How to Use Kettlebells to Excel as A Fighter

Tommy Blom kicking ass!

Here's an excellent Q&A article with Tommy Blom from DragonDoor.com:

"Tommy Blom: My basic fight training is with a professional team here in Göteborg. There we do all the actual MMA training, working in the cage, fighting and sparring. The technical stuff for the fighting. My physical training has been with myself basically, with kettlebells and heavy bags. That's about it...

...most of my MMA fight training when it's specified for that I usually divide it into rounds. So if I'm fighting three five-minute rounds, I'll just put the training into three five-minute rounds with one-minute rests in between...

...[t]he work in the rounds is a mix of basic kettlebell exercises like heavy swings, clean and jerk, long cycles, snatches, alternating with heavy bag work standing up or heavy bag work on the ground. It's about 30 seconds of heavy bag work and 30 seconds of swings, then 30 seconds of bag work on the ground. Then 30 seconds of clean and jerks. Double kettlebells and so on until the rounds are done..."

I enjoyed it, hope you guys do too.

Read the full article here!



Train Hard,
Josh Skinner

Fedor vs. Dan Henderson

"People know me...I'm very important.
I have many leather-bound books and
my apartment smells of rich mahogany."

So....have you guys heard of the is guy, Fedor Emelianenko?


Yeah, he's kind of a big deal.


If you've been living under a rock, Fedor is a MMA fighter. In fact, he's (arguably) one of the top heavyweight fighters in the world.


Here's a partial list of the fighters Fedor had taken down:


Heath Herring
Antonio Nogueria
Mark Coleman
Mirko "Cro Cop"
Matt Lindland
Hong-Man Choi
Tim Sylvia
Andre Arlovski


Fedor is an amazing and exciting fighter to watch. (more after the jump)

Frank Shamrock's MMA Kettlebell Circuits.

So, I was digging around the Dragon Door articles section this morning and found an article detailing Frank Shamrock's strength and conditioning training as he prepared for Strikeforce: Shamrock vs Gracie.

In this bout, Shamrock knocked Gracie out 20 seconds into Round 1 - pretty impressive!

Now, the article (which was written in 2006) doesn't really do a great job explaining how fighters can utilize the training described to maximum effect. So, in this post I want to clarify why and when fighters should use these kettlebell circuits in their own training.

A Snatch Variation for Fighting Power!

Not all exercises are created equal.

Some exercises like the Squat or the Swing are great for building general levels of strength and conditioning. Other exercises, however, are much better for training that is more specific to the martial arts and combat sports.

A martial artist or combat athlete is heavily dependent on movements that are anaerobic, explosive, and (typically) unilateral in nature. So, we want to utilize, as much as possible, exercises and training methods that focus on those qualities.

I think I've got just the exercise for you.

Kettlebells and Combat Sports...

Here's a great strength and conditioning article I found over at DragonDoor.com: 


"Sushi, Sake, Karate, and Kettlebells - by Gary Music, RKC  


Karate and Kettlebells are a perfect match, and if you follow the RKC doctrine of Hardstyle the two arts are a perfect match. Just like sushi goes with sake, kettlebells and karate make an unstoppable combination for fitness, strength, speed, power and tournament skill......


...Pavel likes to say that the kettlebell swing is as close as you can get to fighting without a fight. Why does the swing help you spar? The swing builds explosive power and endurance while simultaneously improving the tense-relax (contract & expand) skills used by highly skilled fighters."

Excellent stuff. Make sure you check it out.

Train Hard,
Josh Skinner