ENTER THE KETTLEBELL!: Strength Secret of the Soviet Supermen

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Dr. Dennis Koslowski, Chiropractor, ART specialist and the first American to win Olympic Medals in Greco-Roman Wrestling (Bronze in 1988, Silver in 1992) Asha Wagner, SFG Team Leader and veteran firefighter. The 1-arm push-up is required of all StrongFirst bodyweight instructors, male and female.

This book sometimes read like a sales pitch as obvious in the title. There are various suggestive statements appealing to the readers' masculinity. A couple of examples below: The pros and cons of sports-specific training… the kettlebell “what-the-hell effect” for improving at things you have not practiced… professional powerlifting and marathon running success stories… how to truly excel at a certain exercise… when to do “special strength” training… customized for what?... beware the moonshine—the dangers of home-brewed coaching. According to Pavel in the book he says -'example: If you are climbing (1, 2, 3) ladders on the heavy day, do 5 singles on the light day and 5 x (1, 2) on the medium day.' This is how I have been following it and it makes sense or else they wouldn't really be light or medium days any more if you are doing the same work as on the heavy day.Kettlebells really bridged the gap between maximum strength and strength-endurance/power for me. I was skeptical at first, and thought a dumbbell would be just as good. I was wrong. The kbs delivered as promised, helped me lose fat, improved my conditioning, and increased my strength endurance. Understand the crucial value of "slow strength" training—the counterintuitive and rarely revealed secret of Russian athletic might

Recall my previous blog post on exercise selection where I mentioned the Kalashnikov analogy. The bottom line up front was a quote from Pavel Tsatsouline: Never contest for space with a kettlebell. “Never contest for space with a kettlebell!” stresses Nate Morrison. “You will lose. Evade it and don’t be where it wants to go.” If the bell wants to twist your elbow, shoulder, or any other joint in a way it is not supposed to go in our species, don’t fight it. Abort! Guide the kettlebell to fall harmlessly, and move out of the way if necessary. Move those feet. Better yet, anticipate the kettlebell’s dynamics—to prevent problems instead of dealing with them. Stand up and place the edges of your hands into the creases on top of your thighs. Press your hands hard into Jumps you to the next level of physical excellence with Pavel's proven RKC formula for exceptional strength and conditioning.Testing yourself for progress in the RKC Rite of Passage… how to best test your Clean and Press… the kettlebell Clean and Press rules… how to test your Snatch… the United States Secret Service kettlebell Snatch rules… three sample test days… the RKC Rite of Passage training plan summary… Nietzsche’s formula for success… how to measure a man’s true character. Pavel lays out a foolproof master system that guarantees you success—if you simply follow the commands!

He suggests using ladders, starting low. Switching hands, resting. Then slowly building up to fifty repetitions, one hundred repetitions, in a short period of time. Eventually, as one progresses, one will build 1 ladder (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) to 2 ladders, 2 ladders to 3 ladders, and so on. This can take a few minutes, a few hours, or even a full day. Even with the book's faults, however, one cannot disregard the benefits of kettlebell. It's portable, takes little space, functional for those who demand explosive strength, and all of its exercises build superior grip strength, which is undervalued in the world of sports. Also unlike strength/conditioning programs with barbell, kettlebell programs tend to not only engage the CNS and the large muscles, but also the heart and the lungs as well, making it a viable addition to the regimens of endurance athletes like fighters, boxers, rowers, etc...

Stay loose through your arms. Kettlebell cleans and snatches are not curls; the arms barely pass the force generated by the hips. Should your arms tense up, especially on the downswing, you are asking to tweak your elbows. My teaching goals used to be narrow: Make the tough even tougher. Today they are broader: Enable regular folks to join the tough." In DiLuglio's guide he has you doing the same number of ladders and rungs on the light and medium days as you do on the heavy day until you reach 5 Ladders of 5 on the heavy days, then he lowers them on the other 2 days as suggested in Pavel's book. Once one has practiced these exercises for a long time (weeks to months to even years), focusing on finesse over speed and technique over high repetitions, additional exercises can be incorporated. Now, Pavel honed his amazingly effective Enter the Kettlebell! masterplan for elite strength and high-performance conditioning in the trenches of his RKC kettlebell instructor certification training programs...