Transcription
GUIDE TOHANGING LEG RAISES—For Functionally Tougher, Super-Strong Abs
GUIDE TOHANGING LEG RAISES—For Functionally Tougher, Super-Strong AbsCopyright 2004 Power by Pavel Inc.All rights under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions.Published in the United States by:Dragon Door Publications, IncP.O. Box 4381, St. Paul, MN 55104Tel: (651) 487-2180 Fax: (651) 487-3954Credit card orders: 1-800-899-5111Email: dragondoor@aol.com Website: www.dragondoor.comThis edition first published in May 2004No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent ofthe Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.Printed in the United States of AmericaBook design, Illustrations and cover by Derek BrighamWebsite http//www.dbrigham.comTel/Fax: (612) 827-3431 Email: dbrigham@visi.comPhotographs by Don Pitlik: (612) 252-6797DISCLAIMERThe author and publisher of this material are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury thatmay occur through following the instructions contained in this material. The activities, physical and otherwise,described herein for informational purposes only, may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people andthe reader(s) should consult a physician before engaging in them.
HANGING LEG RAISES—FOR FUNCTIONALLY TOUGHER,SUPER-STRONG ABSI have never known a single person who regularly practiced hanging legraises and failed to develop a hard and useful set of abs. Ever. The HLRbelongs in the training schedule of any hard comrade. Men in uniform get the strength and active flexibility to ace extremeobstacle courses. Fighters put more power into their kicks. Lifters up their squat and deadlift poundages. Everybody gets a healthier, more resilient back.Start by finding an appropriate bar. Ideally you should be able to hang withyour legs and arms straight with your feet clear off the ground. Your hipflexors will get a good stretch and your back will thank you for it.Jump up and hang, your elbows locked. You may have to consciously tenseyour triceps if you have a hard time keeping your arms straight. It isimportant –HLRs with flexed elbows are likely to stress out your shoulders.Another shoulder friendly tip: start with a narrow grip. You should almostbe able to touch your thumbs if you straightened them out. The narrow grippre-stretches the lats and thus unloads the shoulders. Eventually you shouldbe able to move your hands out to shoulder width but staying with a narrowgrip is fine too.1
THE NAKED WARRIORIt goes without saying: do not usestrapsorothergrip-assistgimmicks!You must understand that youwill not get very far if you simplytry to raise your legs. The HLRaction is similar to the ‘evil wheel’–it is a jackknife. In other words, asyou are lifting your legs you shouldbe ‘lowering’ your shoulders bypressing down on the bar with yourarms.Take a breath and pull yourstraight arms down ‘into theirsockets’. An observer would saythat your arms have stayed straightbut ‘got shorter’, retracted like aturtle’s head. ‘Tightening yourarmpits’ is another way to describethis action.Simultaneously push down on thebar with straight arms as if you aredoing a straight-arm pull-down–press hard! –and bring your legsup to the bar. Keep your toespointed and your thighs tight.2
THE NAKED WARRIOR3
THE NAKED WARRIORRaise your legs in a slow, controlled motion. Jerky moves are a total waistof time and are good only for amusing the bystanders. I have seen thischaracter on the old Muscle Beach in Santa Monica. Decked out in the latestworkout attire, the dude came with his own stool (!) that he used to get upon the bar. He strapped a pair of slings to support his elbows and proceededto swing his knees up and down and to each side at the pace of two reps persecond. I did not see this macho man’s abs, and, based on the bulge in hisdesigner T-shirt, I never will.4
THE NAKED WARRIORDo not tilt your head back. While making the exercise easier, looking upconverts the hanging leg raise from a strength exercise to more of a techniqueand leverage drill. So keep your chin slightly tucked at all times.Lower your straight legs totally controlling the movement all the way down;don’t fall through the bottom! Keep your lats firing on the negative. By theway, expect to get better at pullups, both weighted and bodyweight, fromHLRs done by the book.5
THE NAKED WARRIORWhen you have bottomed out release the tension in your waist, rib cage, andarmpits; let your abs get a full stretch before another rep.Chances are, you are lacking in both strength and flexibility to do a legitHLR as described above. If that is the case, practice hanging knee raisesaccording to the same instructions.6
THE NAKED WARRIORWhen you have bottomed out release the tension in your waist, rib cage, andarmpits; let your abs get a full stretch before another rep.Chances are, you are lacking in both strength and flexibility to do a legitHLR as described above. If that is the case, practice hanging knee raisesaccording to the same instructions.7
THE NAKED WARRIOR8
THE NAKED WARRIOR9
THE NAKED WARRIORAs your strength and flexibility improves gradually straighten out your legsmore and more, especially on the negative. At the same time practice thefollowing back and hamstring stretch from my book Relax into Stretch.Stand with your knees straight or bent ever so slightly. Slowly bend forwardas far as you can without strain. Keep your head down. Take a deep breath,into your stomach if you know how. At the same time make fists and clenchyour glutes as hard as possible; imagine that you are trying to pinch a coin.Make sure that your body stays in place and does not come up any higher.Hold your breath and tension for a second, then suddenly release both witha sigh of relief. Your body will sag and your stretch will increase. Keeprepeating until your progress stops. This stretch may be inappropriate forpeople with high blood pressure and some other health conditions; checkwith your doctor.Bend your knees into a semi-squat before standing up, an importantmeasure for back safety. Repeat the stretch for three sets. You may alternateyour stretches with your sets of ab exercises. You will notice that yourabdominals are stronger than usual. They are because you have taken yourbody off ‘the parking brake’ of your tight lower back and hamstring muscles.Do up to twenty-five total repetitions in sets of one to five. Once you haveworked up to 5x5 of strict straight leg raises all the way to the bar make theexercise more challenging. Hold a ball or some other object between yourknees or ankles. A pair of heavy boots will work too.A simple way to make the HLR tougher and to challenge your obliquesmore is to touch the bar with your shins not in the center but slightly–slightly! –outside one of the hands.10
THE NAKED WARRIOR11
THE NAKED WARRIOR12
THE NAKED WARRIORThe secret to the angled HLR is pulling harder with one arm. A good wayto implement this variation into your program is three way HLRs: left-rightstraight for a triple or left-right-left-right-straight for a fiver.13
THE NAKED WARRIORYou can also make your hanging leg raises more miserable with ‘scissors’negatives. There are two types of ‘scissors’, horizontal and vertical. To dothe former slowly spread your straight legs as wide as possible when your feetare by the bar. Imagine that you are trying to ‘pull your hips out of theirsockets’. Keep your toes pointed. Close the ‘scissors’ and cross your feet overas far as you can–while slowly going down. Keep abducting and adductingyour hips all the way to the straight hang. One rep per set is usually enoughwith this highly concentrated exercise.14
THE NAKED WARRIOR15
THE NAKED WARRIORThe vertical scissors are even tougher. Once your shins have touched the barlower one leg as deep as possible before lowering the other. Then raise yourfeet together to the bar as before and repeat starting with the other leg.Naturally, this exercise imposes great demands on your flexibility. You willhave greater success if you imagine that you are trying to force your ‘scissors’open as one of your legs is going down. That is, do not just focus on justlowering one leg; remember to keep pushing the other one up. Imagine thatyour goal is spreading your feet as far apart as possible, reach for the floorwith one and for the ceiling with the other. Pointed toes as usual. If youcount lowering your left and then lowering your right as one rep, one to tworeps per set is plenty.16
THE NAKED WARRIORA cool martial arts variation is to bring your knees to your chest and thenslowly imitate roundhouse, side, and front kicks. As with the angles HLR,pull harder with one arm but keep both straight. Form a wall with themuscles running down the front and the side of your ribcage.17
THE NAKED WARRIOR18
THE NAKED WARRIOR19
THE NAKED WARRIOROnce you are on the first name basis with HLRs you may try hip pullovers,a favorite gymnastic exercise in the Russian military. Unlike the hanging legraise, it is done dynamically, with momentum. Start a pullup, raise your legs,and roll over the bar, all in one motion.20
THE NAKED WARRIOR21
THE NAKED WARRIOR22
THE NAKED WARRIORThe timing of this exercise takes aknack; practice. Enlisted men in theSoviet military had to do six hippullovers in heavy boots to ace thePT test. Here are the rules asdescribed in the armed forcesregulations: “The hip pullover froma hang on a pullup bar. Performfrom a hang with an overgrip. Pullup slightly, raise your legs to the bar,roll over it and finish in a supporton straight arms. Pause in the hangand in the support for 1-2 sec.Lower yourself to hang free style.Bending and spreading of the legsand movement of the body areallowed. Leg kips are disallowed.”Spetsnaz vet and one of the mostrespectedhand-to-combatinstructors in the former SovietUnion Anatoly Taras insists that aspecial operator or a fighter who cannot do 15-25 is a nobody. Personally Ilike to do this drill in the context of my morning recharge/joint mobilityregime as it does not tax any muscle group directly and does an excellent jobof loosening me up.GTGing the HLRs would be great but it is not likely that you would have ahandy pullup bar. So do them two to four times a week. If you move heavyiron they are great to finish with.Russian lifters are convinced that this drill does a fine job of decompressingthe spine and normalizing the intra-abdominal pressure after heavy squatsand pulls. Igor Shestakov who holds the All Time Historical World Recordin the squat in the 181-pound class –854.3 pounds or 4.75 times hisbodyweight or nine forty-five pound wheels per side! –starts and finishes hisworkouts with 2x20 strict HLRs and has an extraordinarily developedmidsection as a bonus with his world record.23
THE NAKED WARRIORTotaling 50 reps of HLRs in as many sets as it took three times a week afterheavy iron was the standard operating procedure in the underground gyms ofLyubertsi in the 1980s. Street toughs from this small town in the greaterMoscow were feared for their rare combo of fighting skills and muscle. Ibelieve that low reps with high tension, e.g. 5x5, are best for strength whilehigher reps are preferable for back health. Either way, you cannot go wrongwith HLRs.Weenies hate the hanging leg raise because it is excruciatingly tough. Ittakes real strength in the waist, something the high rep crunch generationdoes not possess. It also takes flexibility and most muscle men are about aslimber as astronauts in Moon suits. You have two choices. You could keepwhining about how hard it is to hold on to the bar, how much your shouldershurt, and how you do not feel anything in your abs. Or, you could rise upto the challenge. The bar is set high and it is waiting.24
A b o u t Pav e lPavel Tsatsouline, Master of Sports, is a formerSoviet Special Forces physical training instructorwho has been hailed as “the modern king ofkettlebells” for his role in fomenting the Russiankettlebell revolution in the West.In 1998 Pavel introduced the ancient Russianstrength and conditioning tool to an unsuspectingAmerican public in his subversive article, Vodka,Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other RussianPastimes. The article was published by MILO, amagazine for tough hombres who bend steel andlift rocks. When Pavel started getting mail fromguys with busted noses, cauliflower ears, scars, orat least Hells Angels tattoos, his publisher tooknotice.In 2001 Dragon Door published Pavel'sbreakthrough bestseller The Russian Kettlebell Challenge and forged the first US-made Russianstyle cast iron kettlebell. RKC , the first kettlebell instructor course on American soil, kickedoff shortly thereafter.Finally Pavel, kettlebell in his fist, was voted 'Hot Trainer of the Year' by Rolling Stone. Asthe kettlebell invasion gained momentum Pavel appeared in media ranging from Pravda to FoxNews.Given the kettlebell’s harsh reputation, Pavel’s early students looked like they came from thefederal witness protection program. Today these hard living men have had to begrudginglyshare the Russian kettlebell with Hollywood movie stars and other unlikely kettlebellers.Fed up with the touchy-feely drivel that was passed as fitness advice, smart folks have gonehardcore. In 2004 Dr. Randall Strossen, one of the most respected names in the strength world,stated, "In our eyes, Pavel Tsatsouline will always reign as the modern king of kettlebells since itwas he who popularized them to the point where you could almost found a country filled withhis converts ”Pavel is the author of numerous other bestselling titles that have helped change the face ofexercise in America, including his seminal strength classics Power to the People!, BeyondBodybuilding, Enter The Kettlebell!, and The Naked Warrior.To further develop your kettlebell knowledge and skills base and to possibly receive directfeedback from Pavel, visit Dragon Door’s forum at RussianKettlebells.com.
The Graduate Course In Instant Strength Gains“I went from 5 to 10 pullups in one week.”“Last night I did 15 one-arm pushups with each arm.Two months ago I couldn’t do one complete rep.”“I could do one wobbly one-legged squat [Two weeks later] I did 5 clean, butt-to-ground pistols.”Have you noticed—the greater a man’s skill, the morehe achieves with less? And the skill of strength is noexception. From the ancient days of Greek wrestling,to the jealously guarded secrets of Chinese Kung Fumasters, to the hard men of modern spec ops, warriorsand allied strongmen have developed an amazingarray of skills for generating inhuman strength.But these skills have been scattered far and wide, heldclosely secret, or communicated in a piecemeal fashionthat has left most of us frustrated and far fromreaching our true strength potential.Now, for the first time, Russian strength expert andformer Spetsnaz instructor Pavel has gathered many ofthese devastating techniques into one highly teachableskill set. In The Naked Warrior Pavel reveals exactlywhat it takes to be super-strong in minimum time—when your body is your only tool. Gain more brute strength in days than you didin years of bodybuilding or calisthenics Discover the magic of “GTG”—guaranteed theworld’s most effective strength routine Discover how to get a world-class powerlifter’squality workout—using your body only Be tow-truck strong—yet possess the ruggedlooks of a stripped-down racer Get a harder, firmer, functionally-fitter body—and be as resilient as hell whatever you face No gym, no weights, no problem—get adynamite strength workout at a moment’snotice—wherever you are Master the one-arm/one-leg pushup forcrushing upper body force Forge super-piston, never-quit legs with theSpetsnaz favorite “Pistol” Discover the martial secrets of instant powergeneration—for rapid surges in appliedstrength“Pavel’s Naked Warrior DVD is worth its weight in gold!”“NW DVD is fantastic ! I had the book & havebeen working toward full range pistols and OAPUsfor a while. A HUGE help to see Pavel doing themovements. Results: Before watching DVD - Icould do 2 OAPUs on a good day with so-so form.First workout after watching DVD: 1 set of 3 and2 sets of 2 with good form. For pistols (at about afoot off the floor). Before I watched the DVD - 2reps with shaky form. First workout after watchingDVD - 2 sets of 5 and one set of 4 solid. Veryimpressed with DVD - thanks Com. Pavel.”—dkaler, dragondoor.com forum, 5/17/04The NakedWarriorMaster theSecrets of theSuper-Strong—Using BodyweightExercises Onlywith Pavel “The Naked Warrior DVD is worth its weight ingold! I just completed several honest one armpushups after viewing the NW DVD. Despitereading the book and practicing, I just couldn’tmake it happen. I watched the DVD and finallyunderstood that I was letting my shoulder drift.Tightened up and several honest square-to-thefloor one arm pushups were mine!!”—siameeser,dragondoor.com forum, 5/13/04DVD #DV015 34.95Running time 37 minutesClick Here To Order The Naked Warrior BookThe NakedWarriorMaster the Secrets ofthe Super-Strong—Using BodyweightExercises OnlyBy Pavel#B28 39.95Paperback 218 pages 8.5” x 11”Over 190 black & white photosplus several illustrationsInvest in the set ofPavel’s The NakedWarrior DVD andbook—and SAVE Item#DVS009 69.95
“Kettlebell Training.The ClosestThing You Can Get to Fighting,Without Throwing A Punch”The kettlebell. AK-47 of physical—Federal Counterterrorist Operatortraining hardware. Hunk of iron on a handle.Simple, sinister, brutal—and ferociously effectivefor developing explosive strength, dramaticpower and never-say-die conditioning. The man’sman’s choice for the toughest, most demanding,highest-yield exercise tool on the planet.Guaranteed to forge a rugged, resilient, denselymuscled frame—built to withstand the hardestbeating and dish it right back out, 24/7.Once the prized and jealously-guarded trainingsecret of elite Russian athletes, old-schoolstrongmen and the military, the kettlebell hasinvaded the West. And taken no prisoners—thanks to former Soviet Special Forces physicaltraining instructor and strength author, PavelTsatsouline’s 2001 publication of The RussianKettlebell Challenge and his manufacture of thefirst traditional Russian kettlebell in modernAmerica.American hardmen of all stripes were quick torecognize what their Russian counterparts hadlong known—nothing, nothing beats thekettlebell, when you’re looking for a single tool todramatically impact your strength andconditioning. A storm of success has swept theAmerican S & C landscape, as kettlebell“Comrades” have busted through to new PRs,broken records, thrashed their opponents andelevated their game to new heights of excellence.With Enter the Kettlebell! Pavel delivers asignificant upgrade to his original landmarkwork, The Russian Kettlebell Challenge.Drawing on five years of developing and leadingthe world’s first and premiere kettlebell instructorcertification program, and after spending fiveyears of additional research into what reallyworks for dramatic results with the kettlebell—we have Enter the Kettlebell!Pavel lays out a foolproof master system thatguarantees you success—if you simply follow thecommands! Develop all-purpose strength—to easilyhandle the toughest and mostunexpected demand Maximize staying power—because thelast round decides all Forge a fighter’s physique—because theform must follow the functionEnter the kettlebell!and follow the plan:1. The New RKCProgram MinimumEnter theKettlebell!Strength Secret ofThe Soviet Supermenby Pavel #B33 34.95Paperback 200 pages 8.5” x 11”246 full color photos,charts, and workoutsWith just two kettlebell exercises, takes youfrom raw newbie to solid contender—wellconditioned, flexible, resilient and muscular in allthe right places.2. The RKC Rite of PassageJumps you to the next level of physicalexcellence with Pavel’s proven RKC formula forexceptional strength and conditioning.3. Become a Man Among MenPropels you to a Special Forces level ofconditioning and earns you the right to callyourself a man.When you rise to the challenge—and Enter theKettlebell!—there will be no more confusion, nomore uncertainty and no more excuses—only rawpower, never-quit conditioning and earnedrespect.Purchase Pavel’s Enter the Kettlebell!book and DVD as a set and save Click Here To Order Enter the Kettlebell! BookDVD with Pavel#DV036 29.95DVD Running time: 46 minutes
RUSSIAN KETTLEBELLSThe World’s #1 HandheldGym For Extreme FitnessUse Kettlebells to: Accelerate your all-purpose strength—soyou can readily handle the toughest demands Hack away your fat—without the dishonor ofdieting and aerobics Boost your physical resilience—to repel thehardest hits Build your staying power—to endure andconquer, whatever the distance Create a potent mix of strength-withflexibility—to always reach your target Forge a fighter’s physique—so form matchesfunction Be independent—world’s #1 portable gymmakes you as strong as you want to be,anywhere, anytimeKettlebells Fly Air Force One!“There’s a competitive reason behind theappearance of kettlebells at the back doors andtent flaps of military personnel. When Russianand US Special Forces started competing againsteach other after the Soviet Union broke up, theAmericans made a disturbing discovery. “We’dbe totally exhausted and the Russians wouldn’teven be catching their breath,” says [a] SecretService agent “It turned out they were allworking with kettlebells.”Now, half the Secret Service is snatchingkettlebells and a set sometimes travels with thePresident’s detail on Air Force One.”—ChristianScience MonitorPavel’s Kettlebell FAQWhat is a ‘kettlebell’?A ‘kettlebell’ or girya (Russ.) is a traditional Russian cast iron weightthat looks like a cannonball with a handle. The ultimate tool forextreme all-round fitness.The kettlebell goes way back – it first appeared in a Russiandictionary in 1704 (Cherkikh, 1994). So popular were kettlebells inTsarist Russia that any strongman or weightlifter was referred to as agirevik, or ‘a kettlebell man’.“Not a single sport develops our muscular strength and bodies as wellas kettlebell athletics,” reported Russian magazine Hercules in 1913.“Kettlebells—Hot Weight of the Year”—Rolling StoneWhy train with kettlebells?Because they deliver extreme all-round fitness. And no single othertool does it better. Here is a short list of hardware the Russian kettlebellreplaces: barbells, dumbbells, belts for weighted pullups and dips, thickbars, lever bars, medicine balls, grip devices, and cardio equipment.Vinogradov & Lukyanov (1986) found a very high correlationbetween the results posted in a kettlebell lifting competition and a greatrange of dissimilar tests: strength, measured with the three powerliftsand grip strength; strength endurance, measured with pullups andparallel bar dips; general endurance, determined by a 1000 meter run;work capacity and balance, measured with special tests.Voropayev (1983) tested two groups of subjects in pullups, a standingbroad jump, a 100m sprint, and a 1k run. He put the control group ona program that emphasized the above tests; the experimental grouplifted kettlebells. In spite of the lack of practice on the tested exercises,the kettlebell group scored better in every one of them! This is what wecall “the what the hell effect”.Kettlebells melt fat without the dishonor of dieting or aerobics. If youare overweight, you will lean out. If you are skinny, you will get builtup. According to Voropayev (1997) who studied top Russian gireviks,21.2% increased their bodyweight since taking up kettlebelling and21.2% (the exact same percentage, not a typo), mostly heavyweights,decreased it. The Russian kettlebell is a powerful tool for fixing yourbody comp, whichever way it needs fixing.Kettlebells forge doers’ physiques along the lines of antique statues:broad shoulders with just a hint of pecs, back muscles standing out inbold relief, wiry arms, rugged forearms, a cut-up midsection, and stronglegs without a hint of squatter’s chafing.Liberating and aggressive as medieval swordplay, kettlebell training ishighly addictive. What other piece of exercise equipment can boast thatits owners name it? Paint it? Get tattoos of it? Our Russian kettlebell isthe Harley-Davidson of strength hardware.“Kettlebells—A Workout with Balls”—Men’s JournalClick Here To Order Dragon Door Kettlebells
Who trains with kettlebells?Hard comrades of all persuasions.Soviet weightlifting legends such as Vlasov, Zhabotinskiy, and Alexeyev started theirOlympic careers with old-fashioned kettlebells. Yuri Vlasov once interrupted aninterview he was giving to a Western journalist and proceeded to press a pair ofkettlebells. “A wonderful exercise,” commented the world champion. “ It is hard tofind an exercise better suited for developing strength and flexibility simultaneously.”The Russian Special Forces personnel owe much of their wiry strength, explosiveagility, and never-quitting stamina to kettlebells. Soldier, Be Strong!, the official Sovietarmed forces strength training manual pronounced kettlebell drills to be “one of themost effective means of strength development” representing “a new era in thedevelopment of human strength-potential”.The elite of the US military and law enforcement instantly recognized the power of theRussian kettlebell, ruggedly simple and deadly effective as an AK-47. You can findPavel’s certified RKC instructors among Force Recon Marines, Department of Energynuclear security teams, the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, the Secret Service CounterAssault Team, etc.Once the Russian kettlebell became a hit among those whose life depends on theirstrength and conditioning, it took off among hard people from all walks of life: martialartists, athletes, regular hard comrades.“I can’t think of a more practical way of special operations training I wasextremely skeptical about kettlebell training and now wish that I had knownabout it fifteen years ago “—Name withheld, Special Agent, U.S. Secret Service Counter Assault TeamAm I kettlebell material?Kettlebell training is extreme but not elitist. At the 1995 Russian Championship theyoungest contestant was 16, the oldest 53! And we are talking elite competition here;the range is even wider if you are training for yourself rather than for the gold. Dr.Krayevskiy, the father of the kettlebell sport, took up training at the age of forty-one andtwenty years later he was said to look fresher and healthier than at forty.Only 8.8% of top Russian gireviks, members of the Russian National Team andregional teams, reported injuries in training or competition (Voropayev, 1997). Aremarkably low number, especially if you consider that these are elite athletes who pushtheir bodies over the edge. Many hard men with high mileage have overcome debilitatinginjuries with kettlebell training (get your doctor’s approval). Acrobat Valentin Dikul felland broke his back at seventeen. Today, in his mid-sixties, he juggles 180-pound ballsand breaks powerlifting records!“ kettlebells are a unique conditioning tool and a powerful one as well thatyou should add to your arsenal of strength. my experience with them hasbeen part of what’s led me to a modification in my thoughts on strength andbodyweight exercises I’m having a blast training with them and I think youwill as well.”—Bud Jeffries, the author of How to Squat 900lbs. without Drugs, Powersuits, orKneewrapsHow do I learn to use the kettlebell?From Pavel’s books and videos: The Russian Kettlebell Challenge or From Russia withTough Love for comrades ladies. From an RKC certified instructor; find one in your areaon RussianKettlebell.com. Kettlebell technique can be learned in one or two sessionsand you can start intense training during the second or even first week (Dvorkin, 2001).“ I felt rejuvenated and ready to conquer the world. I was sold on thekettlebells, as the exercises were fun and challenging, and demandedcoordination, explosion, balance, and power I am now on my way tobeing a better, fitter, and more explosive grappler, and doing things I haven’tdone in years!”—Kid Peligro, Grappling magazineWhat is the right kettlebell size for me?Kettlebells come in ‘poods’. A pood is an old Russian measure of weight, which equals16kg, or roughly 35 lbs. An average man should start with a 35-pounder. It does notsound like a lot but believe it; it feels a lot heavier than it should! Most men willeventually progress to a 53-pounder, the standard issue size in the Russian military.Although available in most units, 70-pounders are used only by a few advanced guysand in elite competitions. 88-pounders are for mutants.An average woman should start with an 18-pounder. A strong woman can go for a 26pounder. Some women will advance to a 35-pounder. A few hard women will gobeyond.“Kettlebells are like weightlifting times ten.”“Kettlebells are like weightlifting times ten. If I could’ve met Pavel in theearly ‘80s, I might’ve won two gold medals. I’m serious.”—Dennis Koslowski, D.C., RKC,Olympic Silver Medalist in Greco-Roman WrestlingCLASSIC KETTLEBELLS (SOLID CAST IRON/POWDER 10C#P10Q#P10F#P10L10lb14lb18lb12kg (approx. 26lb) — .75 pood16kg (approx. 35lb) — 1 pood20kg (approx. 44lb) — 1.25 poods24kg (approx. 53lb) — 1.5 poods28kg (approx. 62lb) — 1.75 poods32kg (approx. 70lb) — 2 poods36kg (approx. 79lb) — 2.25 poods40kg (approx. 88lb) — 2.5 poods48kg (approx. 106lb) — 3 poods 64.95 69.95 76.95 82.95 89.95 99.95 109.95 129.95 139.95 159.95 179.95 247.95S/H 13.50S/H 16.50S/H 20.50S/H 28.50S/H 33.50S/H 40.50S/H 44.50S/H 47.50S/H 48.50S/H 53.50S/H 58.50S/H 69.50 55.50 66.50 73.50 88.50 104.50 122.50 139.50 157.50 175.50 193.50 211.50 247.50 36.00 38.00 46.00 56.00 68.00 80.00 92.00 101.00 111.00 125.00 138.00 167.00SAVE! ORDER A SET OF CLASSIC KETTLEBELLS & SAVE 17.00#SP10Cl
a hang on a pullup bar. Perform from a hang with an overgrip. Pull up slightly, raise your legs to the bar, roll over it and finish in a support on straight arms. Pause in the hang and in the support for 1-2 sec. Lower yourself to hang free style. Bending and spreading of the legs and mo
