Kettlebell Training Tips - Jerks

Kettlebell training is taking off in a big way in Australia - faster than good kettlebell training information can be disseminated.  This is a bit of a worry because kettlebells are quite different to use than barbells or dumbbells (due to their displaced centre of mass) so the large body of information on these better known training tools cannot simply be adapted to kettlebells.

Never fear!  We're here to help. We'll be providing a series of articles on kettlebell training with some great tips that will help you improve your lifting, avoid injury and get the most out of your kettlebells.

The first lift we've got tips for is the kettlebell jerk.

It doesn't get much better than Fedorenko's jerk, his movement is so efficient that he makes a 60kg kettlebell look light.

What's the kettlebell jerk good for?

The kettlebell jerk is a great exercise for so many reasons, here are just a few:

• It works your entire body
• It's low impact and kind to the joints
• It places far less stress on the shoulder joint than presses, but makes for very strong shoulders due to the fact that it requires you to stop a rapidly moving kettlebell overhead
• It actually helps improve shoulder and thoracic mobility, as well as hip flexor flexibility
• It is great for developing explosive power

You should be able to jerk a lot more than you can press, which means that you can get more weight overhead, and getting heavy stuff overhead is one of the best ways to get your shoulders, back and core really strong and working together as a unit.

So how do you improve your kettlebell jerk and ensure it's doing all of the above?

Kettlebell training tip # 1 - The elbow body connection in the jerk.

Make sure your elbow remains in contact with your body during the first dip.  If you watch an experienced lifter you'll see that they bump their elbow off their hip (or body if they can't reach the hip).  By doing this they are using their legs to power the movement.

Breathing out just before bumping the kettlebell off will help keep this connection between elbow and hip.  Also note that any hip flexion (bending forward at the hips) in the first dip will disconnect the elbow from the body.

As you can see with Vasil'ev's jerks, his elbows remain connected to his body before he bumps the kettlebells off and during the first dip the hips remain extended.

In the above clip you can see that the lifter loses the connection between elbow and body.  This makes for a far less efficient movement, which means less weight can be put overhead in terms of either kettlebell weight or repetitions.

Kettlebell training tip # 2 - Fixating the kettlebell overhead in the jerk

Stop the kettlebell in overhead lockout and hold it there for a second (fixate it).  One of the great benefits of the jerk is that it will give you strong, stable shoulders without the stresses on the shoulder joint that grinds such as presses cause, but this benefit is only derived when you actually stop the kettlebell, if the bell's wobbling around all over the place overhead it will have the opposite effect and create unnecessary stress on the shoulder joint.

Morozov is a great example of a lifter who stops the bells quickly and completely overhead in the jerk.

You might want to video yourself to make sure you're actually stopping the bell and holding it for a second, it can feel like you're doing this even when you're not.  In the interests of not offending anyone else by picking on their fixation, I'll pick on my own.  In the below video you'll note the difference between how Morozov stops the bells quickly and distinctly compared with mine in this set.

These jerks aren't terrible and they're not dangerous, but they're certainly not optimal and I've had to work quite hard on learning to hold the bell overhead for that moment longer to get good fixation.

Kettlebell training tip # 3 - Locking the legs in rack

Now this one may take some time.  Many people, men especially, don't have the hip flexor flexibility to get this right away, but it's worth working towards for a couple of reasons:

1) it will make your jerks more powerful because by going from straight legs to bent legs in the first dip you have created kinetic energy to power the first bump (when you bump the kettlebell off your body).  If you start with bent knees in rack you don't get this or it's significantly reduced.

2) keeping the legs locked in rack gives the quads a rest and allows them to recover between reps - and you want to take advantage of this because the quads should be the vast majority of the work in kettlebell jerks.

Marty Farrell has a very good rack position, as you can see his legs are very straight.

The above kettlebell training tips should help you tidy up your jerk technique and hopefully up your numbers or the weight you can lift.  And they're not just for those who are into kettlebell sport, they're applicable to anyone who wants a better kettlebell jerk.

To discuss kettlebell training and exchange knowledge you can visit the Australian Kettlebells forum.

For information on kettlebell workshops that will help improve all of your kettlebell training, including jerks, you can check out our workshops site.