kings of strength part2

5/28/2018 Kings of Strength Part2

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KINGSSTRENGTH

OF

MATT

MARSH

MUSCLE & FITNESS:What are the three

biggest mistakes you see strength athletes

making in the gym?

PAVEL TSATSOULINE:

1.Failing to understand that strength is

a skill. And a skill must be practised

frequently and to perfection.

2.Failing to cycleperiodically push and

back off. No matter how tough your mind

is, it is your body that calls the shots.

Your nervous and endocrine system will

abruptly pull the plug on your progress

if you fail to back off periodically. Your

glands will run out of hormones and your

nerve cells will become less responsive

to your commands in order to protect

themselves. Cycling is not an opinion;

it is a biological law.

3.Failing to follow the 80/20 principle.

In any human endeavour, including

lifting, most things do not matter ormatter very little. You get 80% of the

results from 20% of your investments

and sometimes the ratio is as skewed

as 90/10 and even 95/5. The most

productive strength exercises are well

known and few in number. Give them all

your effort and stop worrying about

hitting all the angles.

ANDY BOLTON:

1.Lifting with lousy form. Do this and

you will never maximise your true

strength potential and will invite injuries.

STRENGTH EXPERTSANDY BOLTONAND PAVEL TSATSOULINEDISCUSS THE MOST COMMON GYM MISTAKES

Lift with great form and you give yourself

a chance to reach your true strengthpotential while also minimising the

chance of injury. Simple as that. Yet

most people continually choose to lift

with bad form.

2.Maxing out too frequently. Maxing out

is a great thing to do once every two to

three months to see where your strength

is at. But doing it weekly (or more than

once a week) like many lifters do is

asking for trouble. Maxing out too

frequently is a recipe for many problems,

including: joint pain, lack of motivation,

plateaus, injuries and possibly regres-

sion of strength.3.Majoring in the minors. The guy who

spends all his time doing curls and

pushdowns is majoring in the minors.

Hes wasting his time on movements that

dont lead to much in the way of strength

gains. On the contrary, the guy who

spends most of his time in the gym

squatting, benching, deadlifting,

overhead pressing and doing the

Olympic lifts is focusing on the right

things and should make great gains.

Bottom line? Choose your lifts wisely.

PHOTODISC

Focus on thebasics, likesquats.

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PHOTODISC

Andy Boltonis a multiple world championpowerlifter and world record holder. He wasthe first man to deadlift more than 1,000 lbs.andyboltonstrength.org

Pavel Tsatsoulinehas trained elite militaryforces in Russia and the United States and iscredited as the man who popularised thekettlebell in the west. For more informationvisit:strongfirst.com

Get more tips on improving strength fromAndy Boltons e-books. Go to

muscle-fitness.co.uk/andybolton

M&F:What is the difference between

finding the perfect programme and simply

finding a programme you believe in and

sticking to it?

PT:Andrey Kozhurkin, a Russian coach

who has done 60 strict, dead hang, no

kipping pull-ups in competition, com-

pares reaching a high athletic goal to

climbing a tall mountain. You can take

proven by champions in strength sports.

My advice is to pick a proven pro-

gramme and stick to it. Dont chop and

change. Choose one proven training

method, stick with it and really get to

know it over the course of several

months. This is how youll make your

best strength gains.

M&F:What three pieces of advice would

you give to someone who wants a stronger

squat, bench and deadlift?

PT:

1.Flexibility. Develop flexible hips and

hamstrings to own the perfect position

on the bottom of the squat and the

deadlift. Until then you have no business

loading your squats and deads.

Develop a great arch for the bench

not by jamming the lumbar spine but by

mobilising the thoracic spine. This will

make you stronger by shortening the

bench stroke and will go a long way

towards keeping your shoulders healthy

under heavy loads.

2.Tightness. Master the skill of getting

tight. It is an art form and without it

great strength is impossible.

3.Skill. Learn championship technique

for the big three from a professional

and keep polishing for the rest of your

lifting life.

AB:

1.Master your technique on the squat,

bench and deadlift. This will lead to

faster strength gains and lower your

chances of injury. You know the score!

2.Use a great training programme, not

one you dreamt up on the back of a

napkin.

3.Train in the best possible environment

you canthis means having the right

equipment and the right trainingpartners. M&F

The deadlift is anotherproven strength builder.

a beaten path and reach the summit

slowly but surely, or you can take your

chances and blaze your own trail. There

is a small chance that you will reach the

top quicker, but most likely you will

spend your life circling the base camp,

hopelessly lost...

By now effective training methods

have been firmly established. It is

extremely unlikely that they will be

noticeably improved. Do not waste your

time searching for the new and unique;

look for what has worked time and time

again. My colleague David Whitley, amaster kettlebell trainer with Strong-

First, stresses: Dont get hung up on the

differences in champions training; look

for commonalities.

In other words, do not try to reinvent

the wheel; just follow in the footsteps

of Bolton, Coan, Kravtsov, and so on.

AB:There is no such thing as the perfect

training programme. Every programme

has strengths and weaknesses. But

ultimately, there are plenty of proven

programmes out there; programmes

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kings of strength part2

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