Just did a great workout with kettlebell guru Dr. Cheng and his Kettlebells Los Angeles comrades down in Santa Monica. His group meets every Sunday morning at 7:00 AM sharp. If you want to work with a real KB pro and a great group dedicated to moving well and injury free with KBs, check out the Sunday @ 7 group for sure! I've been working hard to get better and better with my technique. Dr. Cheng was able to make numerous points with me. Here were the points of KB light for me on Sunday: - Drive my heels more as I bring the KB up--a good cue is to just lift "the toes" which then makes it impossible to lift the heels!
- Engage lats more. I'm straining my neck too much. I commented that I need to relax my neck to which Dr. Cheng quickly replied, "NO! You need to engage your lats!" Point well taken. At which time he took the group to the pull up bars for the Pavel style "lat" pull ups with locked elbows just to drive in this point!
- I need to keep my shoulder more packed as I finish my snatch. I'm thinking of this more and more but it's hard to master. The lat pull ups above will help with this.
- I was letting my front ABS get a little too soft which allowed my hips to finish too forward with my snatch and swings. Keeping the front ABS really tight enables a much better vertical line all the way through the body.
- This might be the best point and definitely the most funny--but totally true--keep your ass so tight as you pop it during your KB exercises that if someone threw a brick at your ass--the brick would shatter! How's that for redefining a buns of STEEL workout Comrades!
I also met some cool people there. Of course Santa Monica is an interesting scene with or without kettlebells...I met a cool guy named Dr. Victor that is there every morning at 4:00 AM working out. He had some Indian Clubs, DBs, tubing, etc. Has been doing martial arts for 60 years. I'm going to go back down there one morning just to hang with this guy a bit. Two of the LA KB people are getting ready to take their RKC certification, so this makes it a great place for me to hang out more because there are people in the group with "instructor focus" who don't mind helping others as well. Great experience man! If you're in SoCal and interested in kettlebells, you should look up Dr. Cheng! Class fee is $20--a nominal fee for this quality of Comrades! Here's how to find him:
