Since the times immemorial, Russian gireviks would pick up a light kettlebell and “fool around” with it without setting it down for half an hour. A couple of cleans…a press…a few snatches…switch hands and repeat…a front squat…an overhead squat…a windmill…juggle a little…and keep improvising like a jazz musician…
Today in the West it is a popular way to “work out” called a “flow.”
Russian and Soviet old-timers had the following reasons to do a variety of exercises back to back non-stop (“flow”) or with brief rests (old-time strongman style training).
First, to break the monotony of countless heavy reps in traditional lifts and exercises like the snatch. Thus, it was active rest. Playing like this the day after a hard training session accelerated the recovery, physical and psychological.
Second, to build endurance, muscular and cardiorespiratory.
There are some key do’s and don’ts; we will discuss them next week.
Third, to address weak links and small muscles with exotica like Hack squats and windmills. Experienced athletes understood that adding such exercises to their main training sessions would rob the primary lifts of focus and energy. Thus, training miscellaneous drills on separate days was a standard operating procedure for Soviet athletes in many sports.
Fourth, for greater body mastery.
Speaking about free style exercises with light kettlebells, Vladimir Petrov, a scientist and a “strength aerobics” innovator, explained back in the 1990s:
“Complexity of the movement progressively increases. There are multiple willful tension-relaxation cycles of the major muscle groups… Such training develops a clear sense of rest and tension of any muscles, normalizes blood pressure, increases movement precision, develops focus… As he repeatedly tenses and relaxes his muscles and gains experience, a person who follows our method masters the art of selective muscle control, he is able to tense the chosen muscle groups using his muscle sense alone.”
Fifth, to refine the technique of specific exercises.
This is done by strategically sequencing several exercises in such a manner, that a set of a particular drill enhances the performance of the next.
An example from our SFG II kettlebell instructor certification is performing bottom-up kettlebell cleans before military presses. The former maximally activate the gripping muscles and the midsection and reenforce a perfect start of the press. |
| | A classic example of what not to do is practicing push presses or jerks before military presses and vice versa. This leads to motor learning confusion.
Should you “flow” or not?
It depends on your skills, goals, and some other variables. To be discussed in the next issue. Until then, keep your swings strong. |
| | We have taught old-time strongman free style kettlebell training at our certs for 20 years. Come and learn from the source at SFG Level II.
Sign up today and power to you!
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