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

I have lower back pain for sometime and have been trying to stretch it out as best as i can twice a day. I'm not too sure about the strength and flexibility issue with my back, but i hear that a PTP plan for deadlifting may be the ticket to better back strength. I dont know whether this corelates with my back being that it is pain that i receive and i am told that stretching it out will releave pain from thy ligaments. Stretching really hasn't done much at all except suppress the pain temporarily, and pistols and daily sitting keep giving me pain. Are deadlifts the way to see the light or at least stop my back pain? If not where else shall i turn (resides z-health i have been there and plan to get their dvd and possibly go to a seminar later in the year.) 

I have bad allergies and my nose seems to be stuffed up or running most of the time that I am awake and asleep. I breathe through my mouth most of the time, and its very annoying, espeically when I am sleeping. I wake up with a dry mouth and sore throat sometimes. My eyes are red and itchy alot of the time. Sometimes my eyes are just red even when allergies aren't bothering me, I dont know why. I have tried allergy medications, but I hate the drowsy side effects and they don't clear up my nose anyway. At best they will turn a runny nose into a stuffy nose. I want a natural remedy. I really want to be able to breathe freely for a change. (Qigong) seems like it may work, but I don't even know where to begin. If someone could recommend some breathing techniques that I could start immdieatly (keeping in mind half the time my nose will not cooperate) and a good book or video it would be really cool. Or perhaps another remedy all together, I don't know. All I know is I'm at my wits end with allergies and stuffy noses. Its been this way since I was a young kid. Breathing is vital to basically everything we do, and I always seem to be at a disadvantage. I do find that when I do some cardio, my nose seems to clear itself, but I can't do cardio all day everday. Thanks alot comrades.  

I was just curious if the TSC challenge you wrote about a few pages back goes out to senior instructors as well. I have noticed that there are only a few(cotter,lawrence,jones) that actually partake in the fun of friendly competition. These guys have consistently competed whether it be in the TSC or GS. I commend them for that. It would be great to see more participation from the guys who are looked at in high regard and are considered the cream of the crop. If the challenge does not include them I would like to personally invite them to participate on january 7th. It is a great event for all. I had so much fun last TSC. It was pure energy throughout the room with guys like Even-Esh screaming words of encouragement at the same person he was competing against. I am getting chills as I think about that day in September and am getting more excited for the one coming up. Competition IS what keeps me moving foward. Competition has molded my life from an early age and I am grateful to have learned the art of competition at an early age. 

I hosted a gathering of grippers and benders yesterday in So.Cal. Brett Jones and Micheal Castrogiovani both dropped by to join us. Actually they were the first one's to show up. Any way both of them showed off some of their amazing strength. Micheal never doing many of the grip things showed he was one strong dude. First he tore a phone book in half then levered a sledge hammer arm out to his face and back with a 20lb or 30lb sledge.I can't remember the exact weight.No one else could match this feat.He was also right up with everone else on the other things he tried. Brett the bend a holic bent just about everything in sight.Some pretty big stuff i might add. Before they left Brett and Micheal put on a Kettlebell demo of individual juggleing and some two man stuff.It was pretty awesome.I do believe they converted a few of the grippers into giving Kettlebells a try after seeing this. I want to thank these two guys for dropping by. 

in october i got a stone kiss on my left forearm.i let it get infected and and had to take antibiotics it stopped weeping just before thanksgiving. my question is this. when i dl it is fine.but farmers or just carrying the 53kb i get pins and needles in my forearm.this feeling lasts after i put down what i am carrying.is this something i should worry about. thanks for any help. 

in october i got a stone kiss on my left forearm.i let it get infected and and had to take antibiotics it stopped weeping just before thanksgiving. my question is this. when i dl it is fine.but farmers or just carrying the 53kb i get pins and needles in my forearm.this feeling lasts after i put down what i am carrying.is this something i should worry about. thanks for any help. 

There is a new article on this site by Ross. He states that ballistics are a bit of a myth (at least for running anyway)and you're better of strength training. Is my interpretation of the article wrong? If I'm not wrong do you agree with the author's views? 

I generally thought that over-head pressing sucked and wrecked shoulders pretty quick. Doing barbell military and a lot of press behind the neck seemed to wreck the shoulders of me and my buddies pretty quick and never correlated to better benching, dipping, or anything else...in football we would pop people coming off the line in a position much closer to a close grip bench, or close grip incline....Poliquin is right here IMO....ditto with shot in track, overhead work didnt help and before long (and with the help of other accident, I was pretty crippled in the overhead department and a few months of overhead pressing always re-crippled me. Benching never hurt my shoulders and despite what Bill Star may say, close grip benching/incline actually helped me in football and track! Ala Pavels advice, I have been overhead pressing again with the modification of 1) I only use double KB's 2) I do a clean before each overhead rep 3) after each set of clean and press I do a set of pullups. NO PAIN, my shoulders feel better than ever. Folks this is something of a miracle.