Pavel Tsatsouline Kettlebell Strength Training Weight Lifting Workouts Exercise and Flexibility Questions & Answers.

Pavel Tsatsouline Kettlebell Flexible Strength Training Instructor. RKC Questions.

Answers by Pavel

and Senior RKC Instructors

Pavel Tsatsouline	Mike Mahler	Steve Maxwell	Rob Lawrence	Steve Cotter	Brett Jones	John Du Cane

fitness	kettlebells	nutrition	tai chi/qigong

Training Answers from Rob Lawrence for 2006-02

Question	JT_76: February 06 2006
Is The "What The Hell Effect" Real or Not?
There seems to be a strong consensus on this board especially among the trainers that specificity rules and there is little if any carry over from one activity to another. Cross Fit style workouts are basically deemed as not effective for much and it's repeated over and over to be a specialist if you want to be good at something, otherwise you won't be good at anything. In a post a few pages back it was said that the WTH effect may just be ballyho used to sell kettlebells and that there is such little carryover between activities that practicing to walk on a tightrope won't help you at all for walking on a balance beam. But then you look at the advertising for kettlebells and the WTH effect is touted as a major reason to use them. According to the studies kettlebells will make you better at such dis-similar activites such as pull-ups, the powerlifts, running (sprints & medium distance), and broad jumps. So what is it? Is there carry over or not? I suspect it's like anything, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Obviously running marathons won't prepare you for a powerlifting meet and vice versa but to go so far as to say squats won't help you in jiu-jitsu and tight rope walking won't help you on the balance beam seem to be arguments a little to far in the other direction. For the less than 1% at the world level of competion maybe, but for the other 99% + of us that are regular Joes, there seems to be quite a bit of carryover between various athletic activites. I'm not here to get anyones panties in a bunch, I'm just trying to see how far we need to split this hair. Just my observations, let 'er rip.
Answer	Rob Lawrence: February 06 2006
The WTH effect originally meant getting a surprise good performance in something you haven't practiced. For example, you've been doing KB snatches, and your pullup total goes up. This is "doing better than expected." No carryover like this can take you to a level of elite or even very-good performance. If you want to be the TSC pullup champion, you need to do pullups. This is "doing exceptionally well." Some people say there is "no carryover" from one activity to another, but that is just rhetorical grandstanding. There is often carryover, but it is unpredictable and subject to a lot of variables. The shortest distance to improvement is usually the straight line of specificity. Rob

Question	Brad Nelson RKC: February 27 2006
Attn NEWBIES...
before you post your question...since most of them are redundant, use the 'forum search' function and you will probably find message after message of what you are after. Don't get me wrong, we are all here to help you as I was new once as well. If you hang in the shadows and read a lot of the posts you will learn a lot. TRY IT. TRY THAT. Stick with something, anything for longer than a week...more like AT LEAST 90 DAYS because it takes your body that period of time to completely synthesize all new cells. This is where your adaptations will take place and you will start to see changes. Get bored with the basics. Follow a wave or linear cycle outlined in (Power to the People). Get bored again. And repeat. Enough. Brad http://www.mtxeconditioning.com
Answer	Rob Lawrence: February 27 2006
Repeats of newbie questions drive the most experienced posters away, since they just can't bring themselves to read "What size KB should I buy" one more time. This is not purely the newbies' fault by the way. It would happen less if the forum data were structured better and the search function more robust. Someone did a pretty nice FAQ a few years ago (link at left of the page before the featured products), but it is kind of dated now. There might be someone out there who'd be interested in updating it, if they have the time. Rob

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I'm doing the PTP program. I'm a climber and I'm weak. :) That means that even though the strong guys cannot lift nearly as much with the thick barbell as the standard, I can lift almost as much because as I said I'm not that strong but my hands are quite strong.