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

While it sounds logical, 'train like you fight and fight like you train', it is false logic. You are trying to replicate specific skills with a general strength movement. Learning to perform weight lifting movements on ones toes requires a completely different set of skills than fighting on ones toes. You are cross mixing purposes. The weight training is designed for general strength and conditioning of the muscles involved. It has nothing to do with fighting skills, which need to be specifically worked. Trying to mimic sports or combat skills with weights or kettlebells will only result in motor learning confusion. Keep your strength seperate from your skills. Steve Maxwell

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Many BJJ players as well as other grapplers develope muscle imbalances in the torso from over developement of the hip flexors and abdominal structures while neglecting the muscles that extend the spine. This is especially true of people that like to play the bottom position in the guard. Back problems are not common amoung wrestlers and judo players because of the amount of back strength involved in executing take downs and throws. You can't even play that game if you have a weak back. When I indentify a student with this type of muscle imbalance, I place him on a steady diet of 45' back hyperextensions, glute/ham raises, pelvic shoulder bridges with weight held on the hips and stretching the spine with back bridges and laying over a swiss ball. Once the back begins to feel stronger, Romainian deadlifts, deadlifts with the arms inside the legs (like a kettlebell deadlift) and barbell goodmornings. I am very careful to teach proper breathing and pressurization techniques. The weight is built up very slowly. Once the deadlift lifts are looking strong and the back pain has completely disapeared, I teach round back deadlifting with sand bags or a weighted heavy bag.Round back deadlifting is important for grapplers because it is impossible to always lift with a nice arched back when grappling. This process may take many months and should not be rushed or a set back may occur. Steve Maxwell

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If it makes you feel any better, after the class went outside, I stayed behind and put myself through the same routine. I couldn't ask anyone to do something that I wouldn't be willing or able to do. I agree, it was pretty brutal. I kicked my own ass. Steve Maxwell

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It's impossible to tell without seeing you. On all swings, deadlifts, snatches and cleans, the back should remain in a tight arch. During normal activities, the back should be nuetral and not in an exaggerated arch. When you stand straight, the feet, knees, hips and head should be perfectly aligned. A self test is to stand with the heels, tail bone , shoulder blades and head against a wall. You should be able to do this easily. If you have to strain or force it, you need corrective exercises. For most postural abnormalities, hip flexor and hamstring stretching coupled with abdominal and rear shoulder strengthening is the prescription. Steve Maxwell

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You can also register by calling 215-928-1374 and get the early discount. We will cover all aspects of the Naked Warrior and other amazing body weight drills. Every kind of pushup, pullup, ab work variations, squats using rings, rope bar, floor, wall, doorways will be covered. Never be dependent on a gym or equipment again! You are the gym. More details comming soon. Steve Maxwell

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Peter, The most frequent cause of injuries in strength/endurance exercise is the sudden increase in volume. This has been well documented in many population studies. So the most important thing to keep your back safe is to very gradually increase your volume of high rep work. The kb snatch works the back muscles in a state of constant contraction. The spine remains in a constant tight arch statically while the glutes and hamstrings propell the bell upward. Any type of mobility work for the spine, including forward bending would be good therapy. Holding back bending postures and the shoulder bridge are redundent, unless of course you have tight hip flexors. You are already holding your back in extension for prolonged periods of time while doing high rep snatches. A very therapeutic and protective exercise that I work with my athletes is the 45' back hyper-extension. I use the wave style, where one allows the back to round or flex forward and then performs a slow extension one vertebrae at a time, in a wave like motion. This exercise strengthens the low back through the full range. Snatches tend to shorten the hamstrings, so do some PNF hamtring stretching at the end of each session. Shortened hamstrings are the frequent culprit in back problems. Keeping a strong abdominal structure is also very important as well as the rotational muscles. Exercises like janda situps, Russian twists and hanging leg raises are vital to a complete back program. Excess intra-abdominal fat also stress and puts undo strain on the lumbar spine. Getting rid of the pot belly is also very important. A spare tire is bad for ones health in other ways as well. Steve Maxwell

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Rob, It depends on your focus. Strength stretching has a major impact on getting stronger by improving the way the nervous system perceives resistance. However, for increased range of motion for non weighted movements, relax into stretch would be ideal, after regular training. You were always pretty flexible, so perhaps the strength stretching might be all you need. You could always add one or two RS style stretches if you find yourself getting tight. It only takes a few minutes to add on a couple RS techniques each day. Steve Maxwell

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Tank Guy, Welcome to the DD forum. Wind mills are tough for a lot of guys, especially if you have not been doing any hamstring stretching. Pre-stretch your hamstrings prior to practising the windmill by doing some gentle stretches. Start with a lighter weight. If you only have one kettlebell, use a light dumbbell. Build your confidence with the light weight. make sure that your feet are not to wide, a common mistake. Also check your feet and make sure they are pointing the same direction, another common error. When you bend forward, imagine that you are trying to touch an imaginary point between your feet. Pull yourself forward with your abdominals. Keep your eyes focused on the weight and 'open' your shoulder as you arch your spine. If you are still struggling and are far from touching the floor, place a low stool or pile of books between your feet as a focal point. You can gradually lower the focal point until you reach the floor. It is okay to bend the front leg slightly, but do not bend the rear leg. Also make sure that the weight is shifted back on the rear leg. It is also okay to do a couple of partial reps at the start of the set and to gradually reach lower and lower as the set progresses. Incorporate these ideas into your practice and I am sure you will be successful. Steve Maxwell

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I get a lot of questions about those kettlebells. When I was new to kettlebell training, I could not find a kettlebell any where. I had read Pavel's original article in Milo. After contacting him, I had a pretty good idea of what a kettlebell should look like. Russ, one of my jiujitsu students, worked in a metal shop and made me a pair over his lunch hour. They are made out of stainless steel. Russ took two scrap blocks of steel and put them on a lathe and turned them until they were round. He then welded two handles out of the same material. They are one of a kind.He did the job for free, even though I tried to pay him. If I were to have a pair custom made out of that material from a comercial shop, it would cost four hundred dollars or more. He made them from a verbal description only with no picture or plan. They are amazingly serviceable, but no match for the Dragondoor ones. I still use them. They are a little over 50 lbs. each. Steve Maxwell

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The glute/ham raise is an outstanding exercise. It is not an outstanding low back exercise. Do yourself a big favor and buy a cheap 45' back extension. Here on the east coast, I saw a decent one for $69.00 on sale. You can get them for under $150. When the low back is the weak link, you must take the hamstrings out of it as much as possible. Most people cheat and bend their legs. You must not do this. The 45' back extension is the single best rehab/strength exercise that I have ever done. You can certainly include the glute/ham exercise as part of a circuit. Research has shown a high corelation to low back endurance and diminished back pain. Work the abs hard as well. Build up to 50 reps in as many sets as it takes. Stop when fatigue sets in, a rep or two short of failure for each set. Start with 20 reps and build up from there, adding 5 reps every other workout once you can do a strict, no monentum set of 20 straight. The 45' is a different animal and affects the low back very differently than the glute/ham. Steve Maxwell

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I don't know why more people don't utilize the weighted pushup as a basic arm, shoulder, chest and core exercise. They make so much more sense for most athletes than the traditional bench press because of the stability factor. Steve Maxwell

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Off season conditioning for wrestling should definitely include absolute strength work. Heavy, low rep sets of basic lifts such as deadlifts, presses, weighted pullups and dips are a great way to increase strength with minimal mass or weight gain. This general strength program can be a nice break from tye strength -endurance work for a few months. As the season gets closer, a more specific conditioning program needs to be incorporated such as you mentioned. Steve Maxwell

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With two kettlebells, you can do some very productive exercises that single kettlebells can't touch. Front squats for instance or double snatches. You will also be shocked at how much harder and cardio double bell workouts are. Steve Maxwell

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While it is well known that doing heavy compound movements will build mass throughout the entire body, including arm girth, sometimes specialization is needed to stimulate growth in lagging body parts. Generally, most trainees do not need to spend a lot of time with arm exercises as the arms are involved with all upper body movements such as presses, dips, rows, pullups, chinups, bench presses etc. Adding extra arm work can over train the relatively smaller weaker arm muscles. It also has been demonstrated many times that the arm muscles will grow without any direct stimulation by performing heavy leg, hip and back work. Heavy barbell squats and deadlifts for example, will increase over all size in every body part including the arms. This is due to the 'indirect effect'. By stimulating the large muscles of the body, hormonal growth factors are elevated that stimulate muscular growth throughout the entire body. Sometimes, however, certain body parts such as the arms or calves will lag behind in developement. Much of this is genetic, but with intellegent use of isolation and specialization, improvement can be made. There is no magic formula. A lot of experimentation must be done. 'Cookie cutter' formulas can be tried, but tweak them to serve your own purposes. Usually two to three weeks of arm specialization is all that is needed for good results. Then one should go back to heavy general training for a few weeks. This cycle can be repeated several times. Steve Maxwell

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