“Long time, no see” is the best time to make big progress on your favorite exercises

When you go on vacation from your job, do you decide to quit just because it’s been two weeks and you haven’t done any work?

When your refrigerator is low on food, do you simply decide to resign yourself to eating grease-laden fast food from there on out?

So why are you so eager to quit exercise altogether after a layoff?

A layoff might happen for any number of reasons – hectic work schedule, new spawn (i.e. baby), sickness, injury, laziness, etc. – but it is no more a prescription for giving up entirely than an empty fridge or a leisurely, work-free vacation. Just like in the aforementioned cases, all you have to do is start again! And no, it won’t be from square one, so spare me your self-induced fear-mongering. More likely than not it’ll be a few steps back, but because you’re planning on getting older anyway, re-starting from a place you’ve been before and taking time to re-build yourself up shouldn’t be that big of a nuisance.

What’s more, a layoff can work to your advantage – big time, in fact. While consistency is far and away the most important attribute of anyone’s long-term training, a long layoff can be just what the doctor ordered to spur new progress and shoot you ahead in your training. Case in point: Siberian weightlifter Trofim Lomakin used to train only once or twice a week – that is, until a national or world championship was 3 months away. At that point, he’d kick his training into overdrive and crush the competition. This method was so effective that he cleaned everyone’s clock for 10 years!

Still not convinced? Consider the case of Jerry Moffat – a top rock climber in his day. He retired, only to mount a comeback two years later (not unlike KISS with their constant “farewell tours”, though he was likely far more exciting to watch) and gave the best performance of his career! This is due to the reminiscence effect, wherein your skill tends to get better after a layoff due to the “static” that has embedded itself in your technique slowly wearing off.

(The above two examples are from Pavel Tsatsouline’s fantastic books “Beyond Bodybuilding” and “Return Of The Kettlebell“, both of which contain some of the best information out their on strength, muscle-building, and taking advantage of whatever your current circumstance is to leap forward to new heights )

Don’t mistake these above examples as a convenient and easy excuse to stop training hard and often. Instead, take them for what they’re worth: all the silver you can collect from that proverbial lining in the clouds. As always, every problem is an opportunity, and if you’re willing to seize it, hopping back on the wagon will get you to the finish line faster than giving up and walking home.

(This article originally appeared on strongfirst.com)

Wailing.  Gnashing of teeth.  Rending of clothing and sitting in sack cloth and ashes.

Nothing about the SFG certification weekend, it seems, causes as much internal drama, strife, worry, fear, and nervousness (not to mention all 5 stages of grief) as the oft-maligned and inexplicably feared snatch test.

Well, knock it off.  And for goodness sake, pull yourself together.  It’s only 5 minutes, and your cert weekend is nearly 24 hours in total.  You can do this — and make it easier on yourself.  I’ll show you how.

Master SFG David Whitley said something to me at the SFG II in Italy recently that probably serves as the ultimate summary of what this article strives to be: “I’m all about making hard stuff easier.”  And why not?  When hard stuff is easier, are you not stronger?  Is that not the point of this cert — indeed, this whole system?

Tempting as it may seem to simply snatch a whole lot, there are a lot better and less-exhausting options to go from chump to champ in your snatching.  You will have to snatch, yes, but it doesn’t have to become a part-time job.  In fact, it shouldn’t.  If you are preparing for the SFG weekend you have a lot more important stuff to focus on.

This program is one that can fit into your current training without interrupting or bogging it down unnecessarily.

Before we get into the program itself, let’s first go over the preliminaries.

1) You must be able to lock your hand out overhead safely.  This means elbow locked and bicep near the ear while standing at attention.   “Chicken-necking” is forbidden, as it’s dangerous and will do nothing to help your performance.  Also, because chicken makes you weak.

Proper lockout — bicep by the ear, shoulder packed, and everything stacked one on top of the other.

Chicken-necking, plus unpacked shoulder and bent elbow. Not. Even. Once.

2) You should be familiar with the SFG Big Six as a whole — swings, get ups, clean, military press, and front squat in addition to the snatch.  All of these moves build one upon the other, so the better and more familiar you are with them as a whole, the better off you’ll be in preparing for your snatch test.  They all bring something helpful to the table, from building monster hip drive with the swing, learning to tame the arc with the clean, building powerful, never-say-die legs with the front squat, and getting familiar and confident with overhead strength and stability in the Turkish Get Up and military press, all of the Big Six play a big role.  Don’t neglect them.

Once you’ve got these in place, you’re ready to go into the specifics.  It’s mercifully simple, just not especially easy.

1. GET STRONGER

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this one first.  It really is that simple — the stronger you are in your snatches, the easier it all becomes.  Think about it: Ladies, what is 16kg if you can snatch 20kg or 24kg per arm for several reps?  And gentlemen, what is 24kg if you can snatch 32kg  or even 40kg on either arm?  24kg is child’s play.  Even very fatigued you’ll have little issue putting it up over your head repeatedly.  All too often I meet or talk with an SFG candidate who rhapsodizes about how often he or she snatches with his or her snatch test weight or less and how “killer” it is or some such silliness, but when I bring up the suggestion “Why not try snatching with a weight a size or two above your snatch weight?” Well, you know the routine.  Wailing, gnashing of teeth, frenzied crying to the heavens, and other assorted histrionics.  Be not afraid of snatching heavier for fewer reps.  Remember:  It’s ALWAYS easier to do less if you can already do more.

2. MAKE SURE YOUR TECHNIQUE IS DIALED-IN 

The quickest way I know of to do this (if you’re already snatching) is pretty basic.

a) Keep your eyes forward. NOT down.  A lot of people like to look down for some reason.  Stop it.  Stop it right now.

b) Make sure the kettlebell travels down the midline of your body, not off to the side.  When you’re snatching lighter it doesn’t matter as much, but the moment it gets heavy, this will become much harder — and not productively so.  When you’re in the hinge-to-hip-pop segment of your snatch, imagine there’s a line between your groin and your chest.  Make the kettlebell travel through that line.  By the time it’s in its final stage (the “float”) it’ll go to its proper place above your head, and far, far easier, too.

Left: standard one-arm swing. Right: swing aimed a bit closer to midline.
An almost imperceptible difference visually, but physically noticeable. Try this next time you snatch and you’ll find the kettlebell floats significantly easier.

c) Keep your face relaxed and impassive.  Too many people get these grimaces and stressed-out looks on themselves from the outset, and it sets the mood (a bad one) for the rest of the set.  This is just a personal observation and not critical for your snatching per se, but from my experience, it’s made my snatching easier and smoother.

3. DOUBLE BREATHING

This is the cue that, in my correct opinion, will do more for your snatch work capacity than anything else, and I owe David Whitley big-time for it.  Back in 2012 I was assisting Master SFG Jon Engum for the flexibility portion of the first-ever Flexible Steel workshop, and David Whitley taught on day one about how to make various kettlebell lifts easier and stronger, much of it by mastering and improving on the basics (imagine that).  When it came to snatches, he introduced double breathing and my mind essentially blew right out of every side of my head right then and there.

“The snatch takes twice as much time as the swing, right?  So why not breathe twice as much?”

I’m paraphrasing, but the sentiment was the same, and the impact was deep and immediate.  This might be the only thing that rivals simply snatching heavier in making your snatch test a piece of cake.  It’s that important.

How do you do it?  Simple: on the backswing you sniff in.  On the hip pop, you breathe out.  Old hat.  Now, as the kettlebell is making its final ascent into the lockout, you simply sniff in and breathe out again, but faster.  The beauty behind the effectiveness of this technique is that it allows you to catch your breath a little bit and maintain the hardstyle nature of the snatch so it doesn’t degenerate into sloppy breathing or unintentional anatomical breathing as you get fatigued.  As Master Whitley has said “The suck levels are the same, but you can manage it better.”

Just how effective is this technique?  With this technique alone I went from being able to do 20 snatches in a row per arm with a 24kg bell — with a several-minute break between arms — to being able to do 30 per arm before setting it down.  3 times the work capacity because of one technique.  Yes, it’s that good.  This video will show you the rhythm and cadence needed to make it work properly.  Take some time to get the technique on this down, but be warned: once you breathe twice in the snatch, you’ll never go back.

4. PROGRAMMING

In the spirit of StrongFirst, the program is mercifully simple and relatively open-ended.  Looking back at Pavel’s landmark work Enter The Kettlebell, you’ll notice that he has you snatching only one day of the week — your light day.  The other days you’re expected to swing.

If you’re training for your SFG cert (or re-cert) and not just general strength training, you may want to train 4 or even 5 days a week.  Whichever you choose, you’ll still only have to snatch once a week. Here is how you will program your snatches.

Find the heaviest kettlebell that will allow for what Master SFG Fabio Zonin calls the “technical rep max”, i.e. the rep max you can achieve while maintaining picture-perfect technique.  A weight that will net you 5-7 reps is what you should be shooting for.  This will be your working weight for the next few weeks.  You will be using a template that I picked up off of my coach, mentor, and friend Scott Stevens, SFG II.

2 minutes: snatch on the minute
1 minute: rest
2 minutes: snatch on the minute

It’s very easy to fill in that extra minute when the time comes, and it takes the mental pressure off a bit throughout the program.

With your 5-7 technical rep max bell, you will do your on-the-minute snatches thusly on your snatch day.  You will snatch on both hands before setting it down according to the 2 on, 1 off, 2 on template.  Be sure to do fast and loose each time you set the bell down.

Week 1: 3/3
Week 2: 4/4
Week 3: 5/5
Week 4: 4/4
Week 5: 5/5
Week 6: 6/6
Week 7: 5/5
Week 8: 6/6
Week 9: 7/7
Week 10: 6/6
Week 11: 7/7
Week 12: 8/8
Week 13: REST

For me personally, I found that once I could do 7/7 using the above format, I was far beyond ready.  Doing 56 snatches with 32 kg in 5 minutes was more than enough to prep me to bang out the easiest snatch test of my life.  No stress, and no sweat (literally).  Within minutes the only place that was still feeling it was my pumped-up forearms.

For your other days, swing.  Heavy and often.  Again, I would not use any kettlebell under your snatch test weight.  Between 10-20 reps is good for single bell work, and 5-10 is good for doubles.  These swing days may look like this:

Monday: Double swing (snatch test weight or one size above): 5 on the minute for 10 minutes
Tuesday: One-arm swing (a size or two above snatch test weight): 10 on the minute for 20 minutes
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Double swing (snatch test weight or one size above): 5 on the minute for 15 minutes
Friday: Snatch day
Saturday/Sunday: off

As the weeks go by, you’ll strive to put a few more reps on in each session until you’re doing 20 per minute with 1 bell and 10 per minute with two.  Then go up a bell size and start over.

Naturally, you’ll still be practicing your pullups/flexed arm hangs, cleans, presses, squats, and Get Ups according to whatever program you’re following as well as any necessary correctives/restorative exercise, which means the above program should fit into anything else that you’re doing.

There you have it.  A simple and — dare I say it — borderline EASY way of taking your snatching from chump to champ.  Give it a shot, let me know what you think, and once you’ve done it, drop me a line.  I’d love to hear about it.

Aleks Salkin is a Level 2 StrongFirst-certified kettlebell instructor (SFG II), StrongFirst-certified bodyweight Instructor (SFB), and an Original Strength Certified Coach. He grew up scrawny, unathletic, weak, and goofy until he was exposed to kettlebells and the teachings and methodology of Pavel in his early 20s. He is currently based out of Jerusalem, Israel and spends his time teaching clients both in person and online as well as spreading the word of StrongFirst and calisthenics.  He regularly writes about strength and health both on his website and as a guest author on other websites. Find him online at http://oldaleks.littlelauberdesigns.com and on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/alekssalkintraining 

Your body can be persuaded to bend to your will.

I’m gonna start off this post with one of Aesop’s Fables. Yes, I’m serious. I love that guy.

“The north wind and the sun were disputing which was the stronger, and agreed to acknowledge as the victor whichever of them could strip a traveler of his clothing.

The wind tried first. But its violent gusts only made the man hold his clothes tightly around him, and when it blew harder still the cold made him so uncomfortable that he put on an extra wrap.

Eventually the wind got tired of it and handed him over to the sun. The sun shone first with a moderate warmth, which made the man take off his topcoat. Then it blazed fiercely, till, unable to stand the heat, he stripped and went off to bathe in a nearby river.
The moral of the story?

Persuasion is more effective than force.”

“What in the actual F*&k does this have to do with my training?” you might be asking.

It’s like this.

Your body doesn’t just hand out a chiseled, powerful, Oh-sorry-I-mistook-you-for-a-Greek-god physique just because you threaten it with a trifecta consisting of a 30 day program, some pre-workout, and the latest sugary protein-shake whose marketing promises to “add stacks of muscle in no time!!!11!!1!!”. Transformation takes time, and your body will meet force with force. Rather than blowing your energy by pushing, shoving, flexing, and screaming, learn to persuade your body to do what you want, especially if you’re starting from almost nothing.

Start your training sessions well below your ability levels and as the weeks and months pass, wave the load (i.e. vary the amount of work you do in each session between light, medium, and hard) and record the results. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll gain without beating your head through a wall.

Just as you’ve gotta learn to walk before you run, you’ve gotta learn to nudge before you shove. Once you understand the value of this you can set aside 6-12 week periods where you go balls to the wall. Knowing how to work smart will help you to later work hard.

As for exercise selection, I’d recommend the Dan John special: push, pull, hinge, squat, and loaded carry. Some examples would include:

Push

: pushups, dips, military press

Pull

: row, pullup

Hinge

: deadlift, swing

Squat

: goblet squat, back squat, front squat

Carry

: pick up literally anything heavy and carry it.

3-5 sets of 3-5 reps 3-5 days a week of the above done consistently and without pump up speeches done in front of a mirror and before you know it you’ll have more muscle, less fat, and a body that doesn’t punish you with aches and pains in places you didn’t know existed. Seems too easy to work, but the hard part is simply sticking to it, being emotionless about it, and enjoying the process. Far harder to do that over several months than kill yourself in 45 minutes, but light years more effective in the long run.

I’ll leave you with the words of Master SFG Mark “The Man, The Rif, The Legend” Riefkind:

“In order to control nature, you must obey nature.”

​Go forth and take command of your nature, so that it may obey your commands.

And no, it’s not as simple as just “stand on your hands”.

A while back I was hitch hiking back from my early morning training appointments in a town near Jerusalem (I like to live dangerously) and one of the occupants of the car and I got to talking about fitness. He asked about programming, frequency of training, and so on. Naturally, being that I’m a ‪calisthenics geek, the conversation steered toward that.

“How would you start someone on ‪handstand training?” he asked.

A fine question. Below is my answer. While a complete tutorial is beyond the scope of this short post, the following should give you a good head start in the right direction.

1) Mobility 
– Handstands demand certain prerequisites in the way of mobility that can’t be overlooked. In particular you need proper flexibility in your wrists, elbows, shoulders, and thoracic spine. Inability to fully and easily extend all these joints (except the shoulders, which are flexed in the handstand) leads to disaster, or at least to next year’s model Mercedes for your surgeon. If you have the mobility of the hunchback of Notre Dame, you might want to put your ego on the back burner before you buy yourself a one-way trip to Snap City.

2) Basic strength
– Can’t do at least 20 ‪pushups or 5 ‪‎pullups without breaking a sweat? Then you probably don’t need to fiddle with handstand work just yet. I would consider the above an absolute bare minimum. Anything beyond said minimum (i.e. one-arm pushups, weighted pullups, etc.) is a big plus. Pushups will build a strong shoulder girdle and set of triceps, and pullups, well, pullups are just awesome. And believe it or not, a strong back won’t hurt you when you’re trying to defy gravity from your hands to your feet, so don’t skimp on ’em.

3) Get used to being upside down with partner-assisted ‪headstands or headstands against a wall.
– Being inverted takes getting used to. Get used to this before you lengthen the height of your fall when you get dizzy and all the blood rushes to your head.

Failure to heed the above words may lead you to aforementioned one-way ticket to Snap City. If you’ve never been there, count yourself lucky. It sucks and leads to a lot of boredom (and constant pain).

Beyond that, here are some fun tips that will help you polish your new favorite move.

* Get TIGHT before you even get upside down. This will set the stage for a much more stable handstand.
* “Stack” your body. I picked up this tip from the legendary Mark Reifkind and it made all the difference. Get your hips above your shoulders above your elbows above your wrists and you will find all the stability you need to teeter majestically above the Earth.
* Stare at your butt (of your hands, that is) while squeezing your butt and legs together. The former will give you the right positioning (for me it does, anyway), and the latter will make sure your legs don’t topple your attempt at becoming a human tower. As my friend Josh Halbert says “loose legs are heavy legs.” Squeeze ’em tight or prepare to eat dirt.

And that’s it! Handstands are one of the coolest and most powerful calisthenic moves out there, and they’re very achievable by almost anyone. Put them on your list of to-dos and watch as your upper body strength soars sky high.

Pictured is yours truly, rebelling against the evil clutches of gravity.

It’s a rite of passage from man or woman to legend.

One of the first movements I ever learned with a kettlebell was the mythical, semi-legendary Turkish Get Up – a long-time staple in the training arsenal of the feared and revered Turkish wrestlers, dating back (according to some sources) over 200 years ago.

One of the most unconventional-yet-effective ways of training for full body strength, coordination, and top-to-bottom resilience. The Turkish Get Up hits just about everything: the back, the midsection (“core”, if you really must refer to it as such), the arms, the legs, the shoulders (and particular shoulder stability) and yes, even the heart and lungs if done for reps. World renown physical therapist Gray Cook has quipped that if he were limited to doing just one exercise, he would choose the Turkish Get Up (so consider that for your selection next time you get asked one of those silly “if you could only do X number of exercises for the rest of your life, what would they be?”).

For a very long time it remained a staple of my training. I really couldn’t tell you how many I’ve done over the course of the last 7 years, but the answer is in the upper thousands, no doubt.

Much like the swing, I got pretty damn good at the Get Up, but unlike the swing, I’ve never really done heavy Get Ups for a period of time any longer than 8 weeks, and even at that they weren’t really that heavy (32 kg – pretty moderate by most standards). More often than not I did them between 16-24 kg with an occasional leap into 32kgs or 36 kgs, but never for too long). This is border-line blasphemy in the kettlebell world, as Get Ups *rightfully* have attained the status of must-do exercise among nearly all kettlebell enthusiasts.

BUT…

As easy as it is to get caught up in the whirlwind of the mindset “you have to practice what you want to get good at,” cutting out what we view as clutter and unnecessary distractions on our way to ever-increasing physical greatness it’s important to remember that sometimes – SOMETIMES – what looks like a detour is actually the way.

I hit a big Get Up PR (106 lbs/48 kg with no warm up. Video proof below) a few years ago despite not having practiced the Turkish Get Up in 10 months. A long layoff often spells certain doom for your strength in any number of exercises, but I’m convinced that filling gaps in your training will do a helluva lot more for your pet lifts than practicing them to the exclusion of all other things.
So what exactly did my training look like between February and December? Well, there was a lot of:

* Double kettlebell jerks
* Heavy swings and snatches
* Front squats
* Crawling (especially weighted)
* Straight-arm gymnastics exercises such as front lever work, back lever work, handstands, and so on
* Heavy ab work
* Lots and lots of OS resets

Getting strong in every nook and cranny of your body means a helluva lot more than getting strong in a very narrow, very specific movement. Moreover, filling in those nooks and crannies will make it super easy for you to build your strength as high as you want, and you’ll be able to nudge your weight higher with ease rather than pulling it to where you want as it kicks and screams at you and your efforts.

The moral of the story: Get generally strong before you try to get specifically stronger. It’s safer, simpler, faster, and more fun. Plus, your body will thank you by staying healthier and more resilient. And what’s not to love about that?
​
If you haven’t already, spend 6 to 8 weeks working on movements you’ve never done and watch as the PRs roll in like never before. You’ll wonder how you ever did without it.