Unconventional Athletes Issue 5
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CLUBWORK<br />
Let’s begin with the basic of basics. Clubs have been around for thousands of years<br />
simply because they work. Most of us are familiar with the lighter weight Indian Clubs<br />
that are swung in complex patterns which develop coordination, mobility, and speed<br />
not unlike an Olympic Fencer. Then there are the bigger clubs, the large wooden<br />
or the more popular metal clubs of 15, 20, and those over 45 pounds, originally<br />
designed to train warriors to deliver punishing power with heavy hand armaments.<br />
These will be the subject of this article.<br />
POWER IS?<br />
Power is the strength you have to perform a specified exercise in an allowed amount<br />
of time. So if you are doing an AMRAP of thrusters for a 30 second time period you’d<br />
be able to determine if your power output has increased; by either an increase in<br />
the number of reps performed or by using a heavier weight for the same number of<br />
reps. For example; if you did max effort thrusters with 95 pounds and got 12 in 30<br />
seconds, that’s 1,140 pounds moved. Now if for a few weeks you practiced<br />
thrusters and then retested your AMRAP and you get 14 in 30 seconds -<br />
congratulations! You’ve increased your power because you just moved 1,330<br />
pounds. Alternatively, if you kept the same 12 reps, BUT instead of 95 pounds you<br />
used 115 pounds, you have also increased your power. Now that you have the idea<br />
of power, we’ll apply it to a club workout.<br />
Leverage Clubs, Indian Clubs,<br />
Clubbells, and adjustable Clubs are<br />
all great tools for any trainer’s<br />
arsenal. The multi-planar axis that<br />
the clubs travel through allow the<br />
body to utilize and restore it’s own<br />
range of motion ROM. The specific<br />
advantages that clubs offer - more<br />
so than any other ballistic training<br />
tool is that the opposing muscles<br />
are working through the eccentric<br />
and concentric contraction, allowing<br />
the weight to be propelled by force<br />
and then that force is reduced by<br />
applying the “brakes”.<br />
Did you know that Indian Clubs<br />
were part of the Modern Olympics?<br />
In 1904 and again in 1932.<br />
Military Training during the Victorian<br />
Era through WWII consisted of<br />
routines including Indian Clubs.<br />
ISSUE 5 VOLUME 1 Page 55
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