“Strength has a greater purpose.” The very famous words of our leader, Pavel Tsatsouline, ran through my mind over and over. I had lost my older brother to suicide the Summer of 2021 and felt a burning desire to “do something about it.” That’s when I found an organization at West Bend High School called …
How I Trained to Become a Guinness World Record Holder Read More »
Meeting Pavel for the first time about twenty years ago changed my life. It is a story that has been told in these pages before. I was impressed with this quiet gentleman who knew so much about training systems far from the American tradition. We discussed the eloquence of Russian sport science that produced performance …
In team sports, soccer being a prime example, the time available to train an athlete’s physical strength is quite limited. The majority of training is spent performing tactical and technical sport related exercises. Keeping this in mind, I planned a new strength program for Renate Calcio, one of Italy’s professional soccer teams, around two fundamental …
“Only he deserves power who everyday justifies it”—Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish Diplomat Ain’t no two ways about it, friend-o: if you’re training for your SFG II Kettlebell Certification or recertification, probably the last thing you want to think about is preparing to tango once more with your long-time arch nemesis: the SFG Snatch Test (100 snatches …
The Happy Valley Women’s Cycling (HVWC) team is an organization committed to advancing women’s cycling. Their mission is to provide cycling opportunities for females of all ages and ability levels. Based in central Pennsylvania, the team members ride and race in multiple disciplines, including road, gravel, and mountain. They are the only female cycling team …
A Simple Journey: Bicycles, Bones, and Kettlebells Read More »
The Goal: Sinister When I first looked for advice to achieve the Sinister goal of Kettlebell Simple & Sinister by Pavel, the response I received was to focus all your training on swings, get-ups, and goblet squats. I like to listen to others and then make my own decisions based on a combination of research …
The kettlebell jerk is one of the most misunderstood lifts. Many people believe it takes a ton of upper body strength in order to execute heavy weights. This is where the misconception lays. The purpose of a jerk is purely to move a weight from the rack position to the overhead lockout. What makes the …
Go Ballistic—The Jerk for Barbell and Kettlebell Read More »
In February of 2002 a group of 22 students assembled for the second ever kettlebell certification with Pavel. From water balloons, mattresses, and a very different teaching progression, it was life-changing to say the least. Out of the first group came many of the original senior instructors and the organic development of the School of …
It is a tall order for a training method to live up to the title of this article—but one does. It checks off the following boxes: ☑ Power ☑ Strength ☑ Muscle hypertrophy ☑ Fat loss ☑ “Cardio” ☑ “Work capacity” ☑ Longevity through mitochondrial adaptations ☑ It “gives you more than it takes out …
Back in the USSR many gyms were closed in the summer “for repairs.” Out of necessity, lifters and bodybuilders switched from barbells to kettlebells and bodyweight for a couple of months. When they returned to the bar in the fall, after a brief re-entry most were able to set PRs. If you take a planned …