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

More to the point, what am I doing wrong? When I do the floor press sometimes I get a slight headache. I would assume that it is my breathing. This is the only drill that gives me this problem. A few questions on the form of this same drill: - Is there anything to keep in mind about the shoulders as there is in the military press? - I start laying down with the bells out to my sides in line with my shoulders and curl them to get them off the floor. Is there anything wrong with that approach? - I keep my chest high but also have both of my knees bent as if I am going to do a situp. I do this to get better leverage when I start to struggle. Is that Ok or should I make sure to keep the legs flat and slightly spread? Thank you very much for your time and valuable input! 

Should your butt be sticking up or should you be in a butt to floor squat? 

Would doing overhead squats with KB(s) or a pair of dumbells add to or detract from the benefits derived from the tradition method of using a barbell? 

Hello, What are some of the best ab exercises for protecting your back during deadlifts? Thanks. 

For barbell and double presses I have this habit of pressing my legs straight together with my feet spread in the shape of a V. I find that this gives me the greatest possible strength base when tightening up. I have also observed how Pavel and Mahler perform their double presses in their DVDs. Their stances have their feet quite wide apart. Is there any reason why you guys do it that way? Is there anything "wrong" with my way? Should I alternate between the a closed and wide stance?  

G'day Comrades, I could use some feed back from Pavel or the party about a modified KB snatch technique I've started to use. I've posted before looking for elbow pain help / advice. Because of tennis elbow that seemed to come on when I pushed myself with the KB Snatch my elbows hurt with any move using muscles like you use in a reverse curl or reverse wrist curl. But I hate giving up the KB Snatch while waiting for my tennis elbow to heal so I started doing the snatch using a palms forward grip at the bottom. It goes like this: At the bottom: the same as the normal position but with palm forward. As I do the hip snap my arm resembles a bowling kind of move (except it's between the legs), but moving more upwards. Half way up it kind of looks like cheater curls, my arm from elbow to shoulder is close to the body, the bell swinging more up than out. At face level my hand starts to rotate around as it goes up, kind of like an Arnold Press. It all seems to flow smooth and I go slow enough to pay attention to form and keep just enough tension in my arm to protect the elbow from being wrenched at the bottom. I also emphasize the shock absorbing motion of the whole body going back down to bottom. My question is, will this hurt me in some way. So far it feels fine and gives me a workout almost like the regular KB Snatch. But I don't know enough about this stuff to know if there is something inherently damaging about this. Kettlebells have proven so versatile, I was hoping that this would be another example of how they are so adaptable. Thanks in advance for the help. 

Hello everyone, Could I get your thoughts on this? For some reason I've been unable to deadlift without getting a sore back. I've been looked at by a doctor, chiropractor and three physical therapists and they could find nothing wrong. A couple of people looked at my form and said it looked fine. I can sumo deadlift moderate weights and can do kettlebell swings and cleans with the 36 pounder if I don't do too much. I recently tried snatches with the 53 pounder and it felt fine at the time but the next day my back hurt and it took two weeks for my back to feel better. One leg deadlifts, windmills and shoveling snow seem fine but suitcase deads bother me. My goals are injury prevention, maintain bone density and someday be able to do regular deadlifts. My thought was to concentrate on ab exercises that help the deadlift, do the back exercises I can find that don't cause trouble and work on any flexibility issues I might have. My questions are: What areas should I be concerned about for flexibility? I'm told I have tight hip flexors, would that affect it? Could I substitute one leg deads in a ptp program? Does that work the back effectively? What other exercises, that don't require special equipment, could you recommend trying? I have free weights, a couple of kettlebells and some floor space. Do you have any thoughts or advice? Thanks. 

Comrades does anybody use high rep cleans for conditioning? Ive read here that high rep cleans should maybe be avoided because its hard on the elbows. So does that go for high rep clean and presses also. Id like to do high rep cleans but dont want to fry my elbows. thanks, grant 

Hi friends and neighbors, I am 6'4", 225, and have long arms and legs in relation to my torso. I have tried for years and found that conventional deads put a lot of forward lean on my body so that the bar can clear my knees. My long thighs put my hips way back, and my relatively shorter torso has to lean forward at a lower angle than I'd like, in order to deal with this. It feels like mostly back work, and not so much hip work. Sumos work better than this because spreading my feet wider brings my hips closer to the bar since my thighs angle and don't point straight at the bar. However, because of the funky wider leg position (feet just outside my hands at the bottom position) it feels like a bit of a contrived movement that doesn't mirror natural athletic movements that well. But it does make my butt and hams kick in much harder, which is nice... The trap bar solves all this for me in that my body can find a very natural groove of movement. It seems like removing the bar/shin limitation allows the body to move much more freely. Is there any disadvantage to doing this movement instead of straight bar deads, besides the idea that they are not "official style" deadlifts? From what I have observed with the above deadlift styles, I have developed the controversial viewpoint that trap bar deads are superior to regular deads for any athlete, unless you want to work on your straight bar technique for Oly lifts or PL deads. Straight bar deadlifts are an artificial movement where your movement track has the imposed limitation of having to have the bar clear your shins and knees. A trap bar dead allows any athlete to find the best groove for their anatomical type to lift the weight in the strongest position. Except for the grip, you can mimic the straight bar deadlift position using the trap bar if you like, so it is not a limitation. Anyway, I like using trap bars, and am thinking about buying a trap bar and was interested in hearing others weigh in on this topic. I have read the articles in the archives on this subject but none seem to directly address the topic of my message subject. Take care and thanks all, Matt 

Com. Pavel, I am getting very involved in training for the Oly lifts and I would very much like to know what the best resources are from the Russian school of training, particularly Vasily Alexeev's method. I read some very interesting interviews and he indicates that his methods of training and structuring workouts are all very well known to the Oly lifting teams now. It's alright if the resources are all in Russian, I have russian speaking friends who can translate for me. Here's a page for any comrades who are interested in his info: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/7342/index2.html As of right now I weigh 237 and I am looking to get up to 260 this year. I'm avoiding fat though. Why do SHW's allow themselves to gain so much fat? Is it just unavoidable? It would seem to me that staying at a healthy weight (not more than 275 ish) would be more beneficial, since you wouldn't have all that fat hanging off you and you could move your own body easier. 

I just got my #2 yesterday. I got right at parallel with my left and about .5" from closed with my right. I'm planning on doing a few "try as hard as you can" reps and a couple of negatives on most days, as well as do a few triples with my #1. Does this sound like a plan? Of course, this also got me wondering about your progress on the #3. I haven't seen any posts in a while. How's it coming along? Thanks, Jason  

I've been use an ace type method. I will do one arm pull ups on a total gym with a 16kg BK strapped to it. I am soon going strap my 24kg KB to it. And I am doing lots of rope assisted one arm pull-ups. I can do this with two fingers pulling for assistance. I also vary the height of my grip on the rope as to vary the difficulty. I was in the Marine Corps. So I have old military stuff. Any way, I used a riggers belt and a peice of plastic to make a hanging thick handled ring. Its neice. I also find lock offs to be a peach. Followed by alternating come downs. Not to leave any peice untouched I also do free hangs by one arm and then begin to tighten up and pull from a dead start. I don't move much, but I know this will pay off when it comes time to do a real one armer. I like to do this after I get home from work. No real rep, set, or multitude scheme. I just do a little bit of each exersice. But usaully in the order I described. Pavel what do you think? Your Comrade Bill McPherson! 

I was inspired by Tylers Hass post on the CF seminar. I decided to concoct my own little brew of pain and test drive it before offering it to you. I'm sitting here dripping sweat all over my wife's key board and my hands are shaking. I'm already the worlds worst typist, so please bear with my typos. Data: 52 yrs 5'8" 170 lbs.(77kg.) Workout: 20 min. strength/endurance/cardio circuit Exercises: 5 x pullups on a Nate Morrison pullup rig(check out TorqueAthletic), 5 x one arm push-ups (left/right), 5 x bottoms up pistols(left/right). Goal: as many rounds of the three exercises as possible in the allotted 20 minute time limit. Protocol: The pullup apparatus is extremely difficult. My home made version is a 2" pvc pipe that is suspended in the middle by a nylon strap. The pipe revolves in the strap and 'death' grip must be used to hang on. Only perfect, throat to bar pull-ups were used. No momentum, bounce or partial reps. A one second pause was utilized at either end of the rep. The one arm push-ups were chin to floor, chest to touch to the thumb of the working hand. Full reps, arm fully locked at the top with one second pause. The pistols were bottoms up style. You start in the bottom position and make the switch to the other leg at the bottom. This style is much more difficult and requires more balance as well as flexibility. Each rep was done with no bounce,momentum and to full extension. I think it is important to keep the quality of the rep high and not let it degrade into a flailing style. Move as quickly as possible while maintaining good form. Results: This routine was amazingly cardio. I found myself breathing really hard at the end. I did ten rounds using perfect form. I started to loosen my form a bit on the pull-up apparatus for the last two sets. My hands started to go. My rep count was 50 pullups, 100 one arm pushups and 100 bottoms up pistols. I had wrestled four ten minute jiu jitsu bouts two hours earlier. I am going to do this routine again when I'm 100% fresh. I really liked it and found it quite a challenge. Not bad for an old dude I guess. Now I'm going to go outside and douse then eat a steak. Steve Maxwell

http://www.stevemaxwell.com 

Com. Pavel, what is your opinion of the Oly lifting shoes? I believe they are necessary for optimum leverage in the rock bottom positions necessary for catching the clean and snatch. Also, Oly squats are much easier with elevated heels. How did they come to be? Also, regarding explosive training, what are the most powerful lifts in terms of sheer explosive power at peak moment of force? High pulls? (since you just explode and throw the barbell, you don't worry about catching it and pulling yourself under) Box squats? (a long time favorite) Box jumps? Jumping squats? (what's the safest way to land with a heavy weight so as not to traumatize the knees and ankles?) Push presses? (since no effort is used to clean the bar first) Jerk presses from the rack? (since you can get more weight) We're just talking about maximum drive, fastest lifts? I realize these are assistance moves, while working on optimizing flexibility I am hoping to get maximum fast twitch power out of every position, and get as much work done on core and posterior kinematic chain as possible.  

I'm a read more post less guy on this board, so forgive me... Since the second week in January I have added some GTG work while in the office. I wanted to learn the oapu and pistol, before the spring so that when I travel for work and can't take my kb I have some powerful bw exercises that can help me progress in my training. I've quickly progressed to full pistols and full oapu's. I have been careful not to overdue the GTG work putting the emphasis on my kb workouts at night. What I am seeing is that through the nw work, my understanding of full body tension has gone through the roof (and the kb work is obviously benefiting). At the end of last week, I noticed that my body naturally gravitated to a 1 arm, 1 leg push up...due to my newfound tension. This week, however, has been incredibly low volume GTG (down to once a work day)due to the fact that my groin muscles are a bit sore, but really are limiting me from continued oapu & having any stability in the hole of the pistol. My question is: has anyone else had similar problems once they 'got' full body tension? Am I just waking up these muscles and they're a little groggy? Thanks. - Joe 

Been trying to work joint mobility and some flexibility a bit more lately. My IT band is clearly a problem area. I'm already doing specific work for it(jumpstretch stuff, and rolling on it) but I was wondering if anyone had some specific exercises they've found valuable. 

Howdy folks, I've been deadlifting for a while now, always at home since I don't really like commercial gyms anymore. Anyway, right now I seem to have a bit of a problem. I have been using the bear method for a while and after that pins to pillars, right now, however, I have outgrown my weights. I have a 300 lbs set and I can do 10 sets of 5 with them. I could buy some more weight, but this won't be optimal since I'm saving for a real olympict weightlifting set. Plates that I would buy now won't fit on my new bar as they have a different diameter. But on to my question. Is there any way that I can continue to make deadlift gains without having to buy new weights just yet. I am mostly interested in bodybuilding, but I certainly don't wanna be weak. So if you know any methods or techniques that I can use to keep progressing until I bought my Ivanko set, I'd be very thankful. Cheers 

First of all, Bill, Rob, Rif, Zach, Coach Reeve, Scott, David, Eddie & Jack - Thanks for your posts on your training and all the feedback from you on my previous questions about conjugate training. I was interested in your feedback on integrating conjugate in my strenght training. I know we worship simplicity here but I like learning and experimenting with new protocols and finding ways to modify them to my needs and eventually those of my clients'. I don't think conjugate training nor anyone learning it falls under the cateogry of "unnecessarily complicated". I've done a bit of reading about WSB style of conjugate training by Simmons, Tate and that crew, in Supertraining and at a few other random internet sites. I wanted to get a clear definition of conjugate training and distinguish it from complex training. Tell me if I simplifying but not oversimplifying. Complex training is training multiple motor qualities simultaneously whether that be every month, week or session. When training this way, you are trying to progress in each motor quality at the same time. This is what I did initially with KB's. Conjugate training is training multiple motor qualities simultaneously while trying to progress in 1 maybe 2. While 1 or 2 are trained progressively, the others are trained to be maintained. Progress is sustained by shifting emphasis between lifts, qualities or both. Conjugate training works because you can gain ground in one quality while not losing ground in others compared to: linear / unidirectional: 4 wk hypertrophy, 4 wk strength, 4 wk power I wanted to take the conjugate approach and apply it to my strength training. The primary quality I want to train is strength. For ME KB MP+PP weighted pullup weighted pistol FCT For DE dbl swings, dbl high pulls and eventually dbl snatches For REP upper offset pushups ala Maxwell standing cable rows lower bw pistols core HLR For GPP Full Body Defense, PBTP Alt Cleans, Snatches Although I am using the WSB terms: ME, DE and REP, I will using other protocols For: MP+PP 3-5 method WPU 4 sets wave loading WP 3x3 FCT 3X3 DBL Sw.. 3-5 method REP EDT GPP 3-5 method My schedule is as follows: U OFF M DE, ME - upper, ME - lower, ME - core T GPP - FBD, AC W ME - upper, REP - lower/core R Boxing / Muy Thai F DE, ME - lower / core, REP - upper S GPP - snatches, Boxing For all protocols, I am wave loading - keeps me from overextending. Each month, I will either shift motor quality focus between ME and REP like DeFranco (I'm still small and weak) or shift the lifts from ME to REP. After I get another 32kg, I'll back go and forth between pistols and FSQ's. I love the variety and being able to do all my favorite lifts. My initial worry is not getting enough specificity with my primary lifts (2xwk). I think maintaining other qualities in secondary pressing, pulling and squatting lifts will counter that without the burnout that happens to me from the same lifts 4-5x/wk. I'm going to give it a couple of cycles but initially I like this organization of training better than other. Maybe because it is more complicated :> How does it look? Thanks, Frankie 

I expect shortly to be able to perform pistols with excellent form. My bodyweight is 180lbs. Would I expect to be able to squat 360lbs? I workout in my basement and never attempt 1RM on any exercise for safety reasons.  

Any comrades get knee pain from doing Jerks? The only thing I can imagine is that my knees are buckling in when I throw or catch the weight. I've tried to be more aware of this during my training. Would the small range of motion even matter if my knees weren't tracking my toes? Thanks, Brian 

Is there two different kinds of no.3 coc grippers. I have heard about this talked about before but did not understand. Can anyone tell me about it or point me in the right direction? Thanks, Josh 

Please advise as to a kettlebell routine for a competitive middle to long distance (400 to 1500 meters) female (18 years old--145 lb.) swimmer, to supplement her six day per week swim workouts.