Club training guide

 Introducing Club Training

Club training is a unique form of exercise with weighted clubs which effectively blends strength and cardio based exercise making it a highly efficient form of training.

The world is beginning to rediscover the benefits of 'old school' primitive fitness training and strength training tools don't come much more primitive than the club.

Predating the barbell and the dumbbell the weighted club is once again changing bodies around the world.

The clubs used are basically heavy baseball bats but solid through, with a handle and rounded knob on the end used for gripping when doing various exercises. It is the perfect upper-body strengthening tool and great for developing shoulder strength. The clubs can be lifted and swung in various exercise patters for physical development, it's an unwieldy tool that really targets muscle.

Club swinging is a historic form of exercise that athletes have used to improve strength, flexibility and endurance. This form of working out has been around for hundreds of years but was lost to the commercial gym era, but it’s recently gained a surge in popularity as the world rediscovers its unique health and physical benefits once more.

Club training is commonly referred to as ‘Circular Strength’, and owes its resurgence into mainstream fitness to top fitness expert Scott Sonnon who has popularized it once more and patented the Clubbell, pictured below.

 The benefits of club training

Listed below are just some of the benefits of training with weighted clubs. Essentially club training is the ultimate form of shoulder training and will help you develop tremendous upper body musculature with an exceptional grip.

• Develop shoulder stability through strength, endurance and flexibility gains
• Highly effective grip strength and wrist training
• Functional training that promotes overall upper-body development
• Excellent for sports specific training like tennis, martial arts, golf and swimming.
• Great for developing good posture by working the back and shoulder muscles.
• Portable training equipment
• Scalable training by altering the position of the hands and therefore leverage of the weight involved

Club workouts offer movement in multiple planes and are excellent for balancing out the muscles that are rarely targeted by more traditional training methods. To say that it is compound training is an understatement!

In addition to this, many people find club training to be fun and quite addictive. It’s a challenging, yet interesting way to train that is a break from the norm. These natural body movements with weighted clubs can be used to develop your entire body, rotator cuff stability and overall timing and coordination.

 Beginning club training

One of the first considerations you will have is on what club weight to use;

We recommend that men in good shape should start with two 6kg clubs, maybe the 8kg if you are very strong and 10kg only if you have a thorough strength training background and are exceptionally strong. For two handed training, male beginners can use one 10kg club and athletic males a 15kg club.

If you are concentrating mainly on joint mobility you may like to start with a set of 2-4kg.

Physically fit women can start with two 4kg weighted clubs. If you are just starting out you can begin with the 2kg clubs and work up from there. For two handed female training try the 6kg for beginners and 10kg if you are athletic.

These weights may seem light – but try and avoid going too heavy as it is a common mistake. The weight feels remarkably heavy when you get going and it’s definitely best to avoid swinging a weighted metal club around that you are not yet strong enough to control! Remember that by changing your grip location on the handle of the club you alter the difficulty of the exercise by the amount of leveraged weight called into play. 

Here are some other pointers to get you going;

• Ensure you have enough space around you to train safely (about six feet in all directions to err on the side of caution). 
• Use a weight you can handle! Read our pointers above and do your research to find what is best for you.

 What exercisese can you do when club training?

Clubs offer a huge selection of exercises that can target the entire body, developing strength, muscle, and promoting weight loss and tone. They are used in a similar way to kettlebells perfectly blending cardio and weight training.

You’ll find a few club exercises below as a guide but for a full list of club exercises with videos demonstrations, pictures, tips and guides please see our exercise directory.

EXERCISES COMING SOON!

Club Swipe

Club Squat

Club Shoulder Recovery

Club Swing

Please note that it is highly important you adhere to proper form and correct technique. Unless you experienced in club training you may want to study a training DVD or receive guidance from an approved instructor

 Incremental progression

Clubs offer the perfect means for incremental progression which is essential for staying injury free and avoiding plateaus.

Clubs should be solid tools with no moving parts as this is the safest possible and most durable design. You may ask yourself how this offers incremental progression as it’s not immediately obvious over “plate loading” equipment such as a dumbbell, but by simply altering the position of your grip up or down the handle of the club will call into play a different proportion of weight and puts you firmly in control of the difficulty of the exercise. 

The further your grip is from the weighted end of the club the greater the weight employed for the exercise. It's a flexible design which means you aren't confined to the large and sometimes dangerous jumps in plate weight.

 A history of club training and the Indian Club

Club training is not a new form of training, and certainly not a fad. It has a rich history dating back for centuries, and is commonly likened to Indian Club training.

Indian clubs are exercise equipment that was prevalent in the late 1800s. The usually took the form of wooden clubs of varying sizes and weights that were swing around in different rhythms and routines. The heavier clubs were used to develop physical strength, while the lighter clubs were used for shoulder flexibility and coordination.  Believed to have been introduced by British soldiers stationed in India in the 1800s they were used to keep the soldiers in top physical condition, challenging their strength agility, balance and flexibility traits. The soldiers reveled in the effectiveness of the Indian Clubs and brought them to Europe where they first became popular in Germany and Czechoslovakia as more and more people integrated them into their physical fitness routines.  Club training spread around the globe where they were introduced into school physical education programs and US military training.

The 1914 United States Army Manual of Physical Training stated that:

“The effect of these exercises, when performed with light clubs, is chiefly a neural one, hence they are primary factors in the development of grace and coordination and rhythm. As they tend supple the muscles and articulation of the shoulders and to the upper and fore arms and wrist, they are indicated in cases where there is a tendency toward what is ordinarily known as "muscle bound." (p.113)

Club training actually featured as an Olympic sport in 1904 but gradually waned from mainstream use in the first two decades of the 20th century.

Now the clubs are making a comeback. Club swinging is coming back to the fore of fitness and catching on rapidly as individuals, trainers and gyms discover how enjoyable and effective club training can be.

 Our verdict on club training and indian clubs

Club training offers a brutally effective workout with one of the most primitive tools known to man, all ecomposed in graceful and coordinated movements. It's an amazing thing to watch and even more fun to perform. Addictive and effective, club training has so much to offer to anyone interested in physical development, and is particularly useful for those wishing to build strength and stability in their shoulders and upper body.