Other Exercises

Pavel Tsatsouline on Ab Workouts

In the book Bullet Proof Abs, Pavel Tsatsouline point out all of the wrongs when it comes to abdominal trainings. Pavel says that to use high reps to get cut up. Getting cut up only serves as a function of resting tension in the muscle and low body fat. Many people think that by doing high-rep programs they are going to cut up. Instead, they started to gain more mass, especially glycogen and water.

With high reps you feel sore and pain just by sneezing or laughing. Pavel suggests going heavy instead. Keep your sets low and you rest a lot. The trick is to find a challenging exercise. That is where the problem is. There is this belief that abs can be isolated from the hip flexors by eliminating the movement in the hip joint, like they do in the crunch. Pavel is strongly against that notion. Hip flexors can only be inhibited neurologically.

One of the best ab training is that Pavel recommends is the Janda Sit-Up. Vladimir Janda, an Eastern European Professor, has developed a special sit-up where your training partner places his hands under your calves and pulls back. You attempt to sit-up while steadily pushing against his hands. This movement activates the hip extensor muscles. Reciprocal inhibition takes place and the hip flexors relax. Back stress is eliminated and the abdominal muscles are isolated.

All in all, to really train your abs well, do the power breathing and the Janda Sit-Ups (both are thoroughly explained and demonstrated in Pavel’s book Bullet Proof Abs). That’s the cornerstone of all ab training.

One important fact about the Janda Sit-Ups is that you need to have a partner to hold your calf. Pavel has developed a device that is called the Ab Pavelizer to simulate the Janda sit-up without the need of having a partner. According to Pavel, the Ab Pavelizer is the only ab training device that’s catching on in the power-lifting circles (seeing a power-lifter using an ab devise is extremely rare). They like it because it is very hard. Unlike regular sit-up, Janda Sit-Up using the Ab Pavelizer teaches you to contract all your midsection muscles the way you should for a dead-lift, squat or overhead press.

Pavel Tsatsouline on High Intensity Training

Pavel Tsatsouline is a former physical training instructor for Spetsnaz, the Soviet Special Forces, and he is hugely popular with the martial arts community all over the world. Pavel is the main reason for the kettlebell workout phenomenon that is hitting us hard right now.

A lot of Pavel’s ideology leans more towards functionality, but it must be noted that many of his may be applied to bodybuilding and power-lifting as well.

Pavel has an interesting observation on American in the gym. He is especially against the “high intensity training”. To Pavel, there is one common denominator of the training of the strongest people in the world like weightlifters or power-lifters. They keep the repetition low and lift heavier weight. They don’t train to failure.

While it is true that intensity important for weight training, the mainstream definition of intensity on the other hand is the “percentage of momentary ability” — is meaningless. The only way you can measure intensity is through the percentage of your one rep max.

Studies have shown that there is only one variable that matters – the absolute value of tension. What matters is the absolute tension, the force that muscle exerts and the time the muscle spends under tension. Relative tension, which pretty much means “how hard it feels”, is not significant. Failure, fatigue and exhaustion do not factor in. In fact, when you train to failure, because of the Hebbian mechanisms, you will fail you nervous system and train yourself to fail.

Low repetition is also much safer, even if you’re using a heavy weight. The tension of the supporting muscles will protect you.

It is unfathomable to somehow muscles can be built with low repetition training. Pavel however, beg to differ. He says that if you get a pump with heavy weights you shall grow. Volume will deplete the muscle, but it’s the tension that increases the amino acid uptake. A power lifter lift really heavy and rest for five minutes in between sets, that’s tension with less fatigue. High intensity training requires you to a hundred reps, so what you have is the opposite. You have the fatigue and the pump, but not the tension.

Instead, Pavel suggests that you use a heavy weight and do reps of five (not taken to failure) with only one or two minutes of rest for up to twenty sets, you’re going to be able to use a heavy weight and get a great pump. Many bodybuilders who have tried this approach have reported impressive gains.

In Pavel’s book and video, “Power to the People!”, he talks a lot about the dead-lift and the bent press, or side press. To Pavel, the dead-lift is the working class answer to the squat.