Kettlebells and Rehab

In my professional career I have seen several techniques, trends, and tools come and go. For many of those, if you purchased certain equipment you could do whatever the technique was. However, without the specialized equipment the technique was less effective.

I go back to one of the first things Pavel said during the RKC weekend - "It's not about the kettlebell." How great -and contradictory - is that, the individual who is responsible for bringing Kettlebells to the Western world at the course to become a certified kettlebell instructor saying it's not about the kettlebell. At the end of the weekend I understood - the kettlebell is just a tool. The philosophy behind the kettlebell is where the importance lies.

There are many tools to do rehab with. Catalogs full. So why is the kettlebell so special, and why does it work so well in rehab. In the world of athletics, a majority of the acute injuries occur due to contact with an opponent or during the eccentric loading phase (ie. landing, change of direction). In either situation, you are dealing with the ability to absorb and control force(s).
In the words of Brett Jones - The kettlebell is brutally simple: a large handle with an offset weight. The simple design allows us to do things that cannot be done with freeweights, machines, or other implements.

By utilizing the kettlebell - just one tool- you can teach the body:

1. To move under a load (Turkish get ups, windmills, or arm bars)
   
2. To absorb force (two arm swings, snatches, one arm swings, single leg deadlift)
3. To create force ( swing variations, snatches, cleans, presses, goblet squats)
4. To control forces (figure-8's, plus all the ones listed above)

Again, it is just one tool that in the properly trained hands - a whole other blog - can accomplish many different tasks. What other single piece of equipment has so many uses??

How I Got Started With Kettlebells.....

My path to kettlebells really began before I even knew it. In 2005, while I was the Sports Medicine Director for a hospital in Oklahoma, I attended Ryan Lee's Bootcamp. The main reason I attended was to hear Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Boyle, and Lee Taft speak. This was prior to the Perform Better Series - so to have them all in one location was impressive. One of the other presenters was Steve Cotter. He spoke about Qigong and Kettlebells. After watching him do a Double 24kg Turkish Get Up, I was amazed. But, it didn't "click" with me at the time as to all the benefits of the bell.

Fast forward to 2007. I was working at a Sports Medicine/Sports Performance Center and saw a video on You Tube of a Turkish Get up. I thought that it was something I could use with my patients, so I started to incorporate it as best i could. I quickly found that it was much tougher to do and to teach than in looked, so I began to do some research. I stumbled across DragonDoor.com and began reading their articles. Eventually, I purchased a 12kg and a 20kg bell for myself and realized I had a lot to learn. The next purchase was Enter the Kettlebell. This was also about the time I learned of the RKC system - which completely intimidated me. I was sure there was no way I could do that.

I worked with kettlebells for about a year and finally in November 2008 decided to sign up for the upcoming April RKC. The day after I signed up I decided to do the 5:00 snatch test to see how good I was. After I humbly hit 74 snatches, I realized there was ALOT of work to do - at 235lbs I was going to have to do 100 snatches in less than 5 months. I utilized the DragonDoor Forum, met with an RKC for some advice and when April rolled around I survived the RKC weekend without that much pain or discomfort. After completing the final Grad Workout, I can say that I felt a greater sense of accomplishment than I have ever felt.

So, here I am today blending my backgrounds of Athletic Training, Sports Performance, and the RKC system together. Why the name "Simply Kettlebell's"? Once I started training for the RKC, and many times since then, people have approached me and asked what they needed to do to get the same results, and every time my answer has been the same. I simply say........ kettlebells.

Brandon's Professional Accreditation's Include:

• BS in Sports Medicine/Athletic Training from Southwest Missouri State University - 2000
• MS in Human Performance from Oklahoma State University - 2002
• Fellowship at the USOC's Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Co - 2003
• National Academy of Sports Medicine - Performance Enhancement Specialist - 2005
• Dartfish Video Analysis Specialist - 2006
  
• RKC Kettlebell Instructor - 2009