Author: Pavel Tsatsouline
Pavel Tsatsouline is the CEO of StrongFirst, Inc.
Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion. —Francis Bacon What do successful athletes not blessed with Olympic genes have in common?—Patience to tweak their training, one variable at a time, until they have found “their” way. Contrast that with a typical trainee who impatiently switches programs before he has had a […]
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 […]
The following article does not contain medical advice. It presents long term training strategies for increasing general resistance in healthy people. The author would like to thank Kristann Heinz, MD and Paul White, MD for their valuable input. Take care of your family and your other responsibilities. Then train. The following strategies should improve your […]
We are proud to officially present Kettlebell Simple & Sinister: Revised and Updated Edition, or simply S&S 2.0. Time is a man’s best friend if he makes good use of it and a man’s worst enemy if he lets it run him. Most people who live by the clock are miserable sorts of critters. But […]
Over 200 years ago, Swedish scientist Jöns Berzelius discovered lactic acid in the muscles of an exhausted stag that had just been hunted down. Acid is the enemy of both tension and relaxation, drawing one into the stiff no-man’s land in between. It muffles the brain’s commands to the muscles, inhibits all three energy systems, […]
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 […]
“If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success.” This caption for a New Yorker cartoon nails the “FOMO” mentality of a “workout of the day.” Then why, might you ask, is StrongFirst jumping on the bandwagon and introducing its own “WOD”? Please read on. The biological law of accommodation states that the response of an […]
Russian coach, Andrey Kozhurkin, made an observation on the two diametrically opposed philosophies of stimulating adaptation. The traditional one is pushing to the limit: “What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” The alternative is to train to “avoid (or at least delay) the unfavorable internal conditions… that lead to failure,” or reduced performance. [...]
I was watching Andy Bolton pull over 900 pounds from the back stage at the Arnold Classic. It struck me that his deadlift looked exactly like a hard style kettlebell swing. Afterwards, I asked Andy, “Correct me if I am wrong, it seems that you try to keep your shins vertical, don’t think about the […]
In the South American jungle, a jaguar hunts a prey that bites back, a caiman. In a show of absolute superiority, the cat makes his kill on the dangerous dinner’s turf. The jag jumps into the river and snatches the wriggling toothy reptile by its neck. A caiman or a gator may be fast, but […]
