Today, 09-09-09 I am launching my new blog to chronicle my experiences using the new system outlined in Pavel’s new book and DVD entitled “Return of the Kettlebell”.  If you have not heard of Pavel or his new book, you can read more about it over at dragondoor.com.

My goal here is not to tell you everything there is to know about what is outlined in the book but rather to give you a fly on the wall view of my training regiment for the next 90 days.  I hope that this will serve to inspire you and teach you as I myself learn a new system to build muscle and increase my strength and conditioning levels.  I have been in the iron game for over 25 years and I have had lots of ups and downs as I know you probably have as well.  In that time I have learned a lot about myself and about what does and what does not work. 

Not only have I been weight training for 25 plus years, but I have been a student of physical culture, reading and studying everything I could get my hands on in a quest to maximize my strength gains and reach the pinnacle of MY bodies physical abilities.  I must say that although there is useful information in most of what I have read, there is also a lot of bad or misinformation out there.  The challenge we all face it to weed through all the available “knowledge” out there and pull out what is useful and throw away the hype and false promises. 

You are NOT going to transform your body overnight by taking the latest and greatest supplement you buy at the health food store.  There is no magic routine out there that will turn you into Paul Anderson or Eugene Sandow in a month.  It takes hard work and a lot of it.

When I started studying Pavel’s teachings and the teachings of many of his students who have gone on to become the teachers themselves, I began to experience for the first time what my body was capable of if trained properly.  When I added kettlebells to the mix, well my progress shifted into yet another gear.  I hope to progress even further after applying what I have learned from Pavel this time around.

As I have said, I have done a lot of studying about ways to increase my strength and conditioning.  As we all seem to think after we have done something for a long time, I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about the subject.  Pavel has again helped me to create a paradigm shift in my thinking as it relates to gaining strength and building muscle.  It is this paradigm shift that I want to share with you over the next 90 days or so.

On 09-14-09, I will begin my 90 day cycle employing the training protocol outlined in Return of the Kettlebell.  Now I have used cycling in my weight training to great success in the past.  What Pavel teaches in Return of the Kettlebell is a form of cycling that he calls Russian block training.  What the protocol calls for is 2 week blocks in which you focus on only one type of training at a time.  In this case, a grind block consisting of the double kettlebell military press, double kettlebell front squat and the double kettlebell sumo squat.  Each week there are training days consisting of the previously mentioned lifts.  One light day, one medium day and one heavy day.  Two days a week we call variety days in which we can pretty much do what we want to some extent.  On these days you are supposed to incorporate active recovery and not try and do too much.  The remaining two days are reserved for rest.

Although the front squat and sumo deadlift are performed, the focus of the grind block is the double kettlebell military press.  When performing this lift, we use a technique called ladders to add volume while remaining as fresh as we can.  Ladders work like this; we perform 1 rep and rest.  The rest period is usually only as long as it would take for a training partner to perform his 1 rep.  We then do 2 reps and again rest.  Then 3, 4 and 5 in the same fashion.  We eventually work up to 1,2,3,4,5 reps for 5 cycles.  That’s 75 reps!  Try doing 75 reps in the traditional bodybuilding sytle of 10 -12 rep per set with a sufficient enough weight to promote growth and I guarantee you will fail.  Ladders make this high volume approach manageable.

Our next 2 week block consists of just one lift, the long cycle double kettlebell clean and jerk.  Again we employ the ladder technique but the rep protocol for this is a little different.  You will see what I mean as I start posting my workouts.

Now, why do we do 2 week cycles and why do we divide each of the blocks the way we do?  For two main reasons.  One, our bodies and our minds can only focus on a few specific tasks at once while still being effective.   You know from your daily lives that when you try and do too many things at once, you perform well at some of them but not well at all of them.  Ever wonder why major league baseball pitchers are usually bad hitters?  Because they are paid to do one thing well and that’s throw a baseball over the plate.  A quarterback is paid to throw a football.  If you want somebody who can catch it, go out and get yourself a wide receiver.  They each do one thing and usually they do it well.

So in this scenario, we will focus for 2 weeks on grinding type lifts and save the explosive lifts for another time.  And why 2 weeks?  Because each of the lifts, the grinds and the quick explosive lifts targets a different type of muscle fiber.  After a layoff, the gains that we make in these areas starts to diminish, and diminish rather quickly.   Some in as little as 15 days.  So, we keep the blocks under the 15 days which should prevent us from loosing what we worked so hard to gain.

This is a fairly simple routine as far as it’s complexity but brutal when it comes to the work load required as we progress closer to the 90 days.  Again, there is more to the Return of the Kettlebell protocol then that which I have just outlined but I’m not here to give you the full version.  I want to give you just enough so that you will understand what it is I am doing and why.  Besides, I am far from qualified to explain this in great detail and it’s not my place to do so.

So, for the next 90 days starting on September 14th, I will make available to you my complete workout log as well as video of some of the workouts and my thoughts about what I am experiencing.  This is obviously a new way of training for me so there will be a learning curve.  I hope that what I learn will help serve you in your strength and fitness endeavors. 

I will also be outlining my goals for the next 90 days in the coming days leading up to the start of the 90 day cycle.  I have always preached the importance of goal setting and you will understand why as I get started.  Keep in mind that the goals I outline are mine, not yours.  We are all different and so our goals will also be different.  If you are a beginner or advanced, a female or a male, old or young, your goals will be different and what is a major accomplishment for one person might be the starting point for another. 

So, thanks for going on this journey with me, I hope that along the way I can teach you something as I myself learn and grow. 

Yours in Health,

Dennis

This post is meant to give you some ideas and get you pointed in the right direction as it relates to using a kettlebell.  You will obviously not master the kettlebell just by reading this post.  I would strongly suggest you seek out quality instruction either with a certified trainer or through the use of books and videos.  The best in the business is Pavel Tsatsouline.  I would suggest to you “Enter the Kettlebell“  by Pavel.  As with any fitness routine, check with your doctor first. 

If you are an advanced kettlebell athlete and think you are ready to progress to the next level, Pavel’s new work, “Return of the Kettlebell” might just be what the doctor ordered.  If you have not gone through the RKC rite of passage as outlined in “Enter the Kettlebell”, don’t even think about moving on. 

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