Quotes from Pavel Tsatsouline

Since I introduced the Russian kettlebell to the West in 1998, it has become a mainstay in the training of champions in sports ranging from powerlifting to MMA to triathlon. Elite special operations units have made the kettlebell an integral part of their training. They have discovered that kettlebells deliver extreme all-around fitness—and no single other tool does it better.

The bike is efficient—and fat people can ride it forever.

Experience and science agree that kettlebell training develops a wide range of attributes: strength and power, various types of endurance, muscle hypertrophy, fat loss, health, and more. The kettlebell swing has been known to improve the deadlift of elite powerlifters—and the running times of high-level long distance runners. This is what gireviks call "the What the Hell Effect." The kettlebell defies the laws of specificity.

In the beginning of your career, the Russian expert advises you to limit your load to three sets per exercise in two-arm exercises and three sets per arm in one-arm drills. You should select a weight that enables you to do no less than 5-6 and no more than 15-16 repetitions in a given exercise.

Repeat the one arm snatch in 3-5 sets, first with the left (if it is the weaker one), and then for the same number of sets with the right arm. For some sessions, perform the complete cycle of the exercise by switching the kettlebell from hand to hand. Pay a lot of attention to developing your wrist strength. Snatch more often with the weaker arm.

Train the press in a similar fashion. First, give an adequate load to the weaker arm (3-5 sets till substantial fatigue), then to the strong one. Once a week, perform a full cycle of the exercises (in 2-3 sets—as in a competition): press the kettlebell out with one arm until total exhaustion, and then repeat the drill with the other arm, without setting the kettlebell down on the platform.

I'm not as good as I once was, but I am as good once as I ever was.

The confidence of amateurs is the envy of professionals.

Because a lady wearing high heels leaves deeper footprints than an elephant.

Every two weeks take a kettlebell one or more sizes lighter than the one you are currently swinging. Pick a swing variation—two-arm, one-arm, hand-to-hand, mixed—and enjoy the pain.

HOW TO GRIND YOUR DEADLIFT Mentally prepare for a steady, relentless effort, as opposed to having a speed mindset. Pre-tense. Pressurize. Squeeze the bar off the floor, don't jerk. "Lift the barbell powerfully-steady, applying a maximal effort along the whole lift." (Smolov) Aim for a constant, low, acceleration towards the lockout. There is more than one way to pull big.

If you think you are only strong if you can lift a certain number, whatever that number is, you will feel pretty weak most of the time. Strength is not a data point; it's not a number. It's an attitude.

Everything in your body is interrelated and isolation is a myth.

Shrugging your shoulder and/or letting it move forward will destroy your shoulder and your power alike—whether you are punching, benching, or doing pushups.

An aside that will appeal to the well-rounded reader: A creative high that increases physical and mental work capacity is accompanied by noradrenaline secretion. Perhaps this explains why the samurai were equally proficient at war and poetry.

Tensing your abs will amplify the intensity of the contraction of any muscle in your body.

Take a close look at a squat, barbell, or bodyweight—it makes no difference. Both the quadriceps and the hamstrings are working toward the common goal of standing up. The quads are extending the knees, and the hammies are extending the hips.

Understanding is a delaying tactic…," as one novelist put it. "Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of water want to understand. Other people jump in and get wet.

Push from your armpit, rather than your shoulder.

doing the perfect kettlebell swing alone is superior to 99 percent of the sophisticated strength and conditioning programs out there.

Vodka at night. Pickle juice in the morning (the best thing for a hangover). Throwing some kettlebells around between this hangover and the next one. A Russian's day well spent. The 'kettlebell' or girya is a cast iron weight which looks like a basketball with a suitcase handle. It is an old Russian toy. As the 1986 Soviet Weightlifting Yearbook put it, "It is hard to find a sport that has deeper roots in the

Russians are easy to spot, even if you dress them like Buckingham Palace guards. They are "the white people who look seriously ticked off," as Army Ranger vet Ellis Jones, RKC, has put it on our forum.

Lift heavy and stay fresh. "Grease the groove," to use The Naked Warrior terminology.

When the Russian kettlebell meets an American steak, it is a beautiful thing.