Want to Improve Your Game?
So you play golf, tennis or softball, or are you a triathlete, long distance runner, or fanatical mountain biker… Do you want to know how to maximize your performance? What specific exercises are going to make you better at your sport of choice? Free weight training: Weight machines? How do you determine your optimal form of cross training?
Ideally cross training should, at least, increase strength and endurance (Work Capacity), without sacrificing performance. But lets be honest, you cross train because you want the edge over your opponent. You want to win! You want an exercise that will make your opponent say, "What the heck have you been doing?"
Strength training exercises that shorten muscle (like most traditional free weight or machine body building exercises) typically do not give you an edge. Ever wonder why body building exercises are a no – no for boxers? Shortened muscle loses its ability to produce significant force. Force is defined as mass multiplied by acceleration. Thus, the faster something accelerates the more force is applied. In most sports there is a direct correlation between the ability to get your body to accelerate quickly on command and your level of performance. Acceleration is responsible for knockout power in martial arts and boxing, home run power in baseball or softball, serve velocity in tennis, jumping, running and shooting range in basketball etc. The list is endless. So how do you train to increase your ability to create acceleration?
Dr. Ronald J. Tyszkowski writes "Proximal Stability leads to Distal Mobility" In other words, the more stable that you are in the core or (proximal) portion of your body, the faster your arms and legs (distal) can move. The main priority of your neuromusculoskeletal system is to protect your internal organs and central nervous system. Core muscles play a significant role in this protective process. Your body will work to stabilize your core first, and then work to create extremity movement. Your NMS system will not willingly put you at risk of central damage. It is possible to override the process, but that is typically when injury occurs. If you are inefficient at stabilizing your core, then you will naturally suppress your ability to create dynamic movement of your extremities. In other words, stabilizing your core frees your body to perform at its peak.
Lying on your back doing sit ups is not training your core. Optimal core training requires static (endurance) and dynamic (strength) contraction of the key core muscles (oblique abdominus, transverse abdominus, and deep multifidi) while performing static and dynamic contraction of your extremities. There are a few different ways to accomplish this. But one of the simplest and most effective is, you guessed it, through kettlebell training. While performing swings, cleans, press, snatches, windmills, Turkish Get Ups, etc. correctly you must contract your core while you are performing biomechanically correct extremity movement. These exercises automatically create maximal "proximal stability" for maximal "distal mobility". Cross training with kettlebells will increase your ability to create greater acceleration which will translate to better performance.
