The Naked Warrior: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

> >What weight did you choose?

>

> 44#.

>

That's about perfect. Too heavy for a beginner to snatch but heavy enough

to require a little effort to swing.

Back about a year ago when I was reading the Dragon Door forum pretty

regularly there was a great post by one of the old-timers in which he really

blasted all of the newbies who were trying to set up complicated workouts

involving multiple lifts and exercises. He took the firm position that a

new person should do nothing but KB swings for the first 6 weeks that they

own the kettlebell. Particularly if they didn't have an experienced trainer

teaching them in person. His view, and I agree based on my rather limited

experience, is that it takes that long to train the body to maintain proper

form and to learn the mechanics of that basic motion. Until all of that is

learned properly it is impossible to get correct form on cleans and,

finally, snatches.

So, his suggestion was to do two handed swings with completely focused

attention on a flat back, hamstrings, glute and ab recruitment and proper

breathing for two weeks then to begin to add in one armed swings for the

next 4 weeks. In between you should be watching and rewatching one of

Pavel's KB videos to help you learn the mechanics.

Ron

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I've finally been reading email for a couple of days and think I may be

coherent enough to try a post or two.

> I actually have several of Pavel Tsatsouline's books, but for

> a variety of

> reasons I hadn't really put any of his instructions to use

> until I recently

> picked up a copy of _The Naked Warrior_.

>

> Those reasons, for both the curious and the contemptuous:

>

Looks like there was some Pavel discussion that I missed last week.

I want to chime in with agreement about the Naked Warrior. I did a 12 week

" grease the groove " pistols cycle last spring after my left shoulder surgery

and had great result with it. I started off unable to do a clean negative

with either leg and was able to do 6 reps barefoot with either leg at the

end of the twelve weeks. I never broke a sweat during the workouts but got

increasingly stronger.

There were a couple of interesting after effects to report, also.

For some reason after stopping that workout cycle I went for almost a year

without even trying to do another pistol. A couple of weeks ago when I

started to ease back in to the process in prep for my right shoulder surgery

I was able to still do two good barefoot pistols with either leg.

Definitely some evidence to support Pavel's assertions about training the

neuromuscular pathways.

And finally, that 12 week cycle completely changed the look of my legs.

They went from being bodybuilderish to functional looking. I can't describe

it any better than that, unfortunately. My wife noticed it first and

commented as things were shifting. I've never had much mass but I was

pretty cut for a period of about a year so it was easy to see the changes

that were taking place.

Ron

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

> Uncanny! I just started Pavel's " From Russia with Tough Love " program

> exactly one week ago. I did buy a kettlebell, though. I really need

> to take a picture of my butt now as I don't quite believe the results

> I'm already seeing. I even fit into a pair of leather jeans that have

> eluded me for over a year! In fact, said jeans were the reason I

> dropped $100+ on Pavel's program (book, video, kb) in the first place.

> To be fair, I've really recommitted to my gf NT diet too, so I'm sure

> that has something to do with it as well.

It is bizarre how kettlebells burn fat and re-shape the body. As I've said

before, my wife has done more kettlebell work than I have so I've gotten to

watch the effects that it has had on her, but in the limited amount of work

I've done with them myself I've noticed an almost instant decrease in body

fat with, what seems to me, to be very little exercise effort compared to my

normal workouts.

Ron

[Guest guest]

" That's about perfect. Too heavy for a beginner to snatch but heavy enough

to require a little effort to swing.

Back about a year ago when I was reading the Dragon Door forum pretty

regularly there was a great post by one of the old-timers in which he really

blasted all of the newbies who were trying to set up complicated workouts

involving multiple lifts and exercises. He took the firm position that a

new person should do nothing but KB swings for the first 6 weeks that they

own the kettlebell. Particularly if they didn't have an experienced trainer

teaching them in person. His view, and I agree based on my rather limited

experience, is that it takes that long to train the body to maintain proper

form and to learn the mechanics of that basic motion. Until all of that is

learned properly it is impossible to get correct form on cleans and,

finally, snatches.

So, his suggestion was to do two handed swings with completely focused

attention on a flat back, hamstrings, glute and ab recruitment and proper

breathing for two weeks then to begin to add in one armed swings for the

next 4 weeks. In between you should be watching and rewatching one of

Pavel's KB videos to help you learn the mechanics.

Ron "

I really don't think that it is necessary to do 6 weeks of only swings

before one starts to practice the

other exercises, nor do I think that Pavel would say that this is necessary.

Of course, one of the videos

would be mandatory, but I think that the view that you are expressing is

overly cautious. I don't think that

there would be many experienced people on the forum that would agree with

that point of view.

I certainly agree that it wouldn't be good to set up a complicated workout

at first, but there are certainly

several exercises on the beginning tapes that one could start out with in

the first few days.

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[Guest guest]

He took the firm position that a

> new person should do nothing but KB swings for the first 6 weeks

that they

> own the kettlebell. Particularly if they didn't have an experienced

trainer

> teaching them in person. His view, and I agree based on my rather

limited

> experience, is that it takes that long to train the body to maintain

proper

> form and to learn the mechanics of that basic motion. Until all of

that is

> learned properly it is impossible to get correct form on cleans and,

> finally, snatches.

>

> So, his suggestion was to do two handed swings with completely focused

> attention on a flat back, hamstrings, glute and ab recruitment and

proper

> breathing for two weeks then to begin to add in one armed swings for the

> next 4 weeks. In between you should be watching and rewatching one of

> Pavel's KB videos to help you learn the mechanics.

>

> Ron

,

Swings and the Turkish get-up together make a complete workout.

If you want to get some real cardio action, alternate ten swings

with one minute jump rope and do, oh, twenty, thirty of those sets

with one minute rest between each at first,if you need, then reduce

your rest times. I do this on the days between strength workouts.

Sometimes I alternate with hitting a heavy bag, or running a lap.

You will definitely outgrow your 44# very soon and if you purchase

your 53# from DragonDoor I can get you a discount, if you're interested.

B.

[Guest guest]

Gene-

>but I wonder whether the amount of stress put on the knees doing hindu

>squats isn't miniscule in comparison.

Probably, though it's a different type of stress, since there isn't much if

any impact in Hindu squats. I just don't see the point, and it seems like

a recipe for RSI, but if it works for you, hey, go for it.

>And I never found joint supplements to make the slightest bit of difference.

Have you ever tried a quality chondroitin sulfate? That makes a lot of

difference for me, though it's unfortunately expensive.

>Right- but I'm not convinced that the number of reps that you do in

>kettlebell sport are harmful that, say, the repetitive stress that you do

>in marathon running can be harmful. And generally you're not going to be

>doing anything approaching the numbers that you mention above. But Pavel

>generally recommends a very low number - like up to about 5. And I

>honestly wonder whether that is the best method for developing endurance

>with kettlebells.

Kettlebells seem a little odd to me in this respect because they come in

just a few weights, but Tsatsouline's recommendations seem to vary in the

rep department. For press-type lifts, he does say stick to 5 or less, but

then he says snatches, cleans and jerks can involve even hundreds of reps.

My understanding from reading him and other sources is that endurance is

best acquired by a combination of low-rep max-strength training and

endurance exercise, but I don't know. I'll be curious to find out how

kettelebells fit into this.

-

[Guest guest]

-

>/, lemme know when you wanna sell it, please, cuz I need one

Have you looked on eBay? If you keep your eye out, you should be able to

get one at a moderate discount.

-

[Guest guest]

Ron-

>He took the firm position that a

>new person should do nothing but KB swings for the first 6 weeks that they

>own the kettlebell. Particularly if they didn't have an experienced trainer

>teaching them in person. His view, and I agree based on my rather limited

>experience, is that it takes that long to train the body to maintain proper

>form and to learn the mechanics of that basic motion. Until all of that is

>learned properly it is impossible to get correct form on cleans and,

>finally, snatches.

Six weeks seems kind of extreme, but that said, I have no intention of

launching into an all-consuming and massively complicated routine. I don't

have time, I don't have the inclination, and I don't have the blood sugar

stability. I'm only going to do what I can immediately benefit from, and

since I have plenty of connective tissue problems, I'm sure I'll be plenty

careful about form.

-

[Guest guest]

Ron-

> did a 12 week

> " grease the groove " pistols cycle last spring after my left shoulder surgery

>and had great result with it.

How many sets did you tend to do per day?

-

[Guest guest]

On Wednesday, March 9, 2005, at 09:43 AM, Gene Schwartz wrote:

> I certainly agree that it wouldn't be good to set up a complicated

> workout

> at first, but there are certainly

> several exercises on the beginning tapes that one could start out with

> in

> the first few days.

>

>

Which video would you recommend as a first purchase.

Sandy

[Guest guest]

The Naked Warrior: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I have received my copy of the The Naked Warrior video and am

attempting to train to do one arm pushups and squats. I am doing the

squats from a chair for now. I can't even begin to do the one arm push

up from the chair. I can kinda do one from my kitchen counter but I

don't think my form is very good. I wonder if doing two arm pushups

for awhile would be the way to go. Will that get me there? I can do

two " two armed pushups " pretty sad....

Sandy