Clubbells
Clubbell swinging, steel club swinging, or heavy club swinging as it’s sometimes referred to, is the modern practice of club swinging pioneered by American martial artist Scott Sonnon. There are many differences between clubbells and conventional Indian clubs and the types of training they demand. (When we say Indian clubs today, we are referring to the lightweight clubs and not the heavy wooden jori or mugdar used in Indian fitness culture.)
The first difference is the weight. Indian clubs are made of wood or polyurethane and tend to range between 1lbs to 3 lbs. While clubbells are usually made of machined steel and vary between 5lbs and 45lbs. Being heavier, clubbells have their own training modalities that are separate from standard Indian club swinging. Because Indian clubs are lighter in weight, the complexity in which they can move is much higher than clubbells. They can also be trained at higher volume. Clubbells however are more physically demanding, build more strength and are better at elevating heart rate levels.
In our opinion, neither is superior to the other. Both have their benefits and can be trained separately or used together. It is very common for practitioners to use Indian clubs for their warmups and cool downs when training with clubbells
Benefits:
- The benefits of clubbell swinging are:
- Increased strength and mobility of the shoulders
- Increased strength of the upper back, biceps, triceps
- Increasing grip and forearm strength
- Improved core strength and stabilization
- Rehabilitation and injury prevention
- Improved cardiovascular health and muscular endurance
- Increasing strength of ligaments and tendons
- Learning new movement patterns to benefit brain function