Breakthrough Strength Challenge – Spring Forward Edition
Our inaugural BSC was a great success and a whole lot of fun back in October of 2020. We actually gathered safely outdoors for an in-person athletic event, challenged ourselves, achieved new personal records and proved that we would not cower in isolation, getting weak while the pandemic and its restrictions upended our healthy lifestyles! It certainly was a high point in an otherwise difficult year.
Not content to rest on our laurels, however, our spring edition of the BSC will be even better. With exciting new programming that makes use of our cutting edge mobile technology and a new event, "The Silver Bullet Hold,” we are ready to forge our team into the toughest group of athletes yet to emerge from lockdown. Every team member who joins the challenge will receive their very own “Captains of Crush” gripper to “grease the groove,” improving their grip strength anytime, anywhere, and use it to compete on game day!
So what are we training for? I’m glad you asked. The Breakthrough Strength Challenge (BSC) will test your absolute strength in the Double Kettlebell Clean & Press, your strength endurance with The Silver Bullet Hold grip test, and your explosive strength and cardiovascular power output with five minutes of One Handed Kettlebell Swings!
Why a challenge at a time like this?
Training is not just another practice session! – To create competition results, we need to train with an attitude of professionalism. This is not about being "elite" or overly serious (it can still be loads of fun at every training session, of course), it is more about making each session count. With specific programming targets to hit on each training day, that build to a peak performance on competition day, we are able to achieve far greater results than we ever could with a more casual workaday physical exercise program.
If you are ready, you don’t have to get ready! – Never has our level of general physical preparedness been so obviously connected with our survival. While the vaccine rollout continues to beat COVID-19, it has become apparent that a population with better all around physical conditioning has far fewer serious cases of the disease. A body prepared to handle the rigors of an athletic challenge such as this, is also better prepared to defend itself from this pandemic.
Fight back against depression! – From the CDC:
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"Coping with stress in a healthy way will make you, the people you care about, and your community stronger.”
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"The evidence is clear—physical activity can make you feel better, function better, and sleep better."
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"While it may be difficult to remain physically active while social distancing, it is possible and important.”
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Why these events? Going all the way back to the 1800s, the clean and press has been considered one of the truest tests of upper body strength. It was an Olympic event until 1972! The double kettlebell clean and military press excels at developing almost every major muscle group; shoulders, upper chest, triceps, core, glutes, biceps, lats, the list goes on and on. The fact that the athlete must be able to clean the kettlebells in order to press them creates a built-in, self-limiting, safety catch; if you can’t clean them, you probably shouldn’t try pressing them anyway! For the lion’s share of strength training activities, the only connection between an athlete and the implement they’re using is the grip. By increasing grip strength, we are able to hang longer, perform more pull ups, or handle heavier tools while maintaining proper technique and control. Increasing the time we are able to spend under load, with precise controlled tension, allows us to increase hormonal output and the ability to actually gain strength. Catching the Silver Bullet in the jaws of the world famous, gold standard “Captains of Crush” gripper and holding it there for as long you possibly can, is so simple, but it helps us get better at all of this! The benefits of the one-arm kettlebell swing are so well-documented that it’s an obvious good choice for loaded-cardio development. Why the swing instead of the beloved snatch for this challenge? To quote Dave “The Iron Tamer” Whitley, "The swing dominates the snatch in lower-body strength development and hypertrophy, simply because one can swing a lot more weight." The swing excels at training the midsection and glutes with the intense contractions at the top of each rep and the need for our external obliques to prevent twisting of the torso, and is better at training the grip, so for this challenge we choose the swing.
The Breakthrough Strength Challenge is open to members only, so now is a great time to check us out! To learn more about the BSC visit this page for pricing, dates and details. Let's spring forward together in strength!
Cheers,
Caleb