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

1. You have previously said to do presses during every kettlebell workout. Why is that? 2. How well would the Delorme method work for swings? Right now, that's all I can do for reps on my new 2 pood. I'm still working on pressing it. Thanks again. Party methods have gotten my my first 300 Marine PFT since OCS in 1998. I can't help bragging about it.

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You've written that one must go "rock bottom" with front squats and that "high" front squats are "too rough on the knees." I assume that you were writing about BB front squats (and that you think the same thing about KB front squats which, for many people, will be lighter than BB front squats). In Muscle Media (Oct. 2003, p. 26), Marty Gallagher wrote that for the FS, one should "squat down slowly to a point where the tops of thighs are parallel to the floor..." Is this "to parallel" recommendation for the BB front squat (FS) more likely to injure one's knees than the "rock bottom" FS? If so, why exactly? In the May 2003 issue of Muscle Media and in BB, you wrote that "for reasons that are too complex to be discussed..high front squats are too rough on the knees." Have you ever spelled out these reasons? Is Marty Gallagher's "to parallel" FS a "high" FS? Or are high FSs ones where the lifter has stopped descending at a point where the tops of his/her thighs are _above_ parallel to the floor? There is an ongoing technical debate about rear squat depth and the risk of knee injury. In this context, it should be noted that the FS "places greater stress on the knees" (Michael Yessis, Kinesiology of Exercise). According to http://www.gymaddiction.com/exercises/quads.html#front there's greater involvement of the spinal erectors and the knee extension component in the FS. If this is the case, I think it would be important to specify one's reasons why the FS should go to a certain depth to minimize the risk of knee injury. 

Hello again, it's been a while since I posted anything here. For those who care I've had my problems with injuries, I see your all as outstanding as ever! I have a question concerning a current goal of mine, and when I have a question there's no where else I would take it other than here. My question is this, I would like as many opinions as possible on how to attain 5x5 on the dumbbell incline press with 110lber's. Realise I done 6x6 with 90's today. I already have an idea on how i would go about attaining this but would like to here all of your opinions on how you would do it if you were me keeping in mind my current strength level. With dumbbells its always difficult because the weight jumps are uncontrolably larger than that possible with a barbell. Thankyou Pavel and everyone eles in advance for all your time and help! Pol. 

I have been using Pavels "(Relax into Stretch)" book as my wife puchased a copy for me for Xmas. First I will let you know why: I used to train in Boxing but stopped for a short stint in Thai Boxing almost 10 years ago. Shortly after my return to boxing I decided to focus on other things like power and flexibility. My power went up well and still improves from time to time but my flexibility is lacking. I have got many books on the subject now that I could almost open a libary! I have Kurtz, Wallace, Ferret, ect... I have 19 books or videos on stretching! I used pavels methods and almost instantly things changed. I got a full front split (with both legs) in just under one month. That was motivating! Now I want my side split to accompany it. I have reasonably strong legs and always seem to stretch further after a good resistance workout with weights but I am still about one foot from the floor in a side split. Look, I know that other people may have had problems like mine so I would appreciate any advice. Like times, duration and if all stretchs are needed. I have added my personal email at the bottom of this letter as I am still learning to use the PC correctly! Thanks to all. daimers@go.com 

This first part is just the basis for later remarks; if you like, you can just skip down to the remarks at the end. I will put a big space between the data and the remarks so you can tell where they begin. On Nov. 24th, '04, I pulled a Conventional DL PR of 405. I dropped the weight back down to 365 and pulled a few times in the next week, all singles, making my last pull on Dec. 11th. Then, for the next few weeks, I did ATG Squats and one arm behind the back deadlifts. Prior to this point, my weakness had always been on the floor--if I could get it off the floor, it locked out. Then, on December 29, I decided to try some behind the back deadlifts. I worked up to 405 (completely unplanned, previous PR was around 365!) and then jumped to 455! Two days later, on December 31, I was in the gym, feeling really tired and dragging. I decided to do deads, after having done Chins and one arm behind the backs, and I hit 460! The lockout was the clear difficulty this time. I think part of that had to do with my upper-back rounding--I couldn't get it off the floor otherwise. I didn't deadlift again until Feb. 14th; I worked on my bent press for a while, taking it from 95 to 140 from just starting technique Jan. 12 to 140 on Feb. 19th. I also did some other odd lift training and squat partials in this time. Training was quite interrupted during this time--school and other stuff obviously take their toll. I had missed 385 in the deadlift on the 18th, but for some reason I tried pulling Sumo on the 19th, and made a ridiculously easy 405 my first effort ever at Sumo. I pulled 425 Sumo without too many problems on the 21st. At this point I had been suffering from some serious burning in my left hip (felt like I spilled hot coffee on it). I kept training, but it kept burning, so I took a week off, and then skied the next week. So about two weeks "off." I got some bands in shortly after I got home, and started messing around with them some under the guidance of John McKean (who has been enormously helpful to me thoughout). I did some experimenting, and learned a lot, but didn't get any stronger (maybe a bit weaker--but now I know how to use the bands properly and I will get much stronger). I decided to go to a PL comp, and started some PL type training March 19th. I trained the DL Sumo style. On March 25th, I badly strained my hamstring in two placed being stupid. Needless to say, this put a serious hamper on training all the way through the meet, which was on April 21! In that time I pulled a sumo PR on April 7th of 445. Easy off the floor, but rough on the lockout. Hmmm... Anyway, the meet went well (many of you have probably read the meet report, if not you can go to the link at the bottom, if you want). But I ended up pulling conventional--as I said in the meet report, I felt week in the legs/hips from squatting, and my lockout wasn't there. Now for the remarks: Sumo v. Conventional: I like both. I think which I use will depend on where I am strong at a particular point in time. For example, if I am weak in the lockout, I will go conventional. If I am weak off the floor, I will go Sumo. I think conventional has the major advantage in the meet of not overlapping so much with my PL type squat. Training: I saw the best gains not from training the DL itself, but from attacking my weaknessed in the DL. This makes good sense to me. My weakness now is the lockout, so I think I will be doing deads standing on bands "X-stra Energy" style as per John McKean's recommendation. His training recommendations in general are great, I think. From here out I'll most likely usually do three to five singles to triples (depending on the lift) with climbing weight, and JS mini-monsters over the bar when I feel like it. I'll be practicing a wide variety of the all-rounds lifts, and keep track of my performance in each. When I stagnate on one, I'll move on to another of the same type for a few weeks. The bent press will be in every workout! So workouts might look like: Bent Press: 5 climbing singles Military Press: 3x3 (climbing weight) Bench Press: 3x3 (climbing weight) PL Squats: 5x2 (climbing weight) Hack Lift: 5 climbing singles (with JS Mini-Monsters over the bar) Pull-ups: 3x3 (climbing weight) Cheat Curls: 3x3 (climbing weight) Tricep Push-downs/DB hammer curls: 3 x 5 (prehab/rehab/"linkage" work for elbows) Or: Bent Press: 5 climbing singles (this position could vary) Behind the Neck Military Press: 3x3 (climbing weight) Incline Bench: 3x3 (climbing weight) ATG Squats: 3x3 (climbing weight) Deadlift: 5 climbing singles (bands over bar) Chins: 3x3 (climbing weight) Strict Curls/CG Bench Rehab/Prehab stuff. The workouts will move at a fairly rapid pace--the should take around an hour or so. Sometimes I may cut stuff out to make for fewer lifts/sets and take longer rest periods. The actual workouts will vary according to intuition. Simple. Next scheduled meet is the All-Round Worlds in October. When I get back from China in August, I will begin practicing the lifts for the worlds. Anyway, just some ramblings. Hope some of it may be useful to somebody! W.H.

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I'm only about 5 months into the strength training game, starting out quite weak and VERY inflexible. (40 year old male) I've made great strides in most areas with the help of Pavels books and info on the DD forums. Except in one place -I still cannot hold onto a racked bar in the squat position without shoulder pain from frontal impingement. And when I try to do an overhead squat with a broomstick, it ends up about 18 inches in front of me once I squat! No where near overhead. I cannot figure out where my inflexibility lies: shoulders, chest, arms or back - or more likely, all 4 areas? I've been doing some postural stretches, including the flat back L arms wall stretch, as well as the shoulder, lat, chest stretches from 'Relax Into Stretch', but so far I just don't seem able to rotate my forearms backwards while my arms are held out and back. Can anyone point me to the proper sequence of stretches to gain flexibility in this area? Thanks. 

Pavel, thanks for checking on my earlier post. From reading your response, it looked like you actually read the whole thing! "Com. W.H., you are a talented athlete but a lack of structure in your training has set you up for injuries IMHO." Thanks for the compliment! Coming from you that means a great deal indeed. I think that you are right that I need to develop more structure in my training again. As for the injuries... I get beat up from concentrated loading sometimes and take time off, but I have never been injured lifting. The hamstring thing, you may remember, was sheer stupidity outside of the weight room… I have learned my lesson there! (for now…) "Pick a system and stay with it. Given your best gains come from addressing your weaknesses, two choice come to mind. One is the WSB. The other is the PTP where the cycle starts with a DL variation meant to address a weakness (the behind the back DL, the snatch grip DL, etc.) and then switches to the competition style pull." From the time I was 12-15, I lifted according to the programs my wrestling coaches gave me. I then did Supersquats for about six months (changing the program once every six weeks as the book recommends from the 20 rep squats program to the basic bulk and power program). After that, I did PTP for six months or so (it was excellent! I can’t think of a better way for people to start off training—heck, I still read it from time to time, and I always pick up another nugget. The tension techniques are almost magic, IMO). Then I discovered the All-Rounds (now my primary goal), and things got more complicated. I needed the experiment time to figure things out. I learned a great deal—the point of the experiments. Of course, a number of other factors (most notably school) disrupted my training even further than I had intended to do with the experiments. You will note that my greatest gains came over Christmas break! I am actually only training very little (some pistols, work with the 1.5 pood) at the moment because of exams/papers due very soon. In any event… I would just do WSB, Sheiko, or PTP as you suggest, but I don’t think I would be addressing my All-Rounds strength. The program wouldn’t meet the goals (specific goals can be found below). If I am incorrect, please feel free to skip the rest of this post, and let me know! Anyway, I just finished “tallying the results” from the experiments. What I came up with is a fusion of the following: 1. PTTP 2. Com. Jack Reape’s posts. 3. Com. John McKean’s All-Rounds Advice (I have been in close correspondence with him since October about my training) 4. Coach Frank Kiefer’s Bent Press Program (Kiefer BtP’ed 320 back in the 70’s—he is teaching me the “fast drop” bent press he (and Saxon) used, when I go home—I am quite excited to learn it!) My goals, incidentally, are the following: 1. Bodyweight bent press (~160 pounds at the moment). 2. 500 pound squat (these first two are the primary goals, after this point are secondary) 3. 500 Pound dead-lift 4. Cheat Curl 185 5. Hang Snatch: 185 6. Military Press: 200 (from here out the goals are “tertiary”) 7. Bench Press: 285 8. 350 Pound “Steinborn” (then 400… I ultimately hope to break Steinborn’s All-Time World Record of 553 pounds). 9. One arm pull-up/chin-up 10. Other All-Rounds Stuff (quaternary? No, that’s the current period of geologic time… but you know what I mean :^) Yes, this is a large number of goals, but that is the nature of the All-Rounds. I have also found that I get beat up faster if I focus on too few lifts (assuming the total volume/intensity is the same). To accommodate both specificity and variety (and a dislike for getting beat-up!), then, I structured the program to focus on two lifts—the bent press and the squat—with the assistance designed to enhance both the primary and secondary goals, and distribute the volume somewhat. As for the program itself: 1. Warm up a. Hang Snatch: three climbing triples to moderate weight 2. Primary lifts—Monday, Wednesday, Friday a. Climbing Bent Press Singles x 5 (adding 10 pounds or so between reps for now. Trying for increase in top weight, but waving it, for example: 85; 95; 105; 105; 95; 95; 105; 115...) b. Climbing Squat Doubles x 5 (Structured the same way as the bent-presses, only adding more weight between sets) 3. Assistance work after primary work – alternating between: a. Sub-workout A i. One arm overhead Squats: 3x3 (climbing weight) ii. Military Presses with JS Bands looped over the bar: 3x3 (climbing weight) iii. Deadlift w/ JS bands over bar: 5 climbing singles iv. Dumb-Bell rows: 3x3 (climbing weight) v. Cheat Curls: 3x3 (climbing weight) b. Sub-workout B i. Reverse bent: 3x3 (climbing weight; this is like a windmill, except you drop into a squat to recover from the bottom position) ii. Bench press: 3x3 (climbing weight) iii. Good Mornings: 3x3 (climbing weight) iv. Pull-ups: 3x3 (climbing weight) v. Close grip bench: 3x3 (climbing weight) 4. Prehab/flexibility work a. Light DB curls b. Easy band push-downs c. Stretching Incidental modifications are allowed, for example, I might do 3x3 instead of 5x2, or vice versa. Also, in the assistance work, another variation of the same exercise can be substituted for a given workout (e.g. chin-ups instead of pull-ups). A back off week will be taken at the beginning of each four-week training cycle. For the back off week, I will only go through the program twice (that is, two workouts—one with each sub-workout). If I have to miss a day for some reason, I can also just shift the program one day forward and continue. "Fatigue Cycling" can also be employed with the lifts in each sub-routine, if I stagnate. I think this scheme should give me a sufficient degree of structure, while allowing for maximum flexibility. I will do this program at least until six weeks or so before the All-Round worlds in October (circumstances allowing), when I will need to begin prepping for the specific meet lifts (snatch from hang, clean and press behind neck, 2hands ciavattone deadlift, one hand clean and jerk, pullover and press on back, trap bar deadlift). At that point, I will re-evaluate everything and see what’s going on. Of course, if I run into major roadblocks over the summer I may need to make some adjustments there as well. All of this is still in the preliminary stages, of course; I haven’t actually initiated training on this program yet (hopefully this week). I may need to make some (very) minor adjustments after the first four-week training period as well. If anything comes to mind, please let me know where I have made a mistake. I will also be picking up a copy of "loaded stretching" (maybe "strength stretching" too) in the near future. Any suggestions about integrating LS with this program? I was thinking maybe at the beginning, or if there are specific stretches before specific types of lifts, then I would do the appropriate LS technique before the corresponding lift in the program. Does that sound like a good idea? Thanks for reading, and for your feedback (if you made it this far!), W.H. 

My department's SWAT fit test= 1. pullups with a 25lb weight (min. of 2 to pass) 2. 40yd. dash starting prone w/helmet, vest and shotgun (min. 7.7 sec.) 3. 880, at 1st 220 mark run through 10 cones (zig zag) 2nd 220 drag officer (weighing 200lbs +) wearing vest & helmet 10yds 3rd 220 drop and do a pushup at 10 different cones (min. 4:45) I'm 5'7 and 170lbs, I can do 12 pullups, I run the 40 in 6.7 and the 880 in 3:50 - 4:00. Obviously the minimum is nothing, but everyone is very competitive and I would like to be able to do 17-20 pullups, under 6.0 in the 40 and 3:30 in the 880. Any suggestions regarding a training program to help me achieve my goals? 

I was watching 'The Met-Rx Worlds Strongest Man Contest' on TV last night. During the 'deadlift for reps' contest (600+ pounds - levered to a car behind the bar - winner did 13 reps), I noticed that all the lifters started with a rounded back, and noticeably pulled the bar in towards them (at an angle) on the initial pull. Also, during the initial pull, there was a discernable squat as the back straightened and the bar came in toward their hips. I am a newcomer to the strength-training game, and have been trying to learn DL form from PTP and Ian King's 'Book of Muscle'. Believe it or not, I've never seen anyone DL in real life yet. The sources I've read all talk about starting the deadlift by straightening the legs. None of the sources I've seen talk about the slight squat with the hips in the first pull. Is the slight squat standard form? It appeared to me that the pulling up and in of the bar, while dropping the hips a few inches helped to immediately straighten out their slightly rounded starting-position backs. Seemed like a good thing for their backs. Am I way out to lunch here?  

I am constantly asked about getting ready for Spec-Ops (I work in intel not Military, but have served in the Australian Army). Many people think that there are diffrent ways to train for Military Fitness/Tactical strength. The question is: "consider that the soldier doesnt have access to Kettlebells, yet has 6 weeks to get ready for SF, what would be the best ways to go about it? Would you getthem in the gym doing squats, Pullups, deadlifts, Sandbag lifting with a mix of Ruck marching, ladder climbs for speed (fun drill for those that have tired it)" I can remember a guy who failed british SAS selection but before he tried out again all he didwas push-ups, pullups, sit-ups, ruck once a week and Step ups with his Bergen on.... There are many ways to reach your goal. Simon  

reading Dr. Stuart McGill's LOW BACK DISORDERS looking at pages 105 and 245 he states and shows graphs that the press heelsi up has a high psoas activation. Is this the same as the Janda situp? Is tis a good idea to do these? 

Well, the title of this post might sound like I'm somewhat frustrated, and perhaps I am, a little anyway. It has been my observation over the years (I'm 43), that the ability to do pull-ups is very much genetic. I have seen some fit wiry guys pop out high reps, and other fit wiry guys who can hardly do any. Likewise, although not the more common scenario, right now I know a couple of big bodybuilder types who can pop out 20 reps at least, though they barely work on pull-ups at all. I saw a big muscular guy last week who said he hadn't tried pull-ups for 6 months do about 12, no problem. Yet, I know others, myself included, who have utilized virtually every principle known to mankind, including those on this forum, and can still probably not crank out 5 strict pull-ups. I'm pretty sure I'm not overtraining, not undertraining, eating right, getting enough sleep, etc. So why should I have to do some in depth analysis to figure out why I can't do many pull-ups, yet some other guy who does them once every six months can crank out 12? I conclude it is in the genetics, and I would think someone might be hard pressed to prove otherwise. However, perhaps I speak out of frustration and inwardly want someone to prove me wrong. Thanks! 

I've been learning to stand and bodyweight squat on one of those big exercise/yoga balls. I feel pretty comfortable on it with eyes open. Right now I'm practicing to be able to stand on it with closed eyes for 1 min. straight and started trying to learn to squat on it with closed eyes but can't do it yet. I think I'm pretty close to accomplishing the 1 min stand, 5 bodyweight squats blindfolded. I'm looking for more ideas of what I could do on the ball next. One thing I thought is to squat with weight (I have one 35lb KB). Another is, since I have two such balls, to learn to stand on both of them at the same time, one leg on each, and perhaps squat like that. Any other ideas? Thanks. 

Anyone with some input please set me straight.... I just obtained my first k-bell last week....I am very pleased, but I have a small question concerning the technique of the k-bell clean. I have read Pavel's k-bell challenge book, but I do not find the answer to my problem. When I clean the bell I notice a sharp pain in my elbows when the bell comes to rest on my forearm...this pain reminds me of my judo days when I was caught in ude-garami (twisting arm bar)... Do I just toughen up? Or do I work on my shoulder or elbow flexibilty? Please point me in the path of truth.