or, if you're from a slightly different era, you might be more familiar with these kinds of weights.

...via Hickok Sports

Yet, nothing compares to the Russian designed kettlebell. Now, when I think of Russian exercise, I'm more inclined to think of Ivan Drago, but obviously something isn't quite right with his training regimen. (And that would be that he's not wearing star-spangle-bannered shorts, of course!)

Praise has been heaped upon the largely-ignored kettlebells. These weights are shaped like cannonballs with handles, but offer significant improvements compared to dumbbells. Their cast iron design is used to perform ballistic exercises, and is weighed by pood. (No, really. That's a unit of measure.) A pood is roughly equivalent to 35 lbs or 16 kg.

Pictured: A man taking poods to his pood...via Locaronboy

Ballistic training sounds awesome, but unfortunately doesn't live up to its name. It's the form of explosive strength training characterized by fast accelerations lifts, with little or no eccentric contraction. This is helpful for building fast twitch muscle, which is responsible for short bursts of strength or energy, such as sprinting or swinging a baseball bat. Fast twitch muscles do not add the same bulk as other muscles composed of different fiber types.

This type of training is particularly important to soldiers, and kettlebells have seen a resurgence in popularity for military training. With an emphasis on repetition, soldiers are able to maintain their speed and agility, while also gaining strength. With an integrated handle, these weights are easier to move as well.

The Soviet training regimen

Much of their usefulness comes from the fact that the mass of the weight is beyond the handle. This helps facilitate swinging movements along with a quick release of the weight. However, they're far from the only type of strength training equipment with an unbalanced load…

You're probably more familiar with Indian clubs for the following.

No, not the tall crossdressers! The juggling clubs! ...via Photobucket

And, if you even have the opportunity to see something akin, I would very much recommend it.

You might be surprised to learn that the staple of the juggling routine, the juggling club, is a type of Indian club which was a popular form of exercise from the Victorian era until the 1930s. They were introduced to British soldiers who were stationed in India, but needed a way to maintain their physique in their remote deployment. The juggling/exercise combination was a good way to maintain agility and balance while developing explosive power.

...via Wikimedia

The Indian club can be used alone, like so, but can also be used in pairs or in groups, which will resemble a tandem juggling act. Just like the kettlebells, these weights use an extended load, rather than a balanced one, to create quick and flexible muscle movements.

There is a similar concept for martial arts training, as karate practitioners have long used chi ishi and ishi sashi to cultivate lean muscle. Watch a sensei use unbalanced weights to enhance his striking power.

Chi Ishi...via Bushi Fitness

This isn't a conviction of training with dumbbells however. Dumbbell training is always better than no training; it can always be supplemented with flexibility exercises like yoga (the training method of your author). But dumbbells do not account for muscle flexibility or speed. They're great if you want to look like Jay Cutler, or get ripped for the beach this summer, but if you're training for a specific sport it's a good idea to incorporate exercises which will translate your movements into application.

Resources

Wikipedia - Kettlebell; Ballistic training

Club Swinging

Shorin-Ryu Karate of Williamsburg - Hojo Undo

Vizard, Frank, and Robert Lipsyte. Why a Curveball Curves. ; The Incredible Science of Sports. 2009. Print.

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Guru

Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 573
Good Answers: 5
#1

Re: Strength Training via Juggling?

06/06/2012 12:02 PM

I vote for a routine developed by Dr. Lauarence Morehouse for NASA "way back" (). It was published in a book in the '70s, first in hardback then in paperback, entitled, "Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week." When I did do it, according to plan, it worked quite well and requires no equipment or travel to a gym. I also practiced yoga for several months in H.S. and found good results from that, too. There is a recent book entitled "The Science of Yoga," that looks (sounds -- I heard an interview with the author on "Fresh Air," the NPR interview series) interesting.

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