Royal
Marine Commandos Become the First of the Armed Forces to Employ Kettlebells
in Recruit Training
Time
and Patience
From the moment I first swung a kettlebell in 2000, I knew that they
would very simply meet all of the marine’s fitness requirements,
thus providing our recruits with enormous benefits if applied to their
physical training. I know I am preaching to the converted here but
you just have to experience the unique strength-endurance and strength-flexibility
benefits of kettlebells for yourself. ‘Patience is a virtue’
and it certainly has been with my six year crusade to implement kettlebells
into the physical training of the Royal Marine Commandos.
Guerrilla
Warfare
However, as receptive to new ideas as the Royal Marine Physical Training
Specialisation is, six years ago kettlebells were initially viewed
with great scepticism and more than a little trepidation, particularly
in my suggestion to apply them to recruit training and now they are
in Fitness First gyms throughout the UK, and this was entirely due
to a lack of any real ‘hands-on’ experience! So, I had
to resort to guerrilla tactics, subverting from within, and as my
training partners came and went, converts began to appear and like
‘gentle ripples across a pond’ they began to spread the
kettlebell ‘gospel’ throughout the Royal Marines.
The
Kettlebell Bible
The release of ‘The Kettlebell Bible’ gave further credibility
to kettlebells and led to more marine converts who had never met me
in person. Finally after dragging my ‘25’ around the world
during four years of continual deployment and active service, I returned
to the ‘hallowed halls’ of the Commando Training Centre
gymnasium where as the Chief PTI I could further the ‘kettlebell
crusade’ for the good of the Royal Marines.
The
Trials Begin
In order to prove to all concerned that kettlebells are firstly safe,
simple to use but effective second, there followed a short but successful
kettlebell trial with a number of recruits from our world-class rehabilitation
centre, along with a few ‘one-to-one’ sessions with concerned
officers wanting to know what kettlebells were all about and what
exercises I was planning for the recruits to perform. Many people
had seen my own somewhat more intricate and demanding kettlebell routines
when visiting the gym at lunch times and so were rightly concerned.
Apart from improved Pull Up scores the research was too short to prove
or disprove any real physical benefits of kettlebell training, however
the real test had been passed – there were no injuries!
PT
Staff Period
What then followed proved to be the biggest test to date. An introductory
kettlebell period for my fellow PTIs and representatives from the
Institute of Naval Medicine. A minority of the PTIs were already converts
from exercising with kettlebells for Rugby League and Mixed Martial
Arts. A demonstration (no pressure then) and a practical introduction
to the Turkish Get Up, Shoulder Press, Two-hand and One-hand Swing
were all that were required for the cynics to be convinced and silenced,
including Trish the female observer from the INM, who just had to
have a swing of a 12-KB for herself! As always, nearly all novices
express their great surprise at how much the Swing ‘makes you
blow’, which stems from their perception of kettlebells as just
another weight! Following the introductory staff period three members
of the PT Staff enrolled on and passed the UKKA Level 1 Instructor
Course in June 2007.
The
Revised Recruit Strength Period
Thereafter, the work in progress continued to design a replacement
for the ‘old’ Initial Military Fitness Strength (IMF S)
periods, which revolved around the effective but technical ‘cornerstones’
Squat and Trap-bar Deadlift. Unfortunately, IMF S periods are too
infrequent to develop the necessary foundation of motor skills (technique-strength)
and hence no appreciable improvement in strength was being achieved.
Plus, these two exercises were the ‘choke’ points for
the PTIs instructing, as they spent all their time addressing poor
technique. So out went the Squat and up went the Deadlift onto blocks
to assist the recruits in learning how to set their backs to pull!
Please note that the Back Squat is indeed the ‘King’ of
exercises, but only when sufficient time with expert coaching is spent
to firstly develop technique-strength and thereafter maintaining perfect
form as iron is gradually added to the bar within the body’s
ability to build strength.
However, my previous
modifications to the original IMF S periods had included more movement
specific exercises applicable to the progression towards Battle Physical
Training (BPT) – 30 foot rope climb, the assault course, 200m
Fireman’s Carry and Regain all burdened with 30lbs (14-kilos)
of equipment and rifle, which obviously requires great strength-endurance
and agility in order to quickly surmount walls and also to ‘regain’
oneself back on top of a horizontal rope from a hanging underneath.
These modifications provided vital early learning of the motor skills
and so were retained, the Back Extension and now Hanging Shin-to-beam
Trunk Curl and Side Plank Rear Deltoid Raises were included for balanced
trunk and shoulder strength. Of course the kettlebell’s improvements
in speed-strength along the entire posterior chain would cross-over
to all of our other athletic endeavours i.e. running, jumping and
load carrying.
Considering the
45-minute period programming constraints into which a SAQ warm up,
weighted rope climbs, the strength-circuit itself and a SAQ cool down
had to conducted within, I decided upon a Peripheral Heart Action
approach to develop strength-endurance by using an ‘island circuit’
with three ‘islands’ as detailed in Table 1 below:
Table
1: The IMF S Circuit
Island 1 Island 2 Island 3
Horizontal Rope Hanging Hip to Rope Trunk Curl/Leg Raise Partner Manual
Resistance Back Extension 6’ Wall Mount from a 4 step run up
Hanging Shin-to-beam
Trunk Curl
Prone Lying Hand-over-hand Weighted Sled Pull
Alternated next period with
Standing Hand-over-hand Weighted Sled Pull Single-leg Hamstring Bridge
Side Plank Rear Deltoid Dbl Raise Single-leg Split Squat with Lateral
Hop 2-hand KB Swing
Partial Trap-bar
Deadlift Split One-arm Incline Push Press Parallel-bar Dip
As much as I was
tempted to apply kettlebell exercises to the entire IMF S period I
considered that this would be asking for a too great a ‘leap
of faith’ and these would require more coaching for which there
is insufficient time within the recruit syllabus to accomplish.
From Table 1 above
you can see that the kettlebell exercise that I chose to implement
was the simple but effective Kettlebell Swing, so often overlooked
because it is considered the most basic of kettlebell exercises but
one that is more demanding than the Snatch, providing excellent strength-endurance
combined with some very simple progressions for those recruits who
exhibit greater strength i.e. ‘drive up-pull down’ or
changing to the One-hand Swing by alternating the working hand.
Kettlebell
Instructor Training
Several PTIs have now become UKKA Level 1 Instructors and the students
on our PT course now also have to qualify for their UKKA Level 1 during
their weight lifting week.
Kettlebells
and Combat Conditioning
The kettlebell is rapidly proving itself as the conditioning tool,
with ‘converts’ springing up everywhere and Royal Marine
Unit gyms buying racks of kettlebells, including the Commando Logistics
Regiment and Commando Helicopter Force. In addition the Royal Marines
are slowly moving towards a combat conditioning ethos, as opposed
to simply being generally fit. No doubt the kettlebell will play a
major role in keeping marines ‘fit for purpose – for life’
by continuing to blur the distinction between strength and cardio
exercise.
