The following flexibility and strength routine/flow is great to work on the hips, core, legs, ankles, knees and shoulders, I’ve been using it since 2010 for my BJJ Strength and Conditioning. (see video at top)
Double Kettlebell
- Racked Get-up
- Racked Alternating Take-down Lunge
- Racked Alternating Forward Lunge
- Get-down and repeat
The racked get-up is so awesome, and definitely not a beginners move, you already need to have core strength and hip flexibility to pull this off. You start laying on the ground with the kettlebell racked on your chest, bring your knees to your chest and kick them out, you follow through with a tight and straight neutral spine. You pull your knees to one side and then thrust or push the hips forward, you follow through and lunge forward into standing up. On your first rep you need to go down first after cleaning up the two kettlebells. Download our free racking ebook here.
The racked alternating forward lunge is what I call it as it’s very close to the movement you make for a take-down, this is great for ankle flexibility on the front leg and quad plus psoas on the back leg. Since this is not for time or rounds but training, we throw a few pulses in to push our flexibility a bit further each time. You keep your feet flat on the ground no matter what, you’re pushing the front knee as far forward as possible past the toes, the back foot stays where it is and the pelvis remains neutrally aligned, work your way up to this, don’t force your way up to this.
The racked forward lunges need to be explosive—you can read why here— which is great because we get to include some explosiveness. Getting up explosively is certainly something you want to be able to do in your BJJ matches.
With the racked kettlebells try and keep the lats active and contracted as long as possible, this gives the lats a good workout but also provides a stable base for the kettlebell rack during all the movement.
I like to place a towel somewhere in the centre and get back up on the towel again by butt scooting, which on it’s own is a great exercise to get the hips loose.
Any questions you have post them in our discussion group and I’ll answer.
Pre-requisites:
- racking kettlebells
- cleaning kettlebells
- core strength
- leg strength
- hip flexibility
You can also do this with the kettlebells overhead which makes it double as challenging.
Before this routine I warned up and did some mobility work, after this routine I did a little Kettlebell CrossFit WOD for explosiveness. I’ll jot it down quickly below, it’s awesome, the footage will be released ASAP, remember to sub to our Youtube and Facebook to stay up-to-date.
- double dead clean, squat and thrust
- double snatch
4 minutes AMRAP
2 minutes rest
- double dead clean, squat and thrust
- double snatch
3 minutes AMRAP
2 minutes rest
- double dead clean, squat and thrust
- double snatch
2 minutes AMRAP
no rest, straight into
- 100 double arm swings
- 50 chest push-ups
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