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Bodyweight 200 pushups CONSECUTIVE!!! Rudnev again HOW does he do this???

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The point of the post was not to recommend it to most people - rather to admire the feat of strength endurance.
We here are all entitled to our personal opinions, and that includes me, I hope.

I admire feats of athletic achievement in competition, some more than others. I also am sometimes left wondering why people turn on a video camera in an otherwise empty gym and do some things. For me, watching someone race the NYC Marathon is an endurance event that’s interesting; watching a guy do 10 minutes of push-ups causes me to wonder - are we watching a competition or a strength-endurance feat or a demonstration of a recommended way of training or something else I haven’t considered.

If someone likes this and finds it admirable, more power to you! I just don’t. Strength endurance for me is a means to an end, a way to build work capacity for the rest of my life.

-S-
 
This all seems akin to how many lifters balk at why anybody would run a marathon. But, one could imagine a few zombie apocalypse scenarios where the ability to keep running for a couple hours might make you useful.

For this dude doing 200 pushups... well, I'd bet he could crawl to the end of a mile-long sewer tunnel (Shawshank-Redemption-style) faster than any of us.
 
There are plenty of people who wonder why we must snatch a kettlebell for 100 reps in 5 minutes... But we do value that, as a community.

All feats of strength, endurance, strength-endurance, balance, skill, or anything else are interesting in their own way. Most events that make it into the Olympics as individual events are interesting to watch. Pushups aren't really that! But 200 is impressive.
 
Most events that make it into the Olympics as individual events are interesting to watch.
... for 5 or 10 minutes or so. The interesting parts of a marathon are when somebody makes their move, or bonks. The other 2 hours, maybe not so much.

Same with a feat of strength endurance, I figure. I'll watch the first 10 seconds, and the last... I'll take your word that you did the stuff in the middle.
 
... for 5 or 10 minutes or so. The interesting parts of a marathon are when somebody makes their move, or bonks. The other 2 hours, maybe not so much.

Same with a feat of strength endurance, I figure. I'll watch the first 10 seconds, and the last... I'll take your word that you did the stuff in the middle.

Unless there is really awesome scenery, like the Tour de France :)
 
With all said here, I don't think that Barkley ultra has more sense than that.
I assume, knowing a Russian mind from inside, that there's no practical nor developmental point in what Rudnev did, other than just a record, one-time event. Just to show that he can.
And Rudnev is a damn amazing.
 
Just some food for thought:
Alexander Zass was a performing strongman from Russia. He was famous for his escapes from prison during the first World War. Supposedly he strained against his iron bars until they bent or broke and allowed him to escape (4 separate times!). He supposedly also carried his injured horse to safety on a separate occasion.

After the war he joined the circus and demonstrated feats of strength on stage. Supposedly as part of his act he would perform 200 consecutive push ups.

I find this idea fascinating.

I was speaking to David Whitley years ago at one of the early certifications. David (Iron Tamer) is also a performing strong man. He told me that during a performance a strongman will perform feats that will impress the audience but are secretly easy on the performer as a way to recover and build energy for the real challenges.

Ever since I heard the story of Zass performing push ups as part of his show I've wondered it it was really a way to build energy for his other feats like holding a grand piano suspended from his teeth or one of the back supports that were popular at the time.

Strength and endurance are not mutually exclusive, they exist on a spectrum. Playing on both ends of the spectrum is probably far healthier in the long run (and more impressive in my mind).

Also, in my own experience horizontal pressing does have a large carry over to vertical presses. I first witnessed this at an RKC in '08. A fellow student that was a power lifter (around 200# with a 400+# bench) cleaned and easily pressed the beast 4 or 5 times despite not pressing vertically. He had the strength to make it happen and also possessed adequate mobility.
 
Pavel in Easy Strength:



So, not something I would dedicate time to ;)

As someome who used to pull 525 on any given moment (which is nothing to write home about), I find WAY more useful being able to sustain a moderate effort (say 400 for 15 reps) for a looooooong time than chasing maximal strength.

And, yes, 200 pushups is waaaaay too much, but girevoy sport is a highly specialized activity.
 
Truly impressive!
I am somewhat suprised by some of the negative feedback.
Even though the feat may seem irrational for many in terms of the calulated risk vs. benefit, it is undeniably a feat of discipline, musuclar endurace and pain tolerance that a huge majority will never come close to. And so many people nowadays would benefit tremendously from pushing themself in such a setting, albeit more psychologically than physically.
 
Guessing

That is correct, it is guessing, which is never good.

Competitive Jerks

This method is counter productive for Competitive Jerk Training,


Jerks are a Power Movement, The foundation of Power is built on the development if Maximum Strength,.

Performing Push Ups for 10 minutes does not increase Maximum Strength nor Power; it kill both.

And that is a guess right there... whether it's an educated one or not. So jerks are power movements, regardles of how many you do of them? Interesting, I thought there were these things called energy systems and lactic acid and stuff. According to that logic, running is a power movement as well, because sprinting is, therefore any runner from 100 meters to ultramarathon should never run longer than for ten seconds, because there it will kill his running... let alone walk, ride a bike or swim, as they will kill his gains.

Interestingly enough, various push ups have been advocated as supplementary training both in GS and in boxing, and sometimes in quite high numbers as well, but clearly you have debunked all of this by saying "guessing is never good".
 
Alexander Zass was a performing strongman from Russia. He was famous for his escapes from prison during the first World War. [...]
After the war he joined the circus and demonstrated feats of strength on stage. Supposedly as part of his act he would perform 200 consecutive push ups.
[...]
Ever since I heard the story of Zass performing push ups as part of his show I've wondered it it was really a way to build energy for his other feats like holding a grand piano suspended from his teeth or one of the back supports that were popular at the time.
Zass was, among other things, a wrestler, and wrestlers have always been known for being able to tolerate large volumes - in fact, it's an integral part of the selection process, since building great technique requires tons of reps against resisting opponents. So while I am not saying that this base of strength endurance didn't help his strongman work at all (it probably did to some degree), it also probably wasn't essential for it. More likely, it was intended for / a by-product of other things he did.
 
So jerks are power movements, regardless of how many you do of them?
That is what makes the movement - you generate enough power with the legs to get the weight moving upwards then you dip underneath it. If you slowed it down, it wouldn't work, and maybe that's a working definition of a power movement.

-S-
 
That is what makes the movement - you generate enough power with the legs to get the weight moving upwards then you dip underneath it. If you slowed it down, it wouldn't work, and maybe that's a working definition of a power movement.

-S-
Maybe I should have phrased my thoughts a little more clearly: Yes, jerks do require power, but GS jerks are a fairly specific case due to the duration. Therefore, the maximum weight one can jerk will not be a as deciding a factor as other components, just like how fast one can run the 100 m is not the most deciding factor for a 5k.
Yes, jerks contain a throw, a dip, a recover and a catch, but then again, reducing a 10-minute event just to that in my opinion would be incomplete. Apart from the technical aspect, the double clean and jerk also requires pacing of reps an breathing, dealing with fatigue and keeping your technique constant, and contains isometric components (ergo: tension) in the rack and the lockout. I see most of these latter aspects present in Rudnev’s push-ups, I would even argue from his technique (especially the shoulder and head movement at the top, but also the way he locks out his elbows) that he is deliberately imitating the jerk lockout.

But then again, the only way to really know why he does it would be to ask him.
 
@Period, a GS jerk might be described as a power-endurance event. Indeed, so might the 5- and 10-minute snatch tests we do at StrongFirst, and so might the swings in Simple and Sinister.

I hope I have understood your points correctly.

I cannot comment on your last point about the specificity of pushup movements relating to the jerk. But this ...
the double clean and jerk also requires pacing of reps an breathing, dealing with fatigue and keeping your technique constant, and contains isometric components (ergo: tension) in the rack and the lockout.
... to me, as a musician, is like citing all the things that playing a violin concerto has in common with playing a trumpet concerto: rhythm, pitch, physical coordination, expression, etc. I happen to play a lot of different instruments, and while those kinds of things are indeed common across them all, they don't mean that practicing the violin is going to help me play a trumpet concerto better except in a very general sense, and I don't practice the violin when I want my trumpet playing to improve.

-S-
 

I freely admit I have no clue about playing various instruments… but to me, as a wrestler this sounds like you are saying that anything apart from practicing a specific movement directly has extremely limited carry-over. Yes, the carry-over of one exercise or sport to the other is never perfect, but it in my opinion, it can be improved to a certain extent, especially when using proper visualization. I don’t see why it should be any less possible for a GS athlete to work on certain qualities he intends to improve aside from the repetitions he does in his kettlebell sessions. As far as I am aware, every single sport uses various forms of supplementary training, with various degrees of specificy and abstraction, since while nobody disputes that doing your sport is the central part of training, you also have to do additional work if you want to reach your full potential, partly because doing one thing exclusively makes your risk of injury go through the roof. In all sports that use rounds or set time limits (and I've trained and competed in a number of those), it is not uncommon to do various exercises and intervals for roughly the duration of either one round or the entire event, sometimes also twice as much. Usually, when you ask coaches why they do it, you will hear explanations like «you need to work your energy systems in the same way you compete» or «you need to feel the seconds tick in your legs» (note: I am aware that this may not be in accordance to SF methodology, and I am not entitled to speak for that anyway; I am, however entitled to speak for my coaches, most of which have produced international level athletes in their sport).

I am willing to bet that if you asked Rudnev why he does his push ups for ten minutes in the way he does them, he will tell you he is doing them as supplementary work for his jerks.
 
I was looking on YouTube a little and - You might debate the training value of a number of things Rudnev does, like muscle ups, handstand pushups while balancing on kbs, blindfolded kb juggling, elbow levers, and more. I get the impression that he likes to try things and challenge himself.
 
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