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

The Encyclopedia of Kettlebell Lifting is awesome! I received mine last night and watched about 2.5 hours of it. It is very long (7 hours.) I am very impressed with the quality of the product. Steve does a very impressive job detailing and demonstrating a huge amount of Kettlebell exercises. His physical ability is amazing. The amount of exercises on the DVD is fantastic. I have been involved with Kettlebells since late 2001 and I am continually impressed by the quality of products put out by quality intructors. I cannot reccommend it enough. Kurt V RKC,CAS 

The Encyclopedia of Kettlebell Lifting is awesome! I received mine last night and watched about 2.5 hours of it. It is very long (7 hours.) I am very impressed with the quality of the product. Steve does a very impressive job detailing and demonstrating a huge amount of Kettlebell exercises. His physical ability is amazing. The amount of exercises on the DVD is fantastic. I have been involved with Kettlebells since late 2001 and I am continually impressed by the quality of products put out by quality intructors. I cannot reccommend it enough. Kurt V RKC,CAS 

So there I was at the O'Club. 2 1st Lts, 1 Capt, 1 Civilian and 1 Col. I give you my word I didn't say anything about Russia. It came up because the Capt who was a friend of mine brought it up and explained it to the Col. The words that made the Col bust out laughing harder then I've seen a Col were weight lifting. Ha ha. I sat there for a few minutes as his laughter infected the surrounding inhabitants with a stoic semi laughing look and then said "Sir, usually the ones who laugh the hardest become the most fanatical." I said it in good taste. He agreed and said that he wants me to show him. Today the Capt who also works for another Col said it came up that I went to Russia. When this Col found out why he pushed himself back from his chair and couldn't stop laughing according to the source. He now wants to bring it for mil call in this bureucratic society may not necessarily be a bad thing. That means the Col's got a laugh in good taste. Its those who have no interest and laugh who are disrespectful. What's ironic is the some of the peers at this Mil Call who were disrespectful will eat it. Trust me when I say I do not care. The only reason for this post is to share the mirth I had. Marty PS. I wear a baggy uniform which probably doesn't help my muscle bound self;] 

During San Ti Shi standing meditation exercises, where should one's intent be? At the lower tan tien? Thanks in advance. 

A great weekend for sure! Started out Friday at Longhorn after Dave Randolph and I spent almost 2 hours making the normally 1/2 hour trek to the airport to get Steve. Welcome to Atlanta where the playa's play and the traffic freakin' sucks! LOL! Nothing like a some ribeye and fried cheesecake after sitting in traffic all night! Dr. Mike is a great guy and has really done a lot for the NSCA GA organization, it's always a pleasure to work with him. Saturday morning Marty "bent press" Farrell drove up and met us at my place then Steve, Dave, Marty and I went to grab some food before the clinic. Highlight of the weekend was seeing Marty eat two (YES TWO) huge breakfast sandwiches! Keep at it Marty 160 is yours in no time!;-) The clinic was held at the Wellness Performance Institute. This place is awesome. Gary Schoefield's performance training company sponsored it, QST, and the place if unbelievable. 55,000 sq ft, 10,000 sq ft of astroturf, a huge strength training area with everything you could ever want, 8 racks, platforms, sleds, bands, chains, special bars, kettlebells, a 55yd 4-lane indoor running track and a bunch of vertimaxes. There is also a sports orthopedic clinic, chiros, phys therapy, massage and a community fitness center on the way. An unbelievable facility. The clinic opened with Julie Nellis a PT/ATC who spoke on using plymetric training to prevent ACL injuries in adolescent athletes. We were running late from Marty's huge breakfast so we missed the bulk of this one. Dr. Mike presented next on cardivascular/endurance training concerns. Unfortunately we had to leave and run back to my house so we could grab some heavier kettlebells and missed Mike's presentation. We caught the tail end of it. Mike is a very dynamic speaker and alot of his material "goes against the grain" so to speak. Gary Schoefield's presentation was on Vertimax training. A cool device, a platform you stand on with elastic resistance attached to your waist belt. Basically it is a belt squat machine with bands, but a little moresophisticated than surgical tubing. He ran through how they use it with their pro football and hockey players then had some volun-tolds do some demos on it. Squats, jumps, lunges and the movement exercises of the Parisi warm up. good stuff, but not sure I am going to run out and buy one for the gym just yet. During the lunch session Mike and I moderated a "round-table" discussion of sorts. Mike had me open it up and I spoke briefly on accomodating resistance and the correct way to use and set up chains for the squat, bench and deadlift. Pretty common knowledge for most of us, but too many gyms and coaches still do this wrong. So I did my impression of the ghost of Christmas Past, drug my chains (or Bling as Cotter likes to call it) up there and talked for a few. Here's the cool thing, we had big Ed Russ attend the clinic. Ed is a former training partner of John Bott's and Ed has a 1008 squat to his credit. Ed also got crushed with 1052 at a meet in Cali and finished the meet so his 1008 would count, and with a screwed up knee managed to pull a high-400 dl and end with a 2000+ total. Awesome! Ed was there to learn KB's cause' that's the thinig to do for pl'ers and I had the pleasure of working with him for the hand's on portion of the clinic. A great guy and I look forward to learning a ton from him in the future. After the lunch session Steve did the KB presentation. (BTW-they had pizza for us and Marty ate it non-stop! During breaks in the afternoon session and eveything! I think he put on 5 lbs just Saturday alone! Good work Marty!) Jason Holbrook came down from Athens and helped Steve along with Marty, Dave and myself. Some of the attendees had already been using KB's and for some it was new. Steve's presentation covered all the basics. If you've worked with Steve you know what an excellent and dynamic instructor he is. The attendees were eating it up. I think everyone's jaw hit the floor whenhe demo'ed towel swings, since it was Cotter he had to use a 70lb bell of course and I am willing to bet that if there was an 88lber there that would have beent he bell of choice. Steve's technique is exceptional and one thing you can't help but notice is how effort less he makes the drills look. Perfect postural alignment, excellent mechanics, he makes it look too easy. Everyone I spoke with gave me excellent feedback. We had about 60 attendees and I think pretty much everyone agreed Steve's clinic was worth the admission fee. Great job to all presenters and everyone worked hard at making the clinic a success. It was excellent. We capped the evening off with sushi at Sakana Ya, except for Perry Winkle Tinkle who insisted on devouring a whole chicken, rice, soup, salad and a bagel roll (salmon cream cheese sushi roll) and demanded more food. The guy is a machine! Dinner was great and it was cool to hear of Steve and Perry Winkle's escapades in Russia. A great weekend! Thanks to those who attended and thanks Dave for coming down to help out and Steve for once again making the trip out to the ATL, you know this is how we roll! ;-) -Scott -Sc  

A great weekend for sure! Started out Friday at Longhorn after Dave Randolph and I spent almost 2 hours making the normally 1/2 hour trek to the airport to get Steve. Welcome to Atlanta where the playa's play and the traffic freakin' sucks! LOL! Nothing like a some ribeye and fried cheesecake after sitting in traffic all night! Dr. Mike is a great guy and has really done a lot for the NSCA GA organization, it's always a pleasure to work with him. Saturday morning Marty "bent press" Farrell drove up and met us at my place then Steve, Dave, Marty and I went to grab some food before the clinic. Highlight of the weekend was seeing Marty eat two (YES TWO) huge breakfast sandwiches! Keep at it Marty 160 is yours in no time!;-) The clinic was held at the Wellness Performance Institute. This place is awesome. Gary Schoefield's performance training company sponsored it, QST, and the place if unbelievable. 55,000 sq ft, 10,000 sq ft of astroturf, a huge strength training area with everything you could ever want, 8 racks, platforms, sleds, bands, chains, special bars, kettlebells, a 55yd 4-lane indoor running track and a bunch of vertimaxes. There is also a sports orthopedic clinic, chiros, phys therapy, massage and a community fitness center on the way. An unbelievable facility. The clinic opened with Julie Nellis a PT/ATC who spoke on using plymetric training to prevent ACL injuries in adolescent athletes. We were running late from Marty's huge breakfast so we missed the bulk of this one. Dr. Mike presented next on cardivascular/endurance training concerns. Unfortunately we had to leave and run back to my house so we could grab some heavier kettlebells and missed Mike's presentation. We caught the tail end of it. Mike is a very dynamic speaker and alot of his material "goes against the grain" so to speak. Gary Schoefield's presentation was on Vertimax training. A cool device, a platform you stand on with elastic resistance attached to your waist belt. Basically it is a belt squat machine with bands, but a little moresophisticated than surgical tubing. He ran through how they use it with their pro football and hockey players then had some volun-tolds do some demos on it. Squats, jumps, lunges and the movement exercises of the Parisi warm up. good stuff, but not sure I am going to run out and buy one for the gym just yet. During the lunch session Mike and I moderated a "round-table" discussion of sorts. Mike had me open it up and I spoke briefly on accomodating resistance and the correct way to use and set up chains for the squat, bench and deadlift. Pretty common knowledge for most of us, but too many gyms and coaches still do this wrong. So I did my impression of the ghost of Christmas Past, drug my chains (or Bling as Cotter likes to call it) up there and talked for a few. Here's the cool thing, we had big Ed Russ attend the clinic. Ed is a former training partner of John Bott's and Ed has a 1008 squat to his credit. Ed also got crushed with 1052 at a meet in Cali and finished the meet so his 1008 would count, and with a screwed up knee managed to pull a high-400 dl and end with a 2000+ total. Awesome! Ed was there to learn KB's cause' that's the thinig to do for pl'ers and I had the pleasure of working with him for the hand's on portion of the clinic. A great guy and I look forward to learning a ton from him in the future. After the lunch session Steve did the KB presentation. (BTW-they had pizza for us and Marty ate it non-stop! During breaks in the afternoon session and eveything! I think he put on 5 lbs just Saturday alone! Good work Marty!) Jason Holbrook came down from Athens and helped Steve along with Marty, Dave and myself. Some of the attendees had already been using KB's and for some it was new. Steve's presentation covered all the basics. If you've worked with Steve you know what an excellent and dynamic instructor he is. The attendees were eating it up. I think everyone's jaw hit the floor whenhe demo'ed towel swings, since it was Cotter he had to use a 70lb bell of course and I am willing to bet that if there was an 88lber there that would have beent he bell of choice. Steve's technique is exceptional and one thing you can't help but notice is how effort less he makes the drills look. Perfect postural alignment, excellent mechanics, he makes it look too easy. Everyone I spoke with gave me excellent feedback. We had about 60 attendees and I think pretty much everyone agreed Steve's clinic was worth the admission fee. Great job to all presenters and everyone worked hard at making the clinic a success. It was excellent. We capped the evening off with sushi at Sakana Ya, except for Perry Winkle Tinkle who insisted on devouring a whole chicken, rice, soup, salad and a bagel roll (salmon cream cheese sushi roll) and demanded more food. The guy is a machine! Dinner was great and it was cool to hear of Steve and Perry Winkle's escapades in Russia. A great weekend! Thanks to those who attended and thanks Dave for coming down to help out and Steve for once again making the trip out to the ATL, you know this is how we roll! ;-) -Scott -Sc  

I watched some clips from your video. Wow! You are unbelievably strong! You have inspired me to hit the pistols hard. Your video is on my "Must Have" list. Brad 

5 days ago when called out to prove a Col wrong, demoed Jerks for one minute. Doing somewhat under par in Moscow is an understatement and is neither here nor there. 28 Jerks in 10 minutes when doing doing 35 in 7 was best. Until post Russia, technique needed improvement. (whos didn't) and it always will to some degree. measure a 10 minute Jerk test catered to a one minute through 5 minute Jerk test but I won't start that until feb/mar time frame. Anyways, with no equipment and at the end of a work day did 10 Jerks in one minute rather easily for a demo with no belt. Then proceeded to do it again at another request for 14 in one minute also no equipment(half of 28 in Moscow). Technique has undergone a significant improvement. Anyways its off to deadlifts but there is a plan to do well. Thought about offering a GS seminar(hosting Federenko) but have the audacity to assist or at least host. Thoughts. Public criticism I don't give but don't affront to those who give it esepcially when I ask for it. So give it . BTW, 50 dollars Time: 9:30 through 1:30 Dec 10th Place: 2683 Timberbrooke Place Duluth, GA 30097 Material will include mostly training cycle for powerlifting, GS and TSC(technique). FYI. Marty  

Hi everyone! I'm Juan Ignacio, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. My real love is the Internal Martial Arts, I'm the younger disciple of Master Chao Piao Sheng (www.enerchi.com.ar) but at the same time I'm a dancer, I'm graduated as a Physical Educator Teacher and I was a gymnast when I was a teenager. At the same time I work on Internal Martial Arts specific training (TaiChiChuan & Baguazhang, standing meditation, chi kung, and so on) I work on my strenght and acrobatics skills. I find that a lot of the exercises (as the pistols, almost all of the flexibility drills and stuff) are the same or similar to those that my master thought me. And are part of the traditional conditioning of Baguazhang or XingYiChuan systems. That encourage me to train harder on those exercises as I was finding more and more info and pics of old (and great) masters of my lineage doing that kind of training. But what I want to talk about is the famous "light body" also called "leather strips" or "pi tiao gong". The skill of jump really high that always appears in movies and tales. I think that some real thing is hide behind that story. And maybe there is a natural method to train that skill. I mean, jump really high...maybe some "old-fashioned" plyometrics or something. What do you think? Thanks in regard. Juani. 

Hi everyone! I'm Juan Ignacio, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. My real love is the Internal Martial Arts, I'm the younger disciple of Master Chao Piao Sheng (www.enerchi.com.ar) but at the same time I'm a dancer, I'm graduated as a Physical Educator Teacher and I was a gymnast when I was a teenager. At the same time I work on Internal Martial Arts specific training (TaiChiChuan & Baguazhang, standing meditation, chi kung, and so on) I work on my strenght and acrobatics skills. I find that a lot of the exercises (as the pistols, almost all of the flexibility drills and stuff) are the same or similar to those that my master thought me. And are part of the traditional conditioning of Baguazhang or XingYiChuan systems. That encourage me to train harder on those exercises as I was finding more and more info and pics of old (and great) masters of my lineage doing that kind of training. But what I want to talk about is the famous "light body" also called "leather strips" or "pi tiao gong". The skill of jump really high that always appears in movies and tales. I think that some real thing is hide behind that story. And maybe there is a natural method to train that skill. I mean, jump really high...maybe some "old-fashioned" plyometrics or something. What do you think? Thanks in regard. Juani. 

Hi everyone! I'm Juan Ignacio, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. My real love is the Internal Martial Arts, I'm the younger disciple of Master Chao Piao Sheng (www.enerchi.com.ar) but at the same time I'm a dancer, I'm graduated as a Physical Educator Teacher and I was a gymnast when I was a teenager. At the same time I work on Internal Martial Arts specific training (TaiChiChuan & Baguazhang, standing meditation, chi kung, and so on) I work on my strenght and acrobatics skills. I find that a lot of the exercises (as the pistols, almost all of the flexibility drills and stuff) are the same or similar to those that my master thought me. And are part of the traditional conditioning of Baguazhang or XingYiChuan systems. That encourage me to train harder on those exercises as I was finding more and more info and pics of old (and great) masters of my lineage doing that kind of training. But what I want to talk about is the famous "light body" also called "leather strips" or "pi tiao gong". The skill of jump really high that always appears in movies and tales. I think that some real thing is hide behind that story. And maybe there is a natural method to train that skill. I mean, jump really high...maybe some "old-fashioned" plyometrics or something. What do you think? Thanks in regard. Juani. 

Hi everyone! I'm Juan Ignacio, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. My real love is the Internal Martial Arts, I'm the younger disciple of Master Chao Piao Sheng (www.enerchi.com.ar) but at the same time I'm a dancer, I'm graduated as a Physical Educator Teacher and I was a gymnast when I was a teenager. At the same time I work on Internal Martial Arts specific training (TaiChiChuan & Baguazhang, standing meditation, chi kung, and so on) I work on my strenght and acrobatics skills. I find that a lot of the exercises (as the pistols, almost all of the flexibility drills and stuff) are the same or similar to those that my master thought me. And are part of the traditional conditioning of Baguazhang or XingYiChuan systems. That encourage me to train harder on those exercises as I was finding more and more info and pics of old (and great) masters of my lineage doing that kind of training. But what I want to talk about is the famous "light body" also called "leather strips" or "pi tiao gong". The skill of jump really high that always appears in movies and tales. I think that some real thing is hide behind that story. And maybe there is a natural method to train that skill. I mean, jump really high...maybe some "old-fashioned" plyometrics or something. What do you think? Thanks in regard. Juani. 

dlskafl[ 

Not long ago someone, ( an RKC I believe,) posted about how they teach trainees the swing. They said that they emphasize pushing the rear end outward past the heels. ( They provided a somewhat more graphic visual :] ) I've also seen mention here of "catching" the hamstrings. To me this hamstring catch has the same feel as the deadlift stretch. In finding the groove for swings, how does the trainee find the precise amount of knee bend ? ( ie; less bend=more hamstring catch, more bend=less load on back, yes? How to find optimal degree of bend ? ) Feedback appreciated.  

I taught my first KB class today at Knockout Fitness Club in San Diego, Mission Valley area. It was pretty fun teaching beginners again the basics of kettlebells. Went over the basic swings, TGU, MP, squat, windmill and cleans. Did not get to the snatch. Next class will be on Thur., Dec. 29th.  

OK...so maybe I'm thick and didn't get this at the cert, but I swear I've learned something new from watching Jeff Martone's 2 hand swing form (from his new DVD). Or maybe I'm misinterpreting what I'm seeing. Jeff appears to actively stop or cut short the swing at its apex and actively pull the kettlebell down all the way from the top position to bottom position. Since the cert, I have been letting the kettlebell "float" to the apex as high as momentum takes it and allowing it to drop via gravity, following it down and adding a little drive as it nears the bottom (the "hike pass") between the legs. So I've been doing (and teaching) a "passive" drop from the top, following the bell down and then actively guiding at the bottom as the bell passes between the legs. However, copying what I think I'm seeing in Jeff's video, squeezing the handle at the top (so the ball doesn't flop up)and actively pulling the kettlebell all the way down seems to add not only more control but further engages the hip flexors, abs and hammies. The back seems to stay more "locked in" as well. The groove seems much cleaner, too. Comments? Thanks, Randy  

for someone who trains the OLY lifts not as the ends in themselves, but for their training effect...what does the snatch give you that the clean and jerk does not? Is it just the overhead component or does getting the bar up there directly have a different effect then the clean. The reason I ask is that it is relatively hard for me to teach myself the snatch vs the clean 'n' jerk and I wonder if I'm missing out on cool benefits.  

for someone who trains the OLY lifts not as the ends in themselves, but for their training effect...what does the snatch give you that the clean and jerk does not? Is it just the overhead component or does getting the bar up there directly have a different effect then the clean. The reason I ask is that it is relatively hard for me to teach myself the snatch vs the clean 'n' jerk and I wonder if I'm missing out on cool benefits.  

94 Reps with the 24kg Break down: 20/20, 12/12, 10,10, 5/5 Rested 3 minutes and did some swings: 1X10/10 @ 32kg 1X20/20 @ 24kg 1X40/40 @ 16kg 1X10/10 @ 32kg Rested about 1 Minute between sets, wiped out after last set. CI 

Out of curiosity , should a girevik go all out in the jerk section or hold back short of total failure , if said girevik was aiming to back it up later in the snatch section? I know the lifts target slightly different muscles , but could frying the CNS + muscles in the jerk harm the snatch numbers? Either way , not a particularly "pleasant" way to spend a Saturday/Sunday , but it beats watching telly! Pain is good!