Pavel Tsatsouline is the reason you even know what a kettlebell is. See Part I and Part II at T-Nation (bodybuilding site), or the whole thing reprinted here. Well worth the time to read. All strength is core strength.
To answer Dyer's questions:
There's a lot to think about in the article, but what sticks with me three days later is this:
1) lifting to build muscles (bodybuilding) is not the same as lifting for strength and power. This is very important point for athletes, as the dominant paradigm in athletic weight rooms for the last 25 years has been a bodybuilding model--e.g. 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, chest/shoulder/triceps day and legs/back/biceps day, etc. That's all very effective at growing muscle, but not necessarily creating strength and power.
2) All strength is core strength. Put another way, you are only as strong as you are able to maintain posture under load. Gripping the bar tightly and the corollary for push-ups are related to this through muscle activation and the holistic nature of our musculature system.
Pavel's points about not warming up and not lifting to failure are really items for an advanced audience; people with a year or more of serious lifting who understand the movements, their own reasons for training, and have experimented with multiple programs.
Not warming up is a matter of definition I think. Pavel talks about not warming up as a more accurate prep for mil and law enforcement. Valid point. However, my experience tells me that the first few sets of whatever you do actually function as a warm-up. With no official warm-up, the first 3 sets of a 5x5 workout become the warm-up by default. Also, the body performs better after it is warmed up. Sprinters routinely post better times/performances in their 2nd and 3rd events of the day. There is something to giving an all/nearly all out effort that preps the body-mind for giving a peak performance. I'm reminded of a quote from Gladiator (ca 1992); something like "If you go into the ring cold, you're going to come out of the ring cold."
I believe not lifting to failure to be a matter of experience and knowing thyself. What Pavel is talking about is people deliberately lifting to burn-out or failure. Max rep type workouts. In heavy lifts, you don't always know when failure will occur, but you are striving for known quantity of reps, usually 1 to 5. If you lift often and have a lot of experience, you can gauge how much is enough fairly accurately based on one set and how you feel. Novices don't really know themselves well enough to be accurate. Frankly, would anyone honestly try to move a barbell if they knew they were going to fail? That's why we try. We think we can, and sometimes we do. If you have a lot of experience, your "think" gets closer and closer to a "know", and you can make training decisions based upon it. You need to be pretty darned experienced to load a bar and know what's going to happen in a fifth set of heavy lifts. There isn't anyone in our workouts who is there just yet. I stress yet.
Interesting stuff. What are the main take aways from your perspective, Ben? Do you agree with his take on training? To me, some stuff made sense (gripping the bar really hard during lifts to get your body into the lift and heavy weight at low reps). But, what about the stuff he says about not warming up and not lifting to failure? - JD
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot to think about in the article, but what sticks with me three days later is this:
ReplyDelete1) lifting to build muscles (bodybuilding) is not the same as lifting for strength and power. This is very important point for athletes, as the dominant paradigm in athletic weight rooms for the last 25 years has been a bodybuilding model--e.g. 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, chest/shoulder/triceps day and legs/back/biceps day, etc. That's all very effective at growing muscle, but not necessarily creating strength and power.
2) All strength is core strength. Put another way, you are only as strong as you are able to maintain posture under load. Gripping the bar tightly and the corollary for push-ups are related to this through muscle activation and the holistic nature of our musculature system.
Pavel's points about not warming up and not lifting to failure are really items for an advanced audience; people with a year or more of serious lifting who understand the movements, their own reasons for training, and have experimented with multiple programs.
Not warming up is a matter of definition I think. Pavel talks about not warming up as a more accurate prep for mil and law enforcement. Valid point. However, my experience tells me that the first few sets of whatever you do actually function as a warm-up. With no official warm-up, the first 3 sets of a 5x5 workout become the warm-up by default. Also, the body performs better after it is warmed up. Sprinters routinely post better times/performances in their 2nd and 3rd events of the day. There is something to giving an all/nearly all out effort that preps the body-mind for giving a peak performance. I'm reminded of a quote from Gladiator (ca 1992); something like "If you go into the ring cold, you're going to come out of the ring cold."
I believe not lifting to failure to be a matter of experience and knowing thyself. What Pavel is talking about is people deliberately lifting to burn-out or failure. Max rep type workouts. In heavy lifts, you don't always know when failure will occur, but you are striving for known quantity of reps, usually 1 to 5. If you lift often and have a lot of experience, you can gauge how much is enough fairly accurately based on one set and how you feel. Novices don't really know themselves well enough to be accurate. Frankly, would anyone honestly try to move a barbell if they knew they were going to fail? That's why we try. We think we can, and sometimes we do. If you have a lot of experience, your "think" gets closer and closer to a "know", and you can make training decisions based upon it. You need to be pretty darned experienced to load a bar and know what's going to happen in a fifth set of heavy lifts. There isn't anyone in our workouts who is there just yet. I stress yet.