Exercises You Should Be Doing: Prone Kettlebell Drag

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Raise your hand if you’re kinda still feeling out of sorts from all the apple pie you ate over the weekend. Don’t be bashful – there’s nothing to be ashamed about.

*Raises hand*

For those who celebrated it, I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend.  Despite not going back to my hometown and being around family for the first time ever, my Holiday was pretty spectacular.

Rather than risk me burning our apartment down attempting to help with cooking, Lisa and I opted to order Thanksgiving “to go” from one of our favorite restaurant here in Boston and had a lovely catered dinner.

It wasn’t quite the same as mamma Gentilcore’s home cooking, but it was scrumptious nonetheless….complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, kale, some roasted mixed veggies, and gravy!  SHA-ZAM!

The following morning we had a wicked early flight to Virginia for a friend’s wedding.  Trust me:  getting up at 4:15 AM after eating what mounts to a crap-ton of food less than eight hours earlier isn’t fun. I’d liken it to being forced to watch a Jillian Michaels video on repeat.

But both Lisa and I persevered and met the rest of the Cressey Performance crew at Logan Airport for the weekend of festivities. I won’t bore all of you with the details, but taking a few moments to highlight some of the weekend’s shenanigans:

1.  I’m pretty much the best minivan driver in the history of the world. I was somehow knighted as the weekend’s version of a “soccer mom” and was responsible for all the driving.  I rocked that shit.

Seat belts on or so help me god I’ll turn this van around and give you something to cry about!

2.  Virginians love them some pancakes.  I’ve never seen so many pancake houses in my life.

3.  We visited Colonial Williamsburg and I couldn’t help myself from having a little fun and yelling out, NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.  NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

No one joined me. Jerks.

4.  Since last weekend was also my birthday weekend, I enjoyed myself by having four pieces of apple pie on Saturday night.  In case you haven’t figured it out by now: I kinda like apple pie.

5. By the way:  thank you to everyone who sent me B-day wishes on Facebook!

6.  If there’s one song that will get the entire CP crew on the dance floor and act like a bunch of idiots it’s this:

On the return trip back we had some time to kill and had the opportunity to walk around and see the sights and sounds in Washington, DC.

I had never been to DC before, and definitely plan on making a trip back so that I can spend more time in the museums.

One my favorite stops, though, was the World War II Memorial.  My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed in 1941 and I have always had a fascination with that era and how the people during that time came together, stepped up, demonstrated courage beyond measure, and did what had to be done.

In any case, enough about that.  I know the majority of people didn’t log on today to hear all about my weekend.

Oh, did I mention I crushed some leg extensions!

Eric Cressey, Matt Blake and myself made a cameo appearance at a local gym in Williamsburg and basically took ourselves through the most meat-headed of meathead workouts.

Yep, that happened.

Okay, lets get to the meat of this post.

Prone Kettlebell Drag

Who Did I Steal it From:  As with the Supine Band Pallof Press, I stole this gem from Providence, RI based strength coach, Sean St. Onge.

What Does It Do:  Rather than come across as a broken record, I’ll just defer to THIS post as to why I like plank variations, as well as delve into a minor rant as to why I could care less if someone can hold that position for the duration of a Katy Perry song.

It really doesn’t mean jack squat if you’re someone who looks like this and is just hanging on your passive restraints in your lower back.

What I love about this variation is that not only are you going to get a killer oblique workout, but with the drag (and grab) of the kettlebell you’ll also get a fair amount of shoulder internal and external rotation, too.

Key Coaching Cues: Playing the Captain Obvious card, it stands to reason you should first MASTER the regular (low) plank before attempting this variation.

Assuming this is the case, all you’re going to do is get in the “set” position (eyes in line with your fists, backside should be neutral, abs and glutes engaged, pull elbows towards toes to garner more tension) then reach over and grab the handle of the KB.

Pinch your shoulder blades together and drag the bell to the opposing side. When there, flare the elbow in towards your ribcage, and place the bell down.

Then all you’re going to do is repeat the same process of “x” amount of repetitions per side.  I like to shoot for 5-6 reps per side.

Of note, for those who need to REGRESS this exercise (particularly for those with limited shoulder IR or ER), you can perform the same movement in the standard push-up position – with both arms fully extended – which will allow a little more wiggle room.

And that’s that.  Give it a try today and let me know what you think!

 

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