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

Matt, I'ved used the stuff for years with great results. In some cases almost miraculous. Here are some guidelines that I have found that can save you a lot of time. Use the pure stuff mixed with aloe vera if you can. It will cut down on eventual skin irritation. Apply topically three times daily for acute injuries. Use DMSO on moving joints only such as fingers, toes,ankles, wrists, elblows, knees, shoulders, spine and neck. Do not use it for dislocated ribs or shoulder separations. It also relieves swelling from contusions and bruises (blunt trauma). It has the ability to drive excess water out of cells. It has anti inflamatory properties and is good for chronic stiffness and pain from over use injuries. Basically the guide lines are, use it for joints that you want to free up, but not on things that have to re-attach. Apply it freely to bruises. Steve Maxwell

http://www.stevemaxwell.com 

There are many variations of body weight exercise that wok well for over weight and weak teens and adults. To maximise calorie burning and muscle recovery, circuit training works very well. Squat/pulls are a great start. It is basically a modified pull-up using the legs and hips. The bar can be any railing or horizontal bar about chest high. Play ground equipment is a good choice. Have the young lad grip the bar with hands shoulder width and sit down on the ground with his chest and shoulders under the bar. The legs should be 90' with heels firmly planted. As he attempts a chin-up or pull-up, he will use his legs as an assist. The resistence is spread evenly between his upper and lower body. The move uses every part of the body, but with major emphasis on the upper pulling musculature. It can be quite cardio. Sometimes I do it myself as a cardio workout. I'll do a 100 reps as part of a endurance workout. Next, he needs to work the pushing muscles. Have him do modified pushups from his knees, but make it even easier by elevating his hands on a step. Do not let him flare his elbows out to the side, but keep the elbows tucked in. Other wise, he will injure his shoulders. Find the level that he can do full range reps, chest touching the step. At Maxercise, I use aerobic steps that stack so that I can vary the height. Cinder blocks would work in a pinch. A stair well could also work.As his strength improves, lower the height of his hands until eventually he can do modified pushups on the floor. For lower body, have him sit back on a bench , stool or low chair. The bench should be low enough that his hips are slightly below his thighs when he squats back. These high rep squats to the bench will quickly build strength and confidence. As he becoms more fit, use a lower bench. For low back, do the back extension with the arms at the side while anchoring the feet. Have him slowly arch as high as he can and pause. Then turn him over onto to his back and perform shoulder bridges by raising the hips as high as possible. keep the knees, hips and feet in alignment. Don't let him spread the knees at the top. Also make sure that his knees are ninety degrees and he pushes from the heels. For ab strength, slow bent leg crunches Janda style work well. Follow that with elbow planks, even modifying it with elbow planks from the knees. It is important to teach him how to engage his abs and keep the back flat. So there you have it. A complete balanced body weight program for people in a deconditioned state. Work it circuit style with short rest periods. Keep the upper body work at 5 reps and the lower body at 10. Do as many circuits as he can handle. Eventually add reps as well as circuits until he is moving for thirty minutes straight. On the off days, have him walk, hike in the woods, swim, ride a bike, toss a football or frisbee, play tennis, badmitten or pingpong, shoot some hoops, box or wrestle. Find stuff that he likes to do and do it every single day for an hour. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

A month is not much time to prepare. Hopefully you have been training hard for several months already. The most important work is what you do on the mat every day. Spend a third of the time drilling and practising moves with a co-operating partner. Then work the same moves against a partially resisting partner. The partial resistence work should be about fifty% resistance. The other third should be all out matches for the length of time that you will fight. In real BJJ tournaments, run under confederation standards, blue belts fight 6 minutes. White belts do not compete. NAGA has it's own strange set of rules and standards that are not recognized by the BJJ governing body.I believe white belts fight 5 minutes. Get a copy of their rules and read carefully. Prepare to fight a minimum of 6 bouts. If you are weak in certain positions, like the guard or poor at takedowns, do positional work. Spend time every training working from your worst positions. With a month to go, cut supplementary training down to twice per week. Do intense cardio and strength/endurance work for brief five minute circuits with body weight or kettlebell exercises. Perform the movement for 10 seconds, rest 10 seconds for a total of three sets per minute. Do as many reps in the ten seconds that you can. Threee to five reps is good, depending on the exercise. KB swings, double cleans, thrusters, squat thrusts with a pushup, pull-ups, rubber band take down drills, hindu squats, deck squats, all types of pushups are all good exercises to use in this type of circuit. Each circuit can be slightly different. These tournaments are long drawn out affairs.be mentally prepared to sit around waiting for your division. Bring all the food and water that you will need. Plan your re-hydration and eating stratedgy ahead of time. Never eat differently or try something new tournament day. These are a few idas to help you out. Your nerves are going to be your biggest enemy fight day. Learning to deal with the mental and emotional issues surrounding a combat sport is what seperates the champions from the also rans. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

Thanks for the acknowledgement. I believe that low body fat levels are more about calorie restriction than training. As one ages, they must be more careful in regard to diet. Genetics certainly plays a big role. My father is small, lean and wirey. My mother is large boned and has had obesity problems. She has never not been over weight. Both sides of the family have a had a fair share of obesity. That goes back to the diet and exercise arguments. Every one of my dad's brothers(6) died in their early sixties of heart disease or stroke, including his father and mother. All were borderline obese. My dad always under ate, worked out by running every day and lifted weights twice per week. His job was physically active and he lawn and garden work as a hobby. He is now in his eighties and still runs mrarthons. My personal diet is low carb and I purposely systematically under eat as a anti-aging therapy. I use a lot of supplements including red wine and chocolate. I never binge or over eat. I never indulge in junk food (movie theater popcorn on occasion)and do some type of physical activity every day.I engage in very taxing intense workouts two to three times weekly followed by more moderate work. Circuit training is very good, but I like to mix it up. In exercise, there are no absolutes. Steve Maxwell

http://www.stevemaxwell.com 

Without knowing your exact goals, I can only make some suppositions. I would suggest alternating an intense cardio workout between each heavy strength session. Instead of Mon, Wed, Fri. heavy strength, do Mon- weights, Wed- intence Tabata cardio, Fri- weights, Sat. intense cardio. Rest Tues,Thurs. and Sunday. When I say rest, I mean active recovery work like walking, joint mobility, stretching and any recreational pursuits you may enjoy such as golf tennis, basketball, biking, swimming etc. What I mean by intense cardio is sprint style workouts of about 20 min.in duration. 5 minute warmup, 5 to 10 minutes of sprint work using 20 sec. work and 10 second recoveries. Finish with a 5 to 10 minute moderate paced cool down. Use a stationary bike, Schwinn Air Dyne, jump rope, running on a a treadmill or better yet, outside, stair steps or kettlebell swings. Stretch out really well after you cool down. These combined workouts will give you the ultimate in strength and endurance, not to mention that you will get really cut up. Steve Maxwell

http://www.stevemaxwell.com 

Throwing dummies have a place in training. In order for it to be of any use, it must be properly balanced. The bulgarian throwing dummies are the best on the market, but are very pricey (around $800.) You want a dummy that is about half your body weight.For the most part, practising on a dummy is a waste of time.Let's put it this way, I do not know of one elite grappler in BJJ or submission wrestling that practises on a dummy. There is no substitute for working against resisting partners. Submissions on a dummy are not even close to what it's like on a human. You will end up incorporating bad habits and fool yourself into thinking you can do things that you can't. Dummies are good for striking acuracy. There are heavy bags that are shaped like human torsos that allow for developing accurate punches. Steve Maxwell

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Rob, It is well known in body building circles that the best rep range for increased muscular size is the 10 to 12 range. Since you have been working the lower rep range for a while and have built some pretty decent strength levels, cycle some higher rep ranges for 6 to 8 weeks. Moderate volume, medium rep sets with low rest (1 minute) could just be the ticket to increased size. You could stick to the same exercises, but perhaps change the style of deadlift from regular to sumo or even stiff legg style. I would suggest adding bent over rows or weighted chins for a little upper body stimulation. You may want to add standing military presses once per week and substitute weighted dips for the bench. This would give your body a nice change and get you really muscular for the beach this summer. These stratedgies have been used for decades very successfully by many power body builders. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

Super Slow is a strength training protocol that was originally invented for post menapausal women who had osteoporosis (thinning of the bones). The origin of the technique was during a study at the University of Florida Medical School to determine whether strength training could reverse osteoporosis. Nautilus machines were utilized. Many of the subjects were so frail that they kept getting injured and dropping out of the study. It was determined that if slower rep speeds were used, the injury rate dropped. The protocol worked so well, that is was then applied to healthy adults. Great results were obtained and the author, Ken Hutchins, enthusiastically began to promote and experiment what he called"SuperSlow" as the ultimate protocol. It is his belief that lifting a weight very slowly with no momentum is harder and more intense than lifting something very fast. The assumption was that intensity of effort is the mechcanism that triggers muscular growth and strength.Hutchins also felt that in order to measure work and to make accurate assessments of strength increases, the unit of work (repitition) should be standardized. He chose ten second reps as the standard because it was easy to gage and measure. We now know that intensity is not the most important factor in building strength, but tension is. That is why for non-balistic exercises, a slow, high tension rep is called for. We also know that varying the rep speed produces better results than staying at the same speed all the time. I think Super Slow is outstanding for rehabilitation, working around injuries and a good protocol for variety. It is not the ultimate protocol for constant use for athletes seeking to maximise their potential. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

Luke, At my facility, Maxercise, I have a large number of female clients. I have worked with many women over the last 30 years in all aspects of diet, fitness and weight control. First off, how does she know the scale she found at Wal-mart was accurate? Those cheap scales are notorious for being way off. What time of day did she check her weight? After a large meal? Was she bloated from being close to her menstrual cycle? Had she been constipated? This happens to many women and can cause great discomfort and unwanted weight gain. Is she on birth control pills? Those pills cause excessive bloating and weight gain in many women. All these things must be taken into account. You can argue about how silly it is to worry about weight until you are exhausted, but you will never convince her. My wife, DC, who is one of the models in the FRWTL book, still weighs herself all the time and will get depressed if the numbers are not to her liking. She knows better and still tortures herself. Weight issues are just to ingrained into the female psyche.There are several explanations about possible weight gain from her kettlebell routine. One is that she actually put on some muscle. It is very unlikely that she gained 10 lbs. of muscle. Unless she is strictly monitering her calories, she more than likely put on body fat as well as muscle. The routine you describe is not calorie intensive. To lose weight, she must lower her calories along with the exercise. It all comes down to the law of thermo-dynamics. This law is immutable. Eat more than you burn and gain weight(fat); eat less than you burn and become lean. Rather than fight her on ther weighing issue, go out and buy her the most expensive scale that you can. Do not get one of those scales that supposedly can figure out fat percent fat. The technology in those is flawed and highly inaccurate. Check the scales accuracy regularly by weighing one of your heavy kettlebells. Have her weigh herself first thing each morning. She should weigh in nude or while wearing the same thing each time. Use a pair of jeans that are to tight for her at this time as the other measuring stick. She should try the overly tight pants on once per week, say on a Sunday. If she sticks to the dieting and exercise, those pants will be loose in no time. I have yet to see this technique fail to produce results with my women clients. Getting into a tight pair of pants seems to be very motivating. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

Maria Morganouva is one of my kettlebell clients at Maxercise.She does Russian sport massage and various body work therapies for a living. Besides lifting kettlebells, she does yoga and runs. She is also an elite equestrian who gives riding lessons and trains horses. One has to be strong to handle horses. Maria is no 'sissy' girl. She can do multiple pull-up sets with the guys. At 5'7" and a body weight of 125 lbs.she is lean and muscular. She trains with the 16 kg. kettlebell for most of her lifts. Her hands are her livelyhood and keeping them soft and supple are important to her line of work. She wears a light pair of training gloves and has no trouble what-so-ever with the grip or anything else. For some people, wearing light gloves is optimal.I also have a oral surgeon and cosmetic dentist who also wear light training gloves. This guy is a stud who races motorcycles on weekends. He cannot afford to build any calluses. His hands are his living. While I believe that most people will benefit and should learn to lift and exercise without gloves, there are plenty that are exceptions. Steve Maxwell

http://www.stevemaxwell.com 

The Nike shoe company recently launched a new type of footbed technology designed to mimic bare foot running. The shoes sport minimal cushioning and very flexible soles. They feel really good and weigh virtually nothing. They make a cross-trainer as well. The sole is enough to take the edge off hard concrete and protect against broken glass and sharp stones. I workout barefoot in jiujitsu anyway and always lift unshod. Outside, however, I like to protect my feet from environmental hazards. These Nike shoes fit the bill. As a side note, I used to have a client in his mid fifties that ran 5 miles every other day in a pair of rubber flip flops. he had been doing so for thirty years. He would buy a new pair every month. His feet were very strong and he claimed that barefoot running prevented the over use injuries normally associated with running. He claimed that the over engineered cushioned running shoes over protect the feet and cause more problems than they prevent. Indoors, he would run barefoot on the treadmill during inclement weather. Steve Maxwell

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I only run a few miles at a time. I intersperse the running with calesthenics such as pushups, pullups, lunges, hops, jumps, bounds, situps etc. I don't know the actual distance. I run for time. Every two to three minutes I do an exercise. On the trails in Fairmont Park, I wear thin soles running shoes. I run 8 minutes from the trail head to 'parachute' hill. There I do sprints to the top and drop for ten hindu pushups. This is usually followed by dragging an old truck tire on a gravel fire road for 5 minutes or so. Sometimes I add a 'walking' segment while carrying a large rock against my chest until I drop it. I finish with climbing a couple of vines hand over hand and running 8 minutes back to the car. Steve Maxwell

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Embedded glass is no joke. I think that I would rather avoid any chance of getting broken glass embedded in my feet. Hepatitis is a very real spector from this type of debris. The risk to benefit ratio of running totally barefoot vs running with a very thin, lightweight sole seems to be pro protection.Are you running on concrete? Steve Maxwell 

I don't deadlift anymore. I rarely do any barbell work at all. It's not that I don't like deadlifts, but there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything. For submission wrestling and BJJ, I prefer partner lifts and sandbag lifts. For the combat grappler, these exercises are very functional and more specific to my needs. I do believe that every young athlete should immediately learn some form of deadlifting from day one. Most of the top submission wrestlers and jiujitsu fighters do not deadlift.Some coaches have challenged the claim that the deadlift is that functional for certain combat sports. The claim is that a nice perfectly balanced barbell lifted in a 'grooved' lift does not develope the kind of strength applicable for anything encountered in grappling. A few have used the technique of unbalancing the deadlift by unevenly loading one side. Pavel demonstrates the suit case deadlift in his Bullet Proof Abs, which is outstanding and very real world. I like loosely packed sand bags. Because of their shifting nature and unwieldiness, they feel like live opponents when you lift them. Partner lifts are probally the most sport specific of all for grappling. They strengthen the back and spine exactly at the specific angles needed in securing holds, lifts and throws. On my grappling conditioning DVDs, I show several excellent partner lifts. Steve Maxwell

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Let me restate my view of the traditional barbell deadlift so there is no confusion. The barbell deadlift is one of the best lifts for over all strength and muscular growth. It is a 'functional' exercise in that it translates well into increased performance in many unrelated activities. That does mean that the barbell deadlift does not have shortcoomings. Critics argue that the deadlift is a 'grooved' powerlift and being strong in it will not neccessarily protect the back from injury when it is out of it's 'groove'. Because strength is so specific, for many sports, grappling specifically, grooved deadlifts are not that important. Learning to lift with a round back is important to all grapplers. This is the position one often finds themselves in when executing take downs and throws. Sand bag lifts are a good way to learn this strength skill. It is not a deadlift in the traditional sence. One bends over and grabs the bag like he would lift a heavy rock. The hands go around and under the bag. There is a strong lat, chest, arm, shoulder and abdominal component to it. The bag is lifted in this 'hugging' fashion for the desired reps. Often if it is a heavy bag, single reps are all that is required. Lighter sand bags can be done for higher rep counts. I also like to round back lift and shoulder the sand bag. When shouldering, there is a twisting rotational element. It can be done in heavy weight low rep style or lighter for a cardio strength/endurance workout. I have witnessed 400 lb. plus deadlifters who could not budge the 200lb. sandbag off the floor let alone shoulder it. It's a whole different type and level of strength and conditioning. Steve Maxwell

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It is not my policy to give my opinion about someone else's operation and it is not fair of you to ask such a thing on a public forum.This is deemed inflamatory. My first choice would be to invite you to Maxercise in center city Phila. I can offer an excellent opinion of our facility and teaching methods. As to the other two schools, visit each one at least twice and compare. Keep in mind that even a poor school can seem great to a beginner if they have nothing to compare it to. I can say without reservation that my club sets a very high standard for teaching and producing competitors. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

Every exercise has a place in the training arsenal. Bicep curls are no different. Generally isolation movements should be kept to a minimum so as not to rob valuable recoverability and concentration from the big compound movements. Exercises that involve a lot of muscle mass such as deadlifts, squats, pull-ups, chin-ups, bench press, standing over head lifts, dips, bent over rows, cleans and snatches should form the basis of strength routines. This would be good advice for bodybuilders as well. These big lifts leave little energy for much else. That's why most strength coaches discourage the inclusion of a lot of other ancillary movements. However, I have always advocated foot, calf and ankle work, neck work and forearm, wrist and grip work. The same case could be made for the inclusion of heavy bicep and tricep exercises. Because these muscle groups are used in almost every movement and sport, care has to be taken not to overtrain these smaller easily overtrained muscle groups. Occasional arm specialization routines can be embarked on for brief periods of several weeks for added growth and strength. In MMA, judo and submission wrestling, the elbow joint is the frequent cite of injury. Strenthening the elbow with some isolation work is acceptable as long as one does not get carried away or shrink from the big productive power movements. When rehabilitating a injured elbow, light curls and tricep extension work can be very helpful in regaining ROM and reducing swelling and pain. The biceps are the weak link in pull-ups and chin-ups. By strengthening them, it is concievable that increases in pull-ups would be experienced as long as they were practised regularly as well. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com 

Muscular endurance is usually the limiting factor with most begginning jiujitsu students. That coupled with inflexibility and lack of joint mobility. Grip and pulling endurance is very important. Work a lot of pull-ups and chin-ups into your conditioning workouts. Keep your abdominal and core strength /endurance high. Work very specifically on spinal rotation strength, which is usually lacking in most begginners. Body weight calesthenic circuits with liberal kettlebell swings and snatches thrown in provide great jiujitsu conditioning workouts. Steve Maxwell

http://www.stevemaxwell.com 

Chris, There are two major reasons for shoulder pain from doing push-ups. One is that you are not activating the rear shoulder and lat during the decent. You are most likely not keeping tension in the shoulder,which is especially important for shoulder stability during the negative. Try to pull yourself down actively. If you check, I can almost bet that you are shrugging your shoulder and inappropriately using the traps as well. The other cause of shoulder pain in OAPs is you are most likely allowing the elbow to flare out to the side. During the execution of the negative, grip the ground with your finger tips and begin to 'corckscrew' the working hand outwards.The outer edge of the palm of the hand should be ground into the floor. The hand doesn't actually move, but is isometrically screwed into the floor while simultaneously gripping. At the bottom position, the elbow should be tucked in tight to the ribs and the thumb should be touching the outer edge of the pec (chest). The breathing technique is also important for stabilizing the spine by activating the abdominals and core. The breath sequence is, take a nasal breath at the top position into the lower abs. Hold the breath and slowly lower while keeping the abs , glutes and thighs tight. On the accent, exhale with a hissing sound (tongue behind the front teeth) while maintaining abdominal tension. If you are unable to perform the OAP in this manner, you need to work through some easier progressions until you build the neccessary strength.

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The towel pull-up or towel chin-up are far superior to the above exercise for judo, sambo and jiu jitsu practitioners. The sport specific grip and accompaning pull while holding the cloth exactly mirrors the type of grip and pulling required for these martial sports. There are several variations, I will give two of my favorite. The first is to attach two towels to a high bar by drapping them over and wrapping duct tape around the top part of the towel. In this manner, multi width pull-ups can be performed while grasping the cloth. The other way is to drape and old gi or towel over the bar and grasp either end and do close grip chins. The towel should be long enough so that you don't hit your head on the bar. You can also pull up so that the head goes to one side of the bar and then alternate to the other side. A body weight row can also be done using a towel with the feet on the floor. This is good for begginners . Steve Maxwell

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The grip strength required for judo, sambo and jiujitsu is very specific. Crushing strength as developed by the COC grippers is of little use to a grappler. Exercises that use a towel or judo jacket are very good. Towel chins, pull-ups, sandbag lifts while holding the cloth and body weight rows using a towel are excellent. For holding onto limbs as in submission wrestling and MMA, using thick (fat) bars, large diameter dumbbells, kettlebells and rope climbing are good bets for this type of gripping power. In general, grappling with or without the jacket requires prolonged holding power by the hands or strength/endurance. Steve Maxwell

http://www.maxercise.com