Need help designing a clubbell program.

[Qmanchoo1]

Just received my new club bell in the mail the other day and I'd like to get a program started. I've been watching a buddy work with the club bell for a while and I'm familiar with most of the exercises, form, safety, and correct motions. I currently have time to work our twice a day for 30 minute sessions.

I'm an amateur paintball player and there are specific motions that are performed while playing and muscles used in them that I'd like to develop. Much of this is focused on angling your body in slightly awkward positions and holding them for a period of 10-20 seconds.

The motions are hard to describe in words, but they involve a lot of torso twisting while standing strait up and holding your legs strait and together, a *lot* of leaning left and leaning right as far as you can go while keeping your legs tight together, also while on your knees. For instance, when I'm playing paintball I feel the most stress in my back muscles and the muscles on the side of my torso under my arms. The stress is there, but I also want to build overall arm and shoulder strength and generally tone my upper body, just have a few that focus on the back and (lat?) muscles.

Thanks in advance.

[dave_rusin]

Brad,
Oh boy this touches my heart... My two favorite recreational activities in life are training and paintball. Been playing rec ball for almost 12 years now. I'll come back later when I have more time and share some ideas.

Be back...

[Scott Sonnon]

I should mention that Dave has published training information for paintball in Paintball 2 X-tremes Magazine, February 2002 in an article called, Russian Training and Paintball (http://rmax.tv/articles/paintball.html).

[dave_rusin]

Scott,

Thanks for posting a link to that article. I've been meaning to ask you for a favor. The published version of that article had removed the first sentence about being a potentially hazardous activity.

The editors took that line out, which in retrospect I completely agree with. Paintball is actually a VERY safe activity provided some very basic safety precautions are heeded. My intent when initially writing that line was to indicate as with ANY physical activity the potential for injury exists, not to give the impression it is an unsafe sport.

In all my years of playing, I can probably count on one hand how many serious injuries I've seen. So as not to give an inaccurate impression to anyone new to PB, can you please remove that first line so that it apprears on the RMAX site in the same way it was published in the mag? If it's not too much trouble...

Thanks brother!

[dave_rusin]

Brad,

Sorry for the delay in posting this...

OK, here goes...

Without knowing the particulars of your condition, as a fellow player, I think what follows would be a good start for training that translates well to conditioning for paintball.

Before getting into Body Flow and Clubbell exercises a couple of preliminary bodyweight exercises to consider are:

Anterior/Lateral, Lateral, Posterior/Lateral and Posterior with rotation overhead reaches.

Anterior, Anterior/Lateral, Lateral, Posterior/Lateral and Posterior lunges.


For detailed info on the following, see “Body Flow: Freedom from Fear-Reactivity” by Scott Sonnon (http://www.profcs.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=102469).

I recommend working through and becoming very comfortable with the following squat positions:
Ball of Foot, Flat Foot, Cossack, Shin, Shinbox, Triangle and Shooter. ( See Appendix I)

The following biomechanical exercises:
Shinbox Switch into Standing Shin Roll; Squat Creep; Knee Switch; Shin Roll; Long Leg Creep; Shin Swing; Spinal Rock into Shinbox. (See Appendix II).


The following Clubbell exercises:

Guard Switch with stance (weight) variation to guard side and opposite guard side, parallel and staggered stance. See http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/22/rusin.html

For detailed info on the following exercises refer to the book and video “Clubbell Training for Circular Strength” by Scott Sonnon (http://www.profcs.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=102469).

In general, the Swipe. If new to Clubbells work up to the Swipe with the following exercises: Basic Swing, Clean to Order, Forward/Backward Pendulum, Clean to Back Position, Snatch and Arm-pit Cast.

Forward Lunges

Inward and Outward Pendulums (and with side-step)

Straight Arm Inward and Outward Circles

Clean and Jerk


For program design guidelines see Chapter 7 of Clubbell Training for Circular Strength.

I hope this helps. Keep us posted on your progress.

Train hard, be safe and have fun!

:D