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Bodybuilding Success Blueprint: Pavel's Red Zone Pt 2
By: Ori Hofmekler
Pavel Tsatsouline is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor and currently a subject matter expert for the United States Marine Corps, the National Nuclear Security Administration/U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Secret Service. His approach, in particular his kettlebell training, is considered by many sports and strength experts to be brutal and effective.
Here's more of Ori Hofmekler's conversation with the master trainer.
OH: What's wrong with conventional resistance-training methods?
PT: The thing that infuriates me the most is when time-tested training methods are replaced with flavors of the month. Too many of what are claimed to be new training methods were designed out of ignorance or for the sake of dishonest marketing or sometimes just to be different for the sake of being different. That may be okay for women's fashions but not in the gym.
The topics of sets, reps and muscle failure are still controversial. The question remains, Why reinvent the wheel? The hard truth is that with very few exceptions the strongest people have trained, still train and will always train the same way'low reps, not to failure. A bodybuilder like Reg Park would do 10 to 20 sets of five where a weight-conscious weightlifter would do singles, doubles and triples and rest a lot between the sets. No matter what, it's still the same time-tested formula'low reps, not failure.
I don't know a single individual who failed to gain strength with that approach. Not a single one. Yet, I have met countless failures of the trendy low-set, higher-rep training to failure and only a handful of successes.
Iron game innovations must come as refinements to the reliable methods of the old-fashioned golden age, not coups that tear them down.
OH: You have endorsed performing sets of up to five reps. What's wrong with more reps per set?
PT: Low reps build muscles that are as strong as they look. Low reps are safer, contrary to popular opinion, than high reps. Low reps have an unblemished track record of building strength and size, whereas higher reps are hit and miss.
Here's what I read in a 1940s Iron Man, 'While high numbers of reps are successful with a few unusual men, the majority finds that a more conservative number of repetitions are best.' The author, Charles Smith, mentions a physical culturalist named George Walsh who failed to make gains by doing too many reps per set, seven specifically. Isn't it funny that these days seven reps qualify as low! And 'when he dropped to three reps per set, he was eminently successful.' Some things never change.
OH: Is training to gain muscle mass the same as training to gain strength?
PT: Low reps are the only similarity. Strength is a skill and should be practiced as such'fresh, frequent and perfect. As Vladimir Zatsiorsky, Ph.D., put it, 'Train as heavy as possible as often as possible while staying as fresh as possible.' Most top Russian powerlifting coaches have their athletes deadlift four times a week. That builds wiry strength. If you want to be a lot stronger than you look, this is your ticket. I have explained the strength-is-a-skill concept in great depth yet without big words in my book The Naked Warrior.
To build muscle, one should strive to get a pump with heavy weights and low reps. If you want to know the reasons behind the madness, read up on the energetic theory of hypertrophy. Once more: Pump up with heavy weights and low reps. Multiple low-reps sets with short rest periods will do the trick. That's power bodybuilding. Reg Park and other greats did 10 to 20 sets of five and achieved the total package of great strength and muscularity.
Many solid strength and size routines lie between the above extremes'the classic 5x5 (five sets of five reps) approach, for instance.
OH: Can resistance training effectively maximize fat burning?
PT: In our kettlebell outfit we see exceptional fat-loss results from high-rep sets of quick lifts like swings and snatches. Beyond that I will defer this question to the fat-loss experts. The focus of my work is strength for combat applications; fat loss is a positive side effect of our training, not the goal.
OH: What are the best methods of breaking training plateaus?
PT: Here's a plateau-breaking strategy from Beyond Bodybuilding, an anthology of my articles Dragon Door just published [www .DragonDoor.com]. It's called fatigue cycling; Russian bodybuilders and powerlifters had great success with it. Fatigue cycling employs the same exercises, sets and reps from workout to workout. The only difference is the order. Here's a sample fatigue-cycling routine. Train twice a week, for instance Mondays and Thursdays, rotating the three workouts.
Workout A
Bench presses 6 x 4
Squats 3 x 4
Deadlifts 3 x 4
Workout B
Squats 3 x 4
Bench presses 6 x 4
Deadlifts 3 x 4
Workout C
Deadlifts 3 x 4
Squats 3 x 4
Bench presses 6 x 4
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