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

It is obvious that the pistols are sub max and more of a maintainence thing for your son. He is old enough now to start training heavier and harder. Depending on his goals, you have several ways to go. For pure raw strength, heavy low rep sets of two or three could be done GTG style each day. Start off with a relatively easy weight lode and build from there. Just make sure he is using impeccable form. The other route would be daily ladder sets for strength/endurance. Have him work up to a set volume goal each day. For example, since he is currently doing 20 reps each day, have him start with 30 reps to be done ladder style. You could set an arbitrary goal of 50 per leg as your long range ladder goal ladder goal. Intersperse easy ladder days with near max ladder days and wave the rep count. For increases in leg mass, medium rep sets of 8 to 10 with moderate weights performed two to three times per week has proven to be an effective protocol. All three of these stratedgies can be employed in cycle format for two to four week cycles. Steve Maxwell

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Tom, In order to increase muscular size, you have to do the 'big' lifts. These would include, barbell squats, regular and stiff leg deadlifts, bench press, military press, heavy bent over rows, weighted chins or pullups and weighted dips. These are the tried and proven exercises that have given results for the last 100 years. rather than divide your body into a bunch of parts, divide your routine between the lifts themselves. select lifts that you are weak at as the basis of the routine. If your deadlifts are not up to par, concentrate on them. If you are poor at full barbell squats, then that would be the thing to concentrate on. Generally, most people respond well to heavy, low rep sets such as the 5x5 protocol. Good results are attained by 'waving' the reps every few weeks and doing higher rep counts such as 10 to 15 for a cycle. It has been well established that three weekly workouts and in some cases two weekly workouts are ideal for building size. It's all about recovery. Select three major lifts for each workout and one or two ancillary lifts. For example, w/o I could be based on the bench press, bent over rows and deadlift with situps, neck and grip/forearm work. W/O II would be military press and heavy pullups with shrugs and leg raises. W/O III could be barbell squats, glute/ham raises, calf raise, chinups and dips. One day rest should be taken between each workout and two days after the squats. If you feel like your body has not recovered from the previous workout, take an extra day. This type of work will build plenty of muscle and strength at the same time. Obviously you will have to bump up your protein levels and calorie intake. For most, a 20% increase in protein is ideal. Don't be to 'piggish' or you will add a lot of body fat that will cover your hard earned muscle.Building size and strength does not have to be mutually exclusive. This is how all the old timers trained before bodybuilding became a chemical nightmarish joke. Steve Maxwell

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The rep counts can be waved. Go heavy for low reps some circuits and higher reps with lighter bells for others. For conditioning purposes, compress the rest periods to elicit a cardio response. Low reps meaning 3 to 5 and higher meaning 10 or more. Things like bear crawls would obviously lend them selves to higher rep counts than say the turkish get-up. Use your judgement. Stop when your form deteriorates. The tension needs to be high for all of the core exercises which necessitates lower rep counts. Steve Maxwell

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First of all, there are not any bonafide studies to support 90% of the fitness notions and popular ideas. Many things are simply hearsay and made up stories promoted in the body building magazines. Barbell squats are indeed a great exrcise. They deliver big time on increased strength and muscle mass. Their benefits do not include spinal loading. The way barbell squats load the spine are a negative. That is why ones form is very important with heavy BB squats. Because the load is across the upper spine, the upper body 'fights' to remain upright as the load tends to push the upper torso foreward and down. This creates a shearing force on the lower spine and can create really bad injuries. Form on the BB squat is very important. They can be performed safely if coached and taught correctly. If one loses their back arch during squats by either going to deeply or because of fatigue, bad things can happen to the low back. Many people have also suffered upper spine and neck injuries from the crushing weight of the bar across the shoulders. Since your goals are long term health and fitness, there is no reason to do heavy barbell squats. At the risk of incurring the wrath of power lifting fans, I would advise most fitness and health enthusiasts to stay away from loading themselves with heavy barbell squats. Every older power lifter that I know suffers from extreme inflexibility and multiple spinal problems. Many are virtual cripples. You can get all the benefits of squating with pistols and kettlebell front squats. Serum testosterone and HGH levels have been reported to increase in any heavy compound movement including intense cardio such as sprinting protocols. The lower back muscles do recieve a fair share of stimulation in the pistol because they must stabilize the torso by bending the body foreward. However, if you want a strong spine, do not look to squats, but kettlebell swings, snatches, deadlifts and 45' back extensions. Of course abdominal and oblique work are important as well. Steve Maxwell

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Higher rep squats with body weight or a vest are a great strength/endurance tool. The Hindu squat is a terrific knee developer. People get in trouble with Hindu squats by trying to build the numbers up to quickly and not keeping proper tension at the bottom. High rep flat foot squats serve the same purpose except the glutes and hamstrings are doing more of the work. Neither place undue stresses on the low back. For athletics and health/fitness purposes, either would give good results. For more strength, lower rep pistols are ideal. The pistol places a lot of emphasis on the glute/ham area and less on the knee. I think the ideal combination would be alternating workouts of the higher rep hindu squats with lower rep pistols. Kettlebell front squats are also exceptionally safe. I like them for their strong abdominal and upper body component. Kettlebell front squats are what I refer to as a 'whole body' exercise. Kettlebell front squats do tend to over develope the adductors, similar to barbell squats and create chaffing thigh syndrome. This can be problematic for certain athletes. For that reason, I prefer the pistol for my own strength purposes. One other outstanding endurance squat are the deck squats or rockup squats. 50 reps of those bad boys will leave one huffing and puffing and their legs feeling like jelly. All in all, there are a lot of choices squat exercises for leg developement that do not involve excessive loads on the spinal column. I did them when I was younger, but as I got older, I found the risk to benefit not worth it. part of this was my fitness goals changed. Steve Maxwell

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Craig, there are so many great mobility drills for the upper spine. One of the best that address both your low back and upper back issues is the 45' back extension done using the 'wave' protocol. After anchoring your feet in the bench and bending forward, arms folded acrossed the chest, slowly 'roll' up one vertebrae at a time. Start with the sacrum and lumbar spine. very slowly roll up into complete spinal extension and open the chest. Now slowly reverse the process beginning with the cervical spine and roll down one vertebrae at a time. The tendency is to suddenly arch the back all at once and extend up. Fight this urge. At the start, the pelvis almost lifts up off the support pad as you begin the roll up. At the bottom, pause and allow the back to traction and the hamstrings to get a brief stretch. At the top, also pause and really open the upper chest. This exercise can work wonders if done as described. remember, go slowly with total control. Your rep count will not be high as the back will fatigue quickly. Steve Maxwell

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You are right about the limited range of motion when doing the back extensions on the floor. On the floor, the upper and mid portion of the back share the greatest part of the load. You could do the yoga locust pose. There are several variations. Another favorite of mine is the dumbbell arm hauler or dumbbell swim. It is an excellent total back and rear shoulder exercise. Lay down in the prone position with the arms extended forward (like the superman position) while hloding light dumbbells. Slowly extend and arch the back while lifting the dumbbells and swing the arms up, out and behind the low back. Try and touch the dumbbells together in the small of the back. Don't go fast and try to keep the arms as straight as possible.Extend the legs and don't let them bend either. Try to keep the legs together and not let them spread. Your pelvis is the only thing contacting the floor. It's a pretty tough exercise. Three pound dumbbells will be plenty in the begginning. Following up with the glute /ham raise would be a good idea. I would still encourage you to purchase an inexpensive 45' back extension bench. This exercise cannot be beat for low back rehab and injury prevention. Steve Maxwell

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For general health and well being, it probally is not necessary to do single leg training.For strength sports, listen to Power Lifter 54. In my own case, being a jiujitsu practitioner and competitor, I feel that single leg training is very important. Besides correcting any imbalances, single leg training helps build power for individual leg movements that I feel I can not get through double leg training. Pistols, weighted cossacks and lunges help throws and takedowns big time. I also like the enhanced mobility and flexible strength (strength in extreme range) that single leg training gives me. It all depends on what one is trying to accomplish. Steve Maxwell

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Weighted Cossacks are wide stance side lunges, like the joint mobility exercise in Pavel's Super Joints, except you hold a weight in your hands. There is a picture of Pavel doing it on the cover of the book and on line. He is in the bottom position. Steve Maxwell

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Ivan, There is a better way to do the one arm pushups. Don't use your knuckles for the working arm. Start using the palm and working on corkscrewing the outer edge of the palm into the floor (the area just beneath the little finger). Before you start working on the hard style of one arm, one leg, build up to at six solid reps of the regular OAP. The frog tuck planche is a great exercise, but strength is very specific and it will not help you that much with the OAP. You can still do the planche holds, but as a 'finisher' after you do the OAP's or on an alternate day. If you cnnot do OAP's yet, use the fingers of the non-working hand with an outstretched arm as an aid. Start with the index and middle fingers, change to the thumb and then just the index. At that point, you should be able to knock off a rep or two. Keep tension high and actively pull yourself down. I find that one arm corkscrew body weight rows work really well as a balance to the OAP's. The OA rows also teach how to actively pull oneself down to the bottom with tension. At the end end of each session, do isometric holds at the bottom for time. Just lower down to the bottom and hold the bottom position while balancing on just the hand. This will give you strength and confidence in the 'hole'. Build up to over a minute. I will plug Pavel and my Naked Warrior seminar at Maxercise, Aug. 13 and 14. We will be showing many progressions and variations of our favorite body weight exercises. Steve Maxwell

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The one arm row witha corkscrew motion is not anything like a renegade row. You hold onto a bar about waist high, I use a strap with a handle that hangs from an eyebolt in the ceiling. I have used an Olympic bar in a power rack, a fence railing and a towel wrapped around an open doors doorknobs. The towel row on the door is featured in Pavel's Beyond Bodybuilding. There is a picture of me demonstrating it. You basically perform a reverse OAPU, using the corkscrewing elbow technique as you pull your shoulder to your hand. It makes a perfect balance and training aid to the OAPU. Steve Maxwell

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Firehands, I love sledge hammer swinging. I too live in a big city (Phila.) but I have a small backyard. I went around the neighborhood scrounging around in the back alleys and found a bunch of old car tires. I brought one home and burried it in my wife's flower bed. It stands on end with half under the dirt. I simply tamped the soil down and it stays upright with no problem. I went to a contrators supply store and bought 6 sledge hammers of various weights. The 20 pounder is a beast. What I like about the tire is it makes almost no noise (so as not to bother the neighbors)and I get this cool rebound effect as the hammer bounces off the rubber. If you have no dirt, I saw a nice set up at a gym in Brazil. The owner had taken a tractor tire and set it on end on a wooden platform with wood braces. The plat form was pressure treated plywood and the braces were pressure treated 4x4's. He just built a nice frame to sit it in. He then put a couple of sand bags on the plat form to weigh it down. It sat outside the the front door of the gym. Steve Maxwell

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Karen, In a past post, I mentioned that the hanging leg raise is not an abdominal exercise specifically. It is a hip flexor exercise. During the hanging leg raise or ab wheel, the abdominals work only mildly as spinal stabilizers. Neither the hanging leg raise or the ab wheel address abdominal strength specifically. The danger of any hip flexor movement that is emphasized as the primary core movement can create a major imbalance between the abdominal and hip flexors. The hip flexors are easy to develope and can easily over power the smaller weaker abdominals.This can result in low back tension and pain and poor posture such as 'sway back' or pot gut. Being able to do the standing wheel or hanging leg raises does mean that the abdominal muscles are neccessarily strong. The abs still need direct work. I prefer Janda situps and various high tension crunches.The elbow pain that you feel is not normal. Without seeing your form, it would be hard to know what is going on. You may have an imbalance in the muscles that flex the wrist and extend the wrist and or the supinators/pronators. The forearm extensors and flexors attach at the elbow and can be problamatic. Many women have very loose connective tissue at the shoulder and elbow joints. The shoulder or elbows literally come out of the joint under load. Many women, when they straighten their arms while doing a lat pull down or body wt. pullup, will have the elbows catch and come out of joint. One cure is to keep tension on the biceps by not allowing them to fully lock out at the bottom. The idea is to keep them partially flexed. This works for many. Steve Maxwell

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Karen, I was a big fan of the standing abdominal wheel exercise. I worked up to 5 reps from the feet to extension. One day I pushed a little to much and severly injured my low back. I ended up with sciatic nerve pain so bad that I could hardly walk. It took three months of extensive therapy and rehab to get out of pain. My low back has never been the same since. This is a guy that has been working out for almost 40 years. I lost my tension for just a moment due to fatigue and left my back 'kink'. I really messed myself up. I think the wheel is one of those high risk to benefit type exercises. Cool party trick, I was certainly enamored, but I think there are better, safer and more productive ab/core exercises. I say this in retrospect after spending a lot of time perfecting the wheel. I find the hanging leg raise with straight legs, toes to the bar with no swing, is just as demanding, but 100% safer. It's the same move as the wheel but in reverse. The hanging leg raise demands way more flexibility in the hamstrings and hips while allowing the spine to remain in a state of traction. Spinal pressure is a non issue in the HLR. If anything, it helps open the spine. Right now I have worked up to sets of 5 reps with 5lb. ankle weights. Just beware! Steve Maxwell

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On your current schedule, you won't build much muscle or strength. You will be lean and wirery. With the level of exertion required for soccer, I would cut the kettlebells down to only twice per week. Since you are already doing some really intense sprinting, the higher rep swings, snatches and thrusters are over kill. Work with some heavier, low rep movements to keep your strength levels up. By making your muscles, tendons and joints stronger, you will be less susceptable to injuries. Steve Maxwell

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I use the partial Turkish get up a lot. I like to use it as a finisher. They are especially productive after doing several sets of Janda situps first. The abdominals really take a hit. They could definitly be used as a warmup for the shoulders and core. Personally, I much prefer light windmills as a warmup exercise. The wind mills work the shoulder just as well and have the added benefit of opening the hips, loosening the hamstrings and lower back. Steve Maxwell

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All aerobic endurance activities will limit muscular strength and size. Any aerobic activity of more than 40 minutes will change hormonal profiles and make it more difficult to add increased muscle mass and strength. However, it can be done through smart training. Obviously a great deal of energy is being used for your daily bicycling. The body only has so much energy for growth, repair and daily metabolic functions (digestion for example). In order to grow larger, extra energy must be converted to increase muscle cell size. If you are constantly burning up energy through daily aerobic activity plus the additional stress of weight training, there will be nothing left for this increase. The body will always be playing catch up with it's limited energy reserves. It will be fighting just to maintain current status. Make the cycling as sub maximal as possible. Try not to create a 'training effect' when you ride. On two non-consecutive days, with two or three days off between, chose three major lifts to be done with heavy weights and medium to low reps. Pullups, over head press, bent over rows, bench press, dips, squats, pistols, and deadlifts would be the exercises to base your program on. Select a major push, a major pull, a major hip and thigh or hip and leg movement for each workout. Finish with some abdominal work such as Janda situps. Do a couple of warmup sets and then two to three work sets. Cycling really shortens the hamstrings and hip flexors. Make sure to do some stretching for these vital areas. Eat a good high protein diet and get plenty of sleep. This simple program will do more for your goals than anything else that you could possibly do. The weight workouts should never exceed thirty minutes. Steve Maxwell

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Your program is sound for your goal of strength /endurance. You will not get very strong on your current program. For pure strength, one will always be limited by their size. Get bigger, get stronger- bigger meaning muscle mass not fat. A person is limited in how strong they can get at a certain body weight. It is possible to get more skilled at certain strength activities and continue to lift more at a certain body weight.This is especially true in technical type lifts. Take olympic or power lifters for example. Many of these guys are able to keep increasing their lifts for quite awhile at the same body weight. But even the top guys eventually, in order to continue to progress, need to increase their body mass. That is why sometimes top lifters will go up a weight class. They have 'milked' the lower body weight class as much as they can. Demanding aerobic activities always will have a weakening effect on maximal strength. Most anerobic strength /endurance sports such as boxing, wrestling or jiujitsu will also have the same effect. It is a trade of for superior endurance levels. Steve Maxwell

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Remember, you are trying to build size and strength. The workout itself is a stress that breaks down the body and uses up valuable resources. The rest or recovery between the workouts is where the body will not only replace what was used up, but super compensate by becomming a little stronger. Any activity that compromises that recovery period, such as distance cycling, will slow or halt any type of muscle building progress. Steve Maxwell

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Eddie, I've been playing catch up on some projects and have not had time to post much. I use the sledge hammers usually as part of a strength/endurance circuit and cycle. I'll go a few weeks doing pure strength work, then a few weeks cycle on strength /endurance and cardio. With the sledge, I use a double hand over the shoulder rotation as if I am doing a shoulder throw. I like 10 reps on one side with the 20# and then 10 on the other for balance. Occassionally I go for 100 hits, alternating sides. Sometimes it will be a station in a five or six exercise circuit. One example would be rope climb (or towel chins), Hindu pushups, sledge hammer tire swings, pistols, KB snatch and hanging leg raises. I would either do a predetermined number of reps or go for a specific time. My weighted joint mobility DVD is my next project. It will be a full body workout. Steve Maxwell

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The Cruel and Unusual Video was my first attempt. I had no idea what I was doing. It was an earnest but amateur result. However, the content has made it a best seller and it continues to sell for that very reason. Of course it was to make a quick buck- I needed the money and Pavel pushed me to get it done. It was a learning process and I have improved each video every time out. We do have a money back policy and I would gladly return anyones money that feels they were ripped off. I would rather have a satisfied customer. So don't be to harsh. BTW, many find that an old dude who is able to do stuff is a great selling point. Steve Maxwell

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Shawn, I never travel without my rope. I also pack a pair of LifeLine doorway pullup handles and the Life Line Jungle Gym (an adjustable strap system with pvc handles that fits into a closed door top). I like to alternate rope skipping with calesthenics.The rope skipping makes the calesthenics much more difficult. My whole portable gym weighs less than 3 lbs. In the begginning, you will get a harder workout than you will after becomming efficient at the rope skipping. Here is a kick ass workout that I used during the Unlock seminar in MN two weeks ago. Before dinner, I moved the furniture out of the way in my room and did the following. 10 min. warmup- joint mobility 3 min. rope skip 50 hindu squats 1 min. rope skip 10 dive bomber pushups 1 min. rope skip 10 doorway pullups (with the handles closed inside the door) 1 min. rope skip 20 alternating elbow to knee bicycles kicks (laying on my back) 3 min. rope skip Repeat three times. each circuit is about 14 minutes depending on how fast you do the squats (should be about 2 min) Another workout that I have used in high rise hotels is to skip rope for 5 minutes at the bottom of the stair well, basement level. If there is a exposed water pipe do 10 pullups. If no pipe, open the stair well door and brace it open with the jump rope. Do pullups by sliding up and down the door. Use a small towel to pad your hands on the door top. If you can't do pullups, jump up and hold isometrically at the top, chin over the door as long as possible. Slowly slide down and hang on as long as possible. Then hit the stairs. Every other floor, do a set of 10 hindu pushups. You can walk, but I prefer to run. At the very top, do 100 situps in as many sets as it takes. Jog back down to the bottom and do it two to three more times depending on how many floors there are. I have used these workouts and dozens more to keep in great shape over the years. Steve Maxwell

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John, The old saying,"use it or lose it", has everything to do with muscle. It is not complicated. Work out and the muscles will grow, be inactive, the muscles will shrink. rebuilding lost muscle size is much easier than building from scratch. There is no reason why a healthy man in his 40's could not rebuild 15 lbs. of lost muscle. One is born with a certain amount of muscles fibers. The ratio of fast to slow twitch fibers is also herditary and cannot be changed. Fast twitch fibers can be converted into slow twitch, but not the other way around. As one ages, the number of fibers diminsh. Muscle cells and motor units are lost as are brain and nerve cells. The first ones to go are the fast twitch. That is why it is important for middle age and older men to keep up their strength training.Much of the muscle wasting and motor unit loss can be greatly reduced. Some studies report that trained men in their 70's were able to retain 90% of their muscle mass as opposed to only 60% in their untrained peers. Strenuous and vigorous exercise is definitely one of the keys to aging gracefully. Eventually we all will get old and die, but one does not have to languish and suffer for decades because of lost ability to locomote due to muscle loss. Trained oldsters remain healthy and vigorous up until the end and then go out real fast. Steve Maxwell

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With weighted pushups, the body ideally should be aligned from the head to the tail bone with the abdominals engaged. That means a flat back, not arched or rounded. The shoulders should track over the finger tips at the top position. Actively pull yourself down during the decent and corkscrew the hands isometrically. Do not flair the elbows out at the bottom, but tuck them in tightly to the sides. The chest should graze the floor. Legs are locked, with contracted glutes and quads. Using a 45 lb. plate balanced across the shoulder blades will help assure perfect form. Steve Maxwell

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The feeling of the being jammed may be a nuerological issue and a matter of 'learning' to enervate the invovled muscle structures at the exact point of the problem. The idea is to find the exact moment that the problem occurs and work only from that specific point with a partial movement pattern. I use this technique to problem solve complex grappling skill problems all the time. For example, having trouble finishing a throw or single leg take down. I will prescribe a specific drill to fix the weak area. Once you pin point the exact movement pattern problem, you can 'program' the movement with a lighter weight bell. In this manner, the movement can be patterned and specific weakness strengthened- similar to people that learn how to actively pull themselves down in the pistol. Stop by Maxercise, I can pin point the sticking point and get you knocking out left side TGU's like nobodies business.No amount of foam roller massage can do the same. Steve Maxwell

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Ian, You are correct, you will not be able to do pistols and one arm pushups in your current condition. However, you can build up to it as have thousands of others. the book outlines many leadup drills to bring you up to that level. The principles outlined in the book can be used for all strength exercises. The book is really about the underlying concepts of strength. The pistol and one arm pushup manifestations of the concepts when properly applied. Buy the book, you will not be disappointed. Steve Maxwell

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Steve, I jump rope all the time. I prefer a heavier, slower rope. The Buddy Lee rope is really fast, but if you are a begginner, a slower rope is much easier to learn on. My preference is the Heavy Speed Hope by Lifeline USA. There are two weights. The 1kg. rope is a cardio killer. It is deceptive. It is light enough to turn at a fairly decent pace, but it catches up tp you real fast. The weight works the wrists, arms and shoulders as well as the lower limbs. I use it for interval training. The lighter model is about half a kg.and can be used for sustainable lengths of skipping. It is heavy enough to still work the upper body and is pretty tough. Steve Maxwell

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Jay, The kettlebell bear crawl is one of my favorite exercises. There are several versions of the kettlebell bear crawl. They go from easy to very difficult. The bear crawl with kettlebells is a whole body exercise with particular emphasis on upper body, grip and core. It is amazingly cardio and people express surprize at how winded they get the first time they try it. One of the most difficult versions of this terrific conditioning exercise is performed by placing the kettlebells on the floor and assuming a pushup position on the handles. The kettlebells are alternatly lifted and swung forward a few inches while dragging the feet behind. The weight shifts from hand to hand while the feet play catch up. In this version, the idea is to maintain a strict pushup position and not lift the butt up or unweight the arms by placing more weight on the feet. This is a bit much for most people. A slightly easier version is to raise the butt up and place more weight on the toes. The position looks more like the traditional non-weighted bear crawl. It's still really hard and a real gasser. A begginner kettlebell bear crawl is to place most of the weigth on the feet with the butt really high. From that position, begginners can still get a good workout and complete the exercise. If you couple the bear crawls with swings, you have a complete conditioning workout that hits every muscle in the body as well as providing a major cardio boost. Here is a challenge for you Jay. Go to a local highschool football field. Start in the end zone and begin the kettlebell bear crawl.Keep the first few bear crawls real strict. As you begin to fatigue, loosen up the form. By the end, do it any way you can. Every time you have to stop, get up and perform 20 swings with plenty of hip snap.Then get back down and start bear crawling. If you make it to the opposite goal line, consider yourself in great shape.Keep a record of your time and try to beat it each time out. You will not need any other exercises on this program. Do not be surprized if your abs are smoked. Many of my students found that the tension created in the bear crawl translated over to pullup ability. Steve Maxwell

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But it's a trade off. heavier bells require more oomph to move, but are more stable for the wrist, shoulders and grip. Lighter bell are easier to move, but less stable and shakey. For men over 200lbs., 32kg is good. men 175 lbs.- 24kg., 150 lbs.-20 kg. and under 150 lbs., 16 kg. that is how I break it down for my classes. 24kg. works best for the majority. Light guys have less body weight and more resistence, while heavy men have a body weight factor with a bit less weight. The 16's can fall over easily, so caution with the wrists and fingers. I use 24kg. myself at 169 lbs. bwt. Steve Maxwell

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Peter, There is some carry over from isometric or static holds to improved strength/endurance during full range movement. For the most part, the increased strength from isometrics is about 15 degrees at the point of the hold. Some studies show that prolonged isometric increased performance through the full range. Many sports require static strength. In my sport of submission wrestling and Brazilian Jiujitsu, there are many positions requiring static strength/endurance (pinning an opponent for example). One of the best uses of static holds is to find the 'sticking' point of an exercise and hold for time in that weak spot. In this way one can eliminate or reduce the weak point in the range of motion which translates into better performance. Steve Maxwell

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The karate horse stance works the thigh muscles in about the same range as peddling a bicycle. It would make sense that it would improve that area of the thigh involved with cycling. Steve Maxwell

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Eddie, By keeping the legs straight on a back extension one minimizes gluteal and hamstring invovlement. The idea is to isolate as best as possible the relatively weak spinal erectors. Compound movements such as deadlifts and swings work primarily the glutes and hamstrings. The low back is worked, but only statically in extension. The low back muscles will usually fatigue in most people during these movements because the low back is usually the weak link in the movement. That is not to say that you won't feel straight leg 45 degree back extensions in the glutes or hamstrings. You will definitely feel the hamstrings being stretched when the back is in flexion. The 45 degree torso angle at the top of the movement corresponds to the strength curve of the low back. If you started a movement in the vertical plane, take a barbell curl for example, the weight is near zero at the start of the curl. As the bar reaches parallel, the resistence is at it's greatest. As you continue to curl, the resistence continues to drop off until , once again it is near zero at the finish of the curl. The same situation exists for the back extension. The low back is strongest at the start (flexion) and becomes increasingly weaker as it moves toward extension. The angle of the apparatus mirrors that strength curve and the angle allows a drop off in resistence at the top, but unlike a barbell curl, there is still meaningful resistence. If ones torso were parallel(the point of greatest resistence)to the floor at the point of extension, the movement would be comprimized because it would be limited by the weakest point (extension) recieving the greatest resistence. The strongest section of the spine would recieve very little in strengthening benefit. In answer to your other question regarding the use of a ball, the back extension is always most beneficial when the torso is about 45 degrees at the point of extension. If you can get that angle with a ball, then it would be fine. The apparatus is best for truly isolating the erector spinae and strengthening the back in both flexion and extension. Steve Maxwell

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The piece you mention is really nice, but it is basically a easier glute/ham raise. Get the one at the top of the page with the foot plate. It's a beautifully designed apparatus and will give you some hamstring flexibility work as well. In fact, I think I'm going to pick one or two up myself. Steve Maxwell

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In my classes, we have used 12 kg. successfully. A variation for very weak begginners is to do the bear crawl from the knees. As they become stronger, they can go from a bent over position with the weight equally distributed on the arms and legs, flat footed. The next step would be for them to try it on the toes ( which automatically shifts more weight on the arms). I would not reccommend 8 kg. kettlebells for this exercise because they are to unstable. Dumbbells, which are way easier, are another option. Steve Maxwell

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It all depends on what your goals are. Usually there is an inverse ratio between strength and endurance. Raise your absolute strength in a lift and your reps would also improve for any percentage of that lift. An example would be a trainee that works up from a 275 lb. bench press to a 300 lb. bench. Before, at the 275 lb level, he could rep out with 2oo lbs. 12 times or 72.7% of his max. Now at a 300lb. max, he can do 12 reps with 216lbs (72.7% of his new max). Each person has a fixed ratio that is dependent on his nuerological efficiency and anerobic endurance levels. This is dependent on muscle fiber type which is fixed at birth. The ratio can only be altered a little bit. Fast twitch fibers can be converted to slow, but not the other way around. A heavy 3x3 program would definitely increase you nueral pathways and increase the skill of lifting heavier weights. However, below a certain percent (around 55%)of max strength, increased repitition performance does not translate. For example, a 300lb. bench presser at a body weight of 175 lbs.will not be able to increase his pushup numbers without specifically working on his endurance levels. The pushup is about .68 bwt.or 119 lbs. That is only about 40% of his bench.An increase in max strength would only effect his muscular endurance to a point. His ability to do 100 pushups would be a skill specific strength/endurance that would have to be trained seperately. It would not be influenced by increased maximal strength levels. Steve Maxwell  

It all depends on what your goals are. Usually there is an inverse ratio between strength and endurance. Raise your absolute strength in a lift and your reps would also improve for any percentage of that lift. An example would be a trainee that works up from a 275 lb. bench press to a 300 lb. bench. Before, at the 275 lb level, he could rep out with 2oo lbs. 12 times or 72.7% of his max. Now at a 300lb. max, he can do 12 reps with 216lbs (72.7% of his new max). Each person has a fixed ratio that is dependent on his nuerological efficiency and anerobic endurance levels. This is dependent on muscle fiber type which is fixed at birth. The ratio can only be altered a little bit. Fast twitch fibers can be converted to slow, but not the other way around. A heavy 3x3 program would definitely increase you nueral pathways and increase the skill of lifting heavier weights. However, below a certain percent (around 55%)of max strength, increased repitition performance does not translate. For example, a 300lb. bench presser at a body weight of 175 lbs.will not be able to increase his pushup numbers without specifically working on his endurance levels. The pushup is about .68 bwt.or 119 lbs. That is only about 40% of his bench.An increase in max strength would only effect his muscular endurance to a point. His ability to do 100 pushups would be a skill specific strength/endurance that would have to be trained seperately. It would not be influenced by increased maximal strength levels. Steve Maxwell  

Dave, You do not need a machine for glute/hem raises. The best one can be done on the floor with something to anchor your feet. I slide a metal pipe inside two kettlebell handles and wrap it with a towel. I kneel in front of the kettlebells and slide my ankles under the pipe. I reccomend using a pad under the knees as well. From a kneeling, upright position (like an L-the top of the L would be my head), slowly bend forward and touch your forehead to the ground. Now raise the torso back up. The tendency is to push the hips backward over the heels. Lean foreward and keep the hips directly over the knees throughout. The further you lean foreward, the more difficult the movement is. An extreme version is to keep the body tight at the waist and not bend. The idea is to lower the torso by pivoting at the knees while keeping the body straight. Lower the entire torso and raise it back up! It is very difficult for all but the strongest hammies and glutes. Most use their arms with a little push off to get back up. You can use any heavy object to anchor the ankles including a partner. Some safety points are to keep the low back engaged, keep tension high and progress slowly so you don't pull anything. Expect to be very sore, especially where the hamstrings connect under the glutes. Steve Maxwell

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I have not always had healthy knees. For a time, I suffered double medial meniscal tears that caused a lot of pain and locking of my knees. I managed to get through highschool and college wrestling without any knee injuries. I attributed that primarily to doing a lot of barbell squats. I did several successful 20 rep squat cycles throughout my wrestling career. I ran into trouble in BJJ because of inflexibility. My knees were tight and stable, but not flexible enough to be comfortable in all the weird positions I would get into in jiujitsu. Yoga training helped mightily, but use caution and don't force the postures. Allow the body to slowly adapt. I would get to competitive with myself and others and try to force the postures.I believe that this was the source of my first meniscal problem. Make sure you are flexible enough to sit comfortably on your heels for extended periods and to stretch those hamstrings. Hip and groin flexibility also take the pressure off the knees when doing moves on the mat. Hindu squats are another important exercise for tendon strength. Build up slowly if you are new to them. One does not have to do extremely high reps to get great benefit. Work up to 200 in under 6 minutes. Keep the hamstrings strong with glute/ham raises. Deadlifts and kettlebell swings are not enough. I describe a body weight, non apparatus exercise that I have used extensively with great results. Check out my post below on the glute/ham question. Single leg curl/hip raises on a stability ball or Power Wheel leg curlship raises are other excellent hamstring exercises. For strength, pistols are hard to beat. Keeping the feet, ankles and calf muscles strong also help support knee protection. Weak feet and ankles cause the stresses to go into the knees and hips. I like the single leg standing calf raise and the four corner balance drill for lower extremity conditioning. I wear neoprene knee sleeves for warmth and support. It's not that they are all that supportive, but they create a kinesthetic awareness of my knees when I am grappling. I like the open patella models. They seem to stay in place better with less sliding. I do not 'drop' to my knees on take downs or throws. That is a sure invitation to knee problems. A lot of high school and college wrestlers do it, but they are kids. They will eventually suffer. I use the Japanese squat tackling style for double and single attacks. There are plenty of other throws, trips and takedowns that do not involve dropping suddenly on your knee caps. Avoid all tournaments that allow twisting knee locks. This is a recipe for disaster. The knees are not very sensitive and by the time one taps on a knee submission, injury has already occured. twisting knee locks are maiming submissions that have no place in amatuer sport tournaments. If they include them, they might as well include punching, kicking, elbows and head butts. This is just my opinion, but it is based on long experience. Steve Maxwell

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Sorry DC. I think Savannah messed up the password. I called AOL, but they will only talk to you because you are the billing agent. I cannot access my email either. I called you 6 times, three at the hotel and three on your cell. Keep your cell turned on and with you. I left the AOL number on your voice mail.  

Kuba, I used dumbbells on the video because most people do not have kettlebells. Kettlebells are better and can be substituted for any dumbbell exercise. I did not want people to feel that the kettlebell was their only option. There is no hard and fast rule about the workout. A lot depends on how much live sparring you are doing. For a person that grapples hard every day, the advice would be diferent than a person who only grapples twice per week. I prefer to do the exercises in a circuit (one after the other). The circuit can be repeated multiple times. Like any other exercise system, repititions are based on ones goals. Heavy weight, low reps for strength and power, higher reps with lighter weights for strength/endurance. Compressed rest between exercises for cardio endurance. W/O A is a complete workout as is B. The exercises can be mixed or matched any way you prefer. It's common sense. Steve Maxwell

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I love and promote all of Pavel's products, but to be honest,he has much better products that would fit your goals. Stick with the Relax Into Stretch and Super Joints. Both are more applicable. I do not know what DC did with the Judo Mike's Secret Routine. When she re-did the site, it was not included for some reason. The Original Article was in the GAIN newsletter that Matt Furey put out. Steve Maxwell

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Eric, You have set up some good routines for your goals.Your moniker,'juice' conotates steroids use. You may wish to reconsider and select a more appropriate screen name. A couple suggestions would be to add some basic pulls such as chinups or pullups or even a rowing motion to offset the large amount of presses in your routines. The cleans work the pulling muscles as do the snatches to an extent, but because they are ballistic in nature, not enough to offset the pressing volume. I would strongly advise the addition of a squating exercise. Pistols, KB hack squat or KB front squats. The kettlebell front squat to over head push press (aka thrusters) is an amazing strength/endurance, cardio conditioner. A fourth workout could be thrusters super-setted with pullups. Try doing 10 rounds of 10 thrusters with 24kg. and 5 body weight pullups. Do a set at the top of each minute (density style). This simple 20 minute workout will give you everything you are after. Another excellent workout combining all of the elements of conditioning with leg work would be renegade rows super setted with lunges or stair climbs. The renegade rows are basically rows done from a pushup position. Place two 24kgs KBs on the floor and get in a pushup or plank position over them by grasping the handles. Now do a pushup between the bells and row one to the shoulder. Do another pushup between the handles and row the other bell to the shoulder. That's one rep. Do not twist, turn the feet sideways or lift the butt up. Stay in a strict plank position throughout. Do five reps, get up and do 20 reverse lunges (10 each side). Step way back and touch the knee to the floor. Get the fornt thigh below parallel. Now do 10 more sets at the top of each minute. You can hold the bells anyway you wish for the lunges. I use the 'rack' position, but holding them at the sides is also great grip and trap work. Here are two very good leg and cardio workouts that you can add. Each only takes 20 minutes and both are total ass kickers. Steve Maxwell

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Gaijin, Do not agonize over muscle fiber ratios.It is very possible to have different ratios of fast/slow twitch muscle fibers throughout the body. Even within the thighs for example, one could have a predominence of fast twitch in the hamstrings and glutes and slow twitch in the front thighs. The upper body could be the same as well, slow twitch shoulders, fast twitch triceps. There is nothing you can do about it. You must work with what nature gives you. Knowing may help you with exercise and rep selection, but selecting goals is the most important thing. Just because one has a predominance of slow twitch fibers in the upper body does not mean that they cannot improve their chest and shoulder press strength. Using heavy weights and low reps would help the slow twich man just as much as the fast twitcher. The results would still be an increased ability to lift heavier weights for both men. The slow twitch guy will just have to be content with the idea that his progress will be at a different pace and level than his more gifted brothern. If one wants to be strong, then he has to lift heavy stuff for low reps. If he wants amazing endurance, he has do do higher reps. If he wants cardio, he must compress his rest periods. If he wants more mass, he needs to mix it up with both, somewhere in the middle along with good protein intake. It's not rocket science. This game is still more an art than a science. Most of it has been answered long before and it does not need to be complicated. Steve Maxwell

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Muscle fiber ratios are genetic, inborn characteristics that can not be altered. Training can improve the performance of either fiber type, but cannot transform a slow twitch to a fast twitch or vice versa. Slow twitch fibers can be improved for speed and power performance, but they remain slow twitch with endurance characteristics.(deVries,H.A.Physiology of Exercise.1984);(Gollnick, Peihl,Saubert, Armsrtong, exercise changes in human muscle fibers. Journal of Applied Physiology 1972);(Sharkey, Brian, Physiology of Fitness, 1979) Steve Maxwell

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Steve, Sorry about your injury. Stay with the RICE for a couple of days. If you are in severe pain, take the pain killers. Unfortunately, the non-steroidal anti-inflamatory drugs increase healing time by several weeks and are hard on the liver, kidneys and stomach. You will heal faster without them. The third day, start this mobility drill. Do 1000 ankle circles both directions while sitting on a chair. Just rotate the foot clockwise, then counter clockwise in as big a circle that you can. Ice it afterward. When you can bear weight again, start doing single leg calf raises on a step for several sets of as many as possible. Hold the stretch at the bottom for 10 sec. after each set. Work the non-injured side too. Use you arms to unweight yourself on the injured side if necessary. Then turn around on the step while balancing on your heels and lower your toes below the step. Now do sets of tibial dorsi-flexion by raising your toes up slowly and as high as possible. Next, get a light elastic therapy band or tube and anchor it to an immoveable object. Place the other end around your non-injured ankle.Take the slack out of the band by moving away from the anchor point. Balance on your injured ankle, back toward the band anchor point.Do not hold onto to anything for support. The whole idea is to work the stabilizers. Rapidly move the non-injured leg front and back while keeping the leg straight. The movement is only about 6 inches or so and at a fast pace-like little straight leg kicks. Do 50 repitions front, turn sideways to the anchor point and do 50 more reps trying to cross the leg in front of the other. Then face the anchor point and do 50 back kicks. Finish by turning the other side and cross the leg behind the support leg. Start with 50 reps in all four positions and build up to 100 by increasing 5 reps every other workout. Do all four directions, then work the good leg as well. This rubber band drill is an amazing foot, ankle and knee injury preventer and rehab. The workout is the stabilizing foot, not the moving leg although you will feel it in the thighs and hips. Your feet and ankles will burn and ache. Most people have very weak feet and ankles because they are over dependant on over enginnered athletic shoes. This exercise will correct that. A lot of ankle and knee injuries start with weak, undeveloped feet. Steve Maxwell

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It's best to go barefoot and workout barefoot whenever possible.I train bare foot in jiujitsu and submission wrestling everyday. My feet are like monkey paws. Birkestock type sandals, Teva's, Nike Free trainers and running shoes (a new barefoot technology), flip flops etc. are great. Obviously playing basketball on concrete is going to require protective shoes as would playing soccer or baseball. For the everyday type of wear, heavily cushioned shoes(ie;Nike Shocks) are not good. Steve Maxwell 

REST, stop flogging the horse. Pain is your bodies way of telling you to stop. It is not your butt, but the origin of one of the hamstrings where it attaches under the gluteal fold. There are no 'tricks' other than rest, ice and cross fiber massage. Passive stretching will not help heal it, but it will keep you from getting to shortened up in the hammies. By going out and doing a severe, unfamiliar exercise like running the bleachers without slowing building up to it, you exceeded your body structures capacity. Now you must simply let it heal. Next time ease into new regimines. Steve Maxwell

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Heat will make the body more supple. That is why Bikram Yoga uses very hot rooms for their sessions. If the body over heats too much, it is more prone to injuries. The connective tissue becomes stressed because the body can be forced into positions that it normally would not be able to. My Rolfer (a form of re-alignment from myofacial manipulation) told me that her most frequent clients are people who are injured in hot yoga.In her 30 years of body work and rehab, she found a high corelation with heated stretching and a high injury rate. Your friends are correct in that relying on heat to loosen up is not as good as teaching the body to increase range through nervous system re-education. Steve Maxwell

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Firehands, It's good to be a little paranoid about these things. It's when one gets to comfortable that it is easy to lose focus. That's when bad things can happen. I find the power wheel v-up exercise to be safer than the ab wheel. My reasoning is that one able to extend the legs out nearly as far with the power wheel as they can with the ab wheel. With the ab wheel, the legs are the stabilizers and the spine works like a suspension bridge connecting the stable feet and hands. The only thing supporting the elongated spine is the small ab and spine muscles. If they fatigue or lose tension, all the force goes right into the ligaments of the vertebrae which are not meant to do that. If the ligaments 'fail', severe injury is the result. The power wheel on the other hand depends on the relatively weaker arms to stabilize the movement. As a result, one is not able to extend out as far as the ab wheel. The spine is not as stressed as a result. I like to elevate my hands on a step or my pushup board. The extra hand height allows me to get into a complete V. Steve Maxwell

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Kettlebell hack squats are a good knee, foot and ankle strength and conditioning exercise. The hamstrings are only mildly involved in the movement. It is not anymore functional than any other type of squat. It zeros in more on the tissue surrounding the knee. care should be taken to build into the hack squat slowly. If you can't do 100 hindu squats in three minutes, don't do this exercise. You need to toughen the tendons surrounding the knee before tackling what is in essence a weighted version of the hindu squat. The KB hack squat involves a good deal of balance and foot and ankle strength as well. That is why I advocate starting with simple hindu squats first. The tendency is to lean forward with the hack squat, but this should be avoided. The torso should be upright with minimal lean. Another key is to keep tension in the calf muscles on the decent. This will provide a 'shelf' of muscle to sit on at the bottom when the hamstrings contact the calf. This increases stability and gives a solid feeling at the bottom which translate into knee stability. Steve Maxwell Steve Maxwell

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Don't get me wrong, I really think that teh yogic systems have a lot to offer. Some yoga systems are quite strenuous and would leave one fatigued. I think the best way to combine them would be to do PTP in the AM and yoga at night or they other way around. Separating the two workouts several hours would be ideal. The two would really compliment one another. I train several proffessional yoga instructors and they are quite beat up and fatigued after some of their sessions. We found it better to lift before yoga than after. Steve Maxwell

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Parallel grip chins are usually done on rings or some type of parallel bars like a horizontal ladder. The thumbs face the shoulders and the palms face each other at shoulder width. It is the same way that you would grip a hammer. Parallel grip chins can also be done with a narrower grip. Usually a V-bar is used over a pullup bar and the chest is drawn up to the bar. V bars are used on some lat row machines in many gyms. I bought a couple at a sporting goods store and use them on my pullup bar. Some pullup up bars like the Doorway Gym have these parallel grips built in. Narrow grip chinups are performed with the hands close together, palms facing you. If you don't have rings or a playground nearby with a horizontal ladder, you can make parallel grips inexpensively with two 6 inch pieces of pvc pipe and two pieces of rope. Just cut the rope to desired length, run it through the pipe and tie it in a loop around your pullup bar. Voila, parallel grip chins.There, that's more information than you probally wanted. Steve Maxwell

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Endurance with martial arts is tricky. You mention that your endurance is not where you want it to be. You also say that your endurance is taxed very much in your tri-weekly sparring sessions. Let's identify just what it is that needs to be improved. Endurance is specific to the task. There is no thing as general endurance, fitness or even strength. You get good at the activity you do and get little carry over to other activities. some activities have a higher carry over value than others, kettlebell training for example. Your endurance in your martial art can be improved in three ways; improved muscular endurance, increased anerobic endurance (cardio) and increased skill. Obviously having more efficient muscular and heart conditioning will improve the activity. Increased skill also will improve your endurance because you learn economy of motion, how to make the other guy work harder and relaxation. One of the skills in my Brazilian Jiujitsu training is to make my opponent exhausted and gassed out. I have learned to relax and use as little energy as possible to secure holds, positions and submissions. Even though I am in my 50's, I can take energetic young bucks and leave them gasping in a few minutes. Often they complain about about 'not being in shape'. Sometimes this is the case, but more often than not it is because they do not know how to relax and do not have the skills, reflexes or techniques to answer my attacks. I have conditioned endurance for jiujitsu. Put me in a different game that I have not developed sufficient skills in and I would tire quickly. In martial arts, endurance is the skill. Doing a lot of wind sprints and endurance type circuits is great in the begginning of martial arts training. You can somewhat make up for a lack of skill with hustle, strength , power and anerobic endurance. This will take you so far. As your skills grow in the art, you will find that you won't need to as much of this type of training. The hard sparring sessions will be enough to keep you in top condition. Supplemental endurance training must be carefully added as it can easily lead to over training and over use injuries. One kettlebell swing or snatch based workout would be the ticket. The less sparring one does, the more of this type of workout could be added. I cycle my training so that when I have no tournament to prepare for, I do a lot more strength/endurance workouts and easy more infrequent live sparring. As I get close to a championship, I drop the supplemental training in favor of almost daily intense live sparring. Steve Maxwell

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The LifeLine jungle gyms straps are connected. The resulting V is to narrow for dips. The half rings are much easier to dip on because each ring has a separate strap. The half rings can be hung shoulder width. Those would probally be conficated at the airport unless packed with check in. In hotels, I prefer one arm pushups or sometimes dips between chairs. The jungle gym is great for rows and pullups though. Steve Maxwell

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That's a new one on me. I have seen people feel weak with a tucked elbow, but never pain. The flared elbow will eventually lead to pain and injury besides being a mechanically inferior position. I can almost bet that you are not corkscrewing the elbow properly and pulling yourself down with tension. Stay with the Rotator Cuff solution exercises. Try including static holds at the bottom for time at the end of your workouts. Check my posts for the 'breaking the stick' drill for learning the feeling of corkscrewing the elbow for protection. Also include one arm body weight rows for balance between the muscle groups, but to also learn how to pull yourself down with tension in the lats and rear shoulder muscles. Steve Maxwell

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