Shortly after 9/11, Pavel Tsatsouline wrote an article for Muscle Media magazine which focused on the strength and conditioning workout of the Russian Special Forces. It centered on the use of kettlebells and body weight exercises because of the need to be both portable and highly effective. While on maneuvers, kettlebells were thrown in the back of a truck and when camp was made, they would drag out the kettlebells and rig up something for doing pull-ups. When camp was broken, the kettlebells were thrown in the back of truck and taken to the next location. As interesting as this use might be to current and potential kettlebell users, the most important concept of this article was not necessarily the use of kettlebells but rather was the workout structure and the rationale behind it.
OVERVIEW
Here is the basic structure as presented in the article:
Lower Body
Upper Body Push/Pull
Core
Ballistic
I realize at first glance this approach looks very simplistic and to those in search of the workout Holy Grail this might be disappointing. However, like the notes of the blues scale, a lot can be done with what seems to be a little. So please read on.
This workout structure is based on natural human movement patterns. We squat down and stand up. We bend over to pick up things. We push out away from the body and pull back toward it. We push things overhead and of course pull down. The core stabilizes the low spine so that force can transfer through the center body in both directions. The body also moves forward and backward, side to side and rotates. In fact, most human movements involve combinations of two or more of these patterns.
Traditional bodybuilding focuses on single joint isolation exercises that do not address the needs of body movement and functional strength. For this new workout paradigm, multiple joint, compound exercises are the main stay. Horizontal presses are preferred over pec-flys. Squats and lunges produce more usable leg strength than leg extensions and leg curls. Standing press and pull-ups are more effective for upper body strength than delt raises and arm curls. You get the idea; big lifts instead of little lifts.
I suggest that you open an Excel spreadsheet or grab a legal pad. Across the top, label columns: Lifting (glute), Squating (quad), Horizontal Push, Horizontal Pull, Vertical Push, Vertical Pull, Core and Ballistic. Under each column heading, list every exercise you can think of that corresponds to that movement pattern. Include all of the training equipment options available to you: barbell, dumbbell, body weight, kettlebell, clubbell, sandbag and stretch bands, etc. This list will become your library of exercises. As you complete a training cycle, the current exercise you are doing for any major movement returns to the master list and a new exercise choice slides into that spot within the program. The template remains the same but exercise variables change according to your goals: exercise choice, reps & sets, rest between sets, exercise frequency and loading.
LOWER BODY
The “lower body first” concept may be new to those who begin their workouts with the bench press but not so in the athletic world where the importance of the hips and thighs are well understood and valued. In our sit-on-your-ass culture, the lower body strength and power development is often neglected and the effort is instead spent on satisfying the ego by training the mirror muscles, especially the chest and arms. Unless you walk on your hands all day long, human movement radiates outward from the hips like waves created by dropping a stone in a pond. Therefore, training should be structured accordingly.
Clearly the strength and power of the hips and thighs are important to athletic performance. The need to move with graceful power is matched with the ability to overpower an opponent or an implement. Athletes seem to be a separate specie but they are really not. We are all athletes. In fact, life is a series of small athletic events, one after another from the moment of getting out of bed in the morning to staggering back into bed at night. Strength, power, joint mobility and stability, balance, work capacity and movement skills interweave in an intricate tapestry that we hardly notice until something goes wrong. The lost of strength and power is obvious to the injured or aging athlete but it is also very noticeable to a weak senior who cannot stand up from a toilet without assistance. At that moment, all of those bench presses don’t mean shit.
Another consideration why the lower body comes first is because it is the largest muscle mass of the body. Lower body work requires more physical energy and mental focus than the smaller muscles of the upper body. Doing the lower body first guarantees the energy necessary for proper concentration and muscular performance.
I find single leg exercises like, lunges, step-ups, Bulgarian split squats, pistols and single leg dead-lifts very useful for developing basic strength and correcting muscular imbalances. Differences in right-side/left-side stability jump out while in single leg stance. So man-up and face your weaknesses. It is important to remember that you cannot load a dysfunctional movement pattern. The longer you avoid the issue, the worst it gets as you age.
UPPER BODY PUSH/PULL
After the lower body exercises have been completed, it is time to move on to the upper body push/pull patterns. This program design arrange the upper-body push-pull exercises into a mini-circuit where a pull exercise follows a push exercise and continues until all sets are completed. Imbalances between pushing and pulling muscles are all too common in the Western fitness culture. These imbalances result in limited gains in performance and a greater risk for injury. Because we tend to worship the mirror muscles and ignore what we can’t see, the pulling muscles get short changed. How many people do you know who can bench more than their bodyweight but who cannot do a legitimate pull-up and of those “benchers”, how many have serious shoulder pain? Once again, man-up and pull.
The lack of pull-up strength (vertical pull) also coincides with a lack of overhead pressing strength (vertical push). It is amazing the amount of attention given to the bench press while how little is devoted to the vertical pushing. This workout template has two different workouts. Session A includes the horizontal push/pull and Session B, in turn, the vertical push/pull. Using this approach, you are forced to do your weaker movement patterns. You are not allowed to hide your weaknesses. But the good news is there is something very rewarding about doing pull-ups and standing single arm Kettlebell presses with close to your body weight while others run from the challenge.
CORE
We have been sold the concept that great abs equals greater value to the human tribe. Attractive mates fall at your feet. Wealthy members of the tribe throw money at you just to glow in your brilliance. The universe is very kind to those who walk amongst us with the chiseled six-pack. What a marketing goldmine, the cultural insecurity that just keeps giving to anyone with a product to sell. Recently, the six-pack abs have morphed to become the core and core training which seems to be more important and less vain because now it is somehow linked to functionality. So if you didn’t get suckered into casing looking better naked, the ab merchants are trying to sell on ab training to improve anything from your golf game to your sexual performance.
Here is the bad news. Until recently, most of the common core exercises done in gyms and shown in magazines have been proven to exacerbate or cause lower back problems (McGill). All of those trainers who put their clients through routines of sit-ups, crunches, side bends, twists and hyper-extensions are causing more damage and placing their victims at greater risks. The good news is that the new approach to training the core is not only safer for the L-spine but improves functional performance far more than anything done in the past. These ideas are just now starting to breach the wall of uninformed complacency. Magazines are showing planks instead of sit-ups, side bridges in place of side bends and bird dogs versus hyperextensions.
What to do for the core and why is a subject for a future article. For the purpose of this discussion, the core gets dedicated focus after the lower body and upper body have been addressed. Usually, two to three exercises are included that cover the anterior, lateral, posterior and rotational aspects of core movement and stability. It is not as complicated as it sounds for many of the possible exercise choices involve more than one component of the core movement patterns.
BALLISTIC
Ballistic exercises are multi-joint strength movements done for high reps and / or time. All of the energy systems are stressed and required to adapt. VO2 max can improve, anaerobic capacity increases and fat metabolism continues long after the exercise has ceased. So there is a body fat loss component riding along with the serious conditioning benefit of ballistic exercises.
The Russian Special Forces used Kettlebell swings, snatches, jerks, long cycle clean & jerks and push-presses for their superb conditioning. However, the same exercise can be used by “civilians” to generate fat loss. You can also select from numerous bodyweight, dumbbell and barbell exercises to create your own ballistic exercise. The resistance should allow you to continue the movement for at least one minute and plan on increasing your time as your conditioning improves. As a general rule: increase time and / or sets before you increase weight.
Because of their taxing nature, ballistics are usually done at the end of workout as one last kick in the ass to conclude the session and are often referred to as “finishers” for good reason, you’re finished.
WARMUP & COOL-DOWN
The good news is that jumping on a treadmill or a bike for 5:00 to warm-up for strength training has proven ineffective and to waste valuable energy needed for training. The bad news is you still have to spend time preparing to lift, so get over it. The dynamic joint mobility works of Pavel Tsatsouline, Eric Cobb and Scott Sonnon have proven to be extremely beneficial for workout preparation by warming the joint capsule and simulating the release of synovial fluid for lubrication and to bath the cartilage with the elements of nutrition needed for tissue health. Dynamic joint movements also aid in the release restrictions that impede normal joint function.
10 to 15 minutes of joint mobility work is usually enough time to wake up the body and to prepare the joints for the work to follow. You can begin at the feet and work up the body joint-by-joint to the neck or start at the neck and work down. Where you start is not as important as having a system that insures each joint is worked in an orderly manner and that you can go through it half asleep (which is likely) while your mind is drifting all over the place. However, to get the best results, you really need to focus totally for every second that you are doing any dynamic movement. Your increased awareness will provide critical feedback about body positioning during movement which will in turn improve lifting performance and increased safety to reduce the risk of injury.
Once dynamic movement drills have been completed, it is time move to exercise specific warm-ups which include body weight exercises and / or lighter weight versions of the exercises to be performed. Traditionally, the latter are simply the programmed exercise starting at light weight for a few reps and adding weight until being close to the planned work resistance. It is important not to waste energy by doing too many reps during the warm-up phase. The purpose is to wake up the nervous system and get the exercise pattern established before challenging the muscles and joints with heavier weight. Generally, no more than 5 reps for any given warm-up set and as few as just one rep as you get closer to the work weight are needed to prepare for the exercise.
The body needs some time period to come down from the high levels of stress achieved during a workout. A continuation of light movement will aid in the removal of waste by-products from the cellular level of the muscle and this in turn will speed recovery. It is a common practice with cardiovascular training and fast paced strength circuits to allow heart and respiratory rates to return close to normal before moving on to other activities. Even though non-circuit weight training may not have the obvious extremes of heart rate and respiration as circuits and super sets, cool-down is important and should not be ignored. Once the workout is completed, recovery begins. The cool-down transition period goes a long way in determining the quality of recovery before the next workout. Don’t let it slide.
It was recommended above to avoid stretching during warm-up due to its detrimental affect on performance. The cool-down phase is the opportune time stretch but first the question must be asked, what to stretch and why. We have been sold on the idea that flexibility is a good thing, the more flexible the better. Therefore, the whole body would need to be stretch. Right? Not so fast there spunky. Certain areas of the body need to remain taut. For example, one of the roles of lumbar spine and the core is to assist in conducting force through the center of the body. A too flexible of a low back would “leak energy” and therefore hinder performance and increase the risk of injury to its self and to distant muscles and joints that rely on lumbar stability for the quality of their performance. Also, the concept of “flexible for what” needs to be considered. An office desk jockey doesn’t need the flexibility of a rock climber. Stretch only muscles that truly need to be stretched (i.e., muscles whose tightness interfere with proper joint function). Don’t waste time and energy on a whole body stretch routine just because it sounds cool. Cool can come back and bite you on the ass.
SAMPLE WORKOUT
Here is what it looks like when the pieces come together. The sample workouts below are focused on hypertrophy and general conditioning. Session A’s lower body exercise is quad dominate and the upper body pushes and pulls are the horizontal. Session B’s lower body is glute dominate and the upper body pushes and pulls are vertical.
There are three strength workouts per week with at least a day for recovery between workouts. One week would have the A-B-A sequence and the next week would be B-A-B. Therefore, each session would occur three times every two weeks.
SESSION A
WARM-UP
Dynamic Joint Mobility
LOWER BODY
Double Kettlebell Front Squats – 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
UPPER BODY HORIZONTAL PUSH/PULL CIRCUIT
Blast Strap Pushups – Body Weight + Weighted Vest – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Horizontal Row – Body Weight + Weighted Vest – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
CORE
McGill Rollup – Body Weight – 2 sets of 5r/5l with a 5 count static hold
BALLISTIC
Kettlebell Swings – 24Kg – cluster sets to 100
COOLDOWN
Corrective Stretching
SESSION B
WARM-UP
Dynamic Joint Mobility
LOWER BODY
Barbell Dead-Lifts – 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
UPPER BODY
Standing Kettlebell or Dumbbell Press – 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Body Weight Pull-Ups – 3 sets of 5 to 8 reps or Lat Pull-Downs – 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
CORE
Side Bridge – Body Weight – 2 sets of 5 to 10 reps per side with a 3 count static hold
BALLISTIC
Squat Combo – Body Weight – 3 sets of 15 Squats, 15 Jump Squats & 15 Second Squat Bottom Position Static Hold
COOLDOWN
Corrective Stretching
SUMMARY
The general concept of this workout template is be very adaptive to individual needs and tools available to train. With the exercise order set (lower body, upper body, core and ballistic) the other workout variables; exercise selection, reps and sets, rest between sets, frequency per week and loading can be creatively tweaked according to circumstance. The focus on multi-joint exercises translates well to functional human movement patterns. The results of this style of training are much more practical than just looking better naked. Not that there is anything wrong with looking better naked. It is just that you should be able to move with grace and power once you are naked.
